Pre-Dental Outreach


Pre-dental outreach is a newly-formed and strong initiative that hails all the way from the top of the ASDA administration.  Pre-dental undergraduate students can now join an ASDA chapter and enjoy many of the benefits that full dental school members have access to.  Within Conn ASDA, we have taken large leaps in regards to this initiative in the past year.  The dental school has very strong ties to the pre-dental society at the Storrs campus and we coordinate many activities with the undergraduate students through ASDA and Dr. Thibodeau (Office of Admissions).  The PreDental Society (PDS) there runs a Q&A session every year, which many of the ASDA students help run!

At these meetings, there is usually a shortlist of topics such as DAT prep, what a typical day is like at the school, what schools to apply to and what they are looking for, etc.  However, most of the session revolves around answering any questions that the students have pertaining to literally almost anything!  Since the ASDA members and nonmembers that talk to the students come from each year in school, the students can get a little play-by-play through the dental school curriculum throughout the 4 years.  An important aspect of the presentation is not only for the students to get to know what being a UCONN dental student is truly like, but also how UCONN distinguishes itself from other universities.  A typical question is, “I’ve heard vaguely about this combined medical/dental curriculum.  Why should that matter to me and why does UCONN do it?”.  It is easy for someone who is trying to sell a school to come up with a preformed answer to this, but we are STUDENTS and not salespersons.  Just like the audience in front of us, we wanted to go to a school that had the correct fit for us, not necessarily the best sales pitch.  It’s also a great session to let the undergraduates know how the curriculum is structured and whether or not it is for them. We can even provide any information we can based on other schools that we interviewed at.

Conn ASDA has also begun reaching out to other schools around the state.  Recently, interested pre-health Wesleyan students visited the school and ASDA members were able to give the students a tour of the facilities and answer any questions!  Contacts have also been made with Trinity College and Yale University and events at these institutions are being scheduled.

Most of the pre-dental events are handled by the first year representatives on the committee and organizing these events is a blast.  We also help out with events such as Passport to Dentistry!

We believe it’s important to invite pre-dental students to Conn ASDA as members for several reasons:

  1. Whether applying to the University of CT School of Dental Medicine or any other universities, it shows that undergraduate students have a strong interest in dentistry and are willing to pursue it!
  2. Undergrads receive many perks and freebies with membership!
  3. The knowledge gained by becoming part of ASDA will be super helpful for interviews and in the future!
  4. Many more!

For more information on the cost of a pre-dental membership and what you get for being a member please visit here.

Or email anyone on the Conn ASDA board!

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