how many hours should I volunteer?

[savvysearch]

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I can't get a job to get any dental exp. in Orange COunty, so I plan to volunteer. How much time should I put into volunteering do you think? Is once a week good? 3 to 4 hours? Or is that to little?

Any comments appreciated.

 

[juan7677]

3 to 4 hours per week is ok if that's all that you can do. You should try to have at least a total of 40 hours of experience.

 

[yosemitesam]

I think ~40 hours would prolly be O.K., but try to get as much as you can - not just for the admisssions committee, but for yourself. Just a few days or even weeks of shadowing/volunteering is not going to give you a very accurate picture of what dentistry is all about. Dental school is going to be a huge committment of time and money, and you need to be sure it's really where you want to go.

Actually being in a dental office every day or every couple of days really changes your perspective on things. At least it did for me. In fact, I wasn't even really that interested in dentistry when I started shadowing, I mostly did it cause my school offered elective credit for the experience.

Good Luck.

 

[Brand]

40 hours is plenty. You probably have already looked into the career and understand what its about, so more time observing just gets boring.