Top 3 Pre-Dental Websites

It seems like pre-dental students are always looking for good helpful websites to aid in their quest to become dental students. As many of you may have already found out it is very difficult to find resources that give you the information you are looking for. What I have done is used my knowledge, along with recommendation of other dental students, to find the most helpful websites available to pre-dental students. Without further adieu I present to you the "Top 3 Pre-Dental Websites" of 2012.

1. ADA.org: If you are just starting to look into applying to dental school or becoming a pre-dental student then you should spend a small amount of time browsing the ADA website. The ADA provides information on numerous subjects such as "Be a Dentist" for high school students and college students, dental school admissions, DDS/DMD programs, and Dental Admission Test. This is a small sample of what the ADA has to offer. Be sure to take the time to look around as some of the information provided can be a game changer.

2. Student Doctor Network: This website is by far the most helpful resource that a pre-dental student could ask for. The value comes from the ability to interact in a forum format. This means that you can read questions, information, and insights by hundreds of pre-dental students that are going through the same thing you are. Students on this website are more than happy to answer your questions along with posting information that helped them successfully gain acceptance to dental school. There is no possible way that I could possibly convey to you the helpfulness of this site. Check it out for yourself!


3. PreDents.com: PreDents is a great way for you to compare your statistics with others. Each student can create an account that allows him or her to input their statistics along with which schools they are applying to, interviewed at, and accepted to. What does all of this do for you? First off, I used this site to check out what schools I actually have a chance at. Yes, the ADA does put out some statistics that help but this way you can see the exact statistics of specific students. Secondly, if you ever wonder when interviews are being handed out or rejections this site allows for you to see the progress of other students thus enabling you to know whether schools are handing out interviews, rejections, or acceptances. A great supplement to Student Doctor Network.

Honorable Mentions


DentalDadDiaries.com: Take a glimpse into the life of a current dental student as he shares his experience with the world. You will see a variety of posts that include everything from descriptions of exams to detailed examples of projects that you will be working on in dental school.

DMDStudent.com: This is another website created by a student. There is a lot of information pertaining to dental school projects which makes this another great place for you to see what you will be doing in dental school. In addition, this website also contains some helpful information for the dental application such as example personal statements that were written and used by real applicants.

PreDDS.net: If you are looking for more information and about studying for the DAT or applying to dental school you may want to check this website out. Unfortunately, not all of the information or helpful resources are free on this website but still well worth a look.

Stu-DentDiaries.com: This is yet another website created by a student. You will find a lot of examples of what you will be doing in dental school here. Although very similar to the other student websites mentioned it is definitely worth a look. If nothing else it just gets you excited to go to dental school and could add a little more motivation to work hard.

Post your favorite pre-dental websites in the comment section below. I know that there are a lot of helpful resources out there so be sure to share them with the pre-dental community!

Scholarship Opportunities for Dental Students

Image courtesy of Anankkml

Anyone applying to dental school knows it is going to be an expensive four years of school. Once someone is accepted to dental school and they realize that tuition is going to be $250,000+ the natural thing to do is to start looking for scholarships. When it comes to dental school there are not a lot of ways to get a scholarship. If you have done well in school and you are lucky the school you were accepted to may be willing to offer you a part tuition scholarship. However, this is few and far between. In addition, your school may offer small scholarships ($100 - $5,000) through local scholarship donors. This may cover some books for a semester but will not put much of a dent in your tuition. If you want your entire schooling tuition paid for you are probably going to need to look towards a government scholarship through the Army, Navy, Air-force, or other program. Below I listed  as many scholarship opportunities as I could find. If you are a pre-dental student it is best to be looking into these programs now as some of the applications require a lot of work and early submission.

1. Army HPSP Scholarship: The Army offers a 3 or 4 year full tuition scholarship for dental students. Along with a $20,000 signing bonus they also give you a $2,000 monthly stipend to live off of while attending school. If you receive the 4 year scholarship you will be required to pay the Army back by working for them for a minimum of 4 years. This is a great opportunity if you are attending one of the more expensive dental schools or if you are just interested in joining the Army.

