20 Schools too many?

[djsahand]

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hey fellas,
i dont know if im applying to too many schools. im doing about 20.
schools include all the way from NYU to Harvard and inbetween.
i go to UC Berkeley, have a 3.5 overall, 3.3 science.
all extracirric good (dental clinic,etc...)
i just dont know what i will be gettin on my DAT's...i took Kaplan, but havent started studying yet.

should i be applying to schools that have an average GPA somewhat higher than mine? ex Oregon - 3.59, 3.50

or do you guys stick to average GPA's that match yourself?

what about if your GPA is a little bit lower than the school, but your DAT is higher? will they still consider you?
let me know what you guys think
thanx

 

[ianwright]

hey fellas,
i dont know if im applying to too many schools. im doing about 20.
schools include all the way from NYU to Harvard and inbetween.
i go to UC Berkeley, have a 3.5 overall, 3.3 science.
all extracirric good (dental clinic,etc...)
i just dont know what i will be gettin on my DAT's...i took Kaplan, but havent started studying yet.

should i be applying to schools that have an average GPA somewhat higher than mine? ex Oregon - 3.59, 3.50

or do you guys stick to average GPA's that match yourself?

what about if your GPA is a little bit lower than the school, but your DAT is higher? will they still consider you?
let me know what you guys think
thanx

your a little too paranoid (I mean that in a good way)

here's the thing - I make fun of pre-dents like you for being too paranoid/scared/overwhelmed about the whole process of applying and getting accepted to a dental school

but here's the irony - it's students like you that get accepted - (based on your desire and motivation)

hear me out - from your post, i can allready tell that you will do WHAT IT TAKES to get accepted into dental school

so based on this - I am not going to tell you to 'chill out' (like I usually would) instead i'm going to tell you to KEEP AT IT - I wish I had your kind of drive!

This entire POST is a compliment - keep at it!

 

[crazy_sherm]

Man, if you're pulling a 3.5 at Berkeley, you'll prolly get something like a 25 or 26 on the DAT. I only had a 3.2/3.0 cum/sci (MCB kicked my ass!) and got a 23.

20 schools is a lot. Would you seriously want to attend all 20 of those schools? If you got interviews at all of them, would you have time/money to fly out to each one? I would try to narrow it down to schools you're interested in attending, not just ones you think you can get into. I only applied to UCSF and UOP because I wanted to stay in SF. Tricked them both into letting me in...

Go Bears!

 

[bryan45876]

Why cut your self short? You should go for all 56 US schools.

 

[ianwright]

Why cut your self short? You should go for all 56 US schools.

 

[nothen2do]

GPA is good and im sure youll be a good applicant. Make sure the public schools your applying to dont only (or mostly) accept in state students. 20 is alot, I applied to 12, got interviews for 11, and only went to 6. I was def. tired out by that time and missed a lot of school. Good luck

 

[ianwright]

GPA is good and im sure youll be a good applicant. Make sure the public schools your applying to dont only (or mostly) accept in state students. 20 is alot, I applied to 12, got interviews for 11, and only went to 6. I was def. tired out by that time and missed a lot of school. Good luck

what were your stats like, and where did you apply if you don't mind me asking?

 

[Biogirl361]

save your money and just apply to your top 5 or 6 choices and maybe one "less competitive" school to be safe.

 

[v&andy_yankee]

unless if you or your parents **** gold nuggets, 20 is too much

*remember that you have to pay the ADSAS to process your application (roughly $60/school depending on how many you apply) AND then you also have to pay the individual school application fees. this will amount to around $120 or so per school

*remember that once you have applied, you also need to save up money for interviews (around $500/school if you're flying+hotel). in addition, interviews=taking time off from school (which is hard to be away for even 1-2 days if you're having exams and projects due every day). it's pointless to apply to that many schools if you have no intention if going for an interview even if they offered one--you'll be wasting money, your time, and their time.

i applied to 6 schools: 2 reach, 2 safeties, and 2 smack in the middle. i only ended up going to 2 of the interviews because i didn't want to waste my money (and time) once my reach school interviewed me and pulled through.

and to the OP, don't worry about GPAs--it's very hard to determine how a school will look at you based on your GPA (this is assuming it's only a minor difference aka you have a 3.4 the school's avg is 3.6) because so many of the applicants' GPAs will vary depending on where they went to college and what major they are.

 

[ISU_Steve]

Yes.

 

[reLAXgirl]

You will regret applying to so many. You will have so many interviews you wont know what to do and will be annoyed you wasted the money and time on all the apps. Apply to the schools you would seriously consider attending. If there are any you really wouldn't want to go to, don't apply there. Your stats are good enough you will get in to at least a handful. If you are worried I would cut down to 8-10 schools. More than that will be overkill.

 

[jiffbedgerson]

Remember, your only going to attend one school, your surface stats are good enough to probably gain acceptance into one of the california schools, just choose 5-7 schools you like and you think you have an above average chance of getting accepted to!

 

[djsahand]

my problem is that i havent taken the DAT yet (july 11), and im gonna be submitting my app in a week or two.
so i wont know how i will be doing on the DAT in order to cut down the schools according to average DAT....
you know what i mean?

 

[ISU_Steve]

How about delaying until after you take the DAT? You wouldn't be a late applicant by waiting until the middle of July.

 

[reLAXgirl]

I was in your same predicament but with your grades and dilligent study I would imagine you will be fine on the DAT. Your grades are high enough you'll get in somewhere even if you have about 18s. Also, remember that stats for schools are averages. That means you can be below the ave and still get in. Worse comes to worse, you can retake the DAT in a few months if necessary.

 

[Sprgrover]

I agree that you should seriously reduce the amount of schools you are applying to, even though you haven't taken the DAT yet. As long as you study and are dedicated you'll more than likely do fine on the DAT and be in good shape for this cycle.

 

[shingshing]

I also went to UC Berkeley and my gpa is pretty much the same as yours. I have thought about applying 20 schools too, and it is because I am an international student. I dont know if schools may consider that a bad thing, so I apply that many to be safe. I dont think it will hurt that much, you still have the OPTION to choose which interview to go. A friend of mine applied to 20, and got 10 interviews, she was only accepted by NYU, she has 4.0 gpa and got a master and scored 23 in DAT, she told me she applied late (around september). So if you are not applying late, then I think 10-15 schools should be fine.