Reed.Dentistry Predental Podcast

The Reed.Dentistry Predental Podcast follows Jordan Lundquist through the dental school admissions process and turns what happened to him into advice for the applicants behind him. It is a personal show in the plainest sense. Each lesson comes attached to his own record, and he does not tidy that record up. In one episode he recalls being well short of a human biology degree at BYU-Idaho in 2017 and taking on a pace he could not sustain because he did not want to wait an extra year to apply. His resume lacked job shadowing hours and community service, and he admits he thought he could rush organic chemistry without it costing him on the DAT. Waiting, he says in hindsight, was the right call. He is just as open about test scores. For applicants unhappy with a DAT result, he compares his own GPA and DAT score with Pitt's averages, both of his below them, to show that people get in below a school's averages. He also warns about minimum section scores that can rule a school out and make a retake worth considering, and he describes admissions managers as people who are there to help. Money gets a three-part series of its own, and the second part covers the costs of the DAT and applications, the ADEA fee assistance program, schools that waive supplemental application fees, and where to look for scholarships. The stories from inside dental school are different. He says he has never been good at science courses, and he describes refusing to cheat on exams taken from home even though open notes might have raised his grades. He passes along a professor's story about students failing their boards on a clinical test, and describes the pressures of his father's own practice, to make a broader point: after the hurdle you are waiting on, there is always another one. Other episodes set logistics aside. He talks about mental health, says he came to dislike the word 'hustling', and describes how trying to satisfy social media algorithms made him less happy. His faith as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is stated openly, and it shapes how he talks about physical, mental and spiritual health. The delivery is loose and conversational, with the pauses and restarts of someone thinking out loud. He invites applicants to send questions and says he will try to answer them on the podcast. The best starting point depends on where a listener is: '56. Bad DAT Score? Don’t Give Up: Here are Some Things You Can Do' after a disappointing score, '55. Don’t Rush: Apply to Dental School When Ready' for anyone deciding when to apply, and '59. Accepted or Not (Yet) Accepted: What to Expect' for anyone holding an acceptance or still waiting for one. His advice across all of them is the same: do not give up.