Question regarding applying to dental school...

[Pre-Dent1]

Hey everyone. I've been thinking about pursuing a career in dentistry, though I've only begun contemplate it recently. As you might expect, I have little knowledge of the application/pre-dent process, save for the required undergrad courses, which seem to be the same as for pre-med (is that correct?).


I was wondering if any pre-dents further along than I would care to share with me what is generally required in order to apply to dental school (GPA, required courses, number and type of letters of rec, extracurriculars, shadowing if any, when the DAT is given, how the application process is structured-- e.g., is it a year-long process like med school apps are? etc.). I'm particularly interested in knowing the things which are required by dental schools, and then, of course, the things which are merely recommended.


Any help would be appreciated. Yes, I could have done some fishing online and found this info, but I figured that there was no better place to ask than here. Thanks in advance.

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[onetoothleft]

You are right, this is a very good place to seek out that information. I will give a brief summary, but you will learn much more just browsing and searching the posts in this Forum, and reading the ADA and ADEA websites.

Steps to getting accepted into dental school:

Pre-Med and Pre-dent courses are the same pretty much. There is a central applications service called AADSAS where you enter all your grades, send in LOR's, and fill out personal information. Your chances of getting accepted are way better when you apply early. May-August=Early, September-November=middle, December-March=Late. (these are rough estimates). You need 3 LOR's from sci professors. You need to send in all transcripts. You need to pay about $50-70 per school.

Take the DAT:
You have to register (online is best) for the DAT. It takes a few weeks before you get your test date, and then you go into Prometric and take it on the computer. It is somewhat like the MCAT excpet it has no physics, but it has math and a Perception test. I would go out and buy the Kaplan book (although any of them will be helpful) and review the material and teach yourself how the test works and what is on it. Score reports cost like $10 per school. The DAT is the single most important entrance criteria that you have control over (since your GPA is probably more or less stuck if you are at least a junior in college). Do very well on the DAT.

Shadow a dentist. 50 hours seems to be the magic number

Volunteer a little.

Do some research (not required, but it looks good)

Read posts on SDN. While there is a lot of opinions and innaccurate information on SDN, it does have lots of good stuff and I have learned tons just reading little posts from time to time. You will quickly become an expert on how admissions works, what to expect in d school, how to get in, the DAT, which schools are best for you, etc.

 

[onetoothleft]

I'm particularly interested in knowing the things which are required by dental schools, and then, of course, the things which are merely recommended.

check the schools' websites. first go to the SDN master website here. and read about the admissions criteria that is expected from each school (check out FAQ's or Admissions buttons)

things vary from school to school, but most have similar types of criteria.

you can PM me if you have other q's