reflections on extracurriculars

[GoetzItDone]

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Throughout my three years in college I've chosen to dedicate my time to a wide spectrum of extracurricular activities. I've shadowed dentists, volunteered at the dental school, played intramural sports, mentored younger students, conducted research, started a club, etc.

The only activity that I did not enjoy was volunteering at the dental school. I did about 100 hours of volunteering, and the majority of my time was spent performing random tasks for the clinic coordinator, preparing the areas for new patients, and assisting dental students. I loathed it all. I felt like a janitor. I felt like just a tool for anyone in the clinic. And I did all these humdrum duties solely because I knew dental school applications committees would see my 100 hours as a sign that I am a serious applicant. But the truth is, those 100 hours in no way reveal why I've chosen dentistry. They only serve to show that I can do what the competition can do.

I wrote this anecdote to enlighten those predents who will do anything they can to get into dental school. Even though dental assisting will give you experience with dentistry, if you don't enjoy it (which I believe most do not), then you are wasting your time as an undergraduate.

Don't just engage in an activity because it looks good on an application. If you're doing research, do it because you love scientific discovery. If you're tutoring struggling students, do it because you love watching them succeed. And if you're assisting a dental student, do it because you truly love making that student's job easier.

Please, if you find that you've chosen an extracurricular activity that you don't enjoy, bail out of there while you've got the chance. There's definitely a more productive activity that could benefit from 100 hours of your time.

 

[whateveryoulike]

It would be nice if more people saw things your way. I've seen quite a bit of students at my school that are predental or premedical and don't put in the effort required in areas that actually matter, learning as much as possible in their biochem, histology, physiology classes. yet these same students seem to chug along with 1 million hours of meaningless extras that may add lines to their application but dont add any performance benefits to their futures in graduates schools or in their careers. then to top it off, they hate most of the extra work their doing. I think (hope) the adcoms are smart enough to see through most of this crap on peoples applications. I kept my time busy doing things I genuinely believe in (like tutoring) and I think it will project much more so during my interview than a person that did mindless crap activities and has to sound enthusiastic about them.

 

[GoetzItDone]

Does anyone else agree with me? or was this thread too far off the topic of "what you have to do to get into dental school?"

 

[Moe Lester]

Does anyone else agree with me? or was this thread too far off the topic of "what you have to do to get into dental school?"

No you are right about doing what satisfies you. But for dental related things, as predental students they don’t have that option they have to do what dental school’s adcom prefers them to do.

As for your work in the dental office, don’t be naïve. Hopefully you have built professional relationships with the dental students and dentists who can guide you dental school and even provide you with advice on how to succeed in dental school since they have gone through the process.

 

[GoetzItDone]

...as predental students they don’t have that option they have to do what dental school’s adcom prefers them to do.

As for your work in the dental office, don’t be naïve...

I am naive, but, in fact, we are all naive. We are naive to think that if we do what the dental application committees tell us then all will be well and we will live successful and exuberant lives as dentists.

As pre-dents, we are thrown into a system that, for us to reach our goals, we must do what we are told to do. Does this system really give us no other option than to do what the adcoms prefer us do? This question is currently unanswerable because not enough pre-dents have given it any thought. Those adcoms have set most us forth on a discursive path of boredom. Let's find a new path.

 

[Contach]

Just because it was boring for you, doesn't mean it is boring for everyone else. I enjoyed my time shadowing, I did a bit more than 50 hours. I wouldn't say I "died of boredom" doing anything in the past few years.

And sometimes, there are stepping stones, to get you to the places you really want to be. Much of the time it isn't worth bulldozing your own way.

Read Dr. Seuss's Oh The Places You'll Go.

 

[setdoc7]

The experience you received while volunteering in dental school is probably more valuable than you believe, but will not be applicable until you finally reach the clinic floor. Of course in college the skills you learned may seem useless. Let's face it, a lot of what you do in college is useless in dental school (organic chem, calculus, biochem) except that you will need some of it to pass the D-school basic science courses, which will also be quickly forgotten after part 1 of the boards.
Sometime you have to do what you "have to do" in order to do what you "want to do". Admissions committees and residency directors like to see commitmant. Sorry, that's just the way it is.

 

[doc3232]

Just because it was boring for you, doesn't mean it is boring for everyone else. I enjoyed my time shadowing, I did a bit more than 50 hours. I wouldn't say I "died of boredom" doing anything in the past few years.

And sometimes, there are stepping stones, to get you to the places you really want to be. Much of the time it isn't worth bulldozing your own way.

Read Dr. Seuss's Oh The Places You'll Go.

He didn't shadow for 100 hours. He volunteered.
I agree with you to an extent. I volunteered in a hospital for 40 hours and hated it. They just made me do office work and sometimes clean up rooms. I didn't learn much most of the time but I did learn a few things.

 

[GoetzItDone]

He didn't shadow for 100 hours. He volunteered.

right, there is a big difference between volunteering in the clinic of the dental school and shadowing a dentist. I've done about 40 hours of shadowing and benefited ten times more from that. The shadowing was great because I could see how a dentist runs a practice and interacts with patients and coworkers. This was knowledge that I could in no way gain from watching a fledgling dental student interacts with a faculty supervisor.

The problem with the predental system at my school is that the predental clubs and prehealth advisers highly encourage students to do this volunteering because they say it's "what you have to do" because all other students are doing it. But all those other students are only doing because they were also told to do it.

I believe that the dental schools staff are manipulating predental students to do the boring tasks that no one else wants to do. The dental school staff gets their boring work out of the way and the predental schools get the satisfaction of knowing that there extracurriculars make them into competitive applicants. I can apply this same concept for dental school researchers who need more research assistants.

 

[Stephie3]

sometimes we don't always enjoy everything, but sometimes things just have to be done (translate: you have to save your seat in dental school before you can save the teeth of the world)

i agree though that it would be better if people could concentrate on things that mattered to them.

i was one of those people who did a bunch of extracurriculars too. i enjoyed voluteering the most (as opposed to clubs). for the most part, none of the clubs were any fun. it was just people sitting around spening three hours arguing about what design to put on the club t-shirt. i didn't make long-term friends in clubs. i thought clubs were silly and that my time was better spent studying.

in dental school, i'm giving up most extracurriculars (except the ones i strongly believe in) and focusing on studying because that is going to be important in the future.

i see a lot of pre-health professions kids at my school, running around doing everything from student government association to raking leaves for free for people on a cold saturday morning. however, most of them probably couldn't tell you the difference between basic physiologic stuff (not to offend anybody..but you get my point)

every now and then you feel like you really help someone in extracurriculars, but for the most part..you don't.

i just think my time is better spent studying or working out (you know..b/c you have to take care of yourself so you can live longer and serve more patients right?)