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[golfpro99]

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[macsak]

Date of submission: Most likely early to mid june
Overall GPA: 3.58
Science GPA: 3.48
Bio-Chem-Physics GPA: 3.42
DAT score (include AA and all sections): 23 AA, 21 PAT, 22 QR, 21 RC, 25 Bio, 23 GC, 23 OC, 24 TS
State of Residence: California
Undergrad Attended: UCSB
Major: Biological Sciences BA
Minor: N/A
Minority? Yes, I think. Hispanic
Reapplicant? No
Nontrad? No

Shadowing Experience: 125 Hours at a private practice - 2 general dentists there
Volunteering Experience: 90 Hours at Hospital, 100 hours Food Bank, 70 Hours at different location food bank
Employment: N/A
Research: N/A
Other Extracurriculars: Member of my pre dental club for a year. Spent significant time doing suture labs, dental drives, etc. Kinda just enjoyed being around people in the same boat as me. Play golf with friends and go to the gym with friends in free time. They aren’t club activities, yet took up significant time. Do I list?
Have you volunteered/shadowed/attended events at any dental schools? N/A
Relevant Honors or Awards: Deans Honors Twice
LOR type and strength: Strong LOR from Biochem Prof: went to his Office hours a lot/ good connection. Strong LOR from Ochem prof: same as above. Excellent LOR from dentist: I think we’re in love (kidding)
Misc Info/Things not stated elsewhere/ok Red Flags: Nervous because of lack of club involvement or ECs in my 3 years at college. Essentially partied first year and didn’t care. finished year with 3.2 gpa. managed to get it up to 3.66 but 3.58 including retaken class. Since then. squeezing in my volunteering and shadowing has been feasible. but no clubs besides pre dental. Hard to maintain good grades, studying for DAT, volunteering and shadowing. I workout and golf consistenly but where do y’all have the time to do 1000 hours working at an office or being the leader of 3 clubs. It’s so impressive because I feel like I have to study for a significant portion of my day every day.
School list:

USC, Loma Linda, AZ-MW, ASDOH, NYU, UCLA, UCSF, UoP, OHSU, Boston, Temple, Tufts, Marquette, Louisville, Pitt, Washington, UConn, Creighton, Roseman, and MW-Illinois

relax about this part:
Misc Info/Things not stated elsewhere/ok Red Flags: Nervous because of lack of club involvement or ECs in my 3 years at college. Essentially partied first year and didn’t care. finished year with 3.2 gpa. managed to get it up to 3.66 but 3.58 including retaken class. Since then. squeezing in my volunteering and shadowing has been feasible. but no clubs besides pre dental. Hard to maintain good grades, studying for DAT, volunteering and shadowing. I workout and golf consistenly but where do y’all have the time to do 1000 hours working at an office or being the leader of 3 clubs. It’s so impressive because I feel like I have to study for a significant portion of my day every day.

 

[macsak]

Date of submission: Most likely early to mid june
Overall GPA: 3.58
Science GPA: 3.48
Bio-Chem-Physics GPA: 3.42
DAT score (include AA and all sections): 23 AA, 21 PAT, 22 QR, 21 RC, 25 Bio, 23 GC, 23 OC, 24 TS
State of Residence: California
Undergrad Attended: UCSB
Major: Biological Sciences BA
Minor: N/A
Minority? Yes, I think. Hispanic
Reapplicant? No
Nontrad? No

Shadowing Experience: 125 Hours at a private practice - 2 general dentists there
Volunteering Experience: 90 Hours at Hospital, 100 hours Food Bank, 70 Hours at different location food bank
Employment: N/A
Research: N/A
Other Extracurriculars: Member of my pre dental club for a year. Spent significant time doing suture labs, dental drives, etc. Kinda just enjoyed being around people in the same boat as me. Play golf with friends and go to the gym with friends in free time. They aren’t club activities, yet took up significant time. Do I list?
Have you volunteered/shadowed/attended events at any dental schools? N/A
Relevant Honors or Awards: Deans Honors Twice
LOR type and strength: Strong LOR from Biochem Prof: went to his Office hours a lot/ good connection. Strong LOR from Ochem prof: same as above. Excellent LOR from dentist: I think we’re in love (kidding)
Misc Info/Things not stated elsewhere/ok Red Flags: Nervous because of lack of club involvement or ECs in my 3 years at college. Essentially partied first year and didn’t care. finished year with 3.2 gpa. managed to get it up to 3.66 but 3.58 including retaken class. Since then. squeezing in my volunteering and shadowing has been feasible. but no clubs besides pre dental. Hard to maintain good grades, studying for DAT, volunteering and shadowing. I workout and golf consistenly but where do y’all have the time to do 1000 hours working at an office or being the leader of 3 clubs. It’s so impressive because I feel like I have to study for a significant portion of my day every day.
School list:

USC, Loma Linda, AZ-MW, ASDOH, NYU, UCLA, UCSF, UoP, OHSU, Boston, Temple, Tufts, Marquette, Louisville, Pitt, Washington, UConn, Creighton, Roseman, and MW-Illinois

list is WAY too long
please explain why you chose these schools:

NYU, Boston, Temple, Tufts, Marquette, Louisville, Pitt, UConn, Creighton, and MW-Illinois

 

[golfpro99]

list is WAY too long
please explain why you chose these schools:

honestly, i just want to get in somewhere. I don’t want to not get in somewhere and regret that I could have if i applied to more schools. I chose these schools because I read that they are somewhat oos friendly or in state. Are there any that you would suggest taking out - price is no problemo (military)

 

[macsak]

honestly, i just want to get in somewhere. I don’t want to not get in somewhere and regret that I could have if i applied to more schools. I chose these schools because I read that they are somewhat oos friendly or in state. Are there any that you would suggest taking out - price is no problemo (military)

i suggest taking out all that i listed except maybe creighton
you need to show mission fit (as military, you should understand this) more than "i read on the internets"
there are far better choices that are a better geographic fit...