2. Navy HPSP Scholarship: The scholarship for the Navy is going to be very similar to that of the Army. Each of these are great opportunities and it is going to come down to which branch you would prefer joining.

3. Air-Force HPSP Scholarship: Once again the Air Force scholarship is similar to the scholarships offered by the Army and the Navy. In general the Air Force scholarship is more competitive than that of the Army and Navy. This is probably due to the fact that they have less scholarships to offer and still have a large amount of applicants. In addition, to a monthly stipend and the year of year payback the Air Force offers an opportunity for an Advanced Education in General Dentistry (AEGD) to each of the new dentists.

4. National Health Service Corps: Not interested in going into the armed forces in order to get a scholarship? The NHSC offers a very enticing scholarship program. Like the armed forces NHSC offers a year for year payback system. This means that if you receive a 2 year full tuition scholarship you will payback the scholarship by working at an NHSC approved site for 2 years. The benefit to this program is that you get to apply to a variety of jobs that are approved by NHSC and choose the location you want to work at. In general, these sites are in low income areas helping people with a lack of access to care.

5. Indian Health Service: Like all of the previous scholarships you have a one year for one year payback system. The IHS requires a minimum of a 2 year commitment from the students. The catch with this scholarship is that it is only "For qualified American Indian and Alaska Native students...". If you are either of these two then you are in luck and have an additional scholarship opportunity.

These are the five main scholarships offered for dental students. I will continue to add more as I come across them. If you have any that you know of please post them in the comments section. Good luck in landing that big money scholarship that you are looking for!

DAT Breakdown by: SLYgUY2098

To Start of this new year "SLYgUY2098" wanted to lend all of you pre-dental students out there a hand by posting his DAT breakdown here on DentalDAT. First of all congratulations to "SLYgUY2098" for a job well done. Scoring in the 98th percentile is not an easy task when it comes to the DAT. I highly recommend that you read this breakdown along with the others that are posted in the DentalDAT archive. Use the information that you gather from these successful students to formulate a winning strategy for yourself. Once you formulate a strategy that fits you and your schedule stick to it and you will see the results that you have been longing for.

SLYgUY2098 DAT Breakdown

PAT: 21 (87.9%)
QR: 24 (99.0%)
RC: 23 (89.8%)
Bio: 21 (92.3%)
GC: 21 (87.0%)
OC: 27 (98.7%)

TS: 22 (95.6%)
AA: 23 (98.7%)

Generally speaking, I thought the actual DAT exam was easier in respects to the practice that I've been doing. The only section that I thought was harder was the PAT, specifically pattern folding. All in all, as many have stated, if I can do it, so can you.

I would like to thank everyone on SDN that has helped me throughout this summer and dentalworks for his DAT 8-week study guide that I based my study schedule on. My family, friends, and you SDNers truly made these scores possible. I am humbled and deeply grateful. I will be posting a complete breakdown later tonight.

Here's my breakdown:

Practice Tests:
TopScore:
Bio/GC/OC/QR/RC/PAT/TS/AA
Test 1: 29/28/30/22/22/20/30/26
Test 2: 22/28/30/30/29/25/27/28
Test 3: 24/28/30/26/22/21/28/26

Achiever:
Test 1: 17/19/19/18/18/16/19/18

**Before I begin the actual breakdown of how I tackled my studying for the DAT, a quick note about materials. KBB was not the best. I read it as a  foundation but didn't rely on it at all. Pretty much none of it stuck after I finished with it. Achiever was ridiculous and  killed my confidence. TopScore was pretty accurate in its difficulty.  Nearly matched that of the real DAT.** Additionally, I modeled my study schedule after dentalwork's 8-week study program.

Biology: 
Materials: KBB, Destroyer, DAT QVault, Cliff's AP Bio, Alan's Notes
Comments:
I first started with KBB and realized that practically nothing I read was sticking. Asking advice from a friend who already took the DAT last year, I then bought the Cliff's AP Bio. Solid investment. Cliff's goes through almost everything you need for the biology section of the DAT. It lacked on details regarding the skeletal system (bone anatomy) and special senses (eye and ear).

