Hysteria,
Did you enjoy the class? Did you really get anything out of taking the course? Basically, did you think the class was worth your 300$? I am just wondering because my school is hosting the class and I am pretty short on funds, so I don't really want to take it unless I will learn something or if it will make my application look better... Thanks in advance for your response..
Did I enjoy the class?
Yes.
Did I really get anything out of taking the course?
It was fun, and I enjoyed the whole thing. At that time it was my first opportunity doing something in dentistry besides providing suction or sterilizing instruments, so I was also actually able to use and test my manual dexterity within a dental related task. Since I did enjoy it, and did very well (relative to others in the class), it helped reaffirm my choice that the dental field was probably the place for me, and I probably had the necessary skill set to succeed.
It is hard to tell however if it actually provided anything concrete, like improving my application. The top students in the class get a LOR commenting on his/her manual dexterity, something probably not represented in other LORs. I ended up not using it, because the scope of the letter is very narrow, but you could if you are short on these. There are other places in the application to list this class, and I did mention it in my personal statement, as well as some of the secondaries.
One of my interviewers seemed impressed by this and a few other similar courses I took, and wanted me to really go into depth. I was able to spit off a lot of terminology, tell him about the things I had already learned/made as a predent, and show that I did well all while enjoying it. I was actually surprised he wanted me to go into that much detail about them.
Is it worth $300?
Only you can decide young padawan
Its not going to make or break an application (i.e. GPA, DAT), but it can add some depth and enhance it.