Shadowing/Working with Dentist

[trojan0009]

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I was hoping to get everyone's opinion about the need of shadowing a dentist, because I just read the thread where people were talking about shadowing 500 to 1000 hours. It scared since I really havent shadowed any dentist. My mom is a dentist and very active in the dental community being that she is on the state board of examiners, so I have grown up around dentistry. However, I have only worked one summer in her office during high school. I have spent previous summers in high school working in as an assistant in a law firm (due to the good pay) and I have spent the last two summers as a Congressional staffer. Do you think this will hurt my chance getting into dental school? It seems to me that I am at a huge disadvantage, and that I would pale in comparison to other applicants. My science and overall GPA is around a 3.7 and my DAT scores were AA 22 and TS 23. Should I be worried? Honesty appreciated.

 

[Frederico Albin]

I hate these threads.

"OMG, I WONT GET IN, OMG OMG OMG I HAVE A 3.7 AND A 22AA/23TS OMG OMG"

You don't need 500 hours of shadowing experience... thats excessive. Just make sure your extra curricular part have some type of volunteering or something else other than just shadowing and youll be fine. You are lucky to have a member of the family as a dentist, take advantage of that.

GL

 

[alanan84]

I hate these threads.

"OMG, I WONT GET IN, OMG OMG OMG I HAVE A 3.7 AND A 22AA/23TS OMG OMG"

You don't need 500 hours of shadowing experience... thats excessive. Just make sure your extra curricular part have some type of volunteering or something else other than just shadowing and youll be fine. You are lucky to have a member of the family as a dentist, take advantage of that.

GL

Seriously man that is so true. It's like calm the freak down dude. If your stats are above average, you're bound to get in somewhere. Many people (including myself) would kill for those stats. (or for a parent to be a dentist for that matter)

 

[scuzfly]

I think it's ridiculous when people have 1000+ ours of shadowing. Did you really keep track or did you get a job there and count that as shadowing? If you had time to shadow for 1000+ hours you could have gotten a job or done a lot more with your time. I couldn't even imagine doing this. 1000 hours? wow. I don't know what it shows other than you have a lot of free time.