Next, after reading through Cliff's twice, I then did Destroyer. First time through, I got about 50-60 wrong. Then my second run, I got 10 wrong. After Destroyer 2x, I then reviewed Alan's notes. They are detailed, but very succinct. You really have to know your material to find Alan's notes useful (and they are!).

I intermittently did DAT Qvault (bought the subscription) and it really helped. Started out at 18 for benchmark test #1 and went up to 23 for benchmark test #9 and #10. Very good investment and helped broaden the range of questions I came across.

Overall, I felt quite prepared for the bio section of the real DAT.

General Chemistry: 
Materials: KBB, Destroyer, Chad's Videos
Comments: 
I watched Chad's videos once, then did Destroyer once. Took notes using the handouts provided by Chad and then ran through Destroyer. I initially tried Destroyer prior to watching Chad's videos and I knew next to nothing. Chad's videos are VERY helpful. It was worth my money!

Overall, I felt super prepared for this section.

Organic Chemistry: 
Materials: KBB, Destroyer, Chad's Videos
Comments: 
Same thing as General Chemistry. Did Destroyer twice, and looked at the roadmaps too! (They help!)

Overall, I felt really prepared for this section as well.

Quantitative Reasoning:
Materials: KBB, Math Destroyer, Chad's Videos
Comments:
Judging from the success I had with Chad's videos for GC and OC, I plunged into his latest collection of videos, the ones for the QR section. It turns out I made the right decision. I tried Math Destroyer before watching the videos and I ran out of time about 25 problems into it. Post-watching the videos, I nailed all 40 with a few minutes to spare. I did Math Destroyer once through.

Overall, I was really surprised at the QR section. I know it has a nasty reputation for being the section people run out of time on, but I finished with 5 minutes left. There was nothing I didn't know or see before between Chad's videos and Math Destroyer.

Added advice: Please do not underestimate this section! I know I first did because I assumed I knew everything due to my perfect math SAT scores, but that's not the case! Take this section seriously too!

Reading Comprehension:
Materials: Crack DAT Reading (10-test), TopScore, Achiever
Comments:
Crack DAT Reading was nice, I used the 10-test version. Went through all of them, scored 23-25 on each one. It had more history and philosophical passages, very few on science. It helped build my speed and focus.

TopScore reading passages were far more like the real DAT because they were highly technical and science-based. Achiever was a bit overboard in my opinion.

Overall, I was confident going into the RC section. I read every passage (taking 10 minutes maximum), then answered the questions (10 minutes max). I didn't run out of time.

PAT:
Materials: KBB, Crack DAT PAT (10-test), TopScore
Comments:
Well I knew this was going to be a killer. Started out with CDP at a 16, worked my way up to 25 by the end of test 10. CDP was great because it had excellent explanations, and the range of figures/patterns/hole punches were great. Timing is key. But the most important part was practice. Practice, practice, practice. This isn't something you can "learn" how to do, it is simply practice-driven.

Overall, PAT wasn't terrible. Keyholes, hole punches, and cube counting were easier than CDP. Angles and TFE were the same difficulty. Pattern folding was pretty tricky, definitely harder than CDP. The pattern folding on TopScore was more representative of the difficulty of the real DAT though. Actually, TopScore PAT in general is quite representative of the actual DAT. Again, Achiever is pretty nuts.

Overall:
My experience with studying for the DAT has proven to me one thing: with hard work, anything can be achieved. I started my studying on July 5th, and concluded it on August 21st. I worked 8am-5pm Monday-Friday during that timeframe, and yet I still managed to study effectively and efficiently. I guarantee you that your hard work will be bountifully rewarded at the conclusion of your studies.

Other DAT Breakdowns

• My DAT Experience (breakdown) 
• DAT Breakdown by "Lucky Tangerine"
• DAT Breakdown by "Dental2000"
• DAT Breakdown by Tely

Thanks once again to "SLYgUY2098" for donating his DAT Breakdown! If you have a DAT Breakdown you would like to donate you can contact me via e-mail at TheCreator@DentalDAT.com.