How important is it to be in Predental Society?

[hellonurse]

I do a whole bunch and the predental society meeting time sucks. How bad will it look if I'm not a member of the predental society?? I understand some are and some aren't...but can it actually hurt you?

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[dent2009]

It can never hurt you to be in a predent club. I was never a part of it since I was able to do everything myself. But good clubs sometimes help you to obtain shadowing/volunteer experiences, setup meetings or open house with local dent schools, talk about app process, etc. But there's really no point of going if it sucks.

I do a whole bunch and the predental society meeting time sucks. How bad will it look if I'm not a member of the predental society?? I understand some are and some aren't...but can it actually hurt you?

 

[NyCzPeter]

Apparently not important at all. I did a quick switch to dental so I barely had any dental exp. Only 50 hours shadowing a gp, and much less any pre-dental society work. Most of my undergrad work was done working for and shadowing various physicians so I had alot of exp there.

 

[cybermech]

I think the time that you spend doing predental societies can be better spent studying for your DAT or doing actual shadowing or volunteering. I never did the dental society thing, but did fine. However, I did have an excellent Kaplan mentor and did a lot of research on my own.

It's possible that, if you really don't know anything, you might find it helpful to be a part of one so that you can network with others who may know more.

 

[doc3232]

I think the time that you spend doing predental societies can be better spent studying for your DAT or doing actual shadowing or volunteering.

Wow...well-said. 👍

It's possible that, if you really don't know anything, you might find it helpful to be a part of one so that you can network with others who may know more.

SDN covers that 😎

 

[RMPredent2009]

I didn't know about SDN until about a year ago so I found it helpful to go to meetings and ask questions from people that had already gone through the application process and gotten into dental school. Also, my school's pre-health office is focused on pre-med students so Pre-Dental meetings were my only source of useful info at that time. I am kinda biased though since I am a pretty active member of mine.

 

[Mazmel]

be a member, it could only help. and if you get an officer position, even better 🙂

 

[hl11]

be a member, it could only help. and if you get an officer position, even better 🙂

just as Mazmel said it, if you can get any leader position such as being the president/vice-president, i think it helps.
but other than that, you can basically find everything here.

 

[appleonius]

it doesn't matter much on paper but the contacts you make & what you learn from others/dentists is more important.

 

[Oracle DMD]

it depends on the program. part of the reason i got into dental school was due to the exceptionally strong program at San Diego State. no question about it. but if a program is weak, and you're not doing much/ learning much, or having fun...then don't.

 

[link517]

I would say it is important only if you want to attend the same undergrad and dental schools. i.e. if you went to UCONN and you want to go to dental school there also. These pre-dental societies have very close relations with the dental schools themselves and you are only putting yourself at a disadvantage by not joining.

 

[rewJW]

LOL, my school didn't even have a pre-dent club, so I couldn't be in one. Only 1-2 students graduating per year (if any) from my school apply to d-school. I still got some acceptances. I think a pre-dent club would have been very helpful in guiding me during my first application process, though. I was really winging it and it showed by lack of acceptances. At least I was a seasoned pro this time around 😉

 

[eldirty]

being in the predent club at my school was very helpful in getting my application together before AADSAS opened. letters of recommendation, resume, personal statement , etc. were all required before the predental committee would conduct a mock interview and then write your committee letter. during meetings we discuss everything from military scholarships to which professor/classes are the best to take ... and of course there is usually free food. opportunities for community service were also setup.

like most have said ... it cant hurt and im sure the experience depends on the school and the program

 

[peerless218]

it depends on the program. part of the reason i got into dental school was due to the exceptionally strong program at San Diego State. no question about it. but if a program is weak, and you're not doing much/ learning much, or having fun...then don't.

Fact: SDSU has one of the top 3 pre-dental clubs in the nation. According to a dean of Loma Linda

 

[beastmode]

it depends on the program. part of the reason i got into dental school was due to the exceptionally strong program at San Diego State. no question about it. but if a program is weak, and you're not doing much/ learning much, or having fun...then don't.

Exactly, it depends on the strength of the club. Our club was very good at presenting opportunities for its members to build their extracurricular resumes. Generally, a pre-dental society will only be beneficial if you are willing to be an active participant. Simply showing up to a few meetings and being a "member" will provide no benefits.

When you sit down at an interview and admissions asks you what your role was in the club was you will look foolish. Last year our club established a community dental education program for underprivileged youth in the local area. All of the students that participated had a great time and they also had something really good put on their dental apps.

 

[tfreak02]

Fact: SDSU has one of the top 3 pre-dental clubs in the nation. According to a dean of Loma Linda

I was under the impression that SDSU doesn't have a pre-dental organization. Please correct me on that if I'm wrong

 

[desiyaar]

UCSD has a pre-dent club. And SDSU students attend UCSD's club. So no, SDSU does not have one.

 

[jasoto3]

I don't you necessarily have to be in a pre-dental society. I like being in a society because get a lot volunteer opportunities as well as different speakers that come to our meetings to explain the whole process. We have recruiters that come to talk to us and it never hurt meeting a recruiter.

 

[peerless218]

UCSD has a pre-dent club. And SDSU students attend UCSD's club. So no, SDSU does not have one.

Actually, SDSU does have a pre-dental club, I am the VP of the club. Oracle couple comments above me was the president last year.

There is one correction I would like to make though. We don't really go to UCSD meetings, except for maybe 3~4 out of 60 members currently. Some of the volunteering activites that we do include feed the homeless, beach clean up, orphange visits in Mexico, pre-school trips, home of guiding hands, visit to Rady's children hospital etc. We had 21 community service events last semester alone.

We also plan hands on workshops, dental school tours (8 schools last year), as well as around 20 speakers a year. So just want to clarify, SDSU does have a club and our club is doing fairly well.

We're a student-run organization. We organize everything that's happening with the club. UCSD has a big shot dentist, Dr. Silverstein, he pretty much establishs all the connections for their students. UCSD is very lucky to have such strong hand helping them along the way; but I am very proud of our club officers for making things happening for our members.

 

[Oracle DMD]

UCSD has a pre-dent club. And SDSU students attend UCSD's club. So no, SDSU does not have one.

SDSU has a FAR SUPERIOR pre-dental org. they might attend both to get extra exposure to a guest speaker now and again, but i am very familiar w/ UCSD's "pre-dental" org. and i can assure you, they are all cheifs and no indians! haha everyone there is in charge of something...and does nothing. SDSU is where the rubber meets the road when it comes to pre-dental orgs in the nation.

 

[hellonurse]

Thank you to everyone for your responses. I have been doing a lot without the predental society so far and I feel like I will not benefit from their meetings. So I'm glad to hear it is not completely necessary to be a successful applicant.

 

[eldirty]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=602519