Please critique my first year.

[Blarelli]

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I just finished my first year of college, and am looking for some tips on how to make myself a better candidate for Dental School.

So far:
Majoring in Biology
35 credits, 4.0 cumulative/science GPA
Service: LDS mission, 2 years.
City Public Safety Officer (cop without a gun)-hundreds of hours
Dental experience: Next to none.

I have less than two years before I plan on applying. What should be my goals for the next year?

 

[TheWiredNerv]

shadow a dentist

 

[Cymbidium]

Get some dental experience, and research if you can. otherwise looks good!

 

[JMJRDH1]

Maintain GPA

Request letters of recommendation from your science professors NOW so they have lots of time to write them, they will appreciate it!

Transform those volunteer hours to shadowing hours

Squeeze in some research if you can

Start thinking about your personal statement "hook" that sets you apart from the other 4.0 22/22/22 applicants

Balance everything with your DAT prep

Good Luck! 👍

 

[blankguy]

Only do things that interest you. Don't do things just to try to impress adcoms.

 

[chrisvocker]

Only do things that interest you. Don't do things just to try to impress adcoms.

Yep, you will be happier and accomplish more....and a strong application will undoubtedly precipitate out

 

[Danny0230]

Only do things that interest you. Don't do things just to try to impress adcoms.

I like this. Don't completely focus on doing things you think dental schools want, instead do things to make a dental school want you. Aside from the basic gpa/dat/shadowing which are necessities, get involved with lots of different activities from sports to student government to anything. Don't feel like you have to do x amount of community service hours or x amount of research hours. It seems more and more that dental schools are looking for well rounded individuals, especially with the huge number of applicants. Having interesting things to talk about in your PS or at an interview will allow you to seperate yourself from other applicants that all fit in the same mold. Good luck.

 

[haisha ni narou]

You're a smart man, I wish I would have found SDN back when I was a new college kid. My recommendation is to get to know your professors pretty well so they can write personal LORs. Also like many have said and I'm sure you know, it will be extremely beneficial to your application as well as shaping your understanding of all the dimensions of dentistry if you spend time in different dental offices. I was lucky enough to get an internship at a dental lab and saw the lab side of prosthetic dentistry, adcoms seemed to be intrested in my experience there.

Get your hands on a DAT study book like the big fat Kaplan book or something and start reviewing the concepts and become familiar with what is covered on the DAT.

best of luck.