Extra Curriculars for Successful Pre-Dental Students

[murra651]

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Hey Guys,
I've spent a lot of time going through these forums to determine what makes a successful dental applicant, but one thing that seems to get glossed over are ECs. While overall stats are important, dental admissions use a holistic approach when it comes to interviewing/accepting. I'd like to hear for the community about what they have done/are doing to prepare themselves for application time.

Volunteer Hours:
Work Experience:
Shadowing (Dental Experience) hours:
Academic Scholarship/Success:
Research:
Clubs:
Letters of Recommendation:
Anything Else:
Interview/Acceptance if applicable:

Thanks Everyone!

 

[Reazor16]

Hey I will participate. Note I am a senior this year and will apply this summer.

Volunteer Hours: 100ish at animal shelter, 100ish teaching kids how to skate/play hockey, have a volunteer program set up for my gap year with dental clinic when i move back home.
Work Experience: Been working at a pediatric dentist office since freshman year as an assistant, front desk clerk, and sterile tech.
Shadowing (Dental Experience) hours: 75ish and ongoing at pediatric office, 25 at oral surgery, 50ish at general, 5ish at a place where they make dental prosthetics
Academic Scholarship/Success: Deans list every semester but 1. GPA: 3.6 sGPA: 3.5
Research: 1 year biochem research, 0.5 year biology/paleontology research (actually looking at ancient rabbit teeth, measuring and trying to determine species)
Clubs: Ice Hockey
Letters of Recommendation: 3 from faculty (biochem/research instructor, my advisor, and my english/lit professor), 1 from Dentist I work for, 1 from boss from summer workplace.
Anything Else: Attended impressions day at Buffalo, will attend again this year. As for manual dexterity stuff, I play guitar and draw.
Interview/Acceptance if applicable: NOT YET! HOPEFULLY NEXT YEAR!

 

[stoopidmonkeycatdog]

Volunteer Hours: I don't remember how many i listed, but there were a lot of hours spent volunteering outside of dentistry. For dentistry i probably had around 20-25.
Work Experience: during college i worked to jobs for my university. Both barely had any hours so it wasn't a big deal, but provided me with some valuable experiences and spending money.
Shadowing (Dental Experience) hours: listed around 200
Academic Scholarship/Success: At the time of applying i had a 3.81 Ovr. 3.71 science i think. DAT is a 21AA 24PAT (Edit: Deans list 2X Presidents list 2X)
Research: Did research in a psychology lab for 2 or 3 semesters i think? Not very difficult stuff though.
Clubs: I was in our Integrity/Honor code club, SGA presidents cabinet, Rugby, Emergency services club, and Mental health club.
Letters of Recommendation: 1 committee letter, one letter from a lawyer who works for the university with the integrity club, and one from a dentist mentor.
Manual Dexterity: Sewing, origami, sports.
Anything Else: Graduated very quickly so i had a packed schedule, still had time to do a lot of stuff. There are no excuses for not getting good high quality EC's. Make sure you want to do them because you like them, not just for the application.
Interview/Acceptance if applicable: A&M, San Antonio, Houston.

 

[Scumbag_Steve]

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[Member#412]

Volunteer Hours: 210 hours 150 in random places and 60 in lab
Work Experience: seafood restaurant/ Chevron gas station every summer and worked as a scientific contributor funded by national science foundation (just to sound fancy LOL)
Shadowing (Dental Experience) hours:35 🙂
Academic Scholarship/Success: 3.4 and problly 3.5 after this semester( senior )- 3.8s last 3 semesters
Research:1.5 year and have a publication in ecology
Clubs:AED honored-med, predental, chi alphas ( a christian ministry club)
Letters of Recommendation: 2 from science teaches/1 from work
Anything Else: math tutor and orientation leaders for 2 years.
Interview/Acceptance if applicable: PLEASE !

 

[deleted675533]

Volunteer: dental assistant at a nonprofit clinic, teaching Anatomy to elementary school students, biology tutor, working for the local parks and rec, habitat for humanity, etc. As a dentist, you will be an important part of the community, so they want to see that you like to work with the community, especially the underserved population.

Work experience: teaching assistant for two science courses for the past 2 yrs, as well as odd jobs here and there (was a sales manager for a while, did custodial on campus, etc.)

Shadowing: Mostly focused on general dentist, but also did a bit of exploring with oral surgery and endodontics. I'm at 100 total, but would like to do about 50 more before I apply this June.

Academic: Full tuition academic scholarship. 3.7ish overal, 3.85 sGPA (positive trend: 3.9 overall the past 7 semesters)

No research

Clubs: In the leadership for the pre-dental club, ASDA pre-dental chapter

Letters of rec: 2 from Science apfaculty who I've TA'd for, 1 dentist, 1 volunteer supervisor

Applying this cycle!

 

[dentalgoal team]

Everyone has different situations and interests. But I have noticed that research, leadership positions, mission trips & entrepreneurship endeavors get the highest response from the admissions committee. So if you have any one of those experiences, make sure to put heavy emphasis on those topics on your application .