Educational Leave

[Corgi_2020]

I'm midway through my undergraduate and I've decided to get a certificate to become a Registered Dental Assistant. I'm doing this for many reasons, one of which is to demonstrate to the dental schools my serious commitment to dentistry. Another reason is that I need something else to do during my summers besides volunteering. I also believe that it would be a great part-time while finishing my 4 year which is why I've chosen this path rather than simply shadowing a dentist. In order to pursue this goal I intend to take educational leave from my undergrad for a year to obtain an RDA certificate. Would top-tier dental schools (Harvard, Columbia, UPenn) factor in educational leave when considering their applicants? So far I've managed to maintain a solid 4.0 gpa but I'm worried that my 1 year educational leave would be looked down upon. Thank you.

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[acesofseven]

I feel like becoming an RDA would be a total waste of time. Most of the things you do as an RDA don't really translate over to what you'd do as a dentist. There's a whole thread dedicated to how it wasn't helpful. Just keep doing well in school, murder the DAT, and engage yourself in quality ECs. Also, how many students from Harvard, Columbia, or Penn do you think were RDAs prior to being accepted? Too little to matter.

 

[chinchilladreamz37]

Agreed with above. Especially if your RDA will cost you 5,000-20,000 to get. It is a waste of $ unless you are committed to RDA for the future and also many dentists will train motivated people without RDA certificate. I know trade schools charge 15-20k for it and I wouldn't recommend taking a year off school to do it. I graduated last year and slowly learned the dental assisting job - it gives you a great opportunity to see what dentists do first hand, and you may get some experience making models and plastic retainers or night guards, but in terms of doing what a dentists does, it differs

 

[Corgi_2020]

Agreed with above. Especially if your RDA will cost you 5,000-20,000 to get. It is a waste of $ unless you are committed to RDA for the future and also many dentists will train motivated people without RDA certificate. I know trade schools charge 15-20k for it and I wouldn't recommend taking a year off school to do it. I graduated last year and slowly learned the dental assisting job - it gives you a great opportunity to see what dentists do first hand, and you may get some experience making models and plastic retainers or night guards, but in terms of doing what a dentists does, it differs

Cost isn't a major concern for me. The program I'm interested in should cost no more than $3000 and my financial aid covers a substantial portion of it if not all. Honestly I wouldn't mind taking the year off of my undergrad. Keeping up my gpa has been draining and I wouldn't mind taking a year off in exchange for light RDA coursework. I would like to think of it as a sort of sabbatical.

 

[Corgi_2020]

I feel like becoming an RDA would be a total waste of time. Most of the things you do as an RDA don't really translate over to what you'd do as a dentist. There's a whole thread dedicated to how it wasn't helpful. Just keep doing well in school, murder the DAT, and engage yourself in quality ECs. Also, how many students from Harvard, Columbia, or Penn do you think were RDAs prior to being accepted? Too little to matter.

I understand your reasoning. I'm not overly concerned about RDA work not translating well to the work of a dentist. I just think that it would be great getting clinical experience working alongside a dentist while making some bucks during my undergrad. (pardon my run-on).

 

[FanOfCostco]

What makes a school top tier....?

 

[Typical Average Student]

Schools don't accept dental students over others simply because one is an RDA... especially if they had to leave undergrad to do so.
To give you an example of how nearly useless an RDA certificate is... Texas offers an online certification from UTHealth San Antonio for $60.

Grades > Extracurriculars

Schools want to see you graduate undergrad in 4 years.

 

[Likkriue]

That's one year you could've used to be in dental school already. That's 1 year of dentist salary. Are you going to be making 100k as an Rda? No.

Also tuition is hiked every year. You pay more the more you delay. Taking a year off and becoming an RDA is a very poor move.

 

[Corgi_2020]

Thank you all for your comments. I've decided to forgo becoming an RDA and to stick to my regular ECs as prescribed by acesofseven. Rather than becoming an RDA, I might instead look into becoming a dental technician. There's less requirements and the job itself translates well into what I would be doing in dental school. Hopefully I could land a part-time and get on-the-job training. Cheers .

 

[Toothout]

I'm glad you decided not to do it.
There's even a question in AADSAS referring to educational leaves. You would need to have a good excuse, yours is not.