WAMC? Late applicant, high DAT high GPA

[chloe2890]

Date of submission: 10/25
Overall GPA: 3.94
Science GPA: 3.92
Bio-Chem-Physics GPA: 3.91
DAT score: 23 AA, 23 TS, 24 RC, 20 PAT, 20 QR, 25 GC, 21 OC, 24 Bio
State of Residence: Maryland

Undergrad Attended: University of Maryland, College Park
Major: Neuroscience

Minority? no
Reapplicant? No
Nontrad? No

Shadowing Experience: 390 hrs dental assisting for a general dentist (counted half of these hours as shadowing and half as dental assisting)
Volunteering Experience:
- 100 hours in a pt clinic- I worked directly with patients and helped assist pt in patient exercises/ also helped with cleaning, organization, and any other random tasks
- 100 hours at a local sustainable farm by helping with farm tasks, cleaning up, and lots of manual labor. I also helped to start a new research project on the farm based on ecopsychology
- 16 hours (still doing currently) at a local elementary school to teach 3rd graders kids a STEM lesson. Am also scheduled to go back to school and act as classroom aide
- 35 hours helping incoming freshmen to adjust to campus and provide them with any resources, had monthly meetings, and checked in on students weekly

Employment:
Personal trainer
facilities staff at school gym
dental assistant

Research:
Honey bee lab research (135 hours) for about a year
- used a special microscope to image mites (parasites to bees) and worked with data organization
Other Extracurriculars:
- predental society member
- currently taking a dental radiology course to get my radiology certification
- guided study sessions leader for organic chemistry (one semester paid, one unpaid): led review sessions twice a week and helped students one on one as well
Relevant Honors or Awards:
UMD science and global change scholars citation
deans list all semesters of undergrad
ACE-certified personal trainer

also will be graduating this December!

LOR type and strength: Neuroscience professor (good), dentist (strong), orgo professor (strong), volunteer (strong)
Misc Info/Things not stated elsewhere/Red Flags:
I do not have a committee letter from my school
submitted late
it might look like I wanted to go into physical therapy, but I actually never did
I decided on dentistry later (junior year of college)

School list:
Maryland
Tufts
Touro
Buffalo
UConn
Upenn
Harvard
Minnesota
Western
Marquette
VCU
NYU
Pacific
Oregon
Temple
Rutgers
Boston

Any feedback or input would be great! I'm really nervous about submitting my app super late, and I know I probably won't hear back for a long time.

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[Ryxndek]

Any particular reason you applied so late? It's really going to hurt you even with your solid GPA and DAT. Deciding on dentistry later shouldn't really affect anything so long as you wrote your personal statement well and can convey "why dentistry" to admissions.

Not having a committee letter also won't hurt you unless your school offers committee letters and you decided against it. My school doesn't, so I didn't have the opportunity. You probably could have condensed your school list down to maybe 6-8 schools, but given you applied when you did, it might benefit you. My only concern is you're more likely going to hear back late, and from private schools. Which with your stats, you shouldn't go private and you're a strong candidate for state schools because of their lower tuition. Just food for thought, others will share their opinions. But this is what I have learned so far, and wishing I would have applied to more state schools. Hoping for the best this cycle!

 

[chloe2890]

Any particular reason you applied so late? It's really going to hurt you even with your solid GPA and DAT. Deciding on dentistry later shouldn't really affect anything so long as you wrote your personal statement well and can convey "why dentistry" to admissions.

Not having a committee letter also won't hurt you unless your school offers committee letters and you decided against it. My school doesn't, so I didn't have the opportunity. You probably could have condensed your school list down to maybe 6-8 schools, but given you applied when you did, it might benefit you. My only concern is you're more likely going to hear back late, and from private schools. Which with your stats, you shouldn't go private and you're a strong candidate for state schools because of their lower tuition. Just food for thought, others will share their opinions. But this is what I have learned so far, and wishing I would have applied to more state schools. Hoping for the best this cycle!

