Shadowing and Volunteering

[abt-327-predent]

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I recently just decided to go to dental school and I’m going to be a junior in the fall. I don’t have any shadowing experience other than going on a global medical brigade and was able to shadow the dentists there for two of the days. I will be going on a co-op (paid internship) starting in july till december as a dental assistant. Would that count as shadowing experience? also, what’s a typical number of shadowing hours and volunteering hours you would need?

 

[S_Diamond_DDS]

Yes, it could count. 100 shadowing hours is a safe number in my opinion, since this will qualify you at 95% of the schools. For volunteer hours, there’s no required amount. The more you do the better it looks! I only had 20 hours of true volunteer hours, but I knew people with hundreds and many schools gave them major bonus points for their commitment to service.