Undergrad years, Major & DDS/DMD

[DearSky]

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Hello! I'm starting my freshman year at UC Santa Cruz, proposed major in Biology. (Thank you everyone who answered my last thread and gave me very helpful advice for undergrad students! 🙂 )

After more research on what I can do beginning my first year to help me prepare to apply for Dental School, I started to have more questions - some specific to UCSC so I added a few links: 😳

- UCSC Biological Sciences
- UCSC Career Center: Dental > Pre-Requisites

1. Even though I'm majoring in Biology, I want to become fluent in Japanese (hence, one of the three classes I enrolled this semester is Japn 01) AND Spanish. There's another major (Health Sciences) offered at UCSC that recommends Spanish to pre-health students. (Unfortunately, I hadn't taken Spanish seriously in High School 🙁 so I'm no where near as fluent as I should be, having taken Spanish 1-3). I understand Spanish is more useful for pre-health/dental students, but I'm interested in the Japanese language as well. Will it be possible to do both or am I stretching undergrad limits too far?

2. Are the differences in D.D.S. and D.M.D. significant? The Career Center for pre-dental students created a chart of classes fulfilling pre-requisites for those intending to obtain DDS and DMD degrees. They're so vastly different I'm confused on which classes to enroll to fulfill all the requirements that most Dental Schools require.

3. Not many students have been accepted to Dental Schools in California that I would like to attend--some, not even listed because there were none accepted into those schools (i.e. UCLA, USC). [Acceptance List, bottom page]. Am I over-worrying about it?

I do plan on talking with Pre-Dental advisers (if there are any haha) and BioSci advisers, but wanted to get a little more insight so I don't waste their time. Thank you

 

[Predent68]

1. It would definitely be helpful if you can speak any languages. But, in any case, you can choose any language courses/electives to take for your undergrad as long as you satisfy your school graduation requirement.

2. DDS and DMD are the same. Both degrees will allow you to become a dentist. Admission requirements to DDS or DMD programs are very similar.

**Don't get confused with MD degree.

3. Even not many alumni had been accepted to Calif. schools, it doesn't mean you won't. You just need to build a nice resume (over 3.6 gpa in both overall and science, above 20s DAT scores, research experience, TA experience, publications, and more ECs) and you should be fine getting into any Cali. schools or others.

 

[Maygyver]

1.) How come you want to learn Japanese (just out of curiosity)? You would definitely have time to minor in Spanish if you want and that would be very useful, but doing two languages might be a little stretch, but it's possible.

2.) DMD and DDS are the same. I think Harvard came up with DMD because of the latin spelling. I know Penn likes the DMD degree because they view dentistry now as more of a general medicine degree due to the link between oral and systemic health. However, there is no difference, some schools do DDS some do DMD.

3.) School is what you make of it. Study hard and do everything you are supposed to do and you can get to dental school. The fact that not many people from your school have done dental school just means most people go there aren't really interested in dentistry.

 

[dmitriyivanov]

DDS and DMD are exactly the same = dentist. It all depends on the school that grants you your degree, some call it DDS and some call it DMD, the pre-reqs are mostly the same for all schools.

You shouldn’t worry too much about how many students didn’t get accepted from UCSC, its a good UC school, so just study hard, get involved with shadowing a dentist, try out some community service, volunteer, do very well on your DAT and you will have a great chance of getting into any Cali School.

I believe that learning Spanish from the very beginning would be a challenge on its own, but anything is possible. Try taking Spanish, Japanese and some pre-reqs in one quarter and see if you could handle it.

Good luck

 

[DearSky]

Thank you, everyone for taking the time to reply! It really means a lot! 🙂

I've always liked the Japanese culture and entertainment (T.V. Dramas, Music, Anime, Food--especially Sushi). I'm fluent in Korean so if I learn Japanese and Spanish, I would be quad-lingual! I've already learned Hiragana and Katakana, slowly diving into the first chapter so I won't be too overwhelmed by college life and courses at once! Since I had taken Spanish 1-3 in High School, I'm hoping Spanish won't be too hard (if I happen to be able to take maybe 4 classes next quarter).

Unfortunately, I can only take a maximum of 19 credits per quarter. I plan on taking a Math and Chemistry class during the Winter quarter as well--so that's already 10 credits. Furthermore, Japanese (I think any language course for that matter) doesn't fulfill any of the G.E.'s I need to graduate.. so I don't know what I should do at this point. I was also wondering why courses at UCSC seem to have more credits/units than at other colleges (i.e. my friend is attending UC Merced, taking 4 classes which is only 12 credits total). 😕

Would there be any explanation as to why the recommended courses for DMD and DDS are different?

Thanks again! 😀

 

[Maygyver]

The only thing I could think of is that some schools with even just DDS degrees might have different requirements. I would just check individual schools websites.

 

[slm266]

ADVICE:
Dont worry about the DDS/DMD thing.

Buy this book: 2010 ADEA Official Guide to Dental Schools
https://access.adea.org/adeassa/ecs...ns_ty=&p_order_serno=&p_promo_cd=&p_price_cd=
It contains the course requirements of every school, their average stats, and a ton of more useful info.

Get involved in a service/EC's that you like, and stick with them through your undergrad.

Plan your core science classes like Bio, Gen Chem 1,2, Ochem 1, 2, etc... because you have to take these before your DAT. Have these done by the fall of your Junior year, then take the DAT in the spring, and apply that summer a year before you graduate.

Begin to sharpen your mental math skills early. If you start when you are a freshman, you should be super quick by the time you take the DAT, and will be helpful on the chemistry and math sections.

Get A's in your classes, and try to maintain heavy course loads (of science classes) each semester.

Stay off SDN. No offense 🙂 It's just a waste of time until you are closer to the DAT/applying.

 

[darkwalk]

Also figure out where you might want to apply to and make sure you take their prereqs. Some have strange ones and they will reject you if you don't fulfill them.

 

[jlou22]

From my experience, to perform well in an East Asian language course, you MUST sit and memorize/practice characters for several hours a week. Its very diligent studying. If you love the language and want to be fluent, move there and teach English after graduation... or take a semester of Japanese and study abroad for a semester. The academic setting can only get you so far, fluency is achieved by being forced to speak it. AND if those credits don't count towards graduation, why do it during undergrad?