Signing up for college classes

I remember signing up for classes while I was in college.  Every one wants the same classes, there are a limited number of seats, priority is given to upperclassmen, thus freshmen spend a year taking lame classes at lame times because everything was full upon sign up.

When signing up for classes you are often given a date upon which you are able to enter the school computer system and sign up for classes. Typically the school server gets bogged down on that day by the high volume of traffic and it takes forever to sign up if the system doesn't crash.

Don't wait until that day to come up with a plan.  Have every class picked and have backup classes picked as well.  If at first you can't get your desired classes, return to the system multiple times a day.  Often times classes open up, and you want to get that class locked in.

Be sure and sign up for enough classes.  If you need full time student status make sure you have enough credits.  If a scholarship requires a certain number of credit hours, get what you need.  You can always drop an extra class later if needed.

If you really can't get signed up for a class, meet with the teacher in person to request their class, they might know of a student that is thinking to drop the class.  Or show up to the class on day one and see if they can get you in.

It's all about "the hustle"
Getting the classes you want/need is not a fair process.  It will get frustrating.  Don't just give up and take what you are given.  Do some hustling, pull some strings, overcome the barriers, network.  College is a strange new place, and other students can help you in amazing ways.  Find out who the best teachers are, who grades easy, who teaches to the book etc.

My freshman year I got stuck with a couple 7am classes which was tough in the morning.  All because the other classes were full.  But it turned out to be a blessing in the end.  Because of my 7am start, I was done with all of my classes by noon.  After my last class, I would return to the dorms to find my roommates, just waking up and going to class.  This meant I had the whole afternoon to a quiet dorm.  I would do all of studying while my roommates were in class, then we would go out and have fun when they got back from class.  Meanwhile my roommates could never find time to study.

To this day, I start seeing my first patients as early as 7am.

Create a plan or lose a year

I want to help students get into dental school.  Applications get more competitive every year and one must use every resource at their disposal to improve themselves early in their college career.  Lets assume you are a college freshman starting your pre-dental path.  You think you want to be a dentist and want to find out how to do it.  Dental school seems a long 4 years away, but that time will come quickly.  Applying for dental school is just like applying for college, you apply during your junior year to get accepted your senior year.  With this time schedule in mind our 4 year wait has become a 3 year wait until you must submit your application.  

While I was in college I worked as a student adviser, it was my job to tell other students how to get into professional school.  One of the biggest reasons students failed to finish their dental school applications and get them submitted within that 3 year window was a failure to get the right pre-requisite classes completed.  Many of the students ended up making their 4 year college experience a 5 year college experience.  And believe me, that can be a red flag on an application.

Lets consider what we have to lose by taking 5 years to complete college.  

First off you might not get in...

College was designed to be completed in four years.  Unless you have a great reason why you took an extra year, it will look like you simply didn't have your act together and needed more time to complete what all the other applicants were able to complete in less time.  Most dental school would much rather take the student that was organized and completed everything on time.

Many applicants are able to finish their schooling in four year, but don't start working on their application until the spring of their senior year.  By then it is too late.  Interviews may be held after you have completed your senior year (sometime around Oct- Jan) and much of the interview will be revolving around what you are doing with your "free year" so have a good answer.

$$$$$$

Perhaps the biggest loss you will incur by taking 5 years to get into dental school rather than the designed 4 years is you will lose 1 year of dentist income.  You will not lose your first year of dental income, it will technically shorten your dental career by one year.   This means you will lose your last year of dental income, which is likely a much higher annual salary than your first year out of school.  Dentists can conservatively earn over $200,000.00 in their later years.  So consider that loss in income when planning your college experience.

Dental school Pre-reqs

Now don't get me wrong, students don't take 5 years to finish college because they are lazy, or party too hard.  Most students that take an extra year do so only because one class, one single pre-requisite class was not offered the semester that they had hoped.  Not completing a single pre-requisite can keep you out of dental school, thus postponing your admission into school.  Here is a link to the OHSU school of dentistry pre-requisites.

http://www.ohsu.edu/xd/education/schools/school-of-dentistry/prospective-students/dmd-program/applying.cfm

While this list of pre-reqs is helpful, compare other schools, apply to multiple schools and be sure you have completed their pre-req list as well.

Along with the pre-dental pre-reqs it makes sense to get a college degree while you are in school, so pick a major.  If you checked out the pre-req list you will see most of the classes are science based.  Picking a science based major will make your overall class list shorter and make it more likely you will finish on time.  When picking a major, create a four year plan (8 semester plan) to make the chossing classes easy so you don't get locked out of a single class.  Find an 8 semester plan on your colleges website.  Here is a link to my alma maters biology 8 semester plans

http://www.byui.edu/advising/8-semester-plans/agriculture-and-life-sciences#3

Create a plan for what classes you want to take, read the description of every class on the list.  Plan to leave room in your schedule to retake a class if you need to, or plan to take an introductory course in subjects you find difficult.

Sitting down for an hour and hashing out a four year plan may prevent you from missing one pre-requisite course which would otherwise delay your dental school application by a year.  Don't lose 1 year of a dentist's salary for lack of planning during the freshman year of college.