I took my DAT on 10/08, and I didn't think I would score as high as I did. I also talked to a lot of different people and they thought that waiting to apply a year later would be worse than applying super late. I also did not have my LOR in line. My school does offer a committee letter but the deadline was last February and does not open again until late November of this year. I also thought my LOR would be a better indication of what kind of student I am compared to a committee letter from someone who doesn't know me. Thanks for the feedback though, definitely helpful to be realistic about this whole process!

 

[Ryxndek]

I took my DAT on 10/08, and I didn't think I would score as high as I did. I also talked to a lot of different people and they thought that waiting to apply a year later would be worse than applying super late. I also did not have my LOR in line. My school does offer a committee letter but the deadline was last February and does not open again until late November of this year. I also thought my LOR would be a better indication of what kind of student I am compared to a committee letter from someone who doesn't know me. Thanks for the feedback though, definitely helpful to be realistic about this whole process!

Ah fair enough on the committee letter, I understand that. I definitely think the applying a year later part was bad advice, applying late is worse IMO and I can imagine others will share their input on that as well. I was told by many dentists and dental students to quite literally apply as early as possible, and if you can't, to wait for the next cycle due to the rolling admissions process.

If this cycle isn't as successful as you want it to be, I would be ready to submit it the first/second week of June and to make sure you continue to work on your application. Reapplicants are, unfortunately, not looked more highly upon than first-time applicants, which didn't make sense in my head at first, but when I started to read more about it on the forums it eventually made sense. Hopefully, you hear back after the December acceptances start to roll out, so don't be discouraged if you don't hear back for a little while longer as schools determine class seats and reallocate more invites after app withdrawals, rejections, and waitlists take place.

There are a ton of other threads on here for pre-dents you can check out for advice related to the admissions process, particularly Steve's Guide, which I found very valuable insight into the whole process. If you have other questions you can reply here or PM me and I'd be glad to help!

 

[chloe2890]

Ah fair enough on the committee letter, I understand that. I definitely think the applying a year later part was bad advice, applying late is worse IMO and I can imagine others will share their input on that as well. I was told by many dentists and dental students to quite literally apply as early as possible, and if you can't, to wait for the next cycle due to the rolling admissions process.

If this cycle isn't as successful as you want it to be, I would be ready to submit it the first/second week of June and to make sure you continue to work on your application. Reapplicants are, unfortunately, not looked more highly upon than first-time applicants, which didn't make sense in my head at first, but when I started to read more about it on the forums it eventually made sense. Hopefully, you hear back after the December acceptances start to roll out, so don't be discouraged if you don't hear back for a little while longer as schools determine class seats and reallocate more invites after app withdrawals, rejections, and waitlists take place.

There are a ton of other threads on here for pre-dents you can check out for advice related to the admissions process. If you have other questions you can reply here or PM me and I'd be glad to help!

Yeah applying late is probably the worst thing I could've done, but we shall see, thank you so much for the honest advice though! If I need to next year, I'll be sure to have everything ready and maybe I'll be able to get my school's committee letter too. I did talk to a couple of dental students that went to my school who applied late as well (in November, have no idea why several of them applied so late) with similar stats, without a committee letter, and still received a couple of acceptances.

 

[macsak]

Date of submission: 10/25
Overall GPA: 3.94
Science GPA: 3.92
Bio-Chem-Physics GPA: 3.91
DAT score: 23 AA, 23 TS, 24 RC, 20 PAT, 20 QR, 25 GC, 21 OC, 24 Bio
State of Residence: Maryland

Undergrad Attended: University of Maryland, College Park
Major: Neuroscience

Minority? no
Reapplicant? No
Nontrad? No

Shadowing Experience: 390 hrs dental assisting for a general dentist (counted half of these hours as shadowing and half as dental assisting)
Volunteering Experience:
- 100 hours in a pt clinic- I worked directly with patients and helped assist pt in patient exercises/ also helped with cleaning, organization, and any other random tasks
- 100 hours at a local sustainable farm by helping with farm tasks, cleaning up, and lots of manual labor. I also helped to start a new research project on the farm based on ecopsychology
- 16 hours (still doing currently) at a local elementary school to teach 3rd graders kids a STEM lesson. Am also scheduled to go back to school and act as classroom aide
- 35 hours helping incoming freshmen to adjust to campus and provide them with any resources, had monthly meetings, and checked in on students weekly

