Defining the Stages of Getting into Dental School
AUTHOR: Omar Tabaqchali, 2nd Year Dental Student at King’s College London
If you’re starting your journey to get into dental school, you’ll soon realise that it’s not like most other university degrees. This is because dental schools require a lot more from their applicants than the simple A-Level or IB grades and a personal statement. From work experience to admissions tests, this article will give you a brief overview of the dental school application process, from start to finish.
*This article is aimed at students who have started sixth form/college in the UK, or are about to start it.
Work Experience & Extra-Curriculars
The work towards getting into your dream dental school ideally begins at the start of year 12. When choosing you’re A-Level/IB subjects, it’s important to ensure that 2 of those choices are Biology and Chemistry. This is because every dental school needs at least one of these, with most requiring you to study both. This means that if you want to have the best chance of getting into a dental school, you’ll need both of these subjects, so you have a bigger range of universities that you can choose from.
Once you have started you’re A-Levels, it’s vital to consider various extra-curricular activities to do during your free time that will enhance your application. The first, and most important of these is work experience, also known as shadowing. This involves being in a dental setting observing and learning from a dental professional while they are practicing and treating patients. This is very important as it is key to helping you gain a realistic understanding into the field of dentistry, something that will be very valuable later when it comes to writing your personal statement or in interviews. An easy way to get work experience is to contact your personal dentist and ask to come in for a couple of hours each week. If they aren’t able to have you, then be sure to ask them if they know any dental colleagues who are taking on dental applicants. If this doesn’t work then a google search for local dentists should be good enough to find one that you can contact and ask these same questions. In the worst-case scenario that you can’t find any in-person work experience, search for an online course that introduces you to the field of dentistry. This isn’t ideal, but is a great option in this case. At I Want To Be A Dentist, we offer a very affordable online work experience course, that you can complete from home and get a certificate from. This course is accessible for all applicants so if you are eligible for a bursary, you can access this course for free! Here are the links to the course sign-up, as well as our bursary information page
Work Experience Course link: https://iwanttobeadentist.com/work-experience-dentistry
BURSARY link: https://iwanttobeadentist.com/bursary-info?rq=bursary
Aside from work experience, universities want to see that you are rounded individuals, and that you share similar qualities and traits to dental professionals, such as good communication, teamwork, leadership, critical thinking and manual dexterity, just to name a few. This means that you need to participate in extra-curriculars that help you build those skills. This can be anything from doing art to build up your manual dexterity and precision, to leading your school basketball team, demonstrating your leadership and teamwork skills. Ensure that these are varied, and that you reflect on what you learn from each of them; they will create the mental catalogue of answers that you can use when It comes to the interviews.
UCAT, BMAT & Personal Statement
During the summer of year 12, you will need to write your personal statement, and sit the UCAT exam. This will potentially be the busiest summer of your life, as you may be dealing with end-of-year mock exams, that you need to also score highly on, for those good predicted grades. Most dental schools require AAA, with a few exceptions requiring A*AA or AAB, so studying consistently throughout year 12 is paramount to helping you attain those grades.
When it comes to the personal statement, you will need this to sell yourself as a competitive applicant with the right skills and traits to enter the field of dentistry, and as someone with accurate, realistic expectations of what being a dentist is like. The process of writing the personal statement is something that we delve into in other blog posts, so make sure to check those out too!
The UCAT exam is the admissions test you need to sit if you are applying to any dental school in the UK (except the University of Leeds, which accepts the BMAT). This is an aptitude test that you can only sit once per application cycle, with 5 sections: verbal reasoning, decision making, quantitative reasoning, abstract reasoning and situational judgement. The exam is very intensive, lasting 2 hours, and assessing a variety of skills. It will require you to prepare beforehand, and we recommend around 6-8 weeks of consistent preparation in order to perform your best on this exam. We have many resources an services for the UCAT, including 5-week courses, an online video course, as well as other blog posts and 1-2-1 mentoring as well.
Your UCAT score is a key determinant of where you should apply when it comes to choosing your dental school options. Each university may use your UCAT score differently; some weight it a certain percentage and score candidates and based on the UCAT, personal statement and predicted grades, and other dental schools may have a UCAT cut-off score. Once you have your UCAT score, it’s important to then apply strategically to the universities that will most likely select you based on it.
Interviews
Once you apply to your selected dental schools, you will hopefully receive invitations to be interviewed (around the winter season of year 13), and it is here that they will test and examine all of your traits and see if you are an ideal candidate. This stage in the process can be the most difficult for a lot of applicants as they have likely never had interview experience. This is why we offer a wide array of services to help with interview preparation, from blog posts, online and in-person courses, to 1-2-1 mentoring and mock interviews.
Once you complete your interview and hopefully be awarded a conditional offer, all you have to do is meet the conditions of your offer. In most cases, that simply means attaining the required A-Level grades, which are usually AAA or A*AA. All that is left to do is to work hard in sixth form/college and achieve those grades!
If you enjoyed reading this article and have any questions, please feel free to get in touch with our team on hello@iwanttobeadentist.com , or contact me personally via Instagram (@omar_dental_) or via email (omar.iwtbad@gmail.com).
