Shadowing hours

[asalazar]

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For those of you who have already finished your shadowing, how many dmd's did u shadow (if more than one) and how many hours each? If you shadowed more than one, did you get LOR's from all of them & did you send all of them to schools?

 

[JohnDoeDDS]

I shadowed like 4. About 20-40 hours each. Its fun. I didnt get recs yet but I lef tin good stanidng with them so I am sure I wont have a problem in getting a couple.

 

[homercles]

I didn't do any shadowing. No letter from a dentist.

All the schools brought that up at my interviews, so if you choose not to do any shadowing, make sure you can address this point when asked.

 

[organichemistry]

I didn't do any shadowing. No letter from a dentist.

All the schools brought that up at my interviews, so if you choose not to do any shadowing, make sure you can address this point when asked.

just wondering, homer, what did you say when this was brought up? also, what were your stats, and where were you accepted (if you don't mind saying).

 

[DDS2BE]

I shadowed for over 200 hours at one dental office.

homercles, did you get in anywhere with no shadowing?

 

[homercles]

I shadowed for over 200 hours at one dental office.

homercles, did you get in anywhere with no shadowing?

I was a 2004 applicant. I'm about to become a D2 at UoP. I only applied to 4 schools, didn't get into UCSF (waitlisted), got into rest (Creighton, UCLA, Columbia). My GPA was 2.9, my DAT was 27/24/25.

When asked about the lack of shadowing I just said that it's simply not necessary to spend a lot of time following someone around in order to get a feel for what the profession entails. Obviously I elaborated more and cited a few specific examples, but that was the main theme.

 

[45540]

I shadowed one Dr for 180-200 hours and another one for maybe 2 hours. But i only got one rec letter.

 

[cowsgomoo]

I was a 2004 applicant. I'm about to become a D2 at UoP. I only applied to 4 schools, didn't get into UCSF (waitlisted), got into rest (Creighton, UCLA, Columbia). My GPA was 2.9, my DAT was 27/24/25.

When asked about the lack of shadowing I just said that it's simply not necessary to spend a lot of time following someone around in order to get a feel for what the profession entails. Obviously I elaborated more and cited a few specific examples, but that was the main theme.

i think your DAT said it all.

 

[lovewestny]

My mentor is a dentist and I have shadowed him for around 100+ documented hours. I also plan to volunteer this summer at Broward General Hospital, and have volunteered about 50 hours at Buffalo General Hospital back in New York. I have LOR's from him and the office owner, who is also a dentist, as well as non-science (read: Journalism) professors at school. I see you are in Miramar - are you going to FIU for undergrad?

 

[dexadental]

I shadowed two dentists for about 40 hours in Gainesville, if you really want experience here, you should also shadow and volunteer at UF's dental school and clinics. There are like a bunch of clinics to get specialty and general dentistry experience...I volunteered in the operative and oral surgery ones. I also shadowed an orthodontist.

 

[asalazar]

I shadowed for over 200 hours at one dental office.

homercles, did you get in anywhere with no shadowing?

were the adcoms impressed with this or do u think they want/expect this from every applicant? was this brought up in ur interviews? do u think this helped and u were better off than other applicants?

 

[asalazar]

My mentor is a dentist and I have shadowed him for around 100+ documented hours. I also plan to volunteer this summer at Broward General Hospital, and have volunteered about 50 hours at Buffalo General Hospital back in New York. I have LOR's from him and the office owner, who is also a dentist, as well as non-science (read: Journalism) professors at school. I see you are in Miramar - are you going to FIU for undergrad?

I go to UF. I'm in Miramar until july.

 

[mvs04]

I didn't do any shadowing. No letter from a dentist.

All the schools brought that up at my interviews, so if you choose not to do any shadowing, make sure you can address this point when asked.

I'm going to disagree. I didn't do any shadowing either, I wasn't asked at any of my interviews about it.

 

[DDS2BE]

were the adcoms impressed with this or do u think they want/expect this from every applicant? was this brought up in ur interviews? do u think this helped and u were better off than other applicants?

I don’t think the ADOMs got too impressed with my enormous hours of shadowing at all. Although, this was brought up at almost all of the schools I went to. For example, my first interview was at Case Western Reserve University and I was directly asked how I felt about my shadowing experience. I said that shadowing experience gave me an opportunity to loot at that dentist from a different perspective and I felt that I was actually doing the dental procedures myself while observing the dentist working on his patients. I knew right there that dentistry is what I really want to do and actually see myself on his [dentist] place. After a pause… the ADOM told me that my answer was exactly what he wanted to hear 🙂

I personally think that everyone, who wants to be a dentist, must have some experience in the dental field and the only one way to gain experience is through shadowing/observation. Otherwise, how can one really know that dentistry is for him/her?

To answer your last question, I tend to think shadowing does make you stand out among the competitors of yours that didn’t have any shadowing. Some schools actually have a minimum of 20 hours of shadowing in order to be even considered for their program. I know Ohio State does and many other schools as well.

Remember, you are doing shadowing/observation primarily for yourself because you don’t wanna find out that dentistry is not for you during your clinical years.

 

[DDS2BE]

I'm going to disagree. I didn't do any shadowing either, I wasn't asked at any of my interviews about it.

Would you mind sharing your stats with us? It seems like you are another extreme case of DAT and GPA 🙂