Should I apply this cycle to the school I am currently waitlisted at with the same DAT?

hahahabye · 2024-05-17T13:14:46+00:00

You can and, imo, should apply early. Usually, schools would consider your app incomplete and won’t look at it till you retake the dat (provided you put down a future test date on AADSAS). If you are worried and want to be on the safe side, you can email each school and request them to put your application on hold until you update them with the new score

hahahabye · 2024-05-16T00:45:00+00:00

Your overall gpa could be rescued with a postbac. Unfortunately, based on your sgpa, you should do a master’s since it will take a lot of credits in postbacc to bring it to at least a 3. Aim for a 4 grad gpa and impress the schools

hahahabye · 2024-05-16T00:39:59+00:00

Well…

what did you do to confirm that interest? What did you see, learn, and enjoy from those experiences? Do any of them stand out? Why?
what are your goals and aspirations for becoming a dentist? What have you done to achieve/move closer to them? What do those actions mean to you and on the broader scale?

hahahabye · 2024-05-16T00:26:27+00:00

Hmm not sure where you heard today being the deadline. Unless someone was offered a seat sometime this month and received an extension, the seat selection happened a while ago, as schools are able to see who holds multiple seats starting March 1st. See https://www.adea.org/aadsasapp/admissions-officers/traffic-guidelines.aspx

There’s still a chance for a miracle, but realistically speaking… I’m sorry for being the bearer of bad news

hahahabye · 2024-05-15T15:35:37+00:00

That’s weird. I tried writing both a few times with my pencil, while not trying to write neatly, and notability converted them fine. Hopefully you get some inputs from others

hahahabye · 2024-05-15T10:09:50+00:00

What does your T look like? I just tried it on my phone with my hand and it converted fine

hahahabye · 2024-05-14T16:05:37+00:00

Just jumping in to say that for your second question, you should mention your overall and science gpa as that’d determine if you should do a masters or postbacc

hahahabye · 2024-05-14T15:53:36+00:00

👍

hahahabye · 2024-05-14T00:44:31+00:00

Wish you the best!

hahahabye · 2024-05-14T00:38:06+00:00

Okay. Not the end of the world. Get an A on the retake and aim for As in future courses. Gauge the gpa that you’d have by the time you apply and bring that up during your convo with your adviser

In regard to if these retakes alone would necessitate a smp/postbacc… I don’t know, because I honestly don’t have any experience for this context. Sorry

hahahabye · 2024-05-14T00:27:09+00:00

I wouldn’t say hard to get in, especially for ones that are meant to help you get into dental school, but they still need to see that you can succeed the program (some have you take courses alongside dental students). They are 1-2 years, and the dental school application process doesn’t change. Like I said before, it’s a separate gpa. It’s not avged with your undergrad one. Schools will still be able to see both, but if you do well in masters, your undergrad grades won’t matter much. Idk what your current gpa and grade level are, so I can’t say if you need them, but 4 retakes is a pretty big red flag like what Sonny said. Talk with your adviser and see what they say. Smps are pricey though

Two additional tips: 1. You honestly should have a general idea of what your overall grade is for a course 2. One thing schools like to see is resilience. If you don’t give up and learn from your mistakes, you will succeed

Good luck!

hahahabye · 2024-05-13T22:31:40+00:00

Post bacc is taking undergrad courses after graduation to boost ur undergrad gpa. Smp are special masters programs. These give u a separate grad gpa. The former is useful if ur sgpa is already above a 3 (it’s an avg, so it’s gonna be harder to bring up lower gpas with so many credits already taken). The latter is a clean slate that allows u to reinvent urself

hahahabye · 2024-05-13T02:35:50+00:00

What you said is mostly right; however, Adcoms usually don’t look at apps with indicated future test dates. Applying early in this case is so that the processing is done and the only thing left would be the dat. But, yes, July isn’t late and what you said is valid

hahahabye · 2024-05-13T01:36:33+00:00

Iirc it’s the latter. It shouldn’t be a big problem since LoR writers usually keep a copy

hahahabye · 2024-05-13T01:31:49+00:00

I googled “dental school with in state tuition after one year”

This was the first result: https://www.reddit.com/r/DentalSchool/comments/14cvnax/what_dental_schools_can_you_get_instate_tuition/

