Everyone above has given fantastic advice.
The only thing I would have to say is what are your motivations for wanting to be a dentist, how recently did you switch, and in that time have you shadowed/volunteered at any dental offices or clinics? If the answer is no, then I would definitely do that before spending several thousand in applications this year. I'm going to type this all out, with hopes that it may help out another d-school hopeful in a similar situation.
Now, to answer your questions:
Can I use MCAT books to prepare for the DAT? Which books/materials are best? Already answered
Can I put my medical volunteering (i.e. in the surgery center and hospital) on my dental application? Would they consider it as volunteer work since it isn't in the dental field? Yes, you can put medical volunteering for dental, volunteering is volunteering. See below for more.
How long do you prepare for the DAT? Depends. Avg 6-8 wks, but with your prep for the MCAT it may be a lower number.
Does anyone know where I can get a study schedule for the DAT? I think you found dentalWorks' sample study schedule. And to answer your question there, most people do practice exams the last week or two. You can easily condense his sample schedule into fewer weeks, leaving more time for practice exams at the end of the schedule.
Do I have a chance at getting into any dental schools? Absolutely. Where there's a will there's a way.
Also, do the dental schools care about where you went to undergrad? In a word, no. Ivy helps you maybe get into other ivies, but in general they care about academic performance overall. Debate rages on this topic, but a person from a po-dunk school with great grades, DAT scores, and a ton of altruistic volunteer work in their local community will usually be looked upon more favorably than someone with a sub-par GPA, average DAT scores, and little to no experience from an Ivy. That is why you should beef up where you can. Your GPA will only get raised so much in one year, try your best to get all A's (adcoms love to see an upward trend) and get at least the minimum shadowing experience down.
Let's talk about the different sections of the d-school application as they apply to your portfolio:
GPA- Your GPA is right there with the avg of a lot of other d-students. If you were still applying to med school I would have some reservations and say you should wait a year to boost that uGPA up a little bit. But for d-school, 3.2-3.3 is in the ballpark and would grant a lot of people interviews assuming the rest of the app is up to par. I'm not actually concerned about your GPA, but rather with how many courses you took at CC? Did you take any prereqs, and if so, how many? A lot of d-schools frown upon CC courses and will not accept any CC credits (some schools do accept, and there are limits to the number of credits they take). I would suggest buying the ADEA Official Guide to Dental Schools book, it has a ton of information, most notably about dental schools, their stats (avg entering GPA, DAT, age, gender, race), avg cost, preference for in/out state, whether any CC credits are accepted... the list goes on. It's only about $30-40 bucks and is a HUGE investment; it will probably save you several hundred just by virtue of helping you narrow down schools.
Research- Research isn't mandatory for d-schools, it's great that you have it but it doesn't detract if you don't have it (hence most dental students don't do research. I have one semester myself, but that was as a "hard sciences" major and I really thought I wanted to do research at the time.). So it's great that you have it, but you need to beef up the other areas d-schools really care about... such as shadowing dentists and/or getting some hands-on experiences (volunteering at low income clinics is a great way to do this, and can also count as volunteering. If you're in LA I'm assuming there will plenty of opportunities for you here).
Shadowing- This is an absolute must, not only because the adcoms want to see it, but because you need to determine whether this is something you can see yourself doing. It is a good idea to shadow a couple different general dentists (most d-schools prefer general over specialty b/c they see a variety of cases) because each dentist will have a different office flow. Basically the more exposure the better. I have heard around 50-80 hrs of shadowing is good. I know people have gotten in doing 30, but if you're switching from pre-med and want to convince them this is what you want to do, you might want to up it to ~50 hrs. Some schools will list this requirement on their website, check around and you can start to get an idea for how many hours they want. Volunteering can count as shadowing (see below).
