Dental A new immigrant looking for guidance in field of Dentistry in America

[artist2022]

Hi! I am new here in United States Of America. Before this, I was a student of Bachelor of Dental Surgery in Pakistan where I was done with 2 years. I shifted here last year and took admission in BS Biology in Spring '19 and managed to transfer my 32 credits. Now, I am working hard to cover my pre-requisites to get admission into a good dental school. But still, I need a lot of guidance about what do I need to do other than taking courses which will help me build a better application. Can anyone please guide me about all the things I have to do here in US to get admission in a good dental school. I need to know about volunteering, shadowing and jobs which will help me build a good dental application.
Thanks

Hi! This thread has a lot of information that can help you! Steve's Ultimate Dental School Application Guide & artist2022's AADSAS guide
This is my post in that thread that was updated for the 2018-2019 cycle: artist2022's guide
Basically, you should aim for 100+ shadowing hours (preferably with a general dentist), ~100+ volunteering hours, a high GPA (as high as you can get- 3.5+ is probably average, 3.7+ is closer to competitive), a high DAT score (20AA is about average, 22+ is pretty competitive). You don't necessarily need dental-related employment on your application, but it can help.

All of this is what you'll need in a nutshell. You can look through the Dental Forums [ DDS / DMD ] for more info about certain things (for example, you can look through the DAT Discussions Forum to find info about taking the DAT), or post threads if you have other questions Good luck!

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[Mr.Smile12]

It's not clear to me if you have already had some experience after getting your BDS. Most people in your situation would apply for an international dentistry program, especially if you have already earned a Bachelor's in dentistry outside the USA/Canada and have taken the NBDE Part I or II. If accepted you would complete rigorous clinical training to get you into a position to practice in the US. Otherwise you would be wasting time and effort having to start over with taking predental prereqs and four years of dental school.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I have taken 2 out of 4 years of BDS so I was still half way through it. I am looking to start it over again here in US

If that's the case, have you connected with your predental peers and any faculty or staff involved with helping health professions students? The new ADEA Official Guide to Dental Schools has a lot of advice (summarized from ADEA GoDental web materials) as well.