Just a few questions

[tiggercat]

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Hi everyone,🙂
I'm still new to the forum although I've been a frequent vistor. I think I'll give a little intro about myself since I'm sure I will be on here often. I only recently started considering dentistry as a career. My parents always pressured me to go into medicine and I always knew I wasn't cut out for it. I knew I loved health sciences but somehow being a doctor didn't appeal to me, but due to pressure from my parents I kept following the path of medicine. It wasn't until I bought Barrons book of U.S. Medical & Dental schools that I began thinking of dentistry because it sounded like a career I would love 😍and would suit my personality. Now I'm postive that it's the career I want to pursue and I want to try my best to get in.

My main question is: How long should I job shadow a dentist for? What's a good amount of time? A day? A few days? A week? Also I've seen a lot of postings about volunteering in a dental office, would anyone be able to tell me more information about that? What do you do as a volunteer and what is a good way to approach and ask a dentist about that? Lastly, does anyone know if the GPA requirements for Canadians to get into U.S. dental schools are different? I know with some Canadian schools sometimes they lower GPA requirements for international students or require higher GPAs for either dentistry or medicine. My apologies for all the questions. 😕

 

[jigabodo]

Hi,
I am by no means expert on the topic (heck, I am just like you, trying to get into a dental school too!)

I would suggest at least ~50 hrs of GP shadowing before you apply, but of course the more the better (preferably 100?) Also some EC will look nice as well.

As for GPA requirement, I think Canadians/international students will probably have better shots at private dental schools. Do your research and you will find that private schools generally don't have much of a residence preference, while some states school accept around 80 to 90% residents.

Mean GPA for enrollees differ a lot between schools. NYU, BU I believe have a 3.3ish GPA, while Harvard and UPenn have like 3.6~3.7.

Hope that helps...

 

[Mackchops]

Hi everyone,🙂
I'm still new to the forum although I've been a frequent vistor. I think I'll give a little intro about myself since I'm sure I will be on here often. I only recently started considering dentistry as a career. My parents always pressured me to go into medicine and I always knew I wasn't cut out for it. I knew I loved health sciences but somehow being a doctor didn't appeal to me, but due to pressure from my parents I kept following the path of medicine. It wasn't until I bought Barrons book of U.S. Medical & Dental schools that I began thinking of dentistry because it sounded like a career I would love 😍and would suit my personality. Now I'm postive that it's the career I want to pursue and I want to try my best to get in.

My main question is: How long should I job shadow a dentist for? What's a good amount of time? A day? A few days? A week? Also I've seen a lot of postings about volunteering in a dental office, would anyone be able to tell me more information about that? What do you do as a volunteer and what is a good way to approach and ask a dentist about that? Lastly, does anyone know if the GPA requirements for Canadians to get into U.S. dental schools are different? I know with some Canadian schools sometimes they lower GPA requirements for international students or require higher GPAs for either dentistry or medicine. My apologies for all the questions. 😕

As long as you shadow enough to realize that you can't decide on dentistry based on a book by Barrons you should be fine. Seriously though, try to shadow multiple practices -- different types if you can. Dentists are usually really eager to help someone decide if this is the profession for them -- remember, they had to go through the decision-making process too. Just ask someone in town. Say you think you're interested in dentistry. They'll say yes. Minimum? I'd say 50-60+ hrs is good. But shadow enough so that when you go for your interview at Temple and they ask you what your favorite instrument is you're not the one saying "suction"... and not knowing the difference between high-speed and low-speed when they question you further.

Mack

 

[tiggercat]

Thanks so much for the help guys! 😉 I'm planning to shadow a dentist that is a good friend of my mom as well as an oral surgeon my mom knows. 😀

 

[Mackchops]

Sounds great. You'll be fine.