Pre-dental Question

[supergenius310]

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Hi everyone! I'm new to this forum, but I have been viewing it for quite some time now. I thought it was time to finally make an account and start asking questions that could probably help me in the future. Anyways, I was just wondering how much importance do dental schools give to extra-curricular activities? Currently these are the things in my portfolio:
Year: End of sophomore year (I am a junior credit-wise by about 18 credits)
Major: Biochemistry
GPA- 3.99 Overall 3.99 Sciences
Volunteer work at a hospital - 186 hours 2008-2011 (during my high school years)
Shadowing my dentist- not sure how many hours but I would say about 50 so far
Pre med program at a hospital- I will be attending a 1 month program watching all sorts of doctors perform different types of surgical procedures.
Secretary of the co-ed tennis club- me and a few friends created the club and with dedication have finally received funding and will become an official club for my college
Member of the Pre-med club- I will hopefully have a leadership position by the end of the semester
Dean's list- all of my semesters so far
Research- planning on doing research with a professor next semester
Work experiences- I have had a couple different jobs as a sales associate...one at a mall and one at Target.

I will be taking the DATs in the fall.

I'm just not sure how much is enough for my portfolio. Any suggestions?

Thank you!

 

[mid]

Hi everyone! I'm new to this forum, but I have been viewing it for quite some time now. I thought it was time to finally make an account and start asking questions that could probably help me in the future. Anyways, I was just wondering how much importance do dental schools give to extra-curricular activities? Currently these are the things in my portfolio:
Year: End of sophomore year (I am a junior credit-wise by about 18 credits)
Major: Biochemistry
GPA- 3.99 Overall 3.99 Sciences
Volunteer work at a hospital - 186 hours 2008-2011 (during my high school years)
Shadowing my dentist- not sure how many hours but I would say about 50 so far
Pre med program at a hospital- I will be attending a 1 month program watching all sorts of doctors perform different types of surgical procedures.
Secretary of the co-ed tennis club- me and a few friends created the club and with dedication have finally received funding and will become an official club for my college
Member of the Pre-med club- I will hopefully have a leadership position by the end of the semester
Dean's list- all of my semesters so far
Research- planning on doing research with a professor next semester
Work experiences- I have had a couple different jobs as a sales associate...one at a mall and one at Target.

I will be taking the DATs in the fall.

I'm just not sure how much is enough for my portfolio. Any suggestions?

Thank you!

So long as you don't massively mess up on the DAT or in your junior year you will get into the school of your choice.

 

[tadolsen]

You are doing fine. Miles ahead of many other applicants that you will be competing with. One thing I would recommend though, is to get involved with continuing service opportunities now that you are in college. High school is great, but they want to see bunch of heath based service that is over a period of time ( not just 100 hours in 1 week type thing.) Yeah, get a 19-20 on the DAT, apply early and you will be golden!

 

[chrispyy]

You're pretty much golden dude. Get 20s across the DAT and work on your personal statement. Pretty much guarantee with that gpa 😳

 

[supergenius310]

Wow thanks for those reassuring responses! I will probably try to volunteer more over the summer. I just have to crush these DAT's and god-willing I will achieve my goals. I do have one more question though. How exactly are the DAT's graded? Is it based on how many I get wrong or is it based on how many people taking the same test get it wrong? Like say if I theoretically got half of each section right, so would that be a 15 AA overall? So 20 AA is like getting 60%?

 

[hl4jn]

I'm confused as to why you have so much medical stuff and just one dental stuff. In general, I wouldn't put anything from high school on your app unless you've been actively participating in it throughout college. I'm not sure if I would put pre-med stuff on there because you're trying to convince these people you want to go into dentistry, not medicine. On the same note, it's a good idea to have more shadowing hours with dentists; some schools strongly recommend ~150 hours of dental shadowing.

Schools place importance on different aspects of your application. Columbia doesn't care about GPA but more about DAT. If you're applying to UNC, you should have research under your belt. If you apply to VCU, you better have tons of EC activities, etc.

