3rd time applying!! please help

[jvss123]

I dont know how much of my personal statement i should change from last cycle. I will definitely include what changes or improvements i have made within one year but other than that I dont really know what more i can do. i read through it many times and i am satisfied with what i wrote so im totally confused.. any advice?? thanx

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[hausee]

How can you expect people helping you without sharing any information about your status?

 

[jvss123]

I was rejected from all of the schools this previous cycle!

My stats:

last cycle this cycle
cGPA: 3.23 3.34
sGPA: 2.96 3.10
DAT: 19/19/20 21/20/21

Majority of the schools rejected me because of my science gpa and they recommended that I do a 1-year masters... hence, I have just started my Masters in Biomedical sciences (1-year track) so I wont be able to send in my grades from the masters program until the academic update in december...
I have lots of volunteer and extracurricular activities under my belt along with some decent LORs. Does this help?

 

[goffdent]

As a threepeater myself, what You want to do is make sure you know why the schools rejected you and improve on that. Second, you need to have that personal statement revised and edited by a professor or someone who knows more about the process and what they're looking for. Third, apply "smart". By this time, you're probably desperate to get into "a" school rather than just one specific school, if your mentality is that you only want to get into one particular school, i'd stop and smell the roses because you have to be open. Apply only to schools that you would actually consider going to. Choose 10-15 schools if you have to. Choose schools who accept many out of state applicants. Buy the official ADEA guide to