Extracurriculars for Dental School

Started by bayarea613
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bayarea613

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Hi, was wondering what are some good ec’s to have when applying for dental school. Pls don’t say whatever you enjoy, lol.

I’m about to be a freshman in college. For now I am in a dental assisting program and am currently participating in a 160 hour internship- including the program I’m doing, I will have accumulated around 350 hours of dental assisting education/experience. My plan then is to continue on to become an RDA during undergrad. What are some other things I could do? Dentist I assist recommended becoming dental lab tech... what do you guys think?

Pls list any other suggestions/ideas... Do you guys think this would substitute the shadowing requirement some schools have?
 
The generic applicants are the ones that do what everyone else does.

The applicants that stand out and get scholarships are the ones that do things that they enjoy and reflects their character.

In my opinion, I don’t think taking both jobs will be significant. I think one or the other is enough. I would spend the rest of the time shadowing and volunteering.

I would still recommend you shadow. Many schools may not count internships and volunteer simultaneously with shadowing. But when you apply I would still recommend you put that experience as shadowing as well. I volunteered with dental hygienists and assistants for 100 hours and an admissions committee members recommended that I put that experience as both volunteering and shadowing.
 
RDA>lab tech. Chair side assisting experience will trump any other dental related EC for

Best ECs are going to be what you can speak passionately about. Volunteer for multiple orgs until you find one you really like and pour yourself into it. Bonus points if it has leadership or one on one interactions with those you're helping.
 
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@princeafrica is right about doing things that reflect your character. My only extracurriculars were being a microbiology lab intern, microbiology TA, and an introductory biology intern. Tbh they’re not even extracurriculars because I received credit for all of them. But anyway, those three activities and my commitment to them showed adcoms that I loved teaching and gave me a lot to talk about during interviews. I received 14 interviews even though it seemed like my extracurriculars were lacking

My advice is to not go crazy with the dentistry related extracurriculars/work experiences. At all my interviews, the adcoms stressed that they wanted a well rounded class..having +1000 hours of dentistry experience is nice and all, but it does nothing to diversify the class
 
Probably do things not dentistry related so you can be a balanced/well rounded applicant. Experience some life before dental school jafeel
 
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