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.
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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.
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