How do I explalin that I was pre-med for so many years, not dentistry?

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I did medical research for 3-4 years. I did medical volunteering for around 50 hours. I was invovled in a pre-med tutoring inner-city kids program. Adcoms will see all of this in my application. All of this between 2004-2008.

Started doing dental related things in June 2008. I did two pre-dental workshops. I shadowed a dental office (2 dentists) for 30 hours. Scheduled to shadow oral surgeon next week.

I am also applying this year and need to explain this in personal statement and interview.


The story goes like this (would it look bad if I tell it like I am telling you guys right here below)...

Back in 2004, I shadowed a dentist, and I really could see myself doing this, and enjoying it. I felt it was just right.

However, I also knew deep down that if I was a medical doctor that I would get more respect from society. I Knew I had the capabillity to get the grades to get into medical school (back then there was a greater discrepancy in grades between med and dental school). So I pursued the pre-med path because I felt that life would not be complete without being a doctor. I really didn't know much about the medical profession (never really shadowed a doctor--except for the research doctors where I volunteered), but I honestly didn't care--I was willing to sacrifice anything and everything to become a doctor, because I was focused on the status of the profession more than the actual duties. In the last year, as I found myself more, and progessively understood myself at a deeper level, I also progressively reaffirmed more and more that I really didn't want to be a medical doctor, and that what i was really chasing in my pre-med journey was status and prestige. But now I understand at a very deep level that happiness comes from within, and not from prestige or status.

I recall back in 2004 when I shadowed my first dentist, and although I spent the whole day in her office, it felt like only a few hours. Now, in 2008, when I shadowed a dental office ( 2 dentists) for a week, I felt the same experience: time flied by fast--9 hour days would feel like 4 hour days. I also felt the same experience at the pre-dental workshops that I took. I attritbute this to the experiences in the dental environments to be interesting and sitting well with me.


Please make suggestions.

Do you think it is OK to tell it like this?? or should I leave out information, change the viewpoint,etc.???
Thank you

 

[SugarNaCl]

My suggestion? Drop the explanation! You are applying to dental school, not medical school. The last thing ADCOMs wants to read is why you DIDN'T become an MD. They want to know why you DO want to be a DDS!
If you applied to medical school it may be a different story best addressed VERY briefly in your PS and more if asked in an interview.

I majored in biology, minored in business, volunteered for a pathology lab at the VA hospital, and for blood services and PR at the American Red Cross.. FOR YEARS (probably logged 300 hours in the path lab, 500 hours in administration at the VA (volunteer) and 200 hrs at the ARC... went on for my MS in physiology (neuroimmunology) where I did medical research for 2 years, was a research assistant for 3 more years after my MS program at a cancer hospital (prostate cancer research - Dept of MEDICINE) Had 3 LORS from MDs!!!! before even deciding to apply to dental school. The only experience I had was about 80 shadowing hours with a DDS.

Never came up, no one cared, they LOVED the experience and long story short, I'm in dental school.... and it sounds like I had more medical related experience than you did. No questions asked.

Oh, and NO dentist wants to sit there and hear that MDs get so much more respect than they ever will... that they have no status or prestige...COME ON 😉 and it may be silly, but DDSs are called doctor too, so if you are mentioning ANYTHING (against my advice) in the interview... DDSs are doctors, MDs are physicians.

After all, MDs and DDSs just diagnose the problem... researchers are the ones that cure 😉

 

[whoispittsnogle]

i'm going through the exact same process as you and i haven't even started crafting my personal statement. but with that said, i definitely would not include that portion in your personal statement. it certainly does not sound convincing enough and i don't know if it's just a rough draft but the writing is poor. i think we should just stick to answering why dentistry, there are so many good answers to this and plenty of the so called "pre-med" experiences you've had are pertinent to the subject.

surprisingly, aside from dentist vs. physician shadowing, i think both tracks have similarly matched extracurriculars. i don't think pre-dental honors society or some have discouraged me to not include shadowing MDs but i completely disagree. i think patient-provider relationship is patient-provider relationship and that's the most important thing you learn through shadowing.

i'm more concerned about how i should approach some professors and MDs about altering my LORs to fit dental school instead of medical. i'm curious to know what you're planning on doing?

