Organic Chemistry Requirement

[Flux]

Hello everybody - this would be my first post on SDN and I just recently started to consider dentistry as a career. I'm a frosh studying Mechanical Engineering and probably Business, Economics, and Management as well and I was wondering if you guys could answer a couple questions of mine.


First Question:

30A. Chemical Dynamics and Reactivity: Introduction to Organic Chemistry (4)
Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Enforced requisite: course 20B with grade of C- or better. First term of organic chemistry. Mechanisms of organic and inorganic reactions, including redox, elimination, addition, substitution, and radical processes. P/NP or letter grading.

30B. Organic Chemistry: Reactivity and Synthesis, Part I (4)
Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Enforced requisite: course 30A or 30AH, with grade of C- or better. Second term of organic chemistry. Synthesis, properties, and reactions of organic functional groups, including alcohols, alkenes, alkynes, aromatic compounds, aldehydes, ketones, carboxyl derivatives, and amines. P/NP or letter grading.

30C. Organic Chemistry: Reactivity and Synthesis, Part II (4)
Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Enforced requisite: course 30B with grade of C- or better. Third term of organic chemistry. Organic spectroscopy, including proton and carbon NMR, infrared mass and UV/Vis; pericyclic reactions and molecular orbital theory; dicarbonyl compounds; polyfunctional aromatic chemistry; heterocyclic compounds; and carbohydrates. P/NP or letter grading.

So I'd like to fulfill the orgo requirement during the summer at UCLA and I from I've read you need usually 2 semesters of Orgo for Dental school. My question is will taking the first two of these three fulfill dental requirements for schools requiring 2 semesters and will it be enough for me to know the DAT Ochem material.

Second Question: How screwed am I if attend California Institute of Technology (and want to pursue dentistry) where they don't offer anything related to dentistry? Would a low GPA (3.5-3.6ish hopefully) be forgiven with a high DAT score or will the spots at the most competitive schools go to kids from easier schools with good dats and inflated GPAs? And would it be a negative if I took Orgo somewhere else other than Caltech?

Third Question: I'd actually prefer to take Orgo at my local university (Florida Atlantic University) this summer, but I'm not sure if I'd get adequate preparation for the DAT by taking a course there. http://www.fau.edu/universitycatalog/pdf_revisions2/ScienceDescript.pdf
There's the course description. Does it make a difference where I take it- also how rigorous of a OChem preparation do you need for the DAT anyways?

Fourth: How imperative is it for me to get all A's in the required dental courses if I want to get into top dental schools?


Sorry for the flood of questions, I haven't really been able to find specific answers to my questions after some initial browsing of SDN, thanks in advance.

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[small]

Interesting, organic chem. over 3 semesters. Most of the questions on the DAT would probably be from the first 2 semesters. But, there will definitely be stuff from your third semester on the DAT, as well. If you can't get all three in before the DAT, just study a bit on your own. I thought orgo was one of the more straight-forward sections on the DAT. Also, check out the DAT Discussion forum for more on this subject.

 

[Flux]

Why would it take UCLA 1.5 years to cover orgo when it takes other places like my school a year to cover it?

 

[zdlamkin8195]

The odds are if you take 3 classes at UCLA, you will know the material better. It may take you a little bit longer to finish the classes but I think in the end you will come out better than those who only take 2 semesters. With it being 3 classes, the classes probably will go more indepth. The 3.5-3.6 GPA should be fine (it's not low), and if you do decent on the DAT and have some good extra activities (volunteer work, etc.) you should be a pretty strong candidate....going to Caltech would be a plus I would think....the dental schools know an inflated GPA when they see one....and everybody knows Caltech isn't an easy A....

 

[Flux]

Turns out UCLA offers 30A and 30B but not 30C during the summer, in addition to that it would be taught for 6 weeks with 100 minutes of lecture every week.

Also I found out that I can take Orgo 2 and Lab at UM at UF (I can't take any of these colleges except UCLA's first summer session because Caltech gets out ... June 14) And sadly I can't talk Orgo at FAU (just noticed there Orgo 1 class was scheduled for the first term)

I guess my only option is to take Orgo at UCLA this summer and hopefully do some research or something perhaps related to dentistry there, and next summer I'll go to UF,UM or FAU while shadowing a dentist or something. At caltech they break up Orgo into Chem41a, Chem41b, Chem41c (we're on the trimester system); my chemist buddy looked at the sample DAT Ochem section and said most of the material would be covered in our first trimester of Chem41a trouble is I'd probably do poorly in the class (somewhere between a C- and a B) and I'd have a ridiculous courseload if I tried to fit that in with my major requirements. I could take Chem41a and do Orgo 2 somewhere else, but fitting the whole orgo sequence into my schedule would be near impossible.

 

[ChoDog]

Dental schools require a year of organic chemistry. If you are on a semester system, then it takes 2 semesters. In a quarter system, which by the way UCLA follows, takes 3 quarters. I would say for the DAT that you can do well by just knowing the first half of organic chemistry and study the second half on your own as a great majority of the organic questions on the DAT stem from the first half. Also, going to Caltech and getting a 3.5 GPA is not a bad thing, quite the contrary. They do offer a strong bio program but they are more known for their engineering/physics.

 

[Flux]

Hah, I didn't know UCLA was on the quarter system. Do you think taking 30A,30B and Orgo2 at another school in Florida will fulfill the requirement and prepare me enough? And does anyone know of research opportunities or anything related to dentistry that would be available to a frosh from Caltech going to UCLA for the summer? (I don't need a paid summer research fellowship)

 

[Flux]

Sorry for the double post, but does anyone know where that thread with requirements for admissions to various dental schools is? (Link Please) I tried searching for it but I can't find it. Thanks.

 

[blankguy]

Sorry for the double post, but does anyone know where that thread with requirements for admissions to various dental schools is? (Link Please) I tried searching for it but I can't find it. Thanks.

Go to the web site of each individual school that you are interested and read up on their requirements. You can get to the school through the ADEA site.

 

[Flux]

Thanks for the help, but I'm looking for a comprehensive list with all the dental requirements for diff schools on it.

 

[bbakersc]

Thanks for the help, but I'm looking for a comprehensive list with all the dental requirements for diff schools on it.

He is trying to tell you that it doesn't exist, if there was one it would be one that someone just complied and therefore not necessarily accurate.

 

[Flux]

Oh, sorry I didn't catch that because I was under the impression that such a thing existed.

 

[Flux]

30C. Organic Chemistry: Reactivity and Synthesis, Part II (4)
Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Enforced requisite: course 30B with grade of C- or better. Third term of organic chemistry. Organic spectroscopy, including proton and carbon NMR, infrared mass and UV/Vis; pericyclic reactions and molecular orbital theory; dicarbonyl compounds; polyfunctional aromatic chemistry; heterocyclic compounds; and carbohydrates. P/NP or letter grading.


Is this stuff tested on the DAT?

Thanks.