Graduating soon with no EC's, feeling late in the game

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Apple04

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Hi everyone,

I was hoping some advice could give me better perspective. I'm about to graduate with my BA in Biochemistry, and I've been having conflicting feelings. I was excited to volunteer at the beginning of this school year, but the training was so lacking and the environment so toxic that I haven't returned in months. Then, I managed to get signed up for outreach volunteering at my school's dental school, but that moved slowly and events are not as frequent as expected so I've yet to participate.

I've always planned on taking a gap year and am now considering two if I do apply, but the anxiety of having accomplished nothing is debilitating. I'm thinking of slowing down and shadowing to see if it's really for me, but I feel like I'm beyond late in the game now. Volunteer opportunities are sparse, and I have no interesting extra curricular activities because my free time was spent working as a writing tutor.

In my gap year(s), I'd try to find other volunteering experiences (possibly outside dentistry) and to find work as a dental assistant. Would you all recommend taking more time off to really build my app? I think I'd need the experience to compensate for a 3.2 GPA, but then I don't know what I'd do for LOR. I feel like I started this path unprepared and now it feels like a mess that I can't salvage.

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You are quite unprepared and definitely behind where you should be. That being said there is no point in kicking a man when he is down.

1. You are going to need A LOT of volunteering and shadowing to offset a 3.2 GPA and you definitely need to make sure your sGPA is >3.0
2. You absolutely need to do well on the DAT to offset the gpa. Think 21 minimum but more likely 22+.
3. Your rec letters will need to be on point. Sit down with the writers and explain to them everything.
4. When you finally apply you need to have an intelligent school list. Your in state public option(s) plus the expensive private schools.

I think you are definitely in contention for two gap years. In the first year you need to fix all the issues you have and then apply in June 2020 for the 2025 class.
 
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Hi everyone,

I was hoping some advice could give me better perspective. I'm about to graduate with my BA in Biochemistry, and I've been having conflicting feelings. I was excited to volunteer at the beginning of this school year, but the training was so lacking and the environment so toxic that I haven't returned in months. Then, I managed to get signed up for outreach volunteering at my school's dental school, but that moved slowly and events are not as frequent as expected so I've yet to participate.

I've always planned on taking a gap year and am now considering two if I do apply, but the anxiety of having accomplished nothing is debilitating. I'm thinking of slowing down and shadowing to see if it's really for me, but I feel like I'm beyond late in the game now. Volunteer opportunities are sparse, and I have no interesting extra curricular activities because my free time was spent working as a writing tutor.

In my gap year(s), I'd try to find other volunteering experiences (possibly outside dentistry) and to find work as a dental assistant. Would you all recommend taking more time off to really build my app? I think I'd need the experience to compensate for a 3.2 GPA, but then I don't know what I'd do for LOR. I feel like I started this path unprepared and now it feels like a mess that I can't salvage.

This might not be the prettiest answer, but the dean of my undergrad knows a lot about ad coms and he said dental schools more and more like to see students with masters degrees.

This way, you will have a more diverse education, more maturity, and 2 years to do some more volunteering, research, and raise your GPA. If this sounds like something you might be interested in, I think doing a masters will solve a lot of the issues with your app!

If you haven't taken the DAT yet, I recommend you do that soon! You might forget a lot of the basic science courses if you don't brush up on those right now, and taking the next few months to apply to masters programs and study for the DAT might be a good idea.

Good luck!
 
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