Making the switch to the dent side. (Help please)

[catachresis]

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Hello dental side of SDN, I have quite a few things on my mind and I figured actually making an account and getting some input would be better than continuing my aimless two months of lurking.

Up until the beginning of my junior year of college I was really set on medicine but a slew of working / shadowing / full immersion activities in medicine that I have recently completed made me feel uneasy about practicing as a physician, let alone attending medical school.

At the time when I began to lose interest in becoming a physician, I really had no idea what I wanted to do with my life or if I even wanted to do something in healthcare but now I am leaning toward dentistry just a little bit after doing some exploring and ruling out several other options. I've never worked in a dentist's office, shadowed one, and my only contact with one is through my own personal visits to their offices and just based on personal experience, I have always liked going to my dentists' offices.

Now, just based on what I said above, it would make perfect sense to shadow a dentist and figure out what I am getting myself into, so I already know that is the first step, but here my little piece of anxiety..

Suppose I start shadowing now, i.e. next Saturday or something. I have a heavy courseload to begin with because I am finishing up a double major that is completely unrelated to my science pre-reqs, so the majority of my classes are upper leveled and require more out of class time to keep up with. Would it be feasible or completely insane to try and fit DAT studying into this as well?

I don't know how my school's committee letter system works but I believe mine (Rutgers NB, HPO) requires five full letters of recommendation for whichever sort of school you are applying to. Since I am considering making the switch, this would mean that my letters on file would be invalid because they were written specifically for medical school and not dental school.

This means that not only will I have to allot additional time to shadow but I would have to do more work outside of class with my professors instead of studying to get great recommendations written yet again. Also, I will have to take extra science classes during winter break just to fulfill this requirement.

It will be very risky to ask my spring semester professors for recommendations because I know the importance of applying early in the cycle, so I am stuck with asking nearly all of my professors this semester.

So let me summarize my options which I would like to receive some criticism for.

1. Shadow. Obviously.. if I don't end up liking it, end of story.

2. I am considering prepping for the DAT either now (see above), or after my winter session, so around mid January - mid March or late March (includes Spring Break for extra studying).. that way I'll have this exam done and over with well before finals begin.

According to this neat guide here:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=9544221#post9544221
Does it really only take 8 weeks to adequately prepare for the DAT?

3. Letters of Recommendation.. Assuming I'll have to redo my letters, the science letters will both come from my winter session science classes that I'll have to register for, and a couple from my professors this semester. Would admissions committees look down upon that?

4. EC's. Now this is a problem. I have no dental related activities. This is also something I have very little knowledge in. How heavily do admission committees weigh EC's in a prospective dental student's application? I remember reading a thread where it said.. and I paraphrase:

"100hrs shadowing is the benchmark.. Then the only thing that really matters is GPA and DAT."

Is that reasonable axiom to follow if I want to get in?

I ask because medical schools emphasize more than just shadowing hours and most of my friends who have been accepted into medical schools told me they were never asked about their shadowing experiences at all, but more about their clinical experiences and relevant work / contributions.

Thanks for the help.

 

[RU1992]

I don't want to comment on everything, it'd be too much haha. But I go to Rutgers NB and had a similar switch from med to dentistry. Just ask your professors that you got letters from to edit the word "medicine" to "dentistry". All of my professors didn't have a problem and the qualities that would have made you a great physician would make you a great dentist as well. Just make sure to sit down with them or send them an email explaining why you made the switch and going through your reasoning with them so they understand you came to a mature decision. That's what I did and HPO has all of my letters on file, both medical and dental. 5 letters is the requirement for a committee letter and your professors' life is going to be very easy just changing 2 words on their saved letter of recommendation on their computer. 8 weeks is plenty of time for the DAT in my opinion, just dedicate a lot of time in those 8 weeks to it. I personally did about 6 weeks during the summer and I think that was pretty solid. Especially after the Rutgers science curriculum. 100 hrs shadowing is solid, try to get into a few leadership positions here and there or get a part time job, but don't over do it. Focus on the GPA and DAT, those are the two biggest factors by far. Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any further questions.

