Majors and DS Admission Trend 06-08

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doc toothache

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A common misconception among ds applincants is the notion that bio majors is where it is at. The belief may be due to the fact that roughly 50% of applicants and enrollees are indeed bio majors. The concept may be compounded by encouragement from deans of admission for upper division bio courses, advice which appears to be misinterpreted. The statistical information available from the 2007, 2008 and 2009 ADEA Official Guide to Dental Schools does not support the bio notion. How adcoms make decisions is anyone's guess, however, it does appear that a particular applicant pool of major is being compared only to that subgroup rather than across the board. Thus, a business major with upper division bio may be a more competitive candidate than a business major without those courses. It is noteworthy that the percentage of enrollees represented in each subgroup parallels that of the applicant pool. While engineering majors represent a small portion of both the applicant and enrollment pool, they appear to have the highest percentage rate of enrollment. While the numbers may not be significant, it is interesting to note that the percentage of bio majors has dropped over the last 3 years. In fact, all the other disciplines appear to have a slight edge over bio with the exception of pre d and no major. Notwithstanding this information, it is risky to choose a major only as a means to improve one's chance of acceptance since the choice may end up being the terminal degree.

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Percent rate of enrollment has dropped over 3 cycles across almost all majors (except for Soc Sci): it is getting harder to get in to dental school.
 
The ratio over the past 3 cycles from 2.4 to 2.9 is pretty significant, considering it is only a time span of 3 years. The total number of applicants is increasing every year..I wouldn't be surprised if it exceeded 15,000 for this cycle.
 
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I still think 30% acceptance rate into a professional school means "can get in pretty easily". In Russia it is about 5-10% for medical or dental.
 
I still think 30% acceptance rate into a professional school means "can get in pretty easily". In Russia it is about 5-10% for medical or dental.

Are those anecdotal or real numbers? Do you have some stats such as total number of applicants and enrollees?
 
Are those anecdotal or real numbers? Do you have some stats such as total number of applicants and enrollees?
I don't have a source, but that is what it was in 2003 and that is what I still hear from people there. I will post source if I find it.
 
I don't have a source, but that is what it was in 2003 and that is what I still hear from people there. I will post source if I find it.

What you hear may not reflect reality. While in Eastern Europe it is not uncommon to hear of ratios of 10:1, the numbers may be misleading since they do not take into account any multiple applications.
 
What you hear may not reflect reality. While in Eastern Europe it is not uncommon to hear of ratios of 10:1, the numbers may be misleading since they do not take into account any multiple applications.
I found this 500 page document about education stats in Russia, but it doesn't have the # of applicants for fields, only the number of enrollees.

In any case, now I think it is not a fair way to compare, since the education system is quite different (among other things, you get into the medical/dental university right after high school and it takes you 5-6 years to finish with a professional degree).
 
Percent rate of enrollment has dropped over 3 cycles across almost all majors (except for Soc Sci): it is getting harder to get in to dental school.

why is this happening though? the level of competition is one reason, but it seems ridiculous that about 100 people are chosen from 4000 applicants, 55 schools is a lot, but why not more options for people? is it simply a matter of controlling the "market place"?
 
why is this happening though? the level of competition is one reason, but it seems ridiculous that about 100 people are chosen from 4000 applicants, 55 schools is a lot, but why not more options for people? is it simply a matter of controlling the "market place"?

One hundred out of 4000 applicants is a little bit misleading since that represents roughly 1/3 of the total applicant pool. The problem with the number of schools game is that if there were 100 we would want 200. The ADA is apparently doing a good job "controlling the market place", But needless to say, in the case of state institutions the decision on class size is a political not a supply/demand decision. An interesting observation is that the in the pre admission status there are those who believe that number of dentist is too low, but once admitted/graduated they believe there are just too many.
 
The most fascinating numbers on that spreadsheet have nothing to do with majors (although those were kind of cool).

A 22% increase in DS applicants in just 2 years? Holy ****!
 
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