Importance of Dental Shadowing

[capitan2011]

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Ok, so here's the deal. I'm a Texas resident getting ready to apply to dental school for the next cycle. My cum GPA is 3.35 and sci GPA is ~3.3. I took the DAT in February and scored 24 PAT/24 TS/23 AA.

For me, I did not realize I wanted to go to dental school until last fall 2011. I graduated from A&M last August and have since then been working on a masters in clinical management. I also supervise student employees at the clinic I work at. I only worked half time since my graduation and managed to accumulate about 60 shadowing hours with one dentist. My boss called me in and offered me full time employment for the next year. If I do it, then that means I can no longer shadow a dentist because I wont have anymore time in my work week. I haven't given her an answer yet. I am really considering it because I am paying for my masters degree on my own (working half time doesn't really help as much as I would want.)

Having said that, is it important that I shadow a different dentist and accumulate more shadowing hours or is this enough?

 

[wzhu85]

Different schools seem to place more/less emphasis on the amount of shadowing hours that you do. I generally see people get about 40-100 hours or so, so 60 isn't too little by any means. Personally, I only had 40 hours and had no problems this cycle. In fact, I don't recall any of my interviewers actually asking about my shadowing at all. Your GPA may not be very high but that is a very good DAT score and will definitely get you noticed. I think you'll be just fine with what you have but you can always still shadow more even while working full time. I would imagine there are at least a few dentists who have practices open on the weekends. Anyways, just wanted to share my own experiences with limited shadowing hours, good luck.

 

[doc toothache]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=527523

 

[ataha]

I think some schools even have it as a requirement...

 

[Parklife]

A lot of schools require 100 hours of shadowing. I highly advise against going into dentistry or any health occupation without shadowing. You have the numbers, but do you have the desire? You may end up in D-school and miserable.

 

[Duriel]

There are dental offices and clinics that are open on Saturdays.

 

[93geo]

60 is plenty unless you're applying to a school that requires more. Just remember the purpose of shadowing is to determine if being a dentist is what you want to do for a career. If you know for sure that you want to be a dentist after 60 hours then dont worry about it. If you are still unsure and want to keep seeing what it's all about then you might want to continue shadowing.

 

[GobBluth]

For what it's worth, "required" shadowing hours should be taken with a grain of salt. There was a lot of talk around here about NYU and other schools requiring at least 100 hours of shadowing. I had 30 and had no trouble getting interviews and acceptances. It also never came up during interviews.

 

[93geo]

For what it's worth, "required" shadowing hours should be taken with a grain of salt. There was a lot of talk around here about NYU and other schools requiring at least 100 hours of shadowing. I had 30 and had no trouble getting interviews and acceptances. It also never came up during interviews.

Did you gain admissions into NYU or another school that "requires" 100 hours?

 

[GobBluth]

Did you gain admissions into NYU or another school that "requires" 100 hours?

NYU. Actually, looking over Doc Toothache's Excel file, I didn't apply to any of the other schools that require 100 hours. So I suppose I could only say that NYU's requirement is not hard and fast.

 

[xtra333]

Okay, then I will appy to NYU. My parents want me to apply there but I told them I don't have the hours required.