Need Guidance! A University Of Alberta Undergrad Student

[wonton_19]

Hello! 

 

I’m having a bit of a dilemma and was hoping for some advice. I’d really appreciate any help and your opinions! 

 

Basically, I am debating whether I should go back to school in the fall, or take a year (or a semester) off. It may not seem that big of a deal, but it has been driving me nuts because I can’t seem to decide what is the best choice even after talking to friends, teachers, and a dentist I shadowed. 

 

Some background information: I have completed my second year of undergrad at the University of Alberta. I will be applying for the Doctor of Dental Surgery program at the UofA, and will be writing the DAT in November. I have completed all of the required courses and the minimum amount of credits, and I am satisfied with my GPA (3.98). My backup plan is the Dental Hygiene program, and I have also completed the prerequisites for that.

 

This is my thought process so far: If I decide to go back to school, I will be investing both time and money in courses I don’t need, and at the same time, I could run the risk of lowering my GPA (and hurting my chances).  On the other hand, if I take a year/semester off, I can focus on preparing for the DAT to the best of my abilities, my GPA won’t change, and I will have more time for other activities (such as getting more experience through shadowing, volunteering, and of course picking up more shifts at my part time job to start saving up money). It’s just I have never taken a break from school before and I’m not sure how I’ll handle this drastic change in my routine— so I’m not sure if this is a good idea. 

 

I know a lot of people who go for the dental program work towards a science degree (4 years of undergrad) at the same time. However, I’m not sure what I would do with a science degree, nor do I really have an interest in obtaining one, which is why I’m not considering taking 2 more years of undergrad for a degree I don’t want/need.

 

I’m hoping some of you could provide me with perhaps a more sensible perspective. What was your guys’ experiences and path to dentistry like? I am open to anything and would greatly appreciate any suggestions or comments! 

[BScDMD]

I completed my degree (May 2013), took a year off (wrote the Nov 2013 DAT and worked), and got into dentistry - started Aug 2014.

I think it's worth it to take that year if you've got everything set up for dent and your back up plan.

[BScDMD]

^ also, once I started Dent I was super happy I had taken time off school, so that was an added bonus!

[2020Dental]

One more thing you should look at is that many schools require more than 2 years to be able to apply.

If you are set on Alberta and take the year off, make sure you are comfortable with the possibilty of not being accepted.

[DDSER]

Another thing is to consider that schools change their requirements all the time, and often without notice. You should consider the option or even email the schools and ask them if they are planning to change requirements any time soon, because that could screw you over if you don't end up finishing your degree and they change they change the requirements.

[DDSER]

Another thing is to consider that schools change their requirements all the time, and often without notice. You should consider the option or even email the schools and ask them if they are planning to change requirements any time soon, because that could screw you over if you don't end up finishing your degree and they change they change the requirements.

[hotlinebliiing]

With a 3.98 and a dat above 65, take the year off and do some MMI prep. You don't wanna be that goof who has stellar stats and doesn't meet cutoff for interview. Seriously. A degree is useless. You're only in your second year. Don't do anymore school than you need to. For the dat, degree won't even help because UofA doesn't care about them.

 

Take the year off!!!!!

[hotlinebliiing]

Also I'm not certain what your situation is but if all is well - it's WAY too early to be considering backups if you're in second year. Most people give it 3-5 tries!

[evanli78evanli]

You're competitive for uoft as well for OOP. They require 90credits but they won't look at the marks in the year you apply. So you have a solid chance of getting in there. Btw uoft doesn't differentiate between OOP and IP. UBC is OOP friendly too and so are other schools. Check other schools breakdown. Uofa uses 50% for GPA, some schools use upto 65%. Don't sell yourself short, you're definitely competitive for OOP schools as well. Don't restrict yourself to one when you can apply to seven English dental schools. Aside from schulich and mcgill (which require u to complete your degree), you'd probably get a couple interviews with those stats.

 

Secondly, if you don't feel confident in your abilities to get a ~4.0, I still recommend taking 5 courses your first semester. If in fact you don't get a 4.0 and get 3.7 instead (for example), dont take any courses the next sem and it won't be counted against your Uofa GPA calculation bc you need to take 6 courses full year in order for it to count. With the semester off, you can prep forMMI. This is worst case scenario however... Your almost gurantuued to get an interview, one of the first people to post their stats for 2020 had 4/66/36 with 33ish being average so don't fret

 

Lastly, I wanna address abt you taking a job on. Tbh, this is absolutely counterproductive from academic stand point ( as there's a a large contrast from school life) and from preparing to improve your DAT/MMI. Without question, work is as time consuming as full time study. I don't know anything abt your financial background. But if on your list of priorities admissions next yr is higher than your financials. I highly recommend you sacrifice the income you would make. Again I don't anything abt ur background. But it's been proven that work 10+ hrs is academically detrimental.. So in your case it would detrimental to your prep YMMV. From an academic stand point, your first 2 yrs will course intensive, so if you're taking a yr off, it might come back to bite you if you want to specialize

 

Wrote this on iPhone so sorry for spelling mistakes