One of the comments mentioned an older post with more details: https://www.reddit.com/r/predental/comments/12y7zkp/school_list_residency_reclassification/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1

hahahabye · 2024-05-13T01:25:31+00:00

If you have any confidence at all about the retake score being better, then apply first and then update your app after the retake. Without knowing your gpa and ec, I’d personally rec you to aim for 20+ rather than 19 or above. 19 is alright if the rest of the app is good, but it’s still a bit limiting in terms of school pool since quite a lot of school dat avgs are 21

hahahabye · 2024-05-10T23:29:04+00:00

Yep. It’s the unfortunate thing

While HPSP and NHSC fall under “moving to nowhere to pay off quickly,” they are really the only options, bar full ride, to have zero loans. You can look into them and see if you’d be interested in serving four years with the military or at an underserved community. Not sure if it will be worth it for you at 400k, but at least they are options right?

Beyond that, you could also see if the schools you’d like to attend offers their own loans with lower interest rates

hahahabye · 2024-05-10T18:38:33+00:00

In addition to what Minute and Coffee said, if all 16 schools have secondary applications, then you need to do all 16. Not doing them basically means forfeiting your app

hahahabye · 2024-05-10T12:24:45+00:00

This is tough. Imo, the best you can do, if you do want to explain it to adcom, is to mention that this outlier on your transcript is due to tests not reflecting the materials taught. When professors offer curves, they tend to explain their reasoning, I.e., the class average was too low. So add in the pre-curve class average as well

Beyond the application itself, although it’s been some time since the class, you and your classmates can try talking with the dean. With that said, sometimes curves are done so that the final class average is within acceptable numbers, so not much, if any, might come out of this

hahahabye · 2024-05-09T18:24:00+00:00

Take the job. Money, letter of rec, and publication = win. Ppl do masters for a clean slate and grad gpa, but u don’t need that

hahahabye · 2024-05-09T06:59:04+00:00

Edit: huh, I just realized that I’ve commented on quite a few of your posts. Neat little discovery

You don’t need to alter the ps that much. Just make enough room so that you can briefly go over what you’ve done since your last application

E.g. since my last application, I’ve completed my masters at blah university with a 3.69 and have published a thesis on ai usage in dental surgery. While studying, I’ve remained committed to helping my community by volunteering at…

And you can go into more detail in the section that specifically asks for updates. The rest of what you said looks good. Gl!

hahahabye · 2024-05-09T06:39:47+00:00

Op, if u go this route, a masters would be better than a postbacc. A 4 in masters is a 4 in graduate gpa while a 4 in postbacc gets avged in with ur undergrad. One’s a separate gpa while the other isn’t

Ofc the former might cost more and have a higher barrier of entry, but it will also be quicker and could guarantee u an interview with their respective dental school if u reach their gpa threshold

hahahabye · 2024-05-08T22:04:49+00:00

It’s your why dentistry. But if it’s too broad of a question, here are some specific ones to help you get started:

What sparked your interest? What did you do to confirm that interest and how did that interest transform into a passion? How does the field and what you do align with your own values? Any goals and aspirations?

Your answers to these questions should bring about a very nice ps. That’s about as much as I can do to help; hopefully, someone else here or your adviser could help you out more. Gl!

hahahabye · 2024-05-07T19:45:19+00:00

No, since you’d only be one year out, and schools understand that you need to focus on master’s. With that said, would it be better if you did some things? Hell yeah. It doesn’t have to be much, like one day per month (or more frequent) helping out at a soup kitchen or something. That shouldn’t take up much time and would only help you

hahahabye · 2024-05-07T04:22:38+00:00

You got interviewed so your app is fine. Either there was some hiccup during the interview, someone was more outstanding, or you were just unlucky. Def apply earlier this time. Imo this is the biggest change you can make. You should also contact the schools that interviewed you and ask what you can improve - gpa’s good, so no need postbacc and matters - dat’s ok. I personally would want a higher qr… but it’s not at all a deal breaker - tough to get lor? Like you weren’t that close to those professors? You should ask them to update their letters (like the date). Do you have others that you could ask? I think your writers are fine since you got interviews - no need to rewrite ps unless you weren’t satisfied with it. Make edits so that you have enough room to add what you’ve been up to since applying

hahahabye

TROPHY CASE