Is Dental school a viable option for me?

[garceyues]

Hello all, I was just looking for some feedback on whether dentistry could be something I am able to pursue. I am an unsuccessful first-time med applicant looking to explore some alternative career options. I recently finished my undergrad with the following GPA breakdown: 3.4  3.7  3.9  4.0 (second semester I was forced to take CRs although I was on track for a 4 that sem as well).

I am only really familiar with how admissions works for U of A dent since I am IP for Alberta. Given that they drop my lowest year, I would have a ~3.84 for U of A assuming that they don't assign fall 2019 a weighting of 30 credits for the sake of calculations. This already puts me at a huge disadvantage given that the average admission GPA was 3.89. I would assume that the median GPA score is most likely even higher. Would there be any hope for me to obtain a U of A interview without a near-perfect DAT score? 

Additionally, would I have any hope for OOP schools with my GPA? I know that schools often have IP advantages, and my GPA would be lower on the UBC and OMSAS scales :/ I haven't taken the DAT obviously, but it's not something I want to write if admission is broadly out of my reach.

Given the aforementioned, is dent something that I could pursue, or would it be best to look elsewhere? I know dent is something I could see myself in given the many similarities it shares with medicine, but I could never do an extra undergrad or something super time consuming just to be moderately competitive 3/4 years down the line. 

[PimentRouge]

Western takes best 2 years. You have a very competitive GPA for that. Kill the DAT, do some shadowing to show interest (and see what it's like) and you should have good chances. Shadowing will also help if you'll really like it, though it's probably much harder with covid. You don't want to be $$$ deep in the program wondering "what if..." if medicine is really your goal. GL!

[garceyues]

On 9/25/2020 at 9:57 PM, PimentRouge said:

Western takes best 2 years. You have a very competitive GPA for that. Kill the DAT, do some shadowing to show interest (and see what it's like) and you should have good chances. Shadowing will also help if you'll really like it, though it's probably much harder with covid. You don't want to be $$$ deep in the program wondering "what if..." if medicine is really your goal. GL!

Sounds like a plan! Is every other dental school pretty much out of reach for myself? And is shadowing considered to be an admission requirment in some sense? I have a good amount of experince outside of academics, but nothing is explictly dental related.