 

[Kanowlees]

I agree with the previous replies. I would just scrap the whole thing and start over. Don't mention wanting to be an MD for so long and then switching, your app will get trashed or you'll get ripped during interviews. Good luck.

 

[Optimism Smiles]

I think you need to start from square 1. Everyone is right, I don't think many people will want to hear about how you were chasing after prestige for years and years and then all of a sudden when this application cycle started, you looked deeper into yourself. While I'm sure all of this is true (and I am so happy now you are pursuing something for the right reasons 🙂 ), this will most definitely be a red flag to adcoms. There are many parallels to the medical and dental professions. Write about these things (such as helping people, etc) and how you mistakenly thought the medical profession was the only way to go until you explored dentistry. Adcoms want to hear WHY you want to become a dentist. So just be honest and focus on how dentistry is the right career path for you instead of belaboring the medical thing. Good luck!

 

[jigabodo]

Drop it. In your case, honesty could really hurt you.

At least come up with more subtle ways to explain your situation.

 

[lgwdnbdgr]

I did medical research for 3-4 years. I did medical volunteering for around 50 hours. I was invovled in a pre-med tutoring inner-city kids program. Adcoms will see all of this in my application. All of this between 2004-2008.

Started doing dental related things in June 2008. I did two pre-dental workshops. I shadowed a dental office (2 dentists) for 30 hours. Scheduled to shadow oral surgeon next week.

I am also applying this year and need to explain this in personal statement and interview.

At this point, you give the appearance of someone who knew he was good at the life sciences. Research isn't a "pre-med" thing, nor is tutoring. You shadowed physicians and dentists roughly equally (or, at least, probably will by the time you finish with the oral surgeon). Perhaps this isn't common among pre-dental students, but it isn't weird and probably SHOULD be a lot more common. The two fields are pretty similar; there is nothing at all suspicious about someone wanting to check out both before committing himself to specializing in the oral cavity.

Until you start getting into your thought patterns, nothing about your background suggests "this is a kid who really wants to be a physician who is probably applying to dental school as part of some nefarious scheme..." I wouldn't even bring it up. If someone asks during your interview, just be selectively honest -- you checked out both and liked dentistry better.

(PS. If they do ask, it'll probably be a stock question. I was asked once "why not med school" despite having nothing in my background that suggested I was ever pre-med. Actually, I got the impression that's WHY I was asked -- the interviewer was curious as to why I checked out research and dentistry, but was curious as to why I never explored medicine.)

 

[PDizzle]

However, I also knew deep down that if I was a medical doctor that I would get more respect from society. I Knew I had the capabillity to get the grades to get into medical school (back then there was a greater discrepancy in grades between med and dental school). So I pursued the pre-med path because I felt that life would not be complete without being a doctor. I really didn't know much about the medical profession (never really shadowed a doctor--except for the research doctors where I volunteered), but I honestly didn't care--I was willing to sacrifice anything and everything to become a doctor, because I was focused on the status of the profession more than the actual duties. In the last year, as I found myself more, and progessively understood myself at a deeper level, I also progressively reaffirmed more and more that I really didn't want to be a medical doctor, and that what i was really chasing in my pre-med journey was status and prestige. But now I understand at a very deep level that happiness comes from within, and not from prestige or status.

This paragraph kills you!! Especially the underlined parts.

/agree with above posts. Completely drop this explaination and focus much, much more on why dentistry is your true calling. Hell, even say that you want to go OMFS and combine the two!

Med ---> dental isn't a rare thing. One of my classmates is a an MD! He was in his first year of anesthesiology residence when he decided to be a dentist.

Good luck