 

[golfpro99]

i suggest taking out all that i listed except maybe creighton
you need to show mission fit (as military, you should understand this) more than "i read on the internets"
there are far better choices that are a better geographic fit...

You don’t think that would leave my list short of some possible safety/reachable schools. I honestly don’t care where I go.

 

[macsak]

You don’t think that would leave my list short of some possible safety/reachable schools. I honestly don’t care where I go.

focus
"there are far better choices that are a better geographic fit..."

 

[macsak]

You don’t think that would leave my list short of some possible safety/reachable schools. I honestly don’t care where I go.

you still need to demonstrate mission fit
"don't care where i go" is not mission fit...

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Nervous because of lack of club involvement or ECs in my 3 years at college. Essentially partied first year and didn’t care. finished year with 3.2 gpa. managed to get it up to 3.66 but 3.58 including retaken class. Since then. squeezing in my volunteering and shadowing has been feasible. but no clubs besides pre dental

I would be nervous too. Golf and gym are nice hobbies. Are you first-generation? Not being involved with the campus community does worry me a little. When you get to dental school, you'll be surrounded by a smaller group of peers and be expected to balance your courses with all the extracurriculars with the local community. How do we know this is something you want to do?

You say you don't care where you go, but that also tells me you really could be happy being a dental assistant or hygienist... perhaps spend less time in school and get to a positive income sooner. I don't get a sense of why you really want to go into dentistry. You don't have anything listed that gives me an idea of entrepreneurship or wanting to be self-deterministic with a career. You could be happier being just a pair of hands helping out in a dental office rather than bearing the responsibility of balancing the books and keeping your office open. Reading your profile, you sound like you are going through the motions without much passion or energy.

Find a mentoring group such as SNMA or the HDA chapters at the schools you are looking at.

 

[Ryxndek]

Nervous because of lack of club involvement or ECs in my 3 years at college. Essentially partied first year and didn’t care. finished year with 3.2 gpa. managed to get it up to 3.66 but 3.58 including retaken class. Since then. squeezing in my volunteering and shadowing has been feasible. but no clubs besides pre dental. Hard to maintain good grades, studying for DAT, volunteering and shadowing. I workout and golf consistenly but where do y’all have the time to do 1000 hours working at an office or being the leader of 3 clubs. It’s so impressive because I feel like I have to study for a significant portion of my day every day.
School list:

USC, Loma Linda, AZ-MW, ASDOH, NYU, UCLA, UCSF, UoP, OHSU, Boston, Temple, Tufts, Marquette, Louisville, Pitt, Washington, UConn, Creighton, Roseman, and MW-Illinois

It'll be even harder when you have to juggle 11 classes at once, 2-4 exams a week for 3-4 months straight. Doing this hard work now gives schools some comfort in knowing that you are capable of handling multiple loads of work all at once and still being able to be successful. I did 20 hours of research a week while studying for the DAT and taking a full courseload and still finding time to be a board member of a club I was in (albeit a small one). Trust yourself in that if you want it bad enough, it can be done. You may need to sacrifice some golfing, or managing your gym time to try and squeeze everything in. Sacrifice the time now so you can reap the rewards later. No one said this would be easy!

Once you're in, you're in. If you don't want to specialize then you can coast in dental school. But you gotta put in the work and prove to schools that you can handle it first. Your DAT is very solid, your GPA I'm assuming is a solid upward trend. You really just need to shift your focus on your extracurriculars. Dentistry is a very people forward profession, EC's help you in that you're working with people of different backgrounds who all have a similar interest. If you're in your predental club, try to go for a board position and step up and show leadership. This will help.

In regards to your school list, I know how you feel about trying to go anywhere. But promise that once you get accepted and reality hits you in the face with the sheer amount of loans you're about to accept, you're really going to wish you went somewhere cheaper. I'd toss NYU, Tufts, Boston, and Temple because they're quite expensive and you're geographically much further away, meaning it's going to cost an arm and a leg just to move across the country. Loma Linda requires you to get a religious/spiritual LOR, so unless you have one in place, I'd toss the school out too. I'd look into WesternU, Colorado and UNLV. You could probably aim for 12-15 schools on your list. Abnything after that is a little redundant and will just cost a lot more money to apply. If you have money to burn then by all means, world's your oyster. But you're looking at almost $4,000 in just application fees to apply to all these schools. Let alone you need to travel for interviews, put down deposits, etc. It will add up. This is not a cheap profession to get yourself into. So just try your best to mitigate as much debt as possible. Connect with your local programs, UCLA, UCSF, UoP, USC, and Western will be your best bet. Schools surrounding the state will be next, UNLV, ASDOH, MW-AZ, OHSU, etc.