Science classes

[Flightrail]

I am thinking about a career change. I am 28. I hope this is not to old. I work at NASA in flight operations. Nothing to do with being a denist. What Science classes do I need to take to get into dental school?

Thanks,
Flightrail

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[tinker bell]

lat year there was a sdn member worked at NASA and applied and got accepted into dental school. I believe that he has 4 children at the time. I don't think that 28 is old for dental school.
Regarding science classes, it varies so check with your school of choice, but I can give you a general list:
1. Calculus (1 year)
2. General Chemistry (1 yr)
3. Organic Chemistry (1 yr)
4. Biology-three introductory classes with lab. I took 1 introduction class, a botany and a zoology.
5. Statistics.
6. English Composition (1 yr)

To prepare for the DAT, I suggest that you take Physiology and Biochemistry.
To start, I suggest that you go to some dental office and ask to shadow for a few times, you should also have some dental experience, this can be volunteer and accumulate over the year.
I believe that other pre-dents will fill me in if I'm missing something here.
Best of luck
T

 

[UBTom]

to Flightrail:

28 is definitely not too old. There are plenty of students over the age of 30 here at my dental school's DDS program.

Being an engineer, your 1-year calculus and 1-year physics pre-dental requirements should already be fulfilled I would imagine. I think it is also likely you have already satisified the 1-year General Chem with Lab and 1-year Organic with Lab requirements in the course of earning your engineering degree in college (and probably the 1-year college English requirement too).

If the above is the case, all you need is to enroll in some sort of postbacculaureate program to make up for whatever pre-dental requirements you have left to satisfy, like Biology if you haven't taken those courses in college. Most major universities offer post-bac programs; expect to complete them in about a year depending on how much of the pre-dental requirements you have left.

As far as NASA having nothing to do with dentistry... I seem to remember they made a new cryostat for the Hubble Space Telescope's NICMOS instrument with a turbine that spun at 400,000 RPM-- Just like a dental high-speed handpiece! (though it seems to me the Advanced Camera for Surveys that was installed aboard Hubble during Servicing Mission 3B is what is really stealing the show these days.) Hubble rules!

Good luck!