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Engineering To Dental School


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Hey guys,

 

I am a civil engineering student at UBC in my third year interested in dental school.

 

My question is regarding work/volunteer experience. Since I am in engineering, I do co-op every summer (4-8 month long work terms). Thus, I do not have as much time to do research or volunteer in health science related fields as a science student would. Will this hurt my chances of getting accepted or will my engineering co-op experience be seen as a positive? Should I instead focus my entire summer on volunteering/working in health science related areas?

 

Thanks in advance :)

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I graduated from Mechanical Engineering at McGill this year and got into dental school at McGill. I've also worked at engineering internships every summer, and just dabbled in research and volunteering during the year. It was brought up as a positive aspect during the interview. I *think* engineering work experience could be just as rewarding/valuable as volunteering and research would. 

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Congratulations on your acceptance!

I'm actually very interested in McGill myself. Do you know what ~percentage average you need to be competitive? Also, do you know if dental schools take into account that an engineering course load is generally heavier than other science ones when looking at GPA?

 

Thanks!

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So assuming you are out of province you would need a pretty high GPA (3.9+) but if you are in province (or obtain it in someway) you'll need a ~3.8. McGill considers the degree itself a little bit, there's a small bonus for "professional programs" but I wouldn't rely on that. If your GPA is decent, you should give it a try. McGill dentistry's admission is a little eccentric due to the small class size so you never know. 

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i'll just expand on what exergy said, which is pretty much on point

 

GPA is a big factor when it comes to admission no matter where you go so get your GPA as high as you can 

 

your experience with engineering is already great so don't worry about not having health related volunteer stuff (although it would be ideal) however it's not mandatory.

 

the only thing that I would say is be prepared to answer: why did you chose dentistry over engineering? Or why the switch? in the interview

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So assuming you are out of province you would need a pretty high GPA (3.9+) but if you are in province (or obtain it in someway) you'll need a ~3.8. McGill considers the degree itself a little bit, there's a small bonus for "professional programs" but I wouldn't rely on that. If your GPA is decent, you should give it a try. McGill dentistry's admission is a little eccentric due to the small class size so you never know. 

Do you know what averages in percentage a 3.8 and 3.9 GPA is? I tried using this chart for McGill but they only provide letter grades.

Also, there are no letter grades for GPA's of 3.8 or 3.9 on the chart for some reason..

https://www.ouac.on.ca/docs/omsas/c_omsas_b.pdf

 

Thanks

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i'll just expand on what exergy said, which is pretty much on point

 

GPA is a big factor when it comes to admission no matter where you go so get your GPA as high as you can 

 

your experience with engineering is already great so don't worry about not having health related volunteer stuff (although it would be ideal) however it's not mandatory.

 

the only thing that I would say is be prepared to answer: why did you chose dentistry over engineering? Or why the switch? in the interview

Yeah I agree being able to answer that question is very important.

As for the engineering experience part, do you know if this applies to American dental schools as well?

 

Thanks

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Yeah I agree being able to answer that question is very important.

As for the engineering experience part, do you know if this applies to American dental schools as well?

 

Thanks

 

I'm not sure what american dental schools 

but for the most part I know that many american school require shadowing experience which is hard to find in canada........

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