Pre-dental looking for help to answer a couple questions....

[Deelyons19]

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Hey everyone,
I am a nontraditional pre-dental student who is looking to transfer to a university to start my classes for my bachelors in Biology BS in the fall of 2020. I don't have a super competitive GPA at the moment but my goal is for it to be at least a 3.5-3.6 once I am done with my bachelors.I did not take school as serious as I needed to in my first two years of college. I was working full time, and going to school full time but I maintained a B average. I have a 18 month old daughter now and I just want to be the best example of a parent that I can be. I am going to continue to chase my dreams of becoming a dentist. I just got my dental assistant diploma with expanded functions. I am looking to attend a dental school in Florida, either UF or Nova. Has anyone attended either of these colleges? I am still going to apply to as many schools as I can.
When should I start studying for the DAT? Would my assisting hours count as shadowing hours or do I have to shadow off the clock? How many volunteer hours on average would be ideal?

 

[artist2022]

When should I start studying for the DAT?

I'd start after you've taken the majority of your pre-reqs, if not all (Bio I & II, Chem I & II, Ochem I & II at minimum). Ideally, you'd take this sometime during your third year/before the summer of your fourth year, since you will be applying that summer.

Would my assassinating hours count as shadowing hours or do I have to shadow off the clock?

I'm concerned about these assassinating hours 😛 Unfortunately though, they will not count as shadowing hours since you are getting paid -- thus they are employment hours. You will have to shadow off the clock, at least 100 hours or so.

How many volunteer hours on average would be ideal?

About 100 is ideal/the average people shoot for, for volunteering as well. These could be dental or non-dental, just have a mix of both and overall just show involvement in your community.

Good luck!

 

[sobertiger]

They are looking for an upward trend so you still have plenty of chance to improve. Many schools do take your circumstances into account, but ultimately you need to prove to the adcom that you can get through dental school. You will need a good DAT score and a decent GPA.

If you're looking to stay in Florida, LECOM is another option for you. They seem to like nontrad applicants.

Don't start studying for the DAT too soon. I would recommend starting 3 months before the exam.

Good luck!

 

[Deelyons19]

Haha computer keeps changing assisting to assassinating sorry for the typo.So I should start studying the second semester of my junior year for the DAT test correct? I am just trying to best prepared as I can be. Also going to look into LECOM now .
Thank you!

 

[artist2022]

Haha computer keeps changing assisting to assassinating sorry for the typo.So I should start studying the second semester of my junior year for the DAT test correct? I am just trying to best prepared as I can be. Also going to look into LECOM now .
Thank you!

Yup! Here are two links that will be helpful as well: Forum Members - DAT Summary, Tips, & Tricks (to see what the steps are to register & common study tools) & Compilation - DAT Breakdown Collection! 2017-Present (to see how other users studied)

 

[Deelyons19]

Awesome! Thank you so much!