Very Non-traditional Applicant, Looking for Advice/ Guidance

[deleted1039129]

deleted for time being, apologies

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[coolguy07]

1) you can take the pre-reqs at a 4 year university. Go to the cheapest one you get into. Unless the military covers your tuition then go wherever you want to. You should be aiming for an A in all of your pre-reqs.
2) I don't really know the answer to it. If you go into the interview and start talking about engineering like you love it more than dentistry that will unfavorable. also, your personal statement should address your desire for career change.
3) I would think it looks favorable
4) You should start shadowing as soon as it is safe to do so. You should aim for at least 100 hours. You can shadow specialty but most of your hours should be from a general dentist. (remember that dental schools are training to become a general dentist at the end of the day). You should volunteer if you can find the time. Volunteering at a low-income dental clinic or anything that piques your interest should be good. You could do research, but I don't think it is completely necessary.
5) I don't know the answer to this

 

[coolguy07]

How to Get Into Dental School: A Free Admissions Guide • SDN

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Age: 27
My stats are as follow: 3.0 cGPA, 3.2 sGPA. I have two bachelors, Mathematics and Mechanical Engineering, as well as a masters in Aerospace Engineering. Took me 3 extra years of post-bacc work to get my GPA to a 3.0... hence why I have a second bachelors degree. Needless to say, VERY strong upward trend. Masters GPA will be around 3.8. Also, by the time I apply I will have graduated from USAF UPT (I'll be a pilot in the Air National Guard). Haven't taken the DAT but I should do fairly well, most of my standardized scores (SAT, AFOQT for air force officers) were in the 90th percentile or above.

Here are my questions:

1) Should I do a career change SMP or just take the prerequisite undergrad classes on my own? If I do an SMP that would be my second masters degree.

2) Will my degrees in engineering help or hinder me? I could see an ADCOM looking at it as either impressive or unfocused.

3) Is prior/current military service looked upon favorably? I could see it as proving leadership and maturity but i'm not sure if an ADCOM would see it that way.

4) What extracurriculars should I do to strengthen my application? And how many hours of each?

5) As a dental student in the Air National Guard, I'd have to serve in my ANG unit for one day a month. Anyone think this might be too difficult during dental school?

I'd also like to thank everyone on here. It would not have been possible for me to even get this far without the advice of those on SDN. Even those who are critical of low GPA applicants have been an immense help to me.

Well, thank you first for your sacrifice as part of your armed forces training.

I would do some research around on your options. I would check on the predental master's programs that some dental schools run but see if there are any specifically for career changers like yourself. I don't know how much you have already taken, but chances are with mechanical engineering, you haven't taken any biomedical science core classes yet for me to know whether any of the predental special masters programs out there are right for you, or just to go ahead with an organized prehealth postbac program provided there is an advisor well-versed in dental admissions processes. The important part any admissions committee is going to focus on is how well you do in biomedical science coursework prior to starting dental school. The DAT score of 20+ across all subscores will also help.

I would check on how your commitments to the National Guard might change if they knew you were enrolled in professional school. There is HPSP, which you wouldn't be involved with necessarily, but someone should know.

For dentistry, we just need to know you have sufficient experience seeing and knowing what dentists do. At least 50 hours minimum. I wouldn't worry about your other extracurriculars since you are coming from a different background where service matters anyway.

At least make sure you connect with the Non-traditional forum participants even in the premed forums. There should be some valuable insight from there.

 

[deleted1039129]

Well, thank you first for your sacrifice as part of your armed forces training.

I would do some research around on your options. I would check on the predental master's programs that some dental schools run but see if there are any specifically for career changers like yourself. I don't know how much you have already taken, but chances are with mechanical engineering, you haven't taken any biomedical science core classes yet for me to know whether any of the predental special masters programs out there are right for you, or just to go ahead with an organized prehealth postbac program provided there is an advisor well-versed in dental admissions processes. The important part any admissions committee is going to focus on is how well you do in biomedical science coursework prior to starting dental school. The DAT score of 20+ across all subscores will also help.

