shadowing/volunteer experience

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boston23

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Hi everyone

I am hoping to get some opinions on the timing of my application. I would love to submit it now but I have only 1 day of shadowing a dentist and I had surgery last week so I'm stuck at home in a cast for about a month so I won't be able to add any more shadowing until at least a month from now.

My application should be fairly strong:
-at BU grad school basically taking courses that are the general science courses of 1st year dental and did really well
-my DATs should be fairly good (still studying, but I usually do well in standarized tests)
-I plan to do dental-related research next year (but I haven't figured out exactly what..)

I'm worried that without more shadowing experience, they'll write me off as someone who wants to go to med school but is also applying to dental school just for fun. I had wanted to go to med school, I know it's not for me....but I have tons of medical experience: worked/volunteered in hospitals, certified as EMT, some other things.

I'm really serious about going to dental school though.

What are your thoughts? I know that the longer I wait, the tougher it is....but I'm worried that if I applied now....I would be written off even though I have good credentials. So write now I'm kind of thinking that I should wait, do well on the DATs, solidify what I'm planning to do for research, shadow a bit more and then apply...that would be late August/early Sept.

Thanks everyone!


(If you're wondering about the change of heart...I had originally wanted to be a dentist and then decided on medicine for a while, was serious about it and then realized that it's not what i want. I'm not fickle, I'm just finally listening to what I really wanted to do in the first place:rolleyes: Better late then never!)

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To me, it seems like the med experience is a good thing because it showed you that you did not want to do med, and that you came back to dentistry; although, I would show that dentistry was your "first love" if it is true. I'm not sure if I would wait to submit or not-I'll defer to someone who has already been through this process.
 
hmm i hadn't thought of the med experience as good but the way you explain it sounds like i could use it to my advantage, huh? say that i really liked the experiences and loved working with the patients...but realized that being a physician was really not somehting i could see myself being happy doing

...and they were certainly overworked where i was....always flustered. ooh, good, makes me feel better about all that experience
 
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