Help! Best courses to take before dental school?

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hopefuldentist123

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Hi SDN,
I'm a senior now, so next semester will be my last. I want to take the right courses in terms of ones that will help prepare me for dental school. I haven't been able to take some upper level classes like microbio and anatomy unfortunately and I don't want to struggle too hard when I'm exposed to these courses in dental school. Here are my options for next semester: OH another thing is I haven't been accepted yet so there is a chance i"ll have to reapply, but in any case I want to take upper level courses that I think will help me best prepare. I am definitely already taking Neurobiology II, but can't decide on at least 2 more classes.
-Virology - highly regarded course about viruses - not sure it if will be helpful but sounds interesting and may be my last chance to take it
-Genetics - one being a seminar with readings and one being a lecture introductory course
-Molecular Biology - lots of just straight memorization of dna --> rna --> protein
-Primate Skeletal Anatomy OR Human Skeletal Anatomy ( latter is like in a cadaver lab with a skull)

Any advice appreciated!!
Thanks!

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Anatomy > molecular > genetics > virology
 
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I've heard that Anatomy, Microbio, Biochem, and Immuno are all helpful. Maybe some neuroanatomy too.
 
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Order of importance

Anatomy and physiology (a must)
Biochem (a must)
Microbio (highly recommended)
Statistics (to know what's up with Epidemiology)
Immunology (would be very useful)
Business (self explaintory)
Histology (would be useful for patho, etc)
 
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Of those, I've only taken Anatomy and this has been my experience:

In first year I took an Anatomy course (no cadavers) in the Kinesiology department. Although there were no cadavers, I loved the course as the class size was pretty small and I felt that they took an applied and holistic approach to things. They showed us different bone models and such and exams were in a bell ringer type format.

Since I loved it, in third year I decided to take an upper level anatomy course offered in the science department (also no cadavers). This one wasn't as enjoyable as there were 600 kids in the class and exams were only MC and required memorization of the smallest little details in the textbook (which was written by the prof haha). Pulled a really late night before the final (which I thought I failed) and then forgot everything right after...

All in all, how useful these courses are depends on the way the course is set up at your university as well as your approach to learning/work habits. A seemingly useful course can be a waste of time if you don't put in the effort (ie: how I approached my second anatomy course lol).

TLDR: Do the cadaver one if you can
 
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I think I've decided on anatomy and molecular biology. Do you think not taking genetics before dental school is a bad idea? Should I put genetics along with anatomy, molecular biology, and neurobio II? Feels like too much but part of me whats to be exposed to these concepts before I graduate.
 
I think I've decided on anatomy and molecular biology. Do you think not taking genetics before dental school is a bad idea? Should I put genetics along with anatomy, molecular biology, and neurobio II? Feels like too much but part of me whats to be exposed to these concepts before I graduate.

Being honest genetics is such a killer course at my school that I'm deciding not to take it next sem (even though that's the only class I would need to get a major in bio). I'm taking Anatomy and Phys II + lab and Microbio + lab instead.
 
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For those of you who have no science background beyond the required classes (Orgo, Gen Chem, Bio), I can tell you that you CAN succeed in your classes.

That said, I wish I had taken Anatomy (histology and gross). Would have made life significantly easier. A lot of people also wish they had taken physiology too. At my school, microbiology is easy.
 
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For those of you who have no science background beyond the required classes (Orgo, Gen Chem, Bio), I can tell you that you CAN succeed in your classes.

That said, I wish I had taken Anatomy (histology and gross). Would have made life significantly easier. A lot of people also wish they had taken physiology too. At my school, microbiology is easy.
Do you feel like genetics is a course you would recommend over molecular bio? Or is it not as important in ds? Thank you!
 
Do you feel like genetics is a course you would recommend over molecular bio? Or is it not as important in ds? Thank you!
For us, genetics only was 12 lectures and a very low credit course. Physiology or Anatomy are much more important here. I'm not too familiar on what 'molecular bio' is so I can't comment on that.
 
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sculpting as well. or save money by buying wax and wax instruments. then take courses taught by the best teacher in the world...youtube!
Sculpture is an studio art course.
Studio Art is for sculpture as biology is for genetics.
 
sculpting as well. or save money by buying wax and wax instruments. then take courses taught by the best teacher in the world...youtube!
No sense in buying waxing instruments when you're going to have to buy them again as part of your instrument kit.
 
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Hi SDN,
I'm a senior now, so next semester will be my last. I want to take the right courses in terms of ones that will help prepare me for dental school. I haven't been able to take some upper level classes like microbio and anatomy unfortunately and I don't want to struggle too hard when I'm exposed to these courses in dental school. Here are my options for next semester: OH another thing is I haven't been accepted yet so there is a chance i"ll have to reapply, but in any case I want to take upper level courses that I think will help me best prepare. I am definitely already taking Neurobiology II, but can't decide on at least 2 more classes.
-Virology - highly regarded course about viruses - not sure it if will be helpful but sounds interesting and may be my last chance to take it
-Genetics - one being a seminar with readings and one being a lecture introductory course
-Molecular Biology - lots of just straight memorization of dna --> rna --> protein
-Primate Skeletal Anatomy OR Human Skeletal Anatomy ( latter is like in a cadaver lab with a skull)

Any advice appreciated!!
Thanks!
I'd go with Human Skeletal Anatomy. We do have a course on immunology so virology could be relevant, but the more exposure you to get to anatomy now, the better.
 
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Great! I'm think i'm taking the primate skeletal anatomy course for sure (the human skeletal one is actually human skeletal biology and is not too focused on anatomy whereas the primate one has a few weeks solely devoted to dentition which i think can be really useful). Since virology is such a good course here I think I may take that along with neurobio II. The debate to add molecular or genetics continues, but i'm leaning towards not and maybe doing an art class? I guess this could all change should i not get accepted. Thanks for the advice everybody!
 
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