How important is work experience?

[dentist409]

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I was a full time student for 4 years, and part time student for 1 semester. I have worked as a food service worker, in a hospital, and currently as a dental assistant. Over the past 4.5 years I really only worked during the summers, where they would only give me part time hours if any. Also, one of those summers I took a good chunk of time off to study for the DAT. Will they look at my 1200 ish hours of working as a small amount for over 5 years? Could this negatively impact my application? Thank you in advance 🙂

 

[knewstance]

I have plenty (perhaps a majority?) of classmates that have never had any kind of significant work experience. That's normal among dental students that get into dental school straight out of undergrad.