As for the DAT, there are different versions of the test and your scores are standardized to that version & the people who took that version of the test. I think that getting a 20AA puts you in the 90%+ On my test, I got a 22AA and was 96%, but honestly, the schools don't even see the percentiles...

I think the general consensus is that if you get 20 or above, you're fine.

 

[dentalWorks]

Hi everyone! I'm new to this forum, but I have been viewing it for quite some time now. I thought it was time to finally make an account and start asking questions that could probably help me in the future. Anyways, I was just wondering how much importance do dental schools give to extra-curricular activities? Currently these are the things in my portfolio:
Year: End of sophomore year (I am a junior credit-wise by about 18 credits)
Major: Biochemistry
GPA- 3.99 Overall 3.99 Sciences
Volunteer work at a hospital - 186 hours 2008-2011 (during my high school years)
Shadowing my dentist- not sure how many hours but I would say about 50 so far
Pre med program at a hospital- I will be attending a 1 month program watching all sorts of doctors perform different types of surgical procedures.
Secretary of the co-ed tennis club- me and a few friends created the club and with dedication have finally received funding and will become an official club for my college
Member of the Pre-med club- I will hopefully have a leadership position by the end of the semester
Dean's list- all of my semesters so far
Research- planning on doing research with a professor next semester
Work experiences- I have had a couple different jobs as a sales associate...one at a mall and one at Target.

I will be taking the DATs in the fall.

I'm just not sure how much is enough for my portfolio. Any suggestions?

Thank you!

when are you applying? I ask because you said ur taking DATs in fall (assuming september-october period), if ur applying this year, that might be a little late (HOWEVER) considering you have such a solid application, I don't even think being late will matter (welllll you might not get into ur top pick, but u'll get somewhere for sure)

thats a solid application 👍

 

[supergenius310]

when are you applying? I ask because you said ur taking DATs in fall (assuming september-october period), if ur applying this year, that might be a little late (HOWEVER) considering you have such a solid application, I don't even think being late will matter (welllll you might not get into ur top pick, but u'll get somewhere for sure)

thats a solid application 👍

Oh no no I won't be applying this cycle. I am kind of doing everything early since I finished all my pre-reqs for the DAT. I will be applying the summer of 2014.

 

[supergenius310]

I'm confused as to why you have so much medical stuff and just one dental stuff. In general, I wouldn't put anything from high school on your app unless you've been actively participating in it throughout college. I'm not sure if I would put pre-med stuff on there because you're trying to convince these people you want to go into dentistry, not medicine. On the same note, it's a good idea to have more shadowing hours with dentists; some schools strongly recommend ~150 hours of dental shadowing.

Schools place importance on different aspects of your application. Columbia doesn't care about GPA but more about DAT. If you're applying to UNC, you should have research under your belt. If you apply to VCU, you better have tons of EC activities, etc.

As for the DAT, there are different versions of the test and your scores are standardized to that version & the people who took that version of the test. I think that getting a 20AA puts you in the 90%+ On my test, I got a 22AA and was 96%, but honestly, the schools don't even see the percentiles...

I think the general consensus is that if you get 20 or above, you're fine.

Well I am just trying to get exposure into the hospital setting and show dental schools that I am actively searching for the right field. There aren't a whole lot of dental opportunities anywhere besides shadowing my dentist. I have to do something other than just shadow, whether it be volunteering at a hospital or a program at a hospital that allows me to shadow a ton of different doctors. I'm pretty sure dental schools won't discourage any activities related to the medical field.

 

[Glimmer1991]

You have more than I did at the time. I think you're on the right track.

HOWEVER, you're wasting your time with the pre-med shadowing. If anything, it will hurt you, not hinder you. Volunteering at a hospital is great. Shadowing doctors... isn't. (Unless, that is, you're still trying to make a career choice). And, unless your club is pre-med/pre-dent, you're wasting your time with that, too. It will make it seem like you aren't convinced of your choice, which isn't viewed favorably. There aren't many dental opportunities near me, either, so I do other sorts of volunteering, like with Habitat for Humanity and local schools. I wouldn't ever think that I should go shadow a dermatologist or something to strengthen my resumé.

Keep up the good work!