I'm sure it varies from school to school but the thing I like most about Columbia is their ability to put together a class of not only some of the brightest dental students, but amazing and involved people. I have D1 and D2 friends at a bunch of different schools, and I have made a point of visiting all of the schools that I was invited to and "hanging out" with my friends and their classmates. Of the four I visited one was awful, full of gunners and antisocial study-bugs, two were alright with no real sense of community but not a horrible place to spend four years, and then there was Columbia.
The students I interacted with were so smart, but in a cooperative "lets all work together to get through dental school" kind of way rather than the "I don't socialize outside of school because you are enemy #1 to me getting an ortho residency" like the first school I mentioned was. They were super social and even though the D1 class had only known each other for a month they already seemed like a family.
Idk what their method is, but I definitely don't think you can craft classes that are that awesome through "randomness" where as that first school I visited, which attracts a lot of the same pre-dentals, was so unpleasant to spend a weekend at. I think a lot of this has to do with their interview process. From everything I have heard the interviews are super chill and them just checking to make sure you are a social and personable student rather than someone who just spent all of their time at university studying. To me their whole GPA/DAT spread really shouts this too. IMO GPA is pretty much a reflection of how hard you work/how much time you dedicate to studying, and DAT is more of a measure of innate intelligence. Columbia's classes tend to have high (23+) DAT, indicating that they are pretty bright, but low-ish GPAs compared to other "top" schools (~3.5ish). Anyone getting a 23 DAT would probably have a great GPA if they book-wormed it through college, but the lower GPA shows that you were involved in hobbies and clubs outside of school (and this is 100% just my theory/me word-vomiting, if you disagree/are personally offended by this plz message me and we can chat about it!). Not saying they don't love great GPAs, but they seem to be a lot more lenient about that than about DAT.
One thing I noticed was that a lot of the students had a lot of involvement during their undergrad. Not like the whole "resume-building involvement" BS like the pre-dental clubs or GPA-based honor societies or the such. There were a lot of sorority/fraternity girls and guys, a lot of athletes of different levels, a handful of theater and band people. Basically, the vibe I got was that Columbia was very interested in having bright/social people that want to be dentists in the future but are well rounded and explored their passions in college.
End rant :-D I'm just so happy I got an interview! I will be seeing you all on October 23rd!
Thanks!
