Will this hurt my chances at dental school?

[kunamo]

Let's just say that "someone" does pretty well in all of their undergraduate courses (3.5+), does pretty well on the DAT, goes to a solid college where he/she has been pre-dent since freshman year, works for a couple years during college as a part-time EMT-Basic/Intermediate, and has shadowed a dentist numerous times. Would his/her chances at being accepted into dental school go up, down, or stay the same if he/she decided to teach ESL in South Korea for a year after college? Also, will a background as an EMT look weird on an application to dental school?

I'm afraid I'll be perceived as too whimsical... But hopefully I'm wrong about that. I would rather them see me as an individual of many passions, or as one who has thoroughly explored other options before committing to dentistry.

Feedback on this is much appreciated

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[AggieDDS]

Another korean pre-dent...I don't see anything unusual?

You will be fine.

 

[kd274]

maybe

 

[kunamo]

I'm not Korean, actually.
Just your average white female who happens to know how to speak a bit of Korean, and a few other languages.

My user name is obviously not English. Sorry if that threw you off.

 

[nze82]

Let's just say that "someone" does pretty well in all of their undergraduate courses (3.5+), does pretty well on the DAT, goes to a solid college where he/she has been pre-dent since freshman year, works for a couple years during college as a part-time EMT-Basic/Intermediate, and has shadowed a dentist numerous times. Would his/her chances at being accepted into dental school go up, down, or stay the same if he/she decided to teach ESL in South Korea for a year after college? Also, will a background as an EMT look weird on an application to dental school?

I'm afraid I'll be perceived as too whimsical... But hopefully I'm wrong about that. I would rather them see me as an individual of many passions, or as one who has thoroughly explored other options before committing to dentistry.

Feedback on this is much appreciated

I think that might actually strengthen your application and give you a great topic to talk about during your interview. As we all know, there are loads and loads of nerds out there who have a 4.0 GPA and 22+ DAT scores, but are socially awkward and incapable of communicating with people around them (Not that I'm saying anyone with these stats is a nerd and socially awkward). Of course, a good percentage of such individuals turn out to be interested in dentistry or some other medical-related field. So, admission officers have seen tons and tons of applications with amazing scores/GPAs, and after a while that becomes somewhat boring. What makes you stand out as a well-rounded individual, is your unique set of experiences in life. It's important to show them that biology and chemistry are not your only strengths, but instead, you're an individual with many passions, one of which happens to be dentistry.
Good Luck