Volunteering- This is where you can double-dip. Some people might disagree, but you are in a crunch for time (assuming you are still interested in applying this cycle), so the more shortcuts you can take to fill out the app, the better. If you volunteered at a low-income clinic, you could use this as volunteering AND shadowing. I know you already have 2 yrs of volunteering, how many hours though? (Just curious here). Yes, volunteering is volunteering so you can DEF put medical volunteerism on your app. But, you have a lot of med stuff so that may raise an eyebrow. A lot of people switch back and forth so don't worry too much about it. Just try to get some actual clinical volunteer work, which can also count as shadowing (if it's done in an office). What was the Fresh Start Dental venue like? How often was that? Once a year? Or once a month? What were your roles? Were you a chairside assistant or did you simply help the lines move and/or do paperwork? (Basically I'm trying to see whether it was an outside informal area with tents set-up, or in an office where you would be more likely to see procedures).
Work- I know med schools are really keen to see scribing or work in doctor's offices, but d-schools are more chill than that. Again, as long as you get hands-on experiences (aka volunteering), you'll be fine. Not really necessary to have received $$ in return for work. Again, med schools are different in this respect, they want to see actual clinical experience. With d-schools in general it will suffice to just have the volunteering and as long as you were chairside, you will be okay. Did you do any other work? Anything else while taking classes? Did you work at the local sandwich shop or at the mall (both things I did in undergrad), or even work on campus? All of these count towards "work", it'd be nice to be able to throw on that you worked at a dental office but it's not mandatory. Now. One could hypothetically work at a dentist's office and count that as shadowing. It's quite common. Yes, you can absolutely double-dip there. But, you are in a time crunch, and as you have stated your #1 priority is your GPA, so if you are taking classes and expecting to get A's I would say hold off on working at a dentist's office (because you won't be able to move around your schedule as easily as if you were volunteering and had no binding commitments. You show up when you want, and you leave when you want). So basically- don't worry about this. Do you have any other work experience though (non-dental related)? This might also help explain a lower GPA in addition to bombing a couple CC classes. Not looking for excuses just maybe another area which will help explain your GPA. Loads of people have to work in undergrad, taking time away from studying. Just wondering.
LORs- This can get tricky for you, especially if your contacts are all MD's. Who are you going to get letters from? This is one area that can really convince the adcoms that you want to be a dentist (aside from P.S.) because this area will have several other people (adults, professionals in the field, and people who presumably went to d-school) convincing the adcoms directly that you will be the best dental student, this is what you really want to do, and that you're a great student/employee/volunteer etc, etc. So again, who is writing your LORs? Most schools request they come from 2 science professors (some even go so far as to say 1 biology, 1 chemistry, but I would check each website, again), and some schools request 3 science prof LORs (I think Pitt has this requirement?). They also require an LOR from a dentist you've worked with (this is where it gets dicey. Some ban the "shadow" idea and require you to have actually worked with them in some capacity. This is where volunteering once again saves the day. You can def use a dentist you've volunteered with at a low-income clinic who can attest to your manual skills, patient interaction, and altruism). Now, you said you're volunteering in a dentist's office starting next week. Do they know you will probably need a letter from them? How cool are they? If they're pretty chill and you know them, I would let them know upfront you will need a letter and that you will need it by ____ (insert a date). Honestly, mid-August latest, end of July if possible. Depends on how many hours you will have with them (aim for 50 so it looks like they know that they're talking about). This is one area that you do not need to have sent it along with your AADSAS app. It can get sent in later and will not delay AADSAS from processing your GPA. (Note: I would have mentioned committee letters but since you are later in the process I didn't bother. Most committee letters start their process the fall or winter prior to application, ie December 2011) so assuming your school is the same way you'd have missed the boat. It's all good, individuals letters will suffice. Just make sure you get the appropriate numbers and types.).
