I have a few questions

Started by Zubbber
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Zubbber

Zubbber

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5+ Year Member
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Hi everyone

So I'm a junior in Undergrad (bio major), and I'm just now deciding that I wanna go to dental school. I know it's not too late to get shadowing hours/take the DAT, but does it look bad to start this late? Should I take a gap year to spend shadowing/ pay off my debt I have from undergrad? I'm also worried about my grades... I took Genetics and the Organic courses, and they really brought down my GPA because I spent a lot of time studying for those just to pass, and neglected my other classes. My stats are:
GPA: 3.34 / Science GPA: 3.2
I haven't taken the DAT yet, but from what I see I will need around a 22 to even be considered... How hard is that to do if I study every day for 2ish months? Do you get the scores instantly?
Do private schools offer any assistance if you're not in a lower class? NYU for example is in the 80,000s for tuition alone. If a family makes 150,000-175,000 a year would they offer at least a little money considering the high cost? I don't wanna get too far in debt... Just wanna know if this option is realistic.
Is the military option a good way to go? Seems like a good deal, but I don't trust it.
Some of my volunteer/ extra curricular activities are:
I'm in honors program and equestrian club. I've studied abroad. I've done volunteer hours every semester of college- not dental related though (5/semester).
How many hours should I spend shadowing a dentist? I wanna shadow an orthodontist as well, but I know some schools mostly require shadowing for a general dentist.
I have been doing better this semester, and I still have a lot of general classes that can bring my GPA up. Should I bother applying this year, or would I be wasting application money since I'm starting so late with a low GPA?
I'm open to any recommendations for how to improve my application/ what to do from here.
 
1. It's good to shadow a dentist for ~100 hours (most schools require you to have this much). After this 100hrs, you can do however more and shadow whoever is fine.
2. Military option is something you need to do more thorough research, and find more info about it to see if it's the route you wanna go
3. Your GPA is decent, so with a solid DAT of 21s would be great. I would say trying to study for the DAT, getting shadowing times, and applying ALL THE THINGS AT THE SAME TIME is quite challenging, but it's not impossible. I think you would still be fine to start the process and get ready to apply this cycle if you want. Start shadowing now and work on drafting applications/PS to have it ready when the application portal open up. Studying to take the DAT in the summer while applying.
*** I did this during my junior year. Taking classes/researching/shadowing/ applying/studying to take the DAT all at the same time. It requires a lot of time management but it's doable ****
4. What is your residency status?
 
Thank you! That was very helpful.
I live in Georgia. There is only one dental school here from what I've researched, and the average GPA is much higher than mine. One thing in my favor is that they accept 90% in state and only 10% out of state. I'm hoping for this school because it's affordable, but I can't really be picky.
 
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Zubbber said:
Thank you! That was very helpful.
I live in Georgia. There is only one dental school here from what I've researched, and the average GPA is much higher than mine. One thing in my favor is that they accept 90% in state and only 10% out of state. I'm hoping for this school because it's affordable, but I can't really be picky.
Click to expand...
Average.... is an average. It means some people get in with higher GPA, and some with lower. I would say shadowing a dentist to see if dentistry is something you want to do. If yes, go ahead and apply.
You might have a lower GPA than their accepting average, but something on your application might catch adcoms attention; or you might be able to offer some skillz/personalities that one with higher GPA do not possess. You never know.
Go big or go home. And going home is not even a bad thing. Like you get to take a nap at home. So why not.
 
Currently a 2nd year at Tufts. A lot to this one so here goes.
1. Your gpa is on the lower end for people getting into dental school, but not by much. You'll be fine as long as you do well on the DAT. I had almost the exact same stats, took 6 weeks to study full time for the DAT after my junior year and that was enough time to do well enough to make up for my gpa (3.4 overall 3.16 science). So definitely try to do well on that, I ended up with a 21 AA 20 TS and 19 PAT and in one of the interviews the guy straight up asked me "your gpa is on the low end for a DAT score that high, why is that?". So you can definitely do it just really try to put some serious work into the DAT
2. Definitely shadow. That's the most important thing to deciding if you actually want to do it. In high school and undergrad I was 100% I was gonna be a physician but shadowing exposed my to a a side of it I found somewhat depressing. Talked to a dentist in my town who loved his job and all of a sudden I knew dentistry was a much better option for me. As cliche as it sounds, shadowing was definitely the best thing I did overall in deciding which career to pursue. On top of that though, shadowing is one of the sub sections you'll be filling out on the dental school application so try to get some hours in. Research some dental schools because some of them have certain shadowing requirements like 75-100 hours. I had 80 by the time I applied but some people had much more.
3. Your extra curriculars look fine, but it never hurts to add in a few hobbies that you do in your free time. Volunteering is always a good box to check off on the app so you're solid there.
3. Military... is a great way to go however it's very competitive. Also that four years of service in exchange for paid off tuition comes at a price. Even after those initial years you get commissioned one weekend a month, you can randomly get put on reserved plus a few other things but definitely look into the details of it because in reality it's actually a decent balance between which way is better to go, private practice vs. military. However, of the things you listed that's the one I know the least about so you might wanna ask someone else about that.....
4. You will be in a massive amount of debt after graduating dental school. There's just no way to avoid it(other than military) With the way federal loans are going, it's no secret that dentists make a $&@*ton of money throughout their career. Maybe not right out of school, but realistically 110-130k starting usually. But over time the consistency that dentists are able to pump out income makes giving loans to dentists safer than even physicians. So yeah you'll pay a lot for student loans but don't worry too much about it. Just try to go to your state school if you can [emoji28]
Hope some of this helps. If you have any questions regarding DAT or anything else PM me because there were a few things with the DAT I did that ended up being really good and somethings I regretted not doing.
Good luck!


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