Post-Bacc choices for career changers (from engineering)

[AspiringPsychiatrist]

Greetings! I was a computer science major and have been working in the engineering industry for more than 5 years. I've considered a career change to the healthcare and still wonder how feasible it is. I compiled some questions. Feel free to answer all or part of them. Any input is appreciated!

- I graduated from a reputable college with a high GPA. However, I took very few science classes and never did any lab. Do dental schools accept AP credits for prerequisites? My AP courses were pretty solid. During the post-bacc program, should I start with more advanced science classes directly? Or just forfeit AP scores and restart from Physics I/Chem I?

- Some of my English classes were graded as pass/fail in college (in my college "pass" means C or above though). Do dental schools accept letter grades only? Will I need to re-take English during post-bacc?

- What's the success rate of being admitted to dental schools from post-bacc? Should I consider the selective ones with linkage programs? Or just programs with more lenient grading? Could you please recommend a list of programs to me?

- Is it easier to get into dental schools in some states than in others? I currently live in California, and I wonder if it's more competitive.

- I think of myself more as a theory learner than as a hands-on person. However, I've been learning musical instruments for a long time and believe many skills can be acquired through practice. Is that the case for dentistry career as well? Or should I consider MD/DO and become an internist/pathologist?

- I've been attending some extracurricular activities for years, such as senior home/nursing home volunteering. However, I've never done any in hospitals or dentist offices. How should I prepare myself for post-bacc applications and the post-bacc program itself? Should I do more shadowing and volunteering for the application? Or should I assume these programs are not that hard to get into given my background, and focus on refreshing bio/chem/English subjects?

Thank you!

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[Ryxndek]

Hi @BayAreaAspiringDentist I’ll try to answer some of your questions as best I can. Though I don’t have answers for all of them just based on not having the experience.

1. Some schools accept AP credits if your college undergraduate accepted them, but they must be shown on your transcript. You could research schools and make a list of those that accept some AP courses to see what you’d need to take in your Post-Bacc but if you want to play it safe then I would consider taking the courses again.

2. It depends on the English classes tbh. Most of my schools didn’t take my English classes and just took my writing intensive courses as my English credit was granted from AP courses. So you may have some leeway but you need to check each programs requirements for what they deem “English/writing” some will accept writing intensive in any discipline such as a upper division writing intensive lab while others will only accept some as either exactly English or within the humanities.

3. I don’t know the success rate for those who do post-baccs but from my understanding going to a program that is linked to a dental school or has good success with getting students accepted is probably a better option albeit probably more expensive. I would not go to programs with lenient grading, the dental schools will most likely know this and will account for the grade inflation, I wouldn’t gamble with your education if this is the route you want to go down. I don’t have a list for you, hopefully others could provide that or you can search for reputable post bacc programs on this forum.

4. Yes state schools are easier to get into…IF you live in them. Since you’re in California it is to your advantage to apply to those schools in California (and fortunately for you there’s a lot) since they have requirements for how many state students they need to take since they’re a state school. Private schools don’t have this requirement as such so they accept a lot of Out of state students compared to state schools. It will be a good idea to research schools to develop a list. Side note, state schools are a lot cheaper as well, so it’s a good idea to apply to some of those with private schools as some safety’s.

5. It’s possible to learn the skills but you should be able to show a background of hand eye coordination and how you can relate that to dentistry. You will learn a lot in dental school but having some type of foundation will benefit you.

6. You have to shadow dentists to apply to dental school. You should also try to shadow general dentists rather than specialists since dental schools train you for general dentistry. However you can still shadow specialists to get an idea of the field. You don’t necessarily need this for your post bacc application I think? But you will need this for dental school applications.

I personally do not know much about post bacc programs since I applied to go to school immediately after I graduate. I don’t know if you need to shadow dentists for the program but they will probably want you to shadow while in it and will help you prepare for the application cycle. Take your time applying, do NOT rush. Apply as early as possible when the cycle opens for the year, that means June. Reapplicants are looked more harshly upon than first time applicants. Do it right the first time so you don’t have to spend so much time, and money, trying to improve your application for the next time.

I hope I answered some of your questions. Feel free to let me know if I can help you some more!

 

[macsak]

Greetings! I was a computer science major and have been working in the engineering industry for more than 5 years. I've considered a career change to the healthcare and still wonder how feasible it is. I compiled some questions. Feel free to answer all or part of them. Any input is appreciated!

- I graduated from a reputable college with a high GPA. However, I took very few science classes and never did any lab. Do dental schools accept AP credits for prerequisites? My AP courses were pretty solid. During the post-bacc program, should I start with more advanced science classes directly? Or just forfeit AP scores and restart from Physics I/Chem I?

- Some of my English classes were graded as pass/fail in college (in my college "pass" means C or above though). Do dental schools accept letter grades only? Will I need to re-take English during post-bacc?

- What's the success rate of being admitted to dental schools from post-bacc? Should I consider the selective ones with linkage programs? Or just programs with more lenient grading? Could you please recommend a list of programs to me?

- Is it easier to get into dental schools in some states than in others? I currently live in California, and I wonder if it's more competitive.

- I think of myself more as a theory learner than as a hands-on person. However, I've been learning musical instruments for a long time and believe many skills can be acquired through practice. Is that the case for dentistry career as well? Or should I consider MD/DO and become an internist/pathologist?

- I've been attending some extracurricular activities for years, such as senior home/nursing home volunteering. However, I've never done any in hospitals or dentist offices. How should I prepare myself for post-bacc applications and the post-bacc program itself? Should I do more shadowing and volunteering for the application? Or should I assume these programs are not that hard to get into given my background, and focus on refreshing bio/chem/English subjects?

Thank you!

you need to shadow DDS and MD/OD and decide which you feel more comfortable with first...

 

[AspiringPsychiatrist]

Thank you so much for answering my questions! Also wondering if anyone has a list of post-bacc programs with linkage. Are there any post-bacc programs with linkage programs that significantly increase the chance of getting in?