June Lee, UCSF School of Dentistry
What dental school do you go to and what undergraduate school did you attend?
I currently attend UCSF School of Dentistry and I completed my undergraduate studies at UC Irvine.
Why did you choose the dental school you are attending / what are some things unique to your school?
For me personally, I was debating mainly between UPenn and UCSF. I ultimately chose UCSF because I felt as though I would fit in more with the students I met at the UCSF interview. Some other reasons I chose UCSF was because it is close to home for me, its pass/fail curriculum, and the fraternities go to mission trip abroad every year which I am really interested in doing. Also, UCSF had a good spread of students who decide to specialize, do a GPR, or go straight to working after graduating. On the other hand, UPenn is a big specialization school so the majority of students decide to specialize. I, personally, am unsure of whether I want to specialize or not so I did not want to feel pressured to specialize if I had gone to a big specialty school. I also felt as though the UCSF administration had a lot of helpful resources for students such as the CalFresh program, which is basically a food pantry for students.
What were you extracurricular/volunteer/leadership experiences in undergrad?
I was the secretary and then president of Delta Delta Sigma Professional Pre-dental Fraternity at UCI. The main project we worked on was starting a free mobile dental clinic to provide dental services to underserved communities. I attended a medical mission trip to Tijuana. I was the main coordinator of a research project with a dental research lab where we were studying the effects of a toothpaste on patients with periodontal disease and was published in a research article about this project. I volunteered at a hospital for 7 months with the HOAG health scholars program.
Does your school offer any events or programs for pre-dents? (feel free to share links!)
Yes, https://dentistry.ucsf.edu/programs/dds/prospective-students
This link should show upcoming events for pre-dental students, but I'm not sure how it will be because of COVID. However, UCSF posts various webinars frequently which I found really helpful like application tips, interview tips, etc. Previous webinars can also be found on that link. I attended Inside UCSF as a pre-dental student, which you have to apply for, but I'm not sure if it will be held this coming year due to COVID.
How would you recommend undergraduates prepare for dental school? What has prepared you the most personally?
I am an incoming D1 so I don't know what dental school is like yet!
