Help! Non-Traditional applicant!

[bionerd]

For those who are non-traditional applicants (went to work and decided to take classes for dental school)...can you tell me what classes you took and how long did it take to finish all the pre-dental courses??? Thanks!

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[reapply2007]

Look at the OHSU website for prereqs. I finished out what I needed to finish before I applied. It takes some time and energy but if you really want to get in then you need to do what it takes.

 

[lemoncurry]

I took two years of college fresh out of high school (floated around different majors), took about 7 years off to work, came back to get a Bio degree. It will take me a total of 3 years to finish the degree. In this, my last year, I'm taking 3 classes per quarter, all upper division Bio classes. I don't think there is any way I could have made it any shorter than that except maybe 1 quarter.

EDit: just for the bio, chem, ochem and gen-ed requirements, only 2 years.

 

[Euphoria36]

if you are/were at uci, you should be fine.

all of their reqs for a BS coincide w/ reqs for dent school. though classes like histology, anatomy and physio are recommended at a lot of schools, but you can take those as upper div satellites.

not sure if i am answering your question, but if you want to know more, feel free to pm me.

 

[bionerd]

if you are/were at uci, you should be fine.

all of their reqs for a BS coincide w/ reqs for dent school. though classes like histology, anatomy and physio are recommended at a lot of schools, but you can take those as upper div satellites.

not sure if i am answering your question, but if you want to know more, feel free to pm me.

hehe...well I'm fine and dandy thanks to UCI, but my sis is now considering dentistry and doesn't know what classes to take. She's been out of college for 2 years now...so I think she's a little lost on the ways of selecting classes. I've been advising her on what to take at Orange Coast Community College (cheap!), but I hope I am right or else she'll kill me

Basically, I said take 1 year physics, 1 year O-chem (she took general chem already), 1 course of intro psychology, 1 course of microbiology, genetics, biochem, molec. bio, human anatomy, and zoology (with labs of course). So, I wonder if this is enough for non-traditional peeps??? According to my calculations, she should be able to finish it in 1.5 years (full time student). Whaddya think?? Lol...I feel like an academic counselor...

 

[Ex_EE]

I graduate with EE and CS degrees. Worked 5 years quit my job took 1 year to take chem 2, org 1, org2, bio1, bio2, ap1, human phys, genetics, biochem.

 

[Mackchops]

My only word of advise would be to stay wary of CC credits, cheap or not. And add Human phys in place of zoo.

 

[floydthefish]

Each dental school's prereqs are a little different, but they are all posted on every school's webpage. In general, its:

1 yr Gen Chem
1 yr Ochem
1-2 yrs Bio
1 yr Physics
1 yr Psych (sometimes)
1 yr Englisgh (sometimes)
1 qt/sem Biochem (Cali schools and a few others)

Most schools seem to care only that these are done by the time dental school starts, although there are a select few that really really don't like community college credits. I took most of these through Santa Monica College and UCLA extension. It'll take me two years to finish them all while working full-time because I had English and Psych finished from my undergrad.

 

[lemoncurry]

have your sis talk to a biology advisor. most of the classes d-school wants are covered by a biology degree, so if she's having trouble picking classes to take, an advisor could definitely help with that.

 

[isurus22]

I had a BS in mech. engineering 1998. Work full time as a medical device design engineer. took bioI this spring. Organic 1 & 2 this summer. and Microbio and english comp this fall. took the DAT July 12.
2 scheduled interviews so far Oct. 19 and Jan 9.

 

[cryptozoologist]

Hello,
I was an engineering student a while back so Physics prereques were already out of the way. between sept 2005 and sept 2006 I took:
- 1 year general bio
- 1 year general chem
- 1 year general o-chem
- 1 sem microbiology
- 1 sem vertebrate zoology
as well as associated labs.

various schools also want:
- biochem (UOP, Minn, OHSU)
- anatomy (ohsu)

Do not take classes at Community College for any of this. This is the hardest way to see if you've got what it takes to compete in dental school. ALL at the same time, worked for me. If you struggle through the challenge of managing 16-20 credit semesters of all science, then dental school will eat you up and spit you out. period.

it's important to convince yourself you can succeed in dental school. Taking this approach also enables the person to be ultimately prepared for the DAT. All material is relatively fresh.

Good luck,
cz

 

[djeffreyt]

My only recommendation is that if you take a long time on prereqs when your a post-bac, it sometimes comes up in interviews. I've had two interviewers ask me why it took so long for me to finish my predental courses. I explained that I took 10-15 units a semester for 2.5 years while working ~25 hours a week and volunteering in various extracurriculars a lot. One of the interviewers probed further than this and said that that still seemed a bit too slow, so I had to explain that I couldn't take Ochem II without Ochem I and I couldn't take Ochem I without Chem II and I couldn't take Chem II without Chem I, so I only took one extra semester beyond how long I would've had to go to school anyway due to having to complete certain classes before taking another one, and I also took extra courses in education, ceramics, and upper division bio stuff.

Still after all that, she only seemed half appeased...oh well.