Making people smile is a beautiful thing. Making people’s smiles look beautiful is an even greater reward. That’s why many people choose to go to dental school.
If you’re looking into dental school, there are some things you need to know. From requirements to schooling, read on to find out how to get into dental school.
Get Your Undergrad Degree
The first step to getting into dental school is getting your undergraduate degree. The large majority of those accepted into dental school have bachelor’s degrees or higher.
While no specific degree is required to get into dental school, aspiring students should take courses in biology, organic chemistry, and physics. The more lab courses you can take, the better prepared you’ll be for dental school.
Take the Dental Admission Test (DAT)
The Dental Admission Test is the SAT or ACT of dental school. The test isn’t legally required to become a dentist, but getting a good score greatly increases your chances of getting accepted into dental school, and many schools do require it.
The test is comprised of multiple-choice questions which include science knowledge, reading comprehension, math problems, and quantitative reasoning exercises.
The DAT is graded on a score of 1 through 30, with 18 being the approximate national average. Each dental school has its own Dental Admission Test averages, so get familiar with your own score versus the average score of the schools you’re looking into before applying.
Volunteer or Work in the Dental Field
If you want to become a dentist, you need to work with one first. It’s like an internship if the internship happened before you went to school rather than at the end of it.
Many dental schools require at least 100 hours of work in the dental field or shadowing a dentist. The more work you do, the better it looks when applying for schools.
Volunteering or working in the dental field is also necessary because it gives you a great idea of whether or not you actually want to become a dentist before you invest time or money into a great dental school like Ultimate Medical Academy.
Other Tips on How to Get Into Dental School
While getting your undergrad degree, taking your Dental Admission Test, and putting in your hours with a dentist are all virtually required to get into dental school, there are other ways to bolster your application.
Getting involved with extracurricular activities is important for getting into dental school. Most schools want to see that you’re well rounded and more than just buried into your classwork.
It’s also extremely helpful to get a letter of recommendation from a dentist. If you’ve done good work with the dentist you’ve been shadowing, they should be happy to provide you with one.
The Final Step: Apply!
Now that you know how to get into dental school, it’s time to apply! You’ll never get in if you don’t try, and we hope you’re feeling better prepared for your journey into dentistry.
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