Facing rough decisions and deadlines quickly. Not sure what to do. I would love some help/advice.

[StudentDentistsRock]

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Hello Everyone,
First off, I would like to say sorry for the long post; I am really confused about what to do and I have no one else to talk to. I am going to try and sort out my post in points for better structure and understanding. I've introduced my self here before: I am a going to be a sophomore starting this fall and I have a gpa of 3.75 cumulative. Major is B.S Chemistry.

Here is my story:
During senior year in high school, a teacher and me made a plan for what I intend to do in college. I have always wanted to be a dentist, and something that caught my eye about my university is the Dental Accelerated Program (3+4). After successfully completing my first year at my university, I applied to the program and was accepted. However, I discovered some things that were to me at the least, issues about the accelerated dental track:

1. The dental accelerated track forces me to major in a Bacholor's of Arts in Chemistry instead of Bachelor's of Science. I love chemistry very much, and my plan was to take as many chem courses as I could and take the upper level chemistry courses during my final year. The bachelor's of art reduces the chemistry courses, especially more of the upper level ones. I am against this. To be honest, I also want a B.S much more for pride and accomplishment reasons: I want to get a degree knowing that i worked much harder for it etc.

2. I am not sure whether I have proper volunteer/shadowing hours for this. I am about to start volunteering at a hospital, and I am about to begin shadowing an oral surgeon. That is all the health experience I will have so far.

3. This bullet is what forced me to finally crack and ask for help here on the forums: My university requires an "E-portfolio" to be submitted tomorrow for accelerated dental students. The problem is that I am not sure whether I am sticking with the accelerated track or not:if i am, i must complete this portfolio and submit it tomorrow. For regular dental students, it is due next summer. I completed 5/6 documents (one document which displays all my health care experience so far which is empty). The 6th document is my personal statement. It is the personal statement which is stressing me out. I can opt out of the accelerated track anytime during next year if I decide to, but the portfolio must be sent in tomorrow. I thought, maybe if I complete my personal statement and send in everything, I'll at least have more time to think.

Unfortunately, I don't know where to begin with writing this. And I mean it when I say I don't know where to begin. Let alone it is due in a on the 30th of june. What is making writing this so hard is that I want to become a dentist but I don't know why. Nothing else ever occurred to me and I have always said I wanted to be a dentist ever since I was 10 years old. So that just makes answering the "why" question of the personal statement almost impossible to me. One time my Chemistry professor asked me why I am interested in dentistry so much. I told him: I love working with my hands, love the working atmosphere and love working with other people. I also told him that I also love chemistry, and if i can study chemistry and make my way up to a dentist, then I will. Other than that I am not really sure where to go with the personal statement. I really don;t have any experiences to share that would make it good.
Oh, and not to mention, writing is my Weakest subject (alongside bio). That just adds on to my stress and pressure.


I feel pretty pressured and just not sure what to do about now. If I don't make up a statement, I'll be forced into a regular dental admission. Although that is not a bad thing, I always wonder whether I would make it or not regularly (my 3.75 cumulative gpa is composed of two A- letter grades in English courses, a B- in bio 1, and solid A's in all chem and calculus courses).

I would really love some advice on the accelerated track and personal statement. Any opinions or thoughts? Please comment them below. I am very confused and stressed about now and I will take any comment with serious consideration and thought.


Thank you very much for your time.

 

[Weakfart]

Just write the personal statement... I don't know why you wouldn't??? It's one year of courses versus a a few hours writing. I'm a bad writer too but I think the choice is obvious here. You can always opt out but not the other way around.

 

[kayden28]

Agree with Weakfart. Just write it so you have more time to decide... in the time it took you write the post, you probably could've gotten started 😛

Stop psyching yourself out... pick a few of your most meaningful experiences and think about what skills you learned from them that you can transfer to dentistry. If you always wanted to be a dentist, that's great.. the reasons you mentioned about working with your hands and etc. are good reasons too. You could also call a dentist if you have time and ask them a few questions about where their drive/motivation comes from and their favourite aspect of their work. Don't write down what they say word for word of course.. but it'll at least get some more thoughts and ideas flowing for you. You can do it!!

 

[kayden28]

And as for the "pride" of a BSc versus a BA... there are plenty of BA majors that are quite difficult and BA students work hard. If you're not great at writing, I'm sure you'd find a professional writing or economics degree just as difficult as someone with a weak science background would find a BSc challenging. But aside from that point, bear in mind that once you have your DDS/DMD, nobody will care where you got the professional degree, let alone the name on your undergrad degree.

