Tips for preparing to enter dental school

Once you are accepted to dental school, make sure to prepare well for your first year, as it will be challenging and you want to do everything possible before the year starts to position yourself for success during the academic year. 

Ways to prepare:

• Participate in a pre–first-year experience or orientation if your school has one.
• Work hard the summer prior to entering dental school to get your finances in order and save money to pay for your dental education.
• Relax. Dental school will be challenging, so it is important that you take some time for yourself before school starts. 
• Brush up on your reading. Once you are in a dental program, the amount of reading that you will do will be different from what you did as an undergraduate student. Try reading more books, magazines, newspapers, etc. Anything where you can work on reading speed and comprehension will help you prepare for dental school.
• Keep working on your hand skills. Continue to play your instrument, participate in your sporting activity, knit, etc. Don’t stop doing all those things that you were doing to demonstrate your hand skills once you have been accepted into dental school.   
• Develop and maintain good healthy eating habits, exercise on a regular basis, learn how to relax and find things that are fun to do. All of these things will help you maintain a healthy lifestyle so you can prepare yourself mentally and physically for the challenges ahead. Also, forming healthy habits before starting school will help you to maintain healthy habits during the year.