Would it be a great help to take upper division bio courses (such as microbiology, anatomy, histology etc.) before dental school? Because while taking these courses does not seem necessary for the DAT, I know I'll be taking these in dental school. So if anyone has an opinion on this, please chime in. Especially nontraditional students and those that majored in some non-science major, how did a lack of these advanced bio courses affect you? Or conversely, if you did take a lot of these classes and they made your transition into dental school easier.
They will, if you pay attention and learn well, make your transition into dental school a great deal easier. I loved my endocrinology and physiology classes, and I still remember things the way they were taught there better than in my current Pathology classes.
That said, one of the regrets people tend to have about college is that they didn't make enough use of all of the interesting stuff, like Literature, Music, Foreign Language, or whatever other classes are interesting to them. I avoided most of those regrets because I took a lot of French, got a minor in English, and took a Creative Writing course, but I still wish I could have gone further with both French and English.
So I wouldn't go "full bio" - don't make your courseload 100% biology unless you REALLY love biology, and don't really love anything else. Take some biology, particularly anything involving PRINCIPLES that you will retain - I wouldn't bother with something like Anatomy, since the flat memorization will fade from your brain quickly. However, something like Physiology has principles that will stick with you forever; you might not remember exactly what proteins do what, but you will remember that the hypothalamus controls the pituitary controls the etc etc negative feedback positive loops etc etc, and re-learning those things will come back much more quickly.
I know it's a cliche, but maybe it will hit closer to home coming from someone who's 25, talking to other 20-something-year-olds who regret not taking "more interesting" classes in college - take the time to take classes in Undergrad that interest you, and if you feel that passion tugging your heartstrings, pay attention to it. You have opportunities in college that you'll wish you'd paid attention to later.
You will put more than enough things "on hold" for dental school, believe me. Don't sacrifice your intellectual curiosity for ___________________ just out of some misguided sense of duty to study all biology, all the time.
I will also go ahead and say, and I know Your Mileage May Vary, avoid Economics classes (anecdotal support from 2 friends who took a lot of Econ). Many people think that going through Economics will somehow give them a "better grasp on life" or a "better idea of running a business", but that's not really true. It's not worth sacrificing undergrad credits to take Economics courses unless you're interested in the application of wide Economics policy.
