Major dilemma

[s0300387]

Hi, everyone:
I am a junior and almost senior major in Electrical Engineering, but I have lots of interested in dentistry. This is why I took lots of pre-requisite courses for dental school like, "Biology I I&II, Chemistry, Organic Chemistry…etc." I have already asked my school's health advisor about whether my major will affect my chance to get into the dental school. He said,"No, as long as you like it!" However, I went to my school's dental clinic to ask whether I can get the opportunity for shadowing. The lady who is maybe the administration (I'm not sure) tells me to come in and talk to her. She asked, "What is you major (I said, Electrical Engineering.)" And then, she face becomes weird…. She said, "I need to be honest to you, the dental school prefers the person who is "MM major.", if you like dentist, why you choose Electrical Engineering as your major…? I keep telling her that on every dental school's website mention that you can choose any major as you like just need to make sure fulfilling all the pre –requisite classes. But she just keeps saying something which makes me felt so bad to choose the Electrical Engineering as my major. She always said, "Dental school is really competitive, so that why they want to choose those students has good grades and passion. If you guys has the same status, like grades…etc. they will prefer MM as major and question about why you take Engineering…" I have good GPA, but I'm not a MM major. Will the major is a big indicator for the passion for dental. Or I just ignore her opinion?

I don't know what should I do, please give me some advice; I really appreciate any advice.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[psi169]

doc toothache has a thread somewhere that says the majors of people accepted at dental school.

Don't let you being an electrical engineer throw you off. Lots of people don't have straight biology degrees. If you do well on your DAT, have a good GPA, did well in your dental school pre-reqs, then you are no further behind than anyone else who will be applying. Don't forget to have some extra curriculars, some job shadowing, and volunteering.

Honestly, its not that big of deal. Looks for threads that are called,"non-traditional applicants." These are applicants that don't have a biology-based background and/or are older and are quitting their jobs to go back to school.

Best of luck.

 

[s2agrado]

I wouldn't pay attention to her advice. I was a mechanical engineering major...graduated and work for 3 years for a defense contractor, came back did a post-bacc and had no issues. If electrical engineering is someting that interest's you, there's nothing wrong with learning that discipline alongside pre-med requirements. You could argue that you hope to integrate it into your dental future, perhaps by improving tooling/instruments, etc.

Nothing wrong with it, you can still demonstrate your dental passion by volunteering and shadowing.

Personally, I think being an engineer made me a unique applicant and helps separate you from the run-of-the-mill applicant.

Good luck

 

[doc toothache]

Chances are pretty good that the "lady" you talked to is not on the admissions committee.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=701115

 

[samurai361]

Dude, electrical engineering is way harder than a biology major any day. (I'm assuming MM is biology or health based.) If anything I think this places you a rung above everyone else because a) everyone does biology, totally not unique at all b) electrical engineering is a lot more conceptual complex theory, way above the general call of duty for most biology majors out there and c) if you managed even to still do well GPA wise with an EE major (most engineering majors' GPAs that come on here are below 3), then this looks really great.

I agree with everyone else, that lady has no idea what she's talking about. Good luck!

 

[s0300387]

Thanks for all the reply, this is really helpful and give me some confidence