Pre-Dental Association The University of Texas at Dallas
WELCOME TO OUR FIRST MEETING! Meeting Agenda Introducing PDA Meet The Officers Upcoming Events Website Orientation Guest Speakers Q&A
UTD PRE-DENTAL ASSOCIATION Organization Overview What To Expect How To Get Involved Events
ABOUT US The Pre-Dental Association at the University of Texas at Dallas is a student-run organization that strives to provide fellow UTD students with valuable information and resources about the dental field. Through general meetings, symposiums, guest speakers, dental school visits, and much more, our members can gain the knowledge they need to successfully apply to dental school. The Pre-Dental Association also takes part in campus-wide events that allow it s members to raise funds for various community dental care funds and create awareness for the importance of oral health for all. All of these components come together to create a very unique opportunity for UTD students to be part of an organization that gives back to its members and to the community.
MEET THE OFFICERS
UPCOMING EVENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS ASDA 2017 National Leadership Conference November 17 19 Chicago The American Student Dental Association is having it s National Leadership Conference this November. This is a great opportunity to network and connect with dentists and pre-dents just like you. You must be an ASDA member to attend. Check out their website here. T-Shirt Designs Due: October 5th at 11:59 PM Winner will get their design on the 2017-2018 PDA t-shirt and 2 service hour credits! Miles for Smiles 2018 Committee Stay after the meeting
OU Pre-Dental Clinical Simulation Course Register online Allan Saxe Volunteer Opportunity 9/9 Sign up on our website or talk to Anshu after the meeting
FIRST SOCIAL S mores Night Date: Friday, September 15th Time: 7 pm - 8 pm Where: Phase 5 campfire (firepit) Meet your fellow pre-dental members while enjoying s mores! **Fulfill your social event requirement now before the semester gets busier!
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION Website: https://utdpda.wordpress.com/ Email: utdpda@gmail.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/utdpda/ Student Org. link: https://orgsync.com/8472/chapter
BECOME A MEMBER! How to join PDA Membership Form $30 dues Requirements 15 Service Hours + 1 Social Credit Deadlines Form and fee are due on October 5th You must be a member to sign up for Member Only events. New system to mix up groups
Guest Speaker: Fareed Ighani
PREPARATION FOR DENTAL SCHOOL Fareed Ighani
WHAT CLASSES DO DENTAL STUDENTS TAKE?
IS THAT A LOT OF CLASSES? s r ou h t i ed r c 5. 3 4, r e Th e r ea l c 22 s e s s a
WHAT DOES A WEEK LOOK LIKE IN D1 YEAR? These classes are not hard, you will just simply run out of time!!!!
If you are a freshman or sophomore try to shape your last 2 years in such a way that you can take as many of these classes as possible. If you are a junior try to take these classes in the remaining few semesters you have. If you are a senior and are applying this cycle and are planning to take any of these classes in the next semester, mention your plans in your interviews. If you are a senior that has taken very few of these classes at least try to take the classes I have in blue.
SO KNOWING ALL OF THAT, WHAT CAN I DO NOW? Anatomy and Physiology ( the A&P 1 is a bigger help than A&P 2) Microbiology Neuroscience (not as important) Histology (definitely take oral histology) Cellular and Molecular Biology Immunology (we do not have the best teacher for this class at Baylor, so if you have some background knowledge before going to this class makes it significantly easier) Embryology (not as important) Biochemistry Pathology
COULD I GET ACCEPTED TO DENTAL SCHOOL WITH OUT TAKING ALL OF THESE CLASSES? In short YES. However, I do not recommend doing that. I graduated from UTD after taking: Microbiology (not the 5 hours one), Cellular and Molecular Biology, Oral Histology, Biochem 1&2 and A&P 2. Last year in dental school, I averaged 4 to 5 hours of sleep per night, because there was a lot of material that I needed to learn while a lot of my classmates were just trying to remember what they had learned in undergrad and relearn it. So if I take these classes, will D1 year of dental school become easier? No, you may still have to study hard but they will help you get a significantly better understanding of these topics.
BUT IF I TAKE ALL OF THOSE HARD CLASSES MY GPA MAY DROP AS A RESULT? First, try your best to maintain your GPA while taking these classes. Second, having these classes will make your application more competitive. Third, the mental pressure and stress of learning these classes in dental school will be significant and if you have to learn everything it will be very time consuming and challenging. Personally I didn t take many of these classes because I were worried they may effect my GPA negatively, but if I could go back in time I would tell myself to take them no matter what.
LETS TALK ABOUT THE APPLICATIONS!!
