How to be a competitive dental school applicant?

[Ree123]

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Hi! I am new to this forum and I was wondering if there is anyone out there who could give me some advice about how to be a competitive dental school applicant?

I graduated in 2005 with an art degree (from a 4 yr. university, not an art school), worked for two years as a graphic designer and realized that I hated the field I was in. Several months ago I started to shadow a dentist out of curiosity (the career sounded interesting) and am now in love with dentistry. As of this summer/fall I quit my job and am currently a full-time student trying to fulfill my pre-reqs. This semester I am taking inorganic chem 1, general biology, physics 1 and sociology. So far I've been exceling at my classes and if I keep up my current performance I should have at least a 3.8 this semester. I don't have a volunteer job currently (I know that it is important I get one), but I am interviewing soon for a position at an inner-city homeless clinic.

I know that I am on the right track in terms of grades, but what else do dental schools look for in applicants? I am concerned that my overall undergrad gpa might be a little low (3.2, not including any of my current science classes). If I do well now in my science classes, will that still hurt my chances of getting into dental school?

Does studying abroad help you at all? I took four semester of Japanese language in college and then studied abroad for a semester in Japan.

I was also thinking about training my dog and getting him certified for therapy work (like visiting people in hospitals, nursing homes, etc). It would require a lot of time and money on my part and I'm wondering if it's worth it right now. It has been something I've always wanted to do, but if it's not going to really help me with getting into dental school, I'm not sure if I can spare the time and money for that at the moment. Any thoughts?

So besides grades, volunteering, and the manual dexterity requirement (I think I've got that last one covered with my art degree 🙂 ) is there anything else I should be aware of when applying? I know I also have to do well on the DAT, but I probably won't be taking that until August. I also like to run and have done a few races in the past for fun. Should I try to participate more in other non-dental/health related extra-carricular activities like that?

I'd appreciate any advice people could give me. Thanks for the help!

 

[Streetwolf]

Volunteering is great but isn't going to be important like shadowing is. I don't think I volunteered much at all (if any) during college. If it could in any way disrupt your studies then cut back on it. If not then go for it.

A 3.2 is alright but given your situation, if you make a 3.8 with the pre-reqs I think you're golden. Just get good DAT scores (20+ all around) and you'll be set.

I would continue shadowing your dentist.

Studying abroad is a nice addition to the application but will probably not give you much if any advantage over the next applicant.

Only other advice is apply early. Submit it before June 1 and you'll be good.


Edit: BTW I would just like to point out that I replied to your post 38 minutes before you posted it. Damn I'm good.

 

[bodiddely]

The answer to this question is a large part about what this whole forum is all about 😉

In short, get the best grades that you can, especially in pre-reqs (avoid anything lower than a B+ like the plague. Get tutoring, find old exams from past students, do all practice problems, etc), try to get a good amount of volunteer AND shadowing experience (an admissions rep from ASDOH visited our school and said that to be competitive at their school you would need 300+ hours of pure volunteer experience. He also said that volunteering is generally sorted into two categories; clinical experience (e.g. helping at Give Kids a Smile) or pure volunteer experience (e.g. Hospice companion), granted this is from a public health oriented school). My hunch would be that foreign languages other than Spanish probably wouldn't be too useful. Participation in community oriented volunteer work outside of dentistry can only help so long as it doesn't interfere with schoolwork- but you pretty much need some in any case.

As far as the running is concerned, I think finishing a marathon would definitively look good as an EC, it shows a lot of self discipline to train for and complete a marathon. And its just an awesome thing to do, dental school applications notwithstanding.

 

[JMJRDH1]

Adding research experience to your application is another great way to boost your application status. I had 1.5 years of experience and my interviewers were very interested in that part of my application.

IMO the time and money spent on dog training can be better spent on any of the other suggestions.

Good Luck and be sure to ROCK THE DAT!! 👍

 

[Prometheous19]

I have 15 hours of community service and 7 interviews so far. Community service is always good and you should try to do as much of it as possible, but there is no certain amount of hours that you need. I'd say train your dog, it might not be directly related to dentistry but it shows that you are willing to spend your own money to train Your dog to help others.