Extracurricular Question

[HolyToleDO]

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Hello SDN members... I have been lurking on this forum for a while now and have found some very helpful information from all of your first hand experiences, so thank you all very much.

In January of my senior of my undergrad I made the switch from pre dental to pre medical (strongly leaning towards D.O.) and I have some questions regarding my extracurriculars. Prior to making my switch to pre medical, I spent a lot of time shadowing three general dentists, an oral surgeon, spent a summer working in a dental prosthetics lab in my home town, and was a member of the pre-dental club at my university. Since switching to pre med I have done ~40 hours of shadowing/observation in the OR and ER of a local hospital. During this time I found a D.O. who has offered to write me a LOR when I begin my applications. My question is how will my many hours of dental shadowing/observing be viewed by D.O. schools when I begin applying? I am assuming that they are not all for naught, however I am curious to see how my ECs will be viewed in comparison with somebody who has spent a lot of time focusing strictly on medical shadowing. Thanks in advance, and I look forward to reading all of your feedback.

 

[klm84]

To be honest I had almost no shadowing experience but my other scores/extracurriculars were good enough to overlook that. Plus I mainly relied on the fact the I had worked in the ER for 2 summers, but I never even shadowed a DO (not that I'm suggeting that, definitely go find a DO). but basically there is no minimum number of hours

Also, I think with so many hours of prep for dental you're going to get a lot of questions about why the switch to medical. So definitely have a great answer to that a sing praises to medicine and you should be good.

Just curious, what did make you change your mind to medicine?

 

[Daedra22]

Items on your application are only as interesting and positive as you decide to make them. When discussing your dental shadowing experience coupled with your more recent medical shadowing, you can highlight how you spent a lot of time investigating other fields before becoming completely committed to medicine. Your time shadowing dentists also let you see doctor-patient interactions, just in a different setting--more experience is always good.

 

[HolyToleDO]

To be honest I had almost no shadowing experience but my other scores/extracurriculars were good enough to overlook that. Plus I mainly relied on the fact the I had worked in the ER for 2 summers, but I never even shadowed a DO (not that I'm suggeting that, definitely go find a DO). but basically there is no minimum number of hours

Also, I think with so many hours of prep for dental you're going to get a lot of questions about why the switch to medical. So definitely have a great answer to that a sing praises to medicine and you should be good.

Just curious, what did make you change your mind to medicine?

The main thing was that the more exposure I got in the dental field, the more constricted I was feeling. Even though I spent a decent amount of time in dental offices, I did not feel like there was as much variation in the day to day activities as I would have liked. Don't get me wrong, there are still aspects of the dental profession that are appealing to me, but I have found that many of those aspects can also be found in the medical field.
As cliche as it may sound, I think it is very important that you have a strong passion for whatever your occupation may be. As I began researching the many different areas of medicine that are out there, I started coming across things that I could personally relate to more than the field of dentistry. For example I have always been highly involved in athletics and exercise and as I started researching and gaining exposure in areas such as sports medicine, orthopedics, rehabilitation, etc. I found that it is very possible to tailor a medical profession to your liking. I wish that I had broadened my horizon and made the decision a little bit earlier in my college career, but at the same time I'm glad that I got to make an informed decision on what I truly want to do for the rest of my life.

Thank you for the response

 

[HolyToleDO]

Items on your application are only as interesting and positive as you decide to make them. When discussing your dental shadowing experience coupled with your more recent medical shadowing, you can highlight how you spent a lot of time investigating other fields before becoming completely committed to medicine. Your time shadowing dentists also let you see doctor-patient interactions, just in a different setting--more experience is always good.

Thanks for the tip, Daedra! I completely agree on the patient interaction comment.