DAT- Not going to add too much here because everything was pretty much already said, but I just wanted to add a piece of advice. It will take AADSAS at least 2-3 weeks to process your app, so you can use this time to study for the DAT. If you take your DAT a couple of weeks after you submit your app, you'll be in great shape, schools will receive everything at around the same time. ADEA says it takes 2 weeks to process the DAT scores but it really depends, it could be shorter. If you plan to take your DAT at the end of August (6 wks from now, totally doable, esp if you've already prepped for the MCAT) then schools will receive your completed app by mid-September. Most schools interview starting in Sept/Oct so you should be okay for a couple pre-Dec invites, but most likely post-Dec. It's worth a try if you're this close, and you could save a year of your life by applying now and possibly getting in! You never know. Oh, and see which schools accept faxed copies of the unofficial transcripts. Some do, some don't. The sooner you get this info to them, the sooner they start processing your app. Some schools only look at official ADEA copies so you're out of luck there. That's why it's important not to delay taking the DAT too long.
Personal Statement (PS): You really need to convince the adcoms of why you want to make the switch. Maybe in the process you'll do a little soul-searching. I'm assuming you had drafts of PS for med school- don't scrap them, I'm sure you can use parts of it, but it definitely has to be catered to dental schools (in general, don't specify to one). Do you have a funny anecdote which can connect the medicine-dental thing and explain why you made the transition to dentistry? Perfect! Just don't get too heart-wrenching or overly-emotional. It's a fine line to walk, explain yourself, be true and honest, but don't come off as sappy or over dramatic. You can imagine you're writing your PS as a letter to a professor to whom you're close with and so you'll still be professional in your writing and hopefully won't come off as rigid or uptight. Hopefully that mindset helps. Again- pack a punch. You are limited to 4500 characters INCLUDING spaces, and not one space more so be ready to write the most succinct, pack-a-punch essay you've ever written! I would try to get this done ASAP. You will need it for the submission of your app and often it is the one area that holds applicants up (aside from transcripts, more on that next).
AADSAS APP: As soon as humanly possible, create an AADSAS account, login in, print off the transcript matching form, and attach it to your requests for official transcripts from each school you attended. (Yes, each school. Did you take a course for credit there? Then you must request a transcript. Even if it was one course. For you I'm assuming it will be at least two schools/transcripts, the CC and UCLA). Send it to AADSAS asap because they will need to verify your GPA and at this point it's taking them ~2 to 2.5 wks to do that. That means that from the date you click "submit" it will take a minimum of 2 to 2.5 weeks for your application to get mailed out (maybe longer). So let's say you submit your app mid-August... it won't get sent to the dental schools until mid-late September. Don't despair. You'll be studying for the DAT in the meantime.
Projected timeline:
Today's date- July 19
Request transcripts- July 19
Transcripts get to AADSAS- July 26
GPA Verification Starts- July 30
Volunteer- July 23-August 17
PS done- August 17
Application- Submitted by August 17
Get LOR by August 24 (7 days is a quick turnaround that's why I suggest letting the dentist know sooner so they can start writing it)
DAT exam- August 31
GPA Verified/Sent to schools- September 15 (latest)
DAT Verified/Sent to schools- September 15 (latest)
Things you need for your application to be submitted:
-Transcripts/Transcript matching forms
-PS (have several ppl read over this!!)
-Volunteer work completed, so you can include the hours on your app
Things that can come afterwards:
-DAT scores
-LORs
I have a couple years experience guiding pre-health students (primarily pre-med) so I know the med school ropes really well, and I'm a d-school hopeful myself so I know the d-school ropes really well too. I've seen a bunch of straddlers (people who don't know which field they want to pursue) and a bunch of people who have (successfully) made the transition between the two fields, usually med to dental. If you have any further questions just ask! But of course, do your due diligence and search the websites of the various d-schools. It is tedious but you will learn so much better that way, trust me! Each school has its quirk and each school has a "thing" they are looking for, whether it be research, GPA, DAT, volunteering, or some combination of the above. Your stats are pretty decent assuming you get 19/20's on the DAT across the board, which, with your preparation for the MCAT, I'm assuming will not be difficult to manage.
Good luck!
