DDS Meeting 9/30 – ECU Admissions
v Speaker: Mr. B Lamont Lowery – Director of Admissions at ECU Dental
Alex & Kelly – 3rd Year Dental Students
Ø Unique Program Features:
§ Systems Based
§ Collaborative Learning Cases
§ General Dentistry Focused
§ Community Service Learning Centers
§ Only Specialty will be Pediatrics and Hospital Based Residencies
§ Leadership and Public Health Education
Ø Yammer –based Problem –based learning
§ Online platform that allows for collaboration between students
§ Easy integration between health care providers when sharing patients
§ Allows students to work together on school work and patients
Ø ECU has Service Learning Centers that are dental clinics are service centers located across rural areas of NC. Students go to these centers to practice and rotate through at least 3 locations. The health centers are not free but provide subsidized treatment. Students go, work, and live in the locations of the centers.
Ø ECU Dental is a fully Apple technology based program. These tools are used to attend to patients and for schoolwork. Patients will for example, be able to call a doctor without calling the doctors private number.
Ø ECU Admission Numbers
§ Applicants (NC): 400
§ Admitted: 52
§ Applicants (National): 12,000
§ GPA Overall: 3.4
§ GPA Science: 3.3
§ DAT (Academic Average): 19
Ø The entire purpose of ECU Dental is to serve North Carolina and especially the underserved parts of NC. NC is raked 47th out of the 50 states in availability of dental care (we’re almost last).
Ø godental.org. This site is very useful and helpful in teaching students how to apply to dental school. Numerous resources such as virtual sessions with admissions representatives from across the nation.
v Q&A
Ø Always fulfill the exact requirements in regards to the types of recommendations and from who for each school
Ø In a personal statement be sure to bring yourself out. Don’t be “fake”. Show the committee who you are. What you enjoy. Why you like dentistry. Be yourself and don’t lie because people can tell.
§ Read it several times. Have others read it for you
§ UNC Writing center
Ø Living in Greenville
§ Not a bad city.
§ There is a strong sense of community and involvement in the town. The school is very well accepted.
§ You live the life of a “small town celebrities”
§ Drawbacks would be that in the small town that there’s only on movie theater maybe, limited special food choices, etc.
Ø The mission trips that Alex and Kelly took while at UNC and in DDS confirmed their interest for dentistry and they knew from that moment that they wanted to be a dentist. MOM clinics were also very influential.
Ø MOM clinics offer a lot of connections as well, which can be very beneficial.
Ø There is a very strong connection between all the dental students and there is a very big support group. You will have a lot of friends in your class. There are class outings and everyone gets their own friend group.
Ø If you apply more than once or applying for the second time, you have to show that you are a new person. Don’t just copy and paste. Admissions can see your old application. There is a reason you didn't’ get in the first time so show that you are different and “look like a new applicant, not like you just got older”.
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