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Hi SDN,
I have always been interested in dentistry from a young age, but allowed my family and undergrad advisor to bully me into being pre-med.
I'm in my junior year and was forcing myself to shadow, be a medical scribe, etc. And I was just hating every second of it. All the time I felt so stressed and conflicted, I cried all the time, and just felt like I was lying to myself every moment of every day.
I blamed it on the stress and rigor of my courses, told myself everyone felt this way, but something just wasn't right.
A month ago I shadowed a dentist, and everything just absolutely clicked. They reminded me not to listen to what anyone had to say, and that my career was up to me (and me only).
I just started a dental assistant job and I am absolutely loving it.
For the first time in my undergraduate career, I feel a sense of peace, belonging, and true purpose.
I read that I might get a lot of hate on here for switching from pre-med, but my intentions are very genuine so I hope people on here understand.
However, I am still very new to the pre-dental world, and I was just hoping that someone could point out weak spots in my app and give me some pointers, as there seem to be a lot of differences between pre-dent and med and I'm admittedly a little lost/overwhelmed with the amount of information.
- GPA and sGPA: 3.8
- Taking the DAT after studying over the summer
- Undergraduate research in paleontology and anatomical sciences lab (1 poster presentation on senior project, will be an author in a published paper by the time I graduate)
- Just started as a dental assistant, I plan to work this summer and throughout my senior year (I am also hoping to volunteer as a dental assistant in the coming months)
- Volunteer at natural history museum preparing fossils in paleo lab and giving tours (probably somewhere around 200 hours, will be continuing this as well my senior year)
- Barista for 3 years
I was hoping to apply after my senior year, but do you guys think I need another year to get more EC's?
I know I have a lot of shadowing to do and am missing leadership.
My advisor said people with high GPAs do not need to pad their apps with EC's, but everything I have read does not agree with this and I feel as though I can no longer rely on him for guidance.
Please no hate, thanks to anyone who took the time to read this.
I have always been interested in dentistry from a young age, but allowed my family and undergrad advisor to bully me into being pre-med.
I'm in my junior year and was forcing myself to shadow, be a medical scribe, etc. And I was just hating every second of it. All the time I felt so stressed and conflicted, I cried all the time, and just felt like I was lying to myself every moment of every day.
I blamed it on the stress and rigor of my courses, told myself everyone felt this way, but something just wasn't right.
A month ago I shadowed a dentist, and everything just absolutely clicked. They reminded me not to listen to what anyone had to say, and that my career was up to me (and me only).
I just started a dental assistant job and I am absolutely loving it.
For the first time in my undergraduate career, I feel a sense of peace, belonging, and true purpose.
I read that I might get a lot of hate on here for switching from pre-med, but my intentions are very genuine so I hope people on here understand.
However, I am still very new to the pre-dental world, and I was just hoping that someone could point out weak spots in my app and give me some pointers, as there seem to be a lot of differences between pre-dent and med and I'm admittedly a little lost/overwhelmed with the amount of information.
- GPA and sGPA: 3.8
- Taking the DAT after studying over the summer
- Undergraduate research in paleontology and anatomical sciences lab (1 poster presentation on senior project, will be an author in a published paper by the time I graduate)
- Just started as a dental assistant, I plan to work this summer and throughout my senior year (I am also hoping to volunteer as a dental assistant in the coming months)
- Volunteer at natural history museum preparing fossils in paleo lab and giving tours (probably somewhere around 200 hours, will be continuing this as well my senior year)
- Barista for 3 years
I was hoping to apply after my senior year, but do you guys think I need another year to get more EC's?
I know I have a lot of shadowing to do and am missing leadership.
My advisor said people with high GPAs do not need to pad their apps with EC's, but everything I have read does not agree with this and I feel as though I can no longer rely on him for guidance.
Please no hate, thanks to anyone who took the time to read this.
