How to plan for dental school

[Riazheyratifar]

Hello all,

I am a Senior in highschool curious to know more about what I need/tips for college that can benefit me for dental school. I know it sounds like a very broad question but I am kinda lost on what I need to do and know for college if that makes sense. Backround information: I am going to University of Texas in San Antonio Fall of 2019 majoring In Biology, I have 15 total hours of Community College credit (english, hist, gov), 48 hours of volunteering in near by hospital, and have shadowed 2 dentist for over 50 hours total.

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[BluntForceTrauma]

Hello all,

I am a Senior in highschool curious to know more about what I need/tips for college that can benefit me for dental school. I know it sounds like a very broad question but I am kinda lost on what I need to do and know for college if that makes sense. Backround information: I am going to University of Texas in San Antonio Fall of 2019 majoring In Biology, I have 15 total hours of Community College credit (english, hist, gov), 48 hours of volunteering in near by hospital, and have shadowed 2 dentist for over 50 hours total.

Read these forums. Search for threads before posting. Most information hasn't changed in a while so read up son, you got a ways to go.

Make good grades. Go to the cheapest school. Make good grades. Rinse and repeat.

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[artist2022]

Hey! For starters, I'd browse through this forum: Pre-Dental
A broad question gets a broad answer but in a nutshell, this is what you need to do:
- Maintain a high GPA- both overall and science. Try to avoid Cs/Ds/Fs. Cs will bring your grade down, and Ds and Fs will lead to you having to retake the class (which may sound good if your university replaces grades, but the dental school application system does not- they'll count both grades).
- Continue shadowing so you show commitment- you can do fewer hours over the next four years and get to like 200-300 hours which is plenty.
- Participate in other extracurriculars- things like clubs (aim for a leadership position), other volunteering (like at a dental clinic), etc
- Score well on the DAT- if you don't want to take a year off after you graduate (= gap year), then you should aim to take the DAT before your senior year, hopefully before that summer (because that summer (right after junior year) is when you'll apply to dental schools). If you do want to take a year off, then you'd take the DAT hopefully before you graduate/in that summer (because again, you'd be applying the summer right after you graduate, to start the following year- it's just like applying to undergrad, except the timeline is moved way up to June).

When it comes closer to applying, feel free to post in the Pre-dental forum. Hope this helped and good luck!