21 vs 22

Started by ryry
This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

ryry

One tooth at a time.
10+ Year Member
15+ Year Member
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
I don't really know what's going on with the national average and all, but someone told me that getting 21 and getting 22 on your AA is a pretty big difference.

I checked the ADA website and it says:
21 is on the 92.9%
while 22 is on the 96.7%.
As the score goes up higher, the difference between two numerical scores get significantly smaller. e.g. 24 = 99.5, 25 = 99.8

my question is, when we apply to dental schools, would they consider such difference in percentage? the thing i realized is that if dental schools just look at numerical scores, then they don't see a good representation of how well a person did on the DAT - 21 and 22 does not seem much different yet their percentage 92.9 and 96.7 seem pretty big.
 
That is true, but most people applying are not between then numbers of 0 and 30. They are between 18 and 23... So that one point is a lot more now that we have limited to a total of 6 possible scores. 1/6 is a lot.
 
Its my understanding that the schools are sent only the raw scores and not the percentiles ... does anyone know for sure?
 
Its my understanding that the schools are sent only the raw scores and not the percentiles ... does anyone know for sure?

After you take the DATs, you get a printout of the scores on which is states, "Only the standard scores are reported to the dental schools" hence no percentiles is sent to them.

Adcoms probably don't need to see the percentiles to know the difference between getting a 21 vs 22 vs 23, etc as I'm sure many of them have been doing it for years...
 
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Unless your trying to go to maybe Harvard or a TOP school and your GPA is low I wouldn't worry about it.....

Almost everyone I know who got a 21 got into EVERY school they applied to, of course non of them shot for Harvard or Columbia so those two may play at a dif level.

22 is sick for bragging rights tho 😛

If you can get a 21 your in pretty good shape unless you GPA is like a 2.5 and even then you might have a shot.

The difference between a 23 and 25 is very small because your playing at such an elite level that everyone is doing SO well 1 or 2 questions really starts to matter.
 
Unless your trying to go to maybe Harvard or a TOP school and your GPA is low I wouldn't worry about it.....

Almost everyone I know who got a 21 got into EVERY school they applied to, of course non of them shot for Harvard or Columbia so those two may play at a dif level.

22 is sick for bragging rights tho 😛

If you can get a 21 your in pretty good shape unless you GPA is like a 2.5 and even then you might have a shot.

The difference between a 23 and 25 is very small because your playing at such an elite level that everyone is doing SO well 1 or 2 questions really starts to matter.

👍
 
the way it works is since less people get 22 than 21s ,and less people get 23 than 22s, therefore dental schools rarely see somebody scoring a 22/23 and ... the 22 normally lies around the 96-7% percentile and the 21 around 92-93%, a score of 20 with a 3.5 i would say youll definately get somewhere
 
I don't really know what's going on with the national average and all, but someone told me that getting 21 and getting 22 on your AA is a pretty big difference.
I checked the ADA website and it says:
21 is on the 92.9%
while 22 is on the 96.7%.
As the score goes up higher, the difference between two numerical scores get significantly smaller. e.g. 24 = 99.5, 25 = 99.8
my question is, when we apply to dental schools, would they consider such difference in percentage? the thing i realized is that if dental schools just look at numerical scores, then they don't see a good representation of how well a person did on the DAT - 21 and 22 does not seem much different yet their percentage 92.9 and 96.7 seem pretty big.

You may be hard pressed to find an adcom that does not know the difference between a 21 and 22.