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pre-dental college guide

  • Writer: subin
    subin
  • Jul 5, 2022
  • 4 min read

Here are a few pre-health paths I've seen as a graduated UCD student:

  1. Gap Year (Very common)

    1. Finish undergrad in 4 years and apply the summer after you graduate

  2. No Gap Year (Less common)

    1. Finish undergrad in 3 years and apply during your 4th year after you graduate or

    2. Finish undergrad in 4 years but apply the summer of your 3rd year

      1. This method requires you to take your DAT the summer of your 2nd year

Because I took the gap year route, I will give my personal advice on this!


1st / 2nd year

  • Figure out what classes to take!

    • Generally I would suggest:

      • General Chemistry w/ lab: CHE2ABC

      • General Biology w/ lab: BIS2ABC

      • Organic Chemistry w/ lab: CHE 118ABC

      • Biochemistry: BIS 102/103

      • Microbiology (with lab): MIC102/103L

      • Physiology: NPB101/NPB110C + NPB 101L

      • English Composition (1 year): UWP1/UWP101/UWP104F (this is probably the safest bet for satisfying prereqs in my opinion)

      • Math: MAT17ABC

      • Psychology: PSC1

      • Anatomy: EXB106/106L or CHA 101/101L (anatomy is notorious for being hard at UCD so alot of students opt to take it at a community college)

      • **** Obviously check pre-requisites with each school you want to attend or talk to HPA!

    • If I could go back in time I would potentially switch my major to something with easier upper division courses haha.... I would also consider minoring in something because you don't need that many classes to declare a minor! And if your minor is in the arts/humanities/social sciences, it'll help with your GEs!

  • SHADOW! Doing this early will confirm if you enjoy dentistry. It's harder to find opportunities in Davis so try looking for some in Woodland! Aim for at least 100 hours.

  • Get involved in things you enjoy and are passionate about!! Doesn't have to be dental related, if you are into martial arts join the Taekwondo club!

    • One thing I would note is that a key point in my personal statement and in my extracurriculars was my involvement with a student-run clinic on campus. Student-run clinics are very unique to Davis so I would highly recommend getting involved! I've also met a lot of my close friends from my clinic :)

    • Get involved early so that when you want to step into leadership opportunities, you feel qualified!

  • Journal about any extracurriculars your involved in! Add reflections and day-to-day tasks.

  • Create a spreadsheet to keep track of all dental related activities!

  • Connect with other pre-dentals, dental students, and dentists! I had some AMAZING mentors that helped me out so much with the application process, especially a lot of UC Davis alumni. It was also really nice applying at the same time or taking the DAT at the same time as my friends! Being able to talk to them about logistics or being able to rant together was stress relieving. Having people to navigate dental school applications with is so much more fun.

  • Summer of your 1st/2nd year is your time to shadow, research, and take summer classes. The summer of your 3rd and 4th year won't be as free.

  • Join the Dental School Admissions Bootcamp & DAT Bootcamp Study Groups Facebook Groups

  • Start saving money for dental applications

    • $251 for the first school you apply to, $108 for each one after (this doesn't include the secondary costs for each school and costs to fly for interviews :/ )

3rd year

  • During the school year:

    • Think about who you want to ask for letters of rec. Ask early! Some professors ask you for a notice a year in advance. If you have someone in mind, ask them asap! You can store your letters in Interfolio for free (it costs money to upload them to the dental school application though).

  • Summer: Take your DAT! I have a whole other blogpost on this topic for you to check out. HPA recommends that you take:

    • BIS 2ABC

    • CHE 2ABC

    • CHE 118ABC

    • STA 13 or STA 100

    • NPB 101 or 110ABC

    • I personally would recommend taking BIS 101/102/103 (they were all really helpful)

    • Make sure to send your scores to ALL dental schools in the U.S.

4th year

  • Fall Quarter:

    • Make your school list!!! Create a spreadsheet with average GPA/DAT, costs, requirements, location, etc.

    • ADEA Explorer is super helpful! It's a $35 PDF & has a bunch of great statistics and other useful information

    • Start your personal statement! I would suggest taking UWP 104F, which is a class dedicated to writing health professions personal statements. I didn't take it because there was never any space but I heard it's very useful!

    • Officially ask for letters of rec around this time so they have plenty of time to write. Set the deadline around early May because a lot of evaluators will push these deadlines. A lot of letter writers will also ask for a copy of your resume, transcript, DAT scores, or personal statement.

    • Start writing your extracurricular descriptions! You have around 600 characters and a lot of people use sentences instead of bullets so that they can reflect on their experience.

  • Spring Quarter:

    • Finalize your personal statement

    • Finalize your extracurricular, manual dexterity, COVID statement, education interruption descriptions

      • More information on the extracurricular section in a different post here!

    • Finalize supplementals (these need to be sent out when you submit for certain schools; ex: UCLA, UCSF, Ohio State, University of New England)

    • Mid May:

      • Open up AADSAS app

      • Send your LOR writers the link to the AADSAS app

      • Order transcripts

      • Input DAT Dentpin

      • Start inputting classes from your transcript

    • If your planning on taking classes at a community college for pre-reqs, register!



 
 
 

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