 

[zoey1234]

No just take it!!! I would if I was in your position. I wish I knew about the accelerated programs back then. You're almost there!!! Just write the statement. I finished mine in three days. I'm a horrible writer and English is not my first language!! I just wrote two paragraphs and went to writing center in school and they were helping me!!
As for shadowing hours, call your program director and ask..
As for the BA and BS, i don't really see a difference especially when your goal is dental school!! Who cares if you take more science in BS?
This is just my opinion..

 

[Greyangel6]

Calm yourself down and write that personal statement haha. It will buy you some time to give this accelerated program a serious thought and you can boost up some of the shadowing if you do decide to go that route.

I applaud you for being mature about your career choice so keep at it ^^. Also, it wouldn't be the end of the world if you decided not to go accelerated route. You can still get into dental school (this time around you can have more experiences to back you up also).

 

[Lock_Jaw]

A B.S. is useless once you're a dentist. I don't know why you would be tied up in the thought of a B.A. in Chem vs a B.S. when you get into dental school earlier and easier. Bite the bullet and swallow your pride, it is well worth it. Most of us don't get that opportunity.

 

[super frank]

You'll be fine, just sit down and write something that inspires you. I'm sure the committee will see that you are a sophomore and will know that your time was limited. The committee will work with you to improve your EC's. BUT, you have to work extra hard in getting those shadowing hours up for dental admissions. Dental schools don't care if you're applying as a junior, or a senior or even a grown man.

By the way, a B- in Intro to Bio I at Temple is pretty good. 😉

 

[StudentDentistsRock]

Thanks for all the input everyone, really 🙂
To be honest, it all seems so fast, the fact that I will need to increase my shadowing hours, i'll be taking the DAT in almost a year and a half from now...But I realize what you guys mean about this being a big opportunity. I don't want my pride to get in the way. At least, if I write the PS, I will have more time to think, but I believe that my heart is telling me to go with the accelerated, at least for now. I am about to begin writing the statement now. I'll at least have something to hand in draft wise to my school and I'll have a year to get help with it and work on it comfortably and carefully.
Thank you again 🙂

 

[super frank]

If I can do it all over again, I would take the accelerated track as well. Don't take it for granted!

 

[ajj70]

You have plenty of time to get your shadowing done. You will need to shadow a general practice dentist so plan for that next summer. Just put down what you have set up to do and with whom in that section. As for the BS/BA, they are the same degree, just a few different classes and after the first day of dental school will mean nothing to anyone but you. Saving a YEAR'S worth of tuition is something to brag about MUCH more than having a BS vs a BA.

Go back to that time when you were meeting with that teacher in high school and talk about all the things that you told that teacher why you wanted to be a dentist and the plan you made then. Consider this your rough draft for your PS...and that you are 2 years ahead of everyone else that will be going to dental school with you because they probably don't even know they have to write a PS yet 😀. You can always change it later.

 

[StudentDentistsRock]

Hello everyone,
I'm just posting her to recap. I finished my personal statement and submitted it just in time. After reading through your comments, my plan is to go for the accelerated track. It's hard to believe that in two years (hopefully) il be in denta school when I just finished my first year in college. It's time to get active, shadow more than I intended to, and maybe even start looking over dat stuff. The personal statement editing can come later ok during the semesters. The personal statement is decent (I'd give it a B. Maybe someone would think it's actually better hopefully, but much work is needed either way). Thank you all so much for the advice and encouragement. I'm really glad I stumbled on these forums. If I have any questions or ever need help with anything, I'll be sure to post in the forums.

Have a great one everyone 🙂

 

[flossboss24]

@placebooooo I'm in the same program and have finished that process a while back. If you have any questions feel free to send me a message.

 

[Soleus715]

In the meantime, it's important to really understand for yourself why you want to be a dentist. You want to have a job you'll truly love for the next 30+ years.
If someone asked me why I want to become a dentist, I think I could go on for hours on hours talking about it. I had so much trouble writing my PS because I had about 20 different word documents filled with stories.. Cutting it down to 4500 characters was pretty tough.

Find a way to develop the passion for dentistry! I spend a lot of my free time watching videos of dental procedures and it's really enjoyable seeing how different dentists are in their approach.
Try shadowing a dentist that will let you assist after a while, you can get a much closer look at what they do. I think getting exposed to it is really the key to see if you can be passionate about it or not. Good luck!!