volunteer or study for dat

Started by ringofkeys
Tags Tags
advice dat pre-dental volunteering
Get help with your application

Use all the free resources available to you from SDN: articles, guides, expert advising, forums discussions, and school research.

Browse articles Compare schools My application plan Read Interview Feedback
Practice for interviews Ask an Advisor
ringofkeys

ringofkeys

Full Member
7+ Year Member
I plan on applying for dental school this upcoming cycle, and was wondering if I should allocate time to volunteering? Im at 137 hours of volunteering, and my sGPA is 3.2ish (cGPA is 3.6), so I really do need to score well on the DAT. should I still allocate time for volunteering this semester, or should i spend my free time on studying? I'm really trying to determine if I need more volunteer hours, or if it's not as important as the DAT. thanks for the advice.
 
Agreed, you should be able to rack in a substantial number of hours while also having plenty of time to study for the DAT assuming those are the two things you really have to worry about (not worrying about a job).
 
well i do also work, but its only 8 hours a week. but i also help run a pre-dent club, and am sort of struggling in one of my science class right now as well.
 
oh thats pretty tough if youre also taking coursework. sorry, i wrongly assumed you were done with school and in a gap year.
 
Spend all of your freee time studying! 137 hours of volunteering is enough! DAT is more important! If you can’t get a good score on DAT, volunteering cannot get you an interview. I spent a month studying for DAT and even didn’t go to lecture, and also quit volunteering.
 
fermi555 said:
Can you not spare just two hours a week to volunteer?
Click to expand...

most of the places that you can actually volunteer at around my campus are a bus ride away, and the place i'm currently at is about a half hour away by bus. so it would actually be three hours a week. which, alone, isn't a lot. but factoring in a lot of other things i have going on in my life, i just feel like those few hours a week could be spent more wisely on the dat.
 
ringofkeys said:
most of the places that you can actually volunteer at around my campus are a bus ride away, and the place i'm currently at is about a half hour away by bus. so it would actually be three hours a week. which, alone, isn't a lot. but factoring in a lot of other things i have going on in my life, i just feel like those few hours a week could be spent more wisely on the dat.
Click to expand...
Focus on the DAT then 100%. It's vastly more important. Good luck!
 
ringofkeys said:
I plan on applying for dental school this upcoming cycle, and was wondering if I should allocate time to volunteering? Im at 137 hours of volunteering, and my sGPA is 3.2ish (cGPA is 3.6), so I really do need to score well on the DAT. should I still allocate time for volunteering this semester, or should i spend my free time on studying? I'm really trying to determine if I need more volunteer hours, or if it's not as important as the DAT. thanks for the advice.
Click to expand...

I mean for your own mental health...it might be nice to take 4-5 hours a week and volunteer somewhere instead of letting your head be buried with studying 24/7
 
I would prioritize DAT prep over volunteering, to be honest. GPA/DAT/residency are usually the major factors that schools use to pre screen applicants and it's only after this that they look at volunteering, EC, rec letters, ect. Also, schools like to see long-term volunteering rather than 100 hours crammed into the last 3 months before applying because then you're simply padding the resume. PM me if you have any questions about applying.
 
Depends on how well you think your core is for the DAT tbh. Take a practice test and see how it goes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.