When writing this post, my mind wandered back to 5,6 years ago when my journey first started. I was thirsty of every small information I could squeeze out of the internet, completely unaware of the vast info actually sharing freely on a daily basis. Until now I still don’t understand why it was so hard for me to dig out information. Once I found some golden keywords, everything opened up. One of the most resourceful website that I found back then was ADEA website. ADEA stands for American Dental Education Association – so the information is up-to-date and of course official (Yay!) If you are like me before – don’t know where to start – this should be your best friend from now on.
The most powerful info in ADEA in my opinion is their list of all the U.S. School providing the advanced standing program for international dentists who seek U.S license. What is advanced standing program (ASP)? It’s the generic name for all the dental programs capable of giving us international dentist a degree in order for us to get the license. (Why we need a degree to get license and is it the only way? I will write about it with more detail) Let’s take preceptorship program as an example. The preceptorship program takes us in to shadow their faculties only - no patient treatment, no skill training – and we complete with a certificate, not a degree. That’s not an ASP! Master of public health program also doesn’t provide a degree. AEGD program neither and so on. So before you start preparing for any application, make sure you check they will issue us a DDS/DMD degree upon completion.
Now the trickier part, each dental school calls the ASP differently. My school University of Colorado Denver calls it the ISP program (International student program). University of Washington calls it the IDDS program (International DDS program). University of Pennsylvania calls it PASS (the Program for Advances standing students). Then how do you know the exact name of the program at the school you want to apply to right? I know! The way I did it was:
- Check ADEA directory to see if your dream school provides ASP or not
- If yes, bingo! Now check their general requirements – required part 1/ or both part 1&2, application deadline, ECE/WES, etc
- Now you at least know what you should aim for – “passing part 2 latest in September since the deadline is November” for example.
- Final step, learn more about the school you want to apply to by simply googling your dream school + “international dentist program” – they should lead you there.
From this point, it is still a long way before you actually apply to the school(s) because you still have to do a lot of research. You may end up apply to only 3 schools that suits you the most (let’s say you only clear part 1 but still want to try), or to 20 schools across the country to increase more chance (but spend way more money unfortunately). But at least you are now equipped with some basic knowledge of where/when to apply and what needs to be done. I always believe a good foundation can take you far or simply save you a lot of time and headache :)
As I said before, this whole process is quite confusing with so many details and problems that happens every step further you take. My least intention is to overwhelm you with small details. Believe me, if I knew everything I know now, I would not give it a chance as I would think no way I could understand all that. With that in mind, I am trying to make my post kinda short so it won’t be too “dry” to read. I am pretty sure there still be questions on your mind that bothers you all days and nights. Please don’t hesitate to shoot me your question(s) – if I know something, I will answer directly or give you an info source that can answer better than me.
Here I will copy one the my faculties’ statement which I like the most:
BE YOUR BEST!