Post-Bacc student: What else should I be doing?

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Longcatislong

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Am I doing enough?

I graduated college last year w/ a B.A (non-science). I am going to begin a full-time formal post-bacc program in the fall, so that i'll have all my prereqs completed and will apply to dental school in the summer of 2013. Right now, I'm taking 8 units (gen bio and math) and volunteering a few hours a week at a free clinic (non-dental). What else should I be doing to be an attractive dental school applicant (aside from shadowing a dentist)?

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Am I doing enough?

I graduated college last year w/ a B.A (non-science). I am going to begin a full-time formal post-bacc program in the fall, so that i'll have all my prereqs completed and will apply to dental school in the summer of 2013. Right now, I'm taking 8 units (gen bio and math) and volunteering a few hours a week at a free clinic (non-dental). What else should I be doing to be an attractive dental school applicant (aside from shadowing a dentist)?

I know that leadership qualities are something that adcoms look at as part of your EC. Look into volutneering your time to help the community. To help you get started, look into volunteering at the YMCA, or your local library to help adults learn to read. Volunteering at a free clinic is nice... if you're applying to medical school. Dentisits can be a bit touchy when it comes to the Med vs. Dent debate so be careful with that. The most important thing though is getting the best grades possible, solid DAT scores (19+) and shadowing because if you don't have those in order, it doesn't matter what else you do. GL
 
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Is volunteering at a free clinic really that suspect to dental schools?
 
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Am I doing enough?

I graduated college last year w/ a B.A (non-science). I am going to begin a full-time formal post-bacc program in the fall, so that i'll have all my prereqs completed and will apply to dental school in the summer of 2013. Right now, I'm taking 8 units (gen bio and math) and volunteering a few hours a week at a free clinic (non-dental). What else should I be doing to be an attractive dental school applicant (aside from shadowing a dentist)?

If your already volunteering and shadowing and still have some time to kill.... You can:

a) part-time job (doesn't have to be related to healthcare), it shows you can multi task, plus the extra $$$

b) get a head start on the "annoying" parts of the DAT, these include your MATH, and maybe PAT.... 15-20 minutes of DAT MATH every day will do you some real good when it comes time to prepare for the test as you'll be spending most of your time on the sciences.

c) you can shadow other healthcare fields (medicine, PA, optometry, etc etc)... of course this is NOT necessary, but if you have the free time to do it, it shows your aware of what your really getting your self into.

and finally d) subscribe to online-free drbicupsid.com news letter, you'll get a few free emails everyday about whats latest and greatest in dentistry today. This can be about latest treatments, latest equipment, latest laws and legislations. Spend 20-30 minutes a day reading these articles and you will learn so much about dentistry. This giving you huge speaking grounds in your interviews....... This is something I did about 6 months before I applied, I learned soooo much about the hottest topics in dentistry today and it really made a difference in my interview skills (I think)
 
Is volunteering at a free clinic really that suspect to dental schools?

if you enjoy volunteering at the free clinic then you should continue to do it, all I'm saying is that you could be using that time shadowing a dentist or volunteering at a dental clinic. to each their own
 
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