What should my priorities be?

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INeedAPuppy

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Hey everyone. I am currently applying to dental school and I have yet to take the DATS. My GPA is 3.34 and I live in New York City. I also do not have hours of shadowing a dentist although I have shadowed many other health professions.

I wish to know what I should do to make myself a better candidate. Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.
 
if you are applying RIGHT NOW, then its a big problem that you havnt taken your DATs yet, and its even a bigger problem that you have not had any shadowing ( its a requirement at most, if not all schools).
 
Hey everyone. I am currently applying to dental school and I have yet to take the DATS. My GPA is 3.34 and I live in New York City. I also do not have hours of shadowing a dentist although I have shadowed many other health professions.

I wish to know what I should do to make myself a better candidate. Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.

i would start shadowing first. how do you even know you want to be a dentist? what are you going to write about in your personal statement?

after you've done some shadowing, if its something you really want to do, take the DAT and re-apply in june!
 
Apply next June. Shadow a few dentists to see if you are interested in the field. If shadowing goes well take the DAT.
 
i would start shadowing first. how do you even know you want to be a dentist? what are you going to write about in your personal statement?

after you've done some shadowing, if its something you really want to do, take the DAT and re-apply in june!


Solid
 
Hey everyone. I am currently applying to dental school and I have yet to take the DATS. My GPA is 3.34 and I live in New York City. I also do not have hours of shadowing a dentist although I have shadowed many other health professions.

I wish to know what I should do to make myself a better candidate. Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.

Why are you applying to dental school if you're pre-medical? How do you even know if you want to be a dentist if you haven't shadowed that much? I hope you realize that dentistry is not a safe backup for medicine, considering all dents really cares about is GPA, DAT, and shadowing...all of which you do not have.
 
As stated you will probably want to apply to dental school in june. It is getting late to start thinking about taking the DAT, especially if you have not started studying. I would focus on getting your GPA up in the next few semesters along with studying hard for the DAT. Remember the average DAT of matriculating dental students is about 19 academic average. I would advise you NOT to take the DAT until you feel that you can score in that range. It is not a test that you should try and see how you do as it will greatly affect whether you are admitted into dental school.

In the mean time try shadowing 👍
 
thanks for the replies. As to answer the question why I want to be a dentist if I haven't shadowed, it is because I did shadow a dentist for a week, but the dentist wants me to shadow and volunteer for her for 2 months before she would give me a recommendation so in order to make this cycle in time I am going to shadow another dentist.

Also to improviing my GPA, I just graduated last June. Is it necessary for me to go back to school and get a masters or should I focus on my dats and try to score as high as possible and apply?
 
thanks for the replies. As to answer the question why I want to be a dentist if I haven't shadowed, it is because I did shadow a dentist for a week, but the dentist wants me to shadow and volunteer for her for 2 months before she would give me a recommendation so in order to make this cycle in time I am going to shadow another dentist.

Also to improviing my GPA, I just graduated last June. Is it necessary for me to go back to school and get a masters or should I focus on my dats and try to score as high as possible and apply?

Someone correct me if I'm wrong. While a masters would look great if you do well, I don't believe it's your only option. I would suggest you take a lot of upper-division science courses and bring up your GPA that way. Hopefully you'll bring up your science and BCP GPA along with it. I've seen several people on SDN go the masters route and make it as well.

As for applying this cycle, I wouldn't recommend it. Stick with shadowing the dentist you are currently shadowing. You want a good letter of recommendation, and you won't get a good one unless the dentist knows you well. Study HARD for the DAT (there are some really great breakdowns on how to study for it in the DAT forum part of SDN), take the DAT when you are ready, and apply EARLY next cycle (June). That way you won't spend needlessly applying this year. Save it for the next cycle when you are fully prepared. Good luck!
 
thanks for the replies. As to answer the question why I want to be a dentist if I haven't shadowed, it is because I did shadow a dentist for a week, but the dentist wants me to shadow and volunteer for her for 2 months before she would give me a recommendation so in order to make this cycle in time I am going to shadow another dentist.

Also to improviing my GPA, I just graduated last June. Is it necessary for me to go back to school and get a masters or should I focus on my dats and try to score as high as possible and apply?

I don't see how you are going to make it in this cycle at a decent time if you haven't taken the DAT yet...your GPA isn't high so applying this late is just not gonna help ya.
 
thanks for the replies. As to answer the question why I want to be a dentist if I haven't shadowed, it is because I did shadow a dentist for a week, but the dentist wants me to shadow and volunteer for her for 2 months before she would give me a recommendation so in order to make this cycle in time I am going to shadow another dentist.

Also to improviing my GPA, I just graduated last June. Is it necessary for me to go back to school and get a masters or should I focus on my dats and try to score as high as possible and apply?

Whatever you do, don't rush this. I would personally (other people may feel different) recommend taking some post bacc classes such as upper level bio classes, instead of doing a masters. This will raise your gpa, whereas a master program will be a seperate gpa. Your gpa isn't terrible anyway, just not fantastic depending on your DAT score. Also post bacc programs can be informal, which is nice for GPA tinkering. Continue shadowing, get those letter of rec's and destroy the DAT. Make sure you like dentistry, and read up on some of the posts on sdn including topics such as "debt" and "recently graduated dentists". This will help you in deciding if you are choosing dentistry for the right reasons. You're still in a good position for next cycle, GL!
 
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