HOW IMPORTANT ARE GPA, DAT SCORES, COURSE LOAD AND VOLUNTEERING? You will not get accepted to dental school with out these three, even if you are related to the dean of dental school!!! 1. Your GPA and DAT are of outmost importance, these are the first things admission committees look at. If you lack in these two areas, retake your DAT and/or take more classes to bring up your GPA. 1. What is considered a low GPA for Baylor, 3.2 2. Is it impossible to get accepted with a GPA lower than that? No, there are people in my class with 2.5 GPA 3. What is considered a low DAT score? Any thing less than 19 4. Does this score all they want? No, to be competitive think about something around 20 (this is closer to Baylor s average). 2. Don t take all your classes in community college. 1. If your GPA from community college is significantly higher than your university GPA, that is a bad sign. 2. Take as many of your science classes as possible at UTD (you can take stupid classes like psychology or history at community college) 3. As long as UTD accepts the community college hours, Baylor will too. (out of state schools)
HOW IMPORTANT ARE GPA, DAT SCORES, COURSE LOAD AND VOLUNTEERING? You will not get accepted to dental school with out these three, even if you are related to the dean of dental school!!! Your Course work is the third point of this triangle. Some people have a 4.0 with an easy course load (that they have taken over 6 years), but that is not as competitive compared to a person who has a 3.5 GPA with science heavy courses (over 4 years). Also, no two 3.5 GPAs are created equal. You may have a 2.0 GPA the first year and after that you maintain a 3.9 GPA, that looks a lot better than a person who has a 4.0 GPA in the first year and by the time they get to their last year, they have droped to1.5. If they see a trend of improvement that is a lot better. No amount of volunteering will replace a low GPA or DAT score. But you said there are people with 2.5 GPA in your class!! How did that happen? Those people, took either master courses and got another degree, or they came from some really exceptional circumstances.
HOW IMPORTANT ARE GPA, DAT SCORES COURSE LOAD AND VOLUNTEERING? You will not get accepted to dental school with out these three, even if you are related to the dean of dental school!!! Volunteering comes secondary to your grades. Your grades shows the dental school that you can handle the heavy course load that they will require of you to handle, while volunteering shows them that you are willing to give back to your community and make time no matter what to help others.
WHAT TYPE OF VOLUNTEERING DO I NEED TO DO? Should I volunteer in dental field only? Definitely not. Does my volunteer work need to have significant impact on the community? No (you do not need to change the world to get into dental school.) I have volunteered in all the TMOMs in the past 4 years is that enough? Good for you, but No Once in a while I go to mission of Arlington and help, is that enough? No
WHAT TYPE OF VOLUNTEERING DO I NEED TO DO? The most important factor about volunteering is it s consistency. Personally, I volunteered for 4 years with my faith in Dallas area to teach children of immigrant families. I did not have the most significant impact on their life nor did I change the would. But I were consistent. Working in a dental office does not have a significant impact on your application. (I will talk about another one of these low impact activities that you can do)
Some personal suggestions: VOLUNTEERING volunteer in hospitals on a consistent bases. Volunteer in TMOM Go to mission of Arlington or other clinics that Baylor has through out the city and volunteer on a consistent basis. Get involved in organizations, you don t need to be president or something, just being involved is all they are looking for. volunteer in your religion activities. If all fails, just volunteer for an orphanage or something, but do it every week. Go to Dallas dental club, and find your self a good dentist to shadow and do it consistently. Is it better to shadow someone with a specialty? No, it does not make any difference for your application if you do that. You need around 100 hours of volunteering to be considered competitive and another 200 to actually shine (UT Houston)
ESSAYS AND RECOMMENDATION LETTERS The two optional essays for Baylor are not optional, so on TAMDSAS write all three essays. Your grammar and how well written your essays are, is important. The admission committee reads hundred of essays, and they don t have time to encrypt your essays and try to figure out what you want to say. If you have to, pay a professional writer to edit your essays. These essays are very important, because they will tell the admission committee who you are before they even meet you. Recommendation letters are also very important, because they will point out your qualities and could possibly confirm many of the characteristics you are trying to show in your application in the first place. (Get recommendation letter from people that know you, and if you do not have anyone like that, then its time for you to spend more time with your professors and get to know them and give them a chance to get to know you.)
ESSAYS AND RECOMMENDATION LETTERS A letter of recommendation from a general dentist actually looks better than a letter from someone with specialty. (you are applying for a dental school not a specialty school.) If you are taking Dr. Murchison s class, he could potentially write you a letter, but you need to do really good in that class. (of the record) And your family member can not write you a recommendation letter.
Do not take a Gap year after your senior year!!!!
APPLICATION MISS Apply before august!! Take your DAT by mid July. School, will not consider your application until it is complete. It will take TAMDSAS 4 weeks to process your application and send it to the schools. If you want to show your face in the dental school, do with the tours of dental school, that way they will remember you and they have a record of you. Do not show up randomly, they will not remember you and you will only annoy the **** out of them.
INTERVIEW In Baylor you will interview with 3 people. Read your application forward and backward before your interview, you will spend most of your interview time talking to these people about your application and who you are. They will ask very few general question or even not at all. Each one of them will give you a certain number of points. Send these people a thank you card!! Why? Before Dec 1 st, these people meet again and if you have equal number of points as someone else, a nice card will make a difference.
ACCEPTANCE!!!!!!!!! The class will practically be filled on Dec 1st. However, about ¼th of those people will reject their offer. (TYPICALLY) On Dec 1st night, the Dr. Miller, will send each acceptance email individually and alphabetically (Maybe). So do not panic if you do not get an email until 2, 3 in the morning. Last year the class was 99% filled by January. In my class we had people getting accepted a week before school started. the school will not send a second round of acceptance until spring interviews are done. Usually they are interviewing people until end of February. Do not contact the admission office if you do not get accepted on Dec 1 st. It will not do you any good. However, if you want to send your transcript in or if you want to send then new list of volunteer hours that you have done feel free to email them.
ACCEPTANCE!!!!!!!!! If you have interviewed, after the second round call or go to their office and see how things are. You may have been rejected or put on a wait list. If you have not gotten an interview by the end of February then go to the admission office or call and see what you can do to make your application more competitive. Do not give up hope!!!
Guest Speaker: Husnain Shahid
Questions?
THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR COMING!