I want to become a dentist. I am a rising-senior in high school. I have solid grades in mostly aps and few honors classes and a good sat score. I live in Virginia. I don’t want to go far. I would prefer to stay anywhere in Virginia, but I wouldn’t mind DC/Maryland or NC. I think I will major in Chemistry or Biochemistry. Which undergraduate colleges should I be looking at keeping my goals in mind? Which ones would be most helpful in helping me get to where I want?
What are your stats?
4.25 weighted gpa, 1300 sat score, very rigorous schedule with mostly ap classes and a few honors
Dental school is expensive. If you life in VA then look into your great state options – UVA, William and Mary, and even VA Tech.
Lots of other public options in VA as well - Virginia Commonwealth, James Madison, George Madison, University of Mary Washington, and Christopher Newport are all also great match and safety options for a VA resident.
Other than that, you can go to dental school from all kinds of places, so it really depends on what you are looking for in a college. Loyola University Maryland is a medium-sized research university in Maryland, and Johns Hopkins is a large elite research university option. In DC, there’s American University, Georgetown University and George Washington University as well, all medium-to-large research universities.
If you want a small liberal arts college, there’s Washington & Lee University, University of Richmond, Randolph College, Emory and Henry College, and Randolph-Macon College. If you’re a young woman, there’s also Hollins University, Mary Baldwin University, and Sweet Briar College. In Maryland, there’s Goucher College and McDaniel College.
If you’re interested in HBCUs, there are also Howard (in DC) and Hampton (in VA). You’d be eligible for a lot of scholarship support at either of those colleges. Howard has a dental school as well, so there are options for shadowing dentists.
If you are willing to go slightly further afield, there are also lots of great liberal arts colleges in Pennsylvania (Gettysburg, Lafayette, Bucknell, Franklin & Marshall for example) and lots of good options in North Carolina (Duke University, Davidson College, Wake Forest University, Elon University, Guilford College, Greensboro College, Salem College if you’re a young woman). Tennessee also has Vanderbilt University and Rhodes College.
It really is more about the environment that you want, what kind of experience you want to have. You can go to dental school from any of these places.
I know Virginia Commonwealth has a dental school which is about it in Virginia. Other than VCU, I would say University of Maryland, Howard, and UNC. UNC would be difficult to get in to IMO. Would it be better to go to a school that has a dental school?
No, not necessarily. Most aspiring dentists go to a college without a dental school, just by sheer numbers. Going to a school with a dental school does give you easy access to shadowing and other resources, but you can access those resources in other ways at other universities and colleges.