 

[Bis-GMA111]

Hello dental side of SDN, I have quite a few things on my mind and I figured actually making an account and getting some input would be better than continuing my aimless two months of lurking.

Up until the beginning of my junior year of college I was really set on medicine but a slew of working / shadowing / full immersion activities in medicine that I have recently completed made me feel uneasy about practicing as a physician, let alone attending medical school.

At the time when I began to lose interest in becoming a physician, I really had no idea what I wanted to do with my life or if I even wanted to do something in healthcare but now I am leaning toward dentistry just a little bit after doing some exploring and ruling out several other options. I've never worked in a dentist's office, shadowed one, and my only contact with one is through my own personal visits to their offices and just based on personal experience, I have always liked going to my dentists' offices.

Now, just based on what I said above, it would make perfect sense to shadow a dentist and figure out what I am getting myself into, so I already know that is the first step, but here my little piece of anxiety..

Suppose I start shadowing now, i.e. next Saturday or something. I have a heavy courseload to begin with because I am finishing up a double major that is completely unrelated to my science pre-reqs, so the majority of my classes are upper leveled and require more out of class time to keep up with. Would it be feasible or completely insane to try and fit DAT studying into this as well?

it would be difficult, in my opinion. give yourself a solid month or 2 just devoting your time to studying. it'll make life a lot easier.

I don't know how my school's committee letter system works but I believe mine (Rutgers NB, HPO) requires five full letters of recommendation for whichever sort of school you are applying to. Since I am considering making the switch, this would mean that my letters on file would be invalid because they were written specifically for medical school and not dental school.

the rutgers hpo is terrible. they know NOTHING about the dental school application process at all. not to mention they take forever with the committee letter. my advice is to use the compilation service that they offer...$50 and they'll pick out your best letters for you and submit everything to aadsas right away.

This means that not only will I have to allot additional time to shadow but I would have to do more work outside of class with my professors instead of studying to get great recommendations written yet again. Also, I will have to take extra science classes during winter break just to fulfill this requirement.

It will be very risky to ask my spring semester professors for recommendations because I know the importance of applying early in the cycle, so I am stuck with asking nearly all of my professors this semester.

So let me summarize my options which I would like to receive some criticism for.

1. Shadow. Obviously.. if I don't end up liking it, end of story.

2. I am considering prepping for the DAT either now (see above), or after my winter session, so around mid January - mid March or late March (includes Spring Break for extra studying).. that way I'll have this exam done and over with well before finals begin.

According to this neat guide here:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=9544221#post9544221
Does it really only take 8 weeks to adequately prepare for the DAT? everyone is different. i know people who studied for 2 weeks and absolutely destroyed it. i took a month and a half and did okay. take a practice dat test just to get a feel for the content and go from there. this schedule is only a guide.

since you're considering applying for next cycle, i would study after the spring semester and take the DAT by mid-july. still relatively early, and with everything else in place, you could be competitive.

3. Letters of Recommendation.. Assuming I'll have to redo my letters, the science letters will both come from my winter session science classes that I'll have to register for, and a couple from my professors this semester. Would admissions committees look down upon that? Not at all. Just make sure the professors know you well.

4. EC's. Now this is a problem. I have no dental related activities. This is also something I have very little knowledge in. How heavily do admission committees weigh EC's in a prospective dental student's application? I remember reading a thread where it said.. and I paraphrase:

you should try to get as many shadowing hours as possible. start as soon as possible, and try to get as much exposure as you can (i.e. gen dent, ortho, perio, ec.)100 hrs is a good benchmark but if your other stats are solid, having 50-60 hours won't make or break your application.
"100hrs shadowing is the benchmark.. Then the only thing that really matters is GPA and DAT."

Is that reasonable axiom to follow if I want to get in?

I ask because medical schools emphasize more than just shadowing hours and most of my friends who have been accepted into medical schools told me they were never asked about their shadowing experiences at all, but more about their clinical experiences and relevant work / contributions.

Thanks for the help.

 

[fmlcat]

I was in a similar boat as you, and I'm currently applying to dental school. You can PM me if you want to talk about anything.