Community college course grades are looked upon differently than courses taken at a 4 year university. Not only is your GPA for each school calculated separately but community college courses are generally weighted lower than their 4-year university version of the course. If the decision came down to grades, the individual who has completed more classes at a 4-year university, although earning the same mark, will most likely be picked by admissions.
FAQ Group: Dental School Admissions
Observing for ~100 hours is the “minimum” requirement set by most schools. I spoke to the Dean of Nova a few years back who first gave me that number. He also told me any more shadow experience than that is a “concern” to them. At that point they expect you to become actively involved with dentistry by working as a dental assistant, taking dental assisting classes, taking other dental related classes, volunteering at clinics, etc.
One thing we offer at UCI to our members are tooth-waxing classes and denture making classes. These classes teach you oral and tooth anatomy from a hands on approach. The course is taught by a UCLA dental school bench instructor. Dental engagement like this show dental schools that you have physically worked with something dental related and that you are adroit (dexterous/artistic/mechanical) nature. This is where dentistry mainly differs from medical school. They want to see that you know how to use your hands.
Your pre-med experience is great! There is nothing wrong with experience. If dentistry ends up being your thing, you can use this experience to show the dental schools that you were open minded about other careers and after investing a good amount of time, you realized dentistry was the best choice for you. With that said you need to show them that you have given dentistry the attention that it deserves from that point on. Personally, I think those who find dentistry after exploring other career options are in a better situation than those who picked dentistry and just stick to it without considering other career options.
Dental schools have been recently looking for qualities that prove ones commitment to dentistry. This has sprung up and become fairly popular in the past few years. Those who apply to medical and dental school are at a disadvantage if the dental schools become aware.
That said, it is not mission impossible. People who apply to both will still get in; infact, one of my closest friends just did this and ended up at NYU College of Dentistry!
Before doing this, I urge that you make sure dentistry is something you can see yourself doing for the next 20+ years. In my opinion, dentistry is less flexible than medicine in general. It is important that our future of dentists are dentists because they are passionate about the career and not because they couldn’t get into medical school.