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656851
I go to a public university (20,000+ students) and not only do we have pre-professional committees, we have a pre-dental specific committee. But I've encountered some issues with them, and I'm ready to just skip them altogether and have my recommenders send letters directly to Interfolio this coming cycle. Is this a bad idea? (I know dental schools offer a choice but prefer the pre-professional committee.) There's been no drama; I get along with all parties involved and they seem like fine people. And I'm a totally chill non-confrontational person. But they seem disorganized and clueless about the dental admission process.
Here's the long boring story:
I've finished a degree. I did well--scholarship, honors, etc., but after a few years I have come back for a busy year of completing all the prereqs for dental school. I will finish this May, take the DAT in June, and apply. I've over-researched everything, I'm getting straight A's (on top of a great GPA from before), I've got my list of schools, I lurk on these boards, etc.
When I first got to school I looked up and had a conversation with... let's call him Dr. A, who's on the pre-dental committee. We had a good conversation, but he essentially deferred to another advising office or the pre-DDS club for any specific questions, including questions about the committee process, strangely. (I participate in the club already.)
I went to the science advising office, comprised of full-time non-teaching advisors. For all pre-professional advising they deferred to the newly-formed pre-professional advising office, similarly full-time non-teaching advisors who specialize in pre-professional. I went to that office and had a conversation with the manager, who set me up with a different advisor in his office.
She sat down with me and started giving me a speech about what the dental profession is like and giving me a list of dental schools in the US. I started to say "let me tell you a little about myself, I might be able to save you some time," when she cut me off and said "no, you really can't." So I sat through her speech and politely accepted her handouts. Fortunately, once she was done we had agreed on a timeline for my application process, and I finally had an administrative contact who understood my timeline.
For whatever reason, I'm required to have a dedicated PhD-bearing advisor as well, and she set me up with, let's call him Dr. B, who's also on the pre-dental committee. She wanted me to go talk to him in order to get to know the committee. Awesome. I go talk to him, he can barely speak english, it takes 10 minutes for me to explain to him about having one degree but coming back to school for prerequisites. Finally he understands my intent to see the committee this spring, and requests my transcripts. I return with them, and he spends the rest of the conversation unsolicitedly explaining to me how my great GPA isn't impressive until I take the DAT.
The conversation ends OK, but I just set the issues aside for a while... until today, because I need to understand the process now in order to give my recommenders time to get things together. So now, that lady in the professional advising office has quit. OK. I decide to go back to Dr. A. It's been 6 months since our brief conversation, and he doesn't remember me but that's fine I like starting fresh. We start talking about the committee and seem to be getting somewhere, but then he says something about admission for fall 2015. I explain that this is for fall 2016, and he asks why I'm not apply for 2015. I explain to him that the cycle is over. He asks why I'm there so early for 2016. I smoothly, warmly clear up the confusion to him and he seems satisfied. But since I'm taking the DAT this summer, he's reluctant to set up a meeting until this fall. He also tells me that pre-professional advising is in flux and that I should return to the pre-professional specific advising office in order to get a new advisor and ask them about the committee process.
So I go back to that office. They tell me that the pre-dental committee is only setting up spring interviews for students applying for fall 2015 (funny, since that cycle closed today), and that fall 2016 interviews will be set up in August or September.
Ok, they all seem like great people... but without using too strong language... this is a huge disservice to the students. Forget the confusion about the different offices and changes in advising. When your policy is to start committee interviews in August/September when many schools recommend that you have the entire application complete and in their hands by the beginning of August.... that's a waste of my investment in this process. No way, after all this, am I trusting a late August committee interview to be completed, written, mailed, processed by AADSAS, submit my AADSAS app, wait for my GPA to be verified, wait to receive secondary apps, finish those, be received and reviewed by the schools, and set up interviews early enough in November to have a chance at a Dec 1st notification.
Not to mention the fact that I won't even be a student here next fall and will probably live 12 hours away.
I've already got several professors and a dentists who will write me letters. I just want to go talk to them and do this myself. I'm happy to explain the issue in interviews if someone asks.
[/rant]
Here's the long boring story:
I've finished a degree. I did well--scholarship, honors, etc., but after a few years I have come back for a busy year of completing all the prereqs for dental school. I will finish this May, take the DAT in June, and apply. I've over-researched everything, I'm getting straight A's (on top of a great GPA from before), I've got my list of schools, I lurk on these boards, etc.
When I first got to school I looked up and had a conversation with... let's call him Dr. A, who's on the pre-dental committee. We had a good conversation, but he essentially deferred to another advising office or the pre-DDS club for any specific questions, including questions about the committee process, strangely. (I participate in the club already.)
I went to the science advising office, comprised of full-time non-teaching advisors. For all pre-professional advising they deferred to the newly-formed pre-professional advising office, similarly full-time non-teaching advisors who specialize in pre-professional. I went to that office and had a conversation with the manager, who set me up with a different advisor in his office.
She sat down with me and started giving me a speech about what the dental profession is like and giving me a list of dental schools in the US. I started to say "let me tell you a little about myself, I might be able to save you some time," when she cut me off and said "no, you really can't." So I sat through her speech and politely accepted her handouts. Fortunately, once she was done we had agreed on a timeline for my application process, and I finally had an administrative contact who understood my timeline.
For whatever reason, I'm required to have a dedicated PhD-bearing advisor as well, and she set me up with, let's call him Dr. B, who's also on the pre-dental committee. She wanted me to go talk to him in order to get to know the committee. Awesome. I go talk to him, he can barely speak english, it takes 10 minutes for me to explain to him about having one degree but coming back to school for prerequisites. Finally he understands my intent to see the committee this spring, and requests my transcripts. I return with them, and he spends the rest of the conversation unsolicitedly explaining to me how my great GPA isn't impressive until I take the DAT.
The conversation ends OK, but I just set the issues aside for a while... until today, because I need to understand the process now in order to give my recommenders time to get things together. So now, that lady in the professional advising office has quit. OK. I decide to go back to Dr. A. It's been 6 months since our brief conversation, and he doesn't remember me but that's fine I like starting fresh. We start talking about the committee and seem to be getting somewhere, but then he says something about admission for fall 2015. I explain that this is for fall 2016, and he asks why I'm not apply for 2015. I explain to him that the cycle is over. He asks why I'm there so early for 2016. I smoothly, warmly clear up the confusion to him and he seems satisfied. But since I'm taking the DAT this summer, he's reluctant to set up a meeting until this fall. He also tells me that pre-professional advising is in flux and that I should return to the pre-professional specific advising office in order to get a new advisor and ask them about the committee process.
So I go back to that office. They tell me that the pre-dental committee is only setting up spring interviews for students applying for fall 2015 (funny, since that cycle closed today), and that fall 2016 interviews will be set up in August or September.
Ok, they all seem like great people... but without using too strong language... this is a huge disservice to the students. Forget the confusion about the different offices and changes in advising. When your policy is to start committee interviews in August/September when many schools recommend that you have the entire application complete and in their hands by the beginning of August.... that's a waste of my investment in this process. No way, after all this, am I trusting a late August committee interview to be completed, written, mailed, processed by AADSAS, submit my AADSAS app, wait for my GPA to be verified, wait to receive secondary apps, finish those, be received and reviewed by the schools, and set up interviews early enough in November to have a chance at a Dec 1st notification.
Not to mention the fact that I won't even be a student here next fall and will probably live 12 hours away.
I've already got several professors and a dentists who will write me letters. I just want to go talk to them and do this myself. I'm happy to explain the issue in interviews if someone asks.
[/rant]
You've got to be joking.
