High School Student looking for advice

[Day after Today]

Hey, I'm looking for advice about what i should learn right now in high school in order to be prepared for dental school and what kind of classes should i look forward to in college in order to make my dental studies more easier, any help and replies are welcome
Thanks again

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[ph159]

Well high school classes wont prepare you for dental school. However, I encourage you to take as challenging of a course load as you can (science classes) so you can prepare yourself for college. In college you will have to take as many science classes you can as well. You can look forward to the general science classes (Chem, Bio, and Orgo) as well as higher level (Microbio, Immunology, Histology, Anatomy, etc..) Overall, just build a strong work ethic and stamina for long hours of studying

Good luck, its going to be one heck of a journey

 

[Advance]

Hey, I'm looking for advice about what i should learn right now in high school in order to be prepared for dental school and what kind of classes should i look forward to in college in order to make my dental studies more easier, any help and replies are welcome
Thanks again

As far as high school is concerned....
Pay attention in your science classes. Chemistry, Biology and Physics. If your high school offers Anatomy and Physiology you should take that too.

To make your transition from college to dental school easier I would recommend being a Biology major. Upper level biology courses help alot. (Genetics, Histology, Immunology, Cell & Molecular biology ect.). Plus the requirements for dental school are typically the courses required to graduate with a B.S. in biology so you won't need to take a lot of extra courses.

 

[Day after Today]

Well high school classes wont prepare you for dental school. However, I encourage you to take as challenging of a course load as you can (science classes) so you can prepare yourself for college. In college you will have to take as many science classes you can as well. You can look forward to the general science classes (Chem, Bio, and Orgo) as well as higher level (Microbio, Immunology, Histology, Anatomy, etc..) Overall, just build a strong work ethic and stamina for long hours of studying

Good luck, its going to be one heck of a journey

thank u for your help

 

[Day after Today]

As far as high school is concerned....
Pay attention in your science classes. Chemistry, Biology and Physics. If your high school offers Anatomy and Physiology you should take that too.

To make your transition from college to dental school easier I would recommend being a Biology major. Upper level biology courses help alot. (Genetics, Histology, Immunology, Cell & Molecular biology ect.). Plus the requirements for dental school are typically the courses required to graduate with a B.S. in biology so you won't need to take a lot of extra courses.

thank you also for the information, i will try to take anatomy next year in high school as I'm a sophomore this year

 

[Advance]

thank you also for the information, i will try to take anatomy next year in high school as I'm a sophomore this year

I took anatomy and physiology in high school and it was pretty helpful. It wasn't super detailed as on the college level but it was still useful.
My little brother is also a sophomore. Hes taking chemistry and hes learning alot of the concepts taught in a college level chemistry course.

Good luck future dentist

 

[JLT223]

Don't worry about these kinds of things yet. It's good you are, but enjoy high school while it lasts!

 

[allantois]

AP Bio and AP Chem have been tremendously helpful to me, especially AP Chem. As was Anatomy and Physiology, which isn't really taught in college Bio so it's great to take it in high school. You can take those two APs in your senior year, thus it will stay with you once in college.

Physics and Calc you don't really need.

 

[bwc]

In terms of activities, nothing from high school and before matters. Graduate and professional schools, including dental schools, only care about what you have done after graduating from high school.

However, to prepare you for college classes, you can take more biology, chemistry, and/or physics classes than is required of you to graduate. It doesn't necessarily have to be at the AP level, but if you have excelled in the subject, you can consider taking AP.

When it comes to choosing a major, dental schools don't care what it is, as long as you complete their prerequisites, which usually include (but can still vary by school): 2 semesters of general chemistry, 2 semesters of organic chemistry, 2 semesters of physics, 1 semester of biochemistry, 1 semester of microbiology. Sure, there is a lot of overlap between a biology major and the prerequisites, but they want you to choose a major because you are passionate about it, not because you think it will "make your application look better" or you think it is the norm for pre-dental students. Plus if there is a certain subject that really interests you, remember that once you start dental school you are not going to have the opportunity to go back and take classes in the area, so treat your undergrad years as an opportunity to do so.

 

[grannick]

Take your sciences and maths in highschool (broad, ie. including physics, calculus and functions), and just make sure you have your prereqs for your college program of choice (which you don't really need to think about grade 12). Pretty much keep your doors open.

 

[helprosie]

You should try dual enrollment where you take college courses and receive high school and college credit. This will really help your course load when you finally get into college. I'd say do english, maybe math and electives like economics.

 

[EggLoop]

Time management

 

[laterbay]

Whatever you do, don't take AP classes. I took AP trying to be a keener and it ended up screwing me in first year as instead of getting to take intro biology, I had to take ecology and genetics which were way too hard on top of physics/calculus

 

[allantois]

Whatever you do, don't take AP classes. I took AP trying to be a keener and it ended up screwing me in first year as instead of getting to take intro biology, I had to take ecology and genetics which were way too hard on top of physics/calculus

You don't have to use your AP credits

 

[laterbay]

You don't have to use your AP credits

OK, well that's further advice that I wasn't aware of at the time. I guess I should have posted a thread when I was a highschooler on SDN