I would check on how your commitments to the National Guard might change if they knew you were enrolled in professional school. There is HPSP, which you wouldn't be involved with necessarily, but someone should know.

For dentistry, we just need to know you have sufficient experience seeing and knowing what dentists do. At least 50 hours minimum. I wouldn't worry about your other extracurriculars since you are coming from a different background where service matters anyway.

At least make sure you connect with the Non-traditional forum participants even in the premed forums. There should be some valuable insight from there.

Thank you for the advice! From what I know about the dental prerequisites, I've completed the english requirement and the physics requirement but still need to take Chem and Bio. I've dabbled with the idea of just taking them as post-bacc and then applying to a masters program once I have them done. Once all the pre-requs are done I might apply to dental schools and master's programs at the same time just to see if I can get lucky my first time applying.

 

[deleted1039129]

1) you can take the pre-reqs at a 4 year university. Go to the cheapest one you get into. Unless the military covers your tuition then go wherever you want to. You should be aiming for an A in all of your pre-reqs.
2) I don't really know the answer to it. If you go into the interview and start talking about engineering like you love it more than dentistry that will unfavorable. also, your personal statement should address your desire for career change.
3) I would think it looks favorable
4) You should start shadowing as soon as it is safe to do so. You should aim for at least 100 hours. You can shadow specialty but most of your hours should be from a general dentist. (remember that dental schools are training to become a general dentist at the end of the day). You should volunteer if you can find the time. Volunteering at a low-income dental clinic or anything that piques your interest should be good. You could do research, but I don't think it is completely necessary.
5) I don't know the answer to this

Thank you for the advice!

 

[deleted936472]

Age: 27
My stats are as follow: 3.0 cGPA, 3.2 sGPA. I have two bachelors, Mathematics and Mechanical Engineering, as well as a masters in Aerospace Engineering. Took me 3 extra years of post-bacc work to get my GPA to a 3.0... hence why I have a second bachelors degree. Needless to say, VERY strong upward trend. Masters GPA will be around 3.8. Also, by the time I apply I will have graduated from USAF UPT (I'll be a pilot in the Air National Guard). Haven't taken the DAT but I should do fairly well, most of my standardized scores (SAT, AFOQT for air force officers) were in the 90th percentile or above.

Here are my questions:

1) Should I do a career change SMP or just take the prerequisite undergrad classes on my own? If I do an SMP that would be my second masters degree.

2) Will my degrees in engineering help or hinder me? I could see an ADCOM looking at it as either impressive or unfocused.

3) Is prior/current military service looked upon favorably? I could see it as proving leadership and maturity but i'm not sure if an ADCOM would see it that way.

4) What extracurriculars should I do to strengthen my application? And how many hours of each?

5) As a dental student in the Air National Guard, I'd have to serve in my ANG unit for one day a month. Anyone think this might be too difficult during dental school?

I'd also like to thank everyone on here. It would not have been possible for me to even get this far without the advice of those on SDN. Even those who are critical of low GPA applicants have been an immense help to me.

5) I’ve heard of active duty military personnel who are able to apply for the HPSP scholarship. Apparently the HPSP can override your current contract (therefore you wouldn’t have any commitments, i.e. no ANG unit during school). There’s a thread in the military dentistry forum and someone was talking about this.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Thank you for the advice! From what I know about the dental prerequisites, I've completed the english requirement and the physics requirement but still need to take Chem and Bio. I've dabbled with the idea of just taking them as post-bacc and then applying to a masters program once I have them done. Once all the pre-requs are done I might apply to dental schools and master's programs at the same time just to see if I can get lucky my first time applying.

Why don't you reach out to the postbac directors at some programs and see what they suggest regarding you taking your bio/chem prereqs. They may know of other options based on who they accepted to their programs. You can check out the SFSU/UOP program because I think they have different options.