Employment:
Personal trainer
facilities staff at school gym
dental assistant

Research:
Honey bee lab research (135 hours) for about a year
- used a special microscope to image mites (parasites to bees) and worked with data organization
Other Extracurriculars:
- predental society member
- currently taking a dental radiology course to get my radiology certification
- guided study sessions leader for organic chemistry (one semester paid, one unpaid): led review sessions twice a week and helped students one on one as well
Relevant Honors or Awards:
UMD science and global change scholars citation
deans list all semesters of undergrad
ACE-certified personal trainer

also will be graduating this December!

LOR type and strength: Neuroscience professor (good), dentist (strong), orgo professor (strong), volunteer (strong)
Misc Info/Things not stated elsewhere/Red Flags:
I do not have a committee letter from my school
submitted late
it might look like I wanted to go into physical therapy, but I actually never did
I decided on dentistry later (junior year of college)

School list:
Maryland
Tufts
Touro
Buffalo
UConn
Upenn
Harvard
Minnesota
Western
Marquette
VCU
NYU
Pacific
Oregon
Temple
Rutgers
Boston

Any feedback or input would be great! I'm really nervous about submitting my app super late, and I know I probably won't hear back for a long time.

how did you come up with this school list?

 

[chloe2890]

I tried to apply broadly for the most part. I also did my research about the schools and picked schools that had programs that most aligned with my goals. Some of the schools I chose over others due to location (I'm on the east coast). Some I chose because they accept a lot of out-of-state students. I've been working on a school list for months though, and these were the top schools I chose.

 

[macsak]

I tried to apply broadly for the most part. I also did my research about the schools and picked schools that had programs that most aligned with my goals. Some of the schools I chose over others due to location (I'm on the east coast). Some I chose because they accept a lot of out-of-state students. I've been working on a school list for months though, and these were the top schools I chose.

well, the list doesn't make sense to me, but you benefit from it being a broad list
if you have to reapply, you can have a shorter, better list

have you volunteered/shadowed/attended events/interacted with students/faculty/staff at UMD DSchool?

 

[chloe2890]

Just curious about what's wrong with my list- any feedback would great and super helpful! Also, UMD does not have any volunteer opportunities for prospective students (that I'm aware of) at the actual dental school. I have listened to a couple of UMD dental school Q&As my undergrad offered as well. I know a dentist who used to be on the admissions board 15 years ago, and he did tell me he would put in a good word for me. I also talked to a couple of dentists who attended UMD Dschool (mostly the two dentists I worked for and their colleagues).

 

[macsak]

I tried to apply broadly for the most part. I also did my research about the schools and picked schools that had programs that most aligned with my goals. Some of the schools I chose over others due to location (I'm on the east coast). Some I chose because they accept a lot of out-of-state students. I've been working on a school list for months though, and these were the top schools I chose.

UConn
Upenn
Harvard
reach schools- really late in the cycle to get interviews at these schools
Pacific
also a reach, but probably your best bet after maryland

Maryland
should be your main focus
Rutgers
Buffalo
Minnesota
VCU
Marquette
Temple
in range schools- these make the more sense geographically
Oregon
doesn't make much sense geographically, they know you will likely choose a school closer to maryland

NYU
Boston
Tufts
Western
Touro
safety schools- these are well below your range...

 

[macsak]

UConn
Upenn
Harvard
reach schools- really late in the cycle to get interviews at these schools
Pacific
also a reach, but probably your best bet after maryland

Maryland
should be your main focus
Rutgers
Buffalo
Minnesota
VCU
Marquette
Temple
in range schools- these make the more sense geographically
Oregon
doesn't make much sense geographically, they know you will likely choose a school closer to maryland

NYU
Boston
Tufts
Western
Touro
safety schools- these are well below your range...

i think if you had waited and applied at the beginning of next cycle, you could've had a list of 7-9 well selected schools and gotten a few interviews...