I love these threads because it always denigrates into a war between the self-righteous moralists shaking their stick at someone for being inappropriate and irresponsible because they smoke a few bowls in their off-time, and the (rational) majority who doesn't blow it out of proportion.
NO school can just surprise you with a drug screen without first informing you of their policies. Most MD/DO/Dental students get tested before their clinical years, but I have never heard of students getting tested before matriculating at school. I think that would be bad for business.
The majority of med students have their **** together. That's why they got into medical school!! But to think that students aren't going to engage in some drinking and a little ganja on occasion is naive. Newsflash::: People are going to do this in all phases of their careers!! Pot is not isolated to undergrad, it is just becomes less common after.
To the OP--if you like blaze a little at night I say power to ya, just find out for sure your school's policies before continuing any further. If you gotta quit for a while, you gotta quit. You got accepted into your top choice dental school so you are obviously not an irresponsible dolt.
And to all you stick-shakers---get off your high horse. You berate an intelligent adult for enjoying a little weed in his OFF TIME when half your campus is black-out drunk after finals. Were talking about pot here, not hard drugs. Yes they are both illegal but there is a distinction---some people act like all recreational drugs are one in the same.
Bottom line is, if you smoke and your school tests, stop WELL in advance of any test. If they test randomly during clinical years, stop completely. If you don't smoke then you have nothing to worry about.