Pre-Med to Pre-dental - Frown upon?

[distressstudent]

For those of you who applied and was once pre-med, how much of an issue was the fact that you were once pre-med in the eyes of admission people/interviewers?

I was told my by peers that it is not good to let them think you switched from pre-med to pre-dent because they would think that it is because you couldn't get into medical school. Well that's an understandable concern. As a matter of fact, I was actually questioned by an admission person whether or not I was once pre-med; he actually expressed the same concern. (Though tbh, dental school isn't THAT much easier than medical school and it varies from school to school too... but that is another discussion).

Well the problem is that I would consider myself pre-health, but I did a lot of activities that would label me as a pre-medical student. For example, I was in a pre-medical student org. But I was just a member who attended a lot of GBM because I liked to hear the speakers talk about the health profession. Then I decided I really like the dental field, but of course you don't go to M.D school for that. However, there seems to be the stigma of being a pre-medical student. What I want to know is how bad this stigma is amongst the admission team and if I should consider not even mentioning that I went to pre-medical student orgs?

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[Slumber]

Easy, just say that you're interesting in the pro-health field in general. So you joined the club/participated in such such events to learn more about med/dent. And you'd settled on dent because you feel like this is what you like the most. Win

 

[jeffity]

If your reasoning for choosing dentistry is sincere (pre-med or not), there's not much to worry about. If you had applied to med school and just couldn't get in, then it looks a little sketchy (and you would have to (if you're honest) indicate that on the application). Or if it clearly looks like you switched because you thought it would be easier (ex: crap GPAs + all ECs point to medicine + recent, minimal dental shadowing) it might be a concern. But what you just said is logical and probably not uncommon. If you're worried about it in the interview, casually preface your 'why dentistry' response with what you just said: you were pre-health and ultimately decided to get down and dirty in the mouth. Use your own words there.

 

[squigloo]

^^^What they said. Also, your slight inference that dental school is easier is completely wrong. But you didn't say it in a pretentious way, so I still love you

 

[r2thekesh]

A lot of dental students I met on the interview circuit said they switched from pre-med to pre-dental.

 

[distressstudent]

Thanks for the help everyone. I am just worried that they would weed me out before I even get a chance to explain myself. What jeffity concerns me though; my GPA is just average and all my EC did point to med and I actually did recently shadowed a dentist. Because of that all, the assumptions that I switched into dentistry because I thought it would be easier can be made pretty easily... At the same time, now I think about it more, the concern here is if I am actually committed to dentistry or if I just applied because I thought it would be easier. If I do more E.C involving dentistry, I think it would help to show them that I am serious about committing myself to dentistry; I still have a year left. Sounds like a good plan?

 

[Silent Cool]

For those of you who applied and was once pre-med, how much of an issue was the fact that you were once pre-med in the eyes of admission people/interviewers?

I was told my by peers that it is not good to let them think you switched from pre-med to pre-dent because they would think that it is because you couldn't get into medical school. Well that's an understandable concern. As a matter of fact, I was actually questioned by an admission person whether or not I was once pre-med; he actually expressed the same concern. (Though tbh, dental school isn't THAT much easier than medical school and it varies from school to school too... but that is another discussion).

Well the problem is that I would consider myself pre-health, but I did a lot of activities that would label me as a pre-medical student. For example, I was in a pre-medical student org. But I was just a member who attended a lot of GBM because I liked to hear the speakers talk about the health profession. Then I decided I really like the dental field, but of course you don't go to M.D school for that. However, there seems to be the stigma of being a pre-medical student. What I want to know is how bad this stigma is amongst the admission team and if I should consider not even mentioning that I went to pre-medical student orgs?

Don't list your pre-med-specific activities on your application. If you applied to med school you will need to tell them that.

 

[distressstudent]

What else would be considered pre-med specific activities? Would volunteering at the ER count? And I haven't applied to medical school; so I guess I got that going for me lol.

 

[thefoxsaid]

.

 

[jeffity]

Again, do you think applying to med school ten years ago will be frowned upon less than it would if I applied last year or something like that?

I would think so. You're a different person than you were ten years ago. Your perspective is way different now. It's really different than a "pre-med yesterday, pre-dent today" scenario. Seems strange that an interviewer gave you a hard time about it.