I have about 60 hours of community service overall. I've been involved in 2 pre-dental clubs, one for pre-health, and I was also in a sorority. However, I feel like I wasn't totally committed to any.
I decided to be a dentist kinda late, during my sophomore year or college, and I worked two jobs for 2 years starting that year so I didn't have much time to do everything that I needed. I know that there is a lot of people who can fit everything in but I just couldn't since I really wanted to keep my grades up. Do you think that some schools will be understanding?
Please, enlighten us on what the minimum amount of volunteer hours are, LOL. It cracks me up when people around here say you need 100 volunteer hours. Majority of people I know got in with <100 hours. If you bomb your DAT and your GPA is shot then yes, maybe you need to have a lot of volunteer hours to show you're at least involved. This obviously isn't the case here.
That's not late. Late is when you're 30 years old. Plenty of people work yet still find time for activities outside of classes.
50 is a lot different than 100. I don't think any of my schools have a threshold or a minimum, but I digress. I'm sure OP won't have a difficult time landing interviews, and as long as they can explain things they gained from their experiences they'll be fine. Being involved in something is important, but it doesn't have to be just volunteering or community outreach. I would definitely suggest to keep adcoms updated throughout the process. Get involved with research if you can!
ASDOH and MOSDOH off the top of my head are two that ask for 300+ hours. Honestly though, if you don't have over 100 hours over the course of your college career you're doing something wrong.....it doesn't take much at all.
Agreed. It's baffling. Over the span of 4 years that is literally no time commitment.
Yes, and ASDOH/MOSDOH are the ones that favor excessive amounts of volunteering. The two exceptions, sorry.
You are just so salty 😆.
I was a Chi Omega and we had sooooo many required volunteer events. Plus we also had to do required volunteer hours on our own (only 20 a semester... but if you were active all four years, that's an additional 160 hours).
some schools require a minimum of 100. I believe that is what he means.
I loved my sorority to death and had such good experiences with it. There is absolutely no way I would have given that up 😍
I don't think she mentioned that she's missing the shadowing. However if that is the case, then I agree with DC as well. Shadowing is absolutely mandatory (and 100 hours of dental shadowing is actually a requirement for most schools).
Yes I have more than 100 hours on shadowing.
Thank you! I went in and talked to my advisor today and he told me something very similar.
"Would you mind if I shadow you for 4 days or so over the next month? Great. That would be much appreciated"
For all my experiences I usually stayed from open to close for each day I was in. I don't know if I just got lucky and all my doctors were laid back but it goes by so quick. More often than not the whole office would go get lunch together and invite me as well.
