I’m an 11th grade Iranian student and i hope to get into pre-dental in a university in the US after I graduate from high school.
I’ve talked to several people and I’m a bit worried about the conflicting information I’m getting from different people and on the internet. I’ve been told that if I apply for pre-dental with a foreign diploma, I can’t get into university and I have no choice but going to community college and later transferring to a university. Someone else told me that’s not true and I can’t find anything on the internet that tells me whether I can apply to pre-dental with a foreign diploma.
If necessary I can move to the US for my 12th grade to get an American diploma but I only want to do that if I need to.
So is it true that applying directly to a university for pre-dental requires an American diploma or not?
“pre-dental” is not really a course, anymore than “pre-medical” is. You apply to undergraduate to study any course, and take the required subjects (usually two semesters each of bio, chem, organic chem, physics and English). Often, students who are headed towards a health career will major in a biological science, but it is not necessary.
You do NOT need to start with an American HS diploma, You don’t even have to have an American undergraduate degree, though it can help your odds of being accepted to a US Dental School.
What is usually the issue for international students is $$.
Instead of relying on word of mouth, work on your search skills. Run “international students US Dental School” and the 1st thing my search engine pops up is a posting by the American Dental Education Association (.org) which clarifies all of the above.
Unless you have a lot of money, it makes no sense to come to study dentistry in the US. Go somewhere where you can enter dental school right out of high school, and save yourself 4 years of very expensive studies plus the costs of dental school.
Where do you want to work as a dentist? You need to study in the country where you plan to work. It will be much easier to get your professional license.
Do not plan to study dentistry in the US because you think that will get you permission to stay here and work after you graduate.
Why do you say that? Is it more difficult to obtain a work permit through dentistry than through other career paths?
While US work visas are not guaranteed and immigration laws are subject to change, obtaining a graduate degree from an American university seems to be one of the more reliable pathways to immigration. It’s certainly much easier to enter the US labor market with an American degree than without one.
But yes, if going to college in the US would be catastrophic (e.g. financially) in case you can’t finish your education or you can’t get a permanent work permit here, it would be prudent to re-consider your college plans.
I wrote that because US degrees do not guarantee permanent jobs here. They do not even guarantee jobs during OPT. Potential college applicants need to know that, and need to plan accordingly.
I do not know if it is any more difficult to get work permission for dentistry than for other career fields in the US. I do know that dentists can face specific challenges in becoming licensed to practice in a country where they did not complete their degrees.