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- Mar 22, 2016
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My experience and a little advice,
Hey everyone, I wanted to share my experience and give a little advice to everyone applying/re-applying this year. I’m not sure how much of it will be helpful but here is some of the information I wish I had known. Hopefully I can save someone the stress!
For some background, I’m a Canadian applicant who took the Canadian DAT (I feel like much of this information will apply to Canadian students, but maybe to American students as well). I took the DAT in my third year of university and did relatively well, I knew that if I studied harder I could do much better so I wrote it again. Here is a breakdown of my stats:
RC 21 (so soft I know)
Biology 22
Chemistry 25
Science Total 23
AA 23
PAT 21
Carving 24
GPA 3.78 (decent, but not great).
Note: I did get a D in ORGO 2, retook it and got an A- (both are included in my GPA)
I knew I didn’t have a chance at Canadian schools (3.95 GPA lol, off by a lot), so I applied to the American ones! For my LOR, I went to some professors who I was friendly with, but to be fair they didn’t know me all so well. They even told me my letters would be superficial so I gave them a copy of my PS and my resume so they could get to know me better. For my shadowing experience, I was able to shadow a family friend that was partly the reason why I got interested in dentistry. She was great and gave me a great LOR (at least I think haha). I had pretty decent volunteer experiences, but nothing extraordinary. However, my volunteering was in many different fields (i.e. medical, dental, tutoring, legal).
I applied to the cycle early and had everything submitted by the end of the first month, I think July 1 was my personal goal. I ended up applying to over 40 schools and had to fill out a bunch of secondary applications, which I absolutely hated. By mid August, I had an interview at 1 school for mid September. Long story short, I got accepted on December 1st by phone call, at that point I stopped filling out secondary applications. I got another interview at UMICH but ended up not going (which I totally regret, found out it was the 2nd best school in the world and now I feel like an idiot).
The obvious advice is to start thinking about dental school early, at least by 3rd year, shadow someone, maintain a good GPA and study for the DAT. Start working on manual dexterity ASAP (I took up guitar, sewing, fixing cars – my dad knows quite a bit about them which helped) because there is a section in AADSAS where you explain that. After you submit to AADSAS, get ready to fill out secondary applications and do them ASAP (I think it was a huge mistake I made waiting). For the interview, make sure you know who you are and why you want to go to dental school. Know your application like the back of your hand!
During my interview, I was so nervous I actually told the interviewers I was really nervous and they were super nice about it and helped me relax. They asked me questions for my personal statement, AADSAS application, and even things professors had mentioned in their LORs. I was also asked 2 ethical questions. Once I felt more comfortable during the interview, I tried to crack a few jokes and got some laughs (felt like this worked well because I tried to be funny in my PS). At one point, one of the interviewers told the other interviewer I would fit well at the school (I was super happy about it and smiled). At the end of the interview, I straight up asked how I did and one of the interviewers looked at me and said terrible and laughed – I was pretty nervous because I didn’t know if he was joking or not, but I guess he was haha. I just laughed and shook their hands, and the interviewer who said I did terrible ended up giving me like a half hug lol.
For my interview, I wore a blue suit, brown shoes, white shirt, and blue tie. I tried to keep it classic and simple. When you guys are in this situation, make sure you were something you are confident and comfortable in, it really helps. I also brought copies of my application, PS, and transcripts with me just in case. I didn’t have a list of questions written down but I had a few in mind. I figured I’d ask questions based on how my interview went (basically winged it). I ended up only asking the interviewers why they chose this school because many of my questions were answered before the interview.
Just remember that if you do screw up in one or two of your courses (i.e. like my D in orgo 2), brush it off and retake the course and try and do well! There is a section in AADSAS for explaining stuff like that. Another thing I wish I had known is that once you get an offer of admission, it is contingent on you passing all your courses and maintaining your GPA. I always thought once you got accepted, you just had to pass your courses (aiming for above 50). Needless to say, once I found out I need like an A-, I had to cram a lot.
Currently, I’m in the process of finding a place to stay, applying for nexus, and waiting for my school to file my visa application.
Hopefully I didn’t ramble too much and was of some help to at least someone!
Thanks!
Hey everyone, I wanted to share my experience and give a little advice to everyone applying/re-applying this year. I’m not sure how much of it will be helpful but here is some of the information I wish I had known. Hopefully I can save someone the stress!
For some background, I’m a Canadian applicant who took the Canadian DAT (I feel like much of this information will apply to Canadian students, but maybe to American students as well). I took the DAT in my third year of university and did relatively well, I knew that if I studied harder I could do much better so I wrote it again. Here is a breakdown of my stats:
RC 21 (so soft I know)
Biology 22
Chemistry 25
Science Total 23
AA 23
PAT 21
Carving 24
GPA 3.78 (decent, but not great).
Note: I did get a D in ORGO 2, retook it and got an A- (both are included in my GPA)
I knew I didn’t have a chance at Canadian schools (3.95 GPA lol, off by a lot), so I applied to the American ones! For my LOR, I went to some professors who I was friendly with, but to be fair they didn’t know me all so well. They even told me my letters would be superficial so I gave them a copy of my PS and my resume so they could get to know me better. For my shadowing experience, I was able to shadow a family friend that was partly the reason why I got interested in dentistry. She was great and gave me a great LOR (at least I think haha). I had pretty decent volunteer experiences, but nothing extraordinary. However, my volunteering was in many different fields (i.e. medical, dental, tutoring, legal).
I applied to the cycle early and had everything submitted by the end of the first month, I think July 1 was my personal goal. I ended up applying to over 40 schools and had to fill out a bunch of secondary applications, which I absolutely hated. By mid August, I had an interview at 1 school for mid September. Long story short, I got accepted on December 1st by phone call, at that point I stopped filling out secondary applications. I got another interview at UMICH but ended up not going (which I totally regret, found out it was the 2nd best school in the world and now I feel like an idiot).
The obvious advice is to start thinking about dental school early, at least by 3rd year, shadow someone, maintain a good GPA and study for the DAT. Start working on manual dexterity ASAP (I took up guitar, sewing, fixing cars – my dad knows quite a bit about them which helped) because there is a section in AADSAS where you explain that. After you submit to AADSAS, get ready to fill out secondary applications and do them ASAP (I think it was a huge mistake I made waiting). For the interview, make sure you know who you are and why you want to go to dental school. Know your application like the back of your hand!
During my interview, I was so nervous I actually told the interviewers I was really nervous and they were super nice about it and helped me relax. They asked me questions for my personal statement, AADSAS application, and even things professors had mentioned in their LORs. I was also asked 2 ethical questions. Once I felt more comfortable during the interview, I tried to crack a few jokes and got some laughs (felt like this worked well because I tried to be funny in my PS). At one point, one of the interviewers told the other interviewer I would fit well at the school (I was super happy about it and smiled). At the end of the interview, I straight up asked how I did and one of the interviewers looked at me and said terrible and laughed – I was pretty nervous because I didn’t know if he was joking or not, but I guess he was haha. I just laughed and shook their hands, and the interviewer who said I did terrible ended up giving me like a half hug lol.
For my interview, I wore a blue suit, brown shoes, white shirt, and blue tie. I tried to keep it classic and simple. When you guys are in this situation, make sure you were something you are confident and comfortable in, it really helps. I also brought copies of my application, PS, and transcripts with me just in case. I didn’t have a list of questions written down but I had a few in mind. I figured I’d ask questions based on how my interview went (basically winged it). I ended up only asking the interviewers why they chose this school because many of my questions were answered before the interview.
Just remember that if you do screw up in one or two of your courses (i.e. like my D in orgo 2), brush it off and retake the course and try and do well! There is a section in AADSAS for explaining stuff like that. Another thing I wish I had known is that once you get an offer of admission, it is contingent on you passing all your courses and maintaining your GPA. I always thought once you got accepted, you just had to pass your courses (aiming for above 50). Needless to say, once I found out I need like an A-, I had to cram a lot.
Currently, I’m in the process of finding a place to stay, applying for nexus, and waiting for my school to file my visa application.
Hopefully I didn’t ramble too much and was of some help to at least someone!
Thanks!
