Premed to Predental Switch Application Check + Missing Prereq by Time of Application

[biryanisquish]

Hi everyone,
I’m a student who decided to switch from pre-med to pre-dental about a year ago, and I wanted to get some advice before committing to the upcoming application cycle. Here’s a quick overview of my stats and experience:

Quick Stats:

• GPA: 3.7x science GPA, 3.7x cumulative GPA
• Major: Math
• Undergraduate: T20 (transfer from cc)
• DAT: I haven’t taken the DAT yet but have been scoring around 21 on practice tests so far after studying for a month
• Volunteering: ~80 hours tutoring English to ESL learners, ~20 hours at a local health clinic, ~30 hours at local food pantry (I assume I should work on increasing this?).
• Shadowing: ~20 hours with an orthodontist and ~20 hours with a general dentist. I recognize this as a significant weakness in my application and plan to increase my shadowing hours to 200-300 by June.
• Race/Gender: Asian Female
• State of Residence: California

Questions:

1. Should I include my medical experience in my application? I have over 2,000 hours of clinical experience in neurology and about 500 hours as a lab manager in an neurology lab, where I contributed to an abstract publication. Would this be relevant to include, or would it detract from the dental focus of my application?
2. Is it okay to apply this cycle if I’m missing biochemistry? I haven’t taken biochemistry yet for the schools that I am applying to and could fit it into this semester, but I’d prefer to focus on the DAT instead. This semester, I’m already taking Physics 2 and Bio 2. Would it be acceptable to apply without biochemistry, or is it too much of a risk?
3. Are there any other areas I should work on? I know dental school applications differ significantly from medical school applications, so I’d appreciate any advice on what I might be missing or areas where my application could improve.

Thank you all for your input!

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[Ryxndek]

My concern is you have too much medical/clinical experience related to medicine and not dentistry that your application will look like you made the switch last minute. You definitely need more dental related experiences to offset your medical ones. Leaving them out would maybe be wiser but then your application will feel too light and schools will wonder if you just spend your entire college career focusing on grades only, which then doesn't round you out. I wouldn't omit the experience, but definitely need to showcase "why dentistry".

I'd say your volunteer hours are probably a little on the lighter side as well. I recommend spending more time at the food pantry if you can. Shadow a few general dentists. Specialists are cool to shadow, but you're going to school to become a dentist, not a specialist and schools graduate dentists, not specialists, so best to make sure graduating and being a dentist is something you're content with even if you want to specialize.

Applying without biochem is fine, you don't need to have everything completed by application, only by matriculation. Or rather, the spring (May/June) of the year you matriculate.

 

[biryanisquish]

My concern is you have too much medical/clinical experience related to medicine and not dentistry that your application will look like you made the switch last minute. You definitely need more dental related experiences to offset your medical ones. Leaving them out would maybe be wiser but then your application will feel too light and schools will wonder if you just spend your entire college career focusing on grades only, which then doesn't round you out. I wouldn't omit the experience, but definitely need to showcase "why dentistry".

I'd say your volunteer hours are probably a little on the lighter side as well. I recommend spending more time at the food pantry if you can. Shadow a few general dentists. Specialists are cool to shadow, but you're going to school to become a dentist, not a specialist and schools graduate dentists, not specialists, so best to make sure graduating and being a dentist is something you're content with even if you want to specialize.

Applying without biochem is fine, you don't need to have everything completed by application, only by matriculation. Or rather, the spring (May/June) of the year you matriculate.

That was also one of my biggest concerns as well. The 2000 or so hours in neurology was split between ~1800 from a private practice and ~200 hours from a large public state hospital that I worked at which I absolutely deteted and was one of the reasons why I decided to switch to dentistry as I couldn't see myself working in a hospital in the future.

Also, I do have shadowing from a year ago if that does help at all, so this wasn't a spur of the moment last minute thing, but I'm not sure if this changes anything. How many hours do you recommend that I should shadow, as well as volunteer by the time of my application (I was thinking about 300 in dentistry and about 200 in volunteering might suffice)? Aside from that, my main concern is that admissions counselors would understandably think that dentistry was my backup, but I think that including my premed stuff would be helpful as well because I was going into high finance before switching to health professions. Thanks you for your insight.

 

[Ryxndek]

Makes sense! I'd say 200 shadowing and 300 volunteer might be a better mix, and if you can get a dentist LOR I think that would help your case as well. Just plan to also write a really solid PS surrounding why you wish to pursue dentistry and I'm sure you'll be fine. You could expect to be asked "why dentistry, not medicine?" in an interview as well.

 

[biryanisquish]

Makes sense! I'd say 200 shadowing and 300 volunteer might be a better mix, and if you can get a dentist LOR I think that would help your case as well. Just plan to also write a really solid PS surrounding why you wish to pursue dentistry and I'm sure you'll be fine. You could expect to be asked "why dentistry, not medicine?" in an interview as well.

Sounds good! In the next coming days, I'll really try to articulate why I made the switch/ Is there anything else that you recommend for me to do, and do you think I should include all the medical experience in my application? Really appreciate all your help on this forum.

 

[Ryxndek]

I think you should include it, but maybe try to find a way to highlight how it’s changed your mind towards dentistry, or find a way to do so in the personal statement.

If you can find experience in a dental practice or volunteer work related to dentistry that could also help. Otherwise just keep at it. Everything will work itself out!

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Resource

How to Get Into Dental School - SDN

The Student Doctor Network provides free tools, resources, and advising services to help students become health professionals.

www.studentdoctor.net

You are not the first person to ever switch from med to dent, but you must have a profile that shows med is far away in your rearview mirror. I have had my share of dental school applicants with thousands of hours of pharmacy tech experience; the only way they convince admissions committees is at least 6 months to a year's worth of employment in dental settings (shadowing + dental assistant/employment).

A strong commitment to dentistry is key with both length of time in dental clinic settings (250-300 hours over a year gets you 5-6 hours a week for a year) and a strong letter of support from a dentist. I know a dentist letter is not always an admissions requirement, but their observation of your professionalism skills (which comes from being directly supervised) will address concerns that you just made a snap decision to dentistry. Dental education is built on an apprenticeship model, so having a dentist express full confidence in your skills as a future dentist is important.

I also suggest shadowing more than one dentist or practice. Also, if you detested working for hospitals, ask about DSO's and "corporate dentistry." Connect with your local dental society or volunteer for a regional/state conference. Show me you are serious about understanding the business of dentistry.

Your service orientation activities from your past should help. I would recommend having 100 hours in food pantry work as I usually disregard activities with fewer than 50 hours other than shadowing.

Also, be aware that your two-digit DAT should be fine for next cycle, but a new 3-digit scoring model will be implemented in March.

 

[biryanisquish]

Resource

How to Get Into Dental School - SDN

The Student Doctor Network provides free tools, resources, and advising services to help students become health professionals.

www.studentdoctor.net

You are not the first person to ever switch from med to dent, but you must have a profile that shows med is far away in your rearview mirror. I have had my share of dental school applicants with thousands of hours of pharmacy tech experience; the only way they convince admissions committees is at least 6 months to a year's worth of employment in dental settings (shadowing + dental assistant/employment).

A strong commitment to dentistry is key with both length of time in dental clinic settings (250-300 hours over a year gets you 5-6 hours a week for a year) and a strong letter of support from a dentist. I know a dentist letter is not always an admissions requirement, but their observation of your professionalism skills (which comes from being directly supervised) will address concerns that you just made a snap decision to dentistry. Dental education is built on an apprenticeship model, so having a dentist express full confidence in your skills as a future dentist is important.

I also suggest shadowing more than one dentist or practice. Also, if you detested working for hospitals, ask about DSO's and "corporate dentistry." Connect with your local dental society or volunteer for a regional/state conference. Show me you are serious about understanding the business of dentistry.

Your service orientation activities from your past should help. I would recommend having 100 hours in food pantry work as I usually disregard activities with fewer than 50 hours other than shadowing.

Also, be aware that your two-digit DAT should be fine for next cycle, but a new 3-digit scoring model will be implemented in March.

Thank you for your information. Although the bulk of my shadowing was done last summer (40 hours or so), I will try to get it up to at least 200 by the time of my application (this June) and will be bulking up my volunteering hours as well. I assume this would be fine? I will also be getting a very strong letter of recommendation from the orthodontist that allowed me to shadow.

Do you have any resources on how to find local dental societies or conferences? Anytime I look it up, there are just advertising dental offices in my area...

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Do you have any resources on how to find local dental societies or conferences? Anytime I look it up, there are just advertising dental offices in my area...

If you are currently in California, you should be able to find the California Dental Association and any local chapters that span the state. Also, look up the NDA District VI for California.

Asian American Dental Society seeks to create safe space for member dentists

The Asian American Dental Society’s mission is to build a community where Asian American dentists can network, share ideas, learn, advocate and uplift each other.

adanews.ada.org

Chinese American Dental Society of Southern California

Home - Korean American Dental Association

Since 1969 | Explore Our Rich History KOREAN AMERICAN DENTAL ASSOCIATION Continually evolving the future of Korean American Dentists Learn About Membership Featured Events & CE 2024 KADA Curriculum Learn […]

www.kadausa.org

 

[Tay2]

Feel free to PM me for details. I haven't taken many of the pre-reqs by the time I applied, and got 0 shadowing hours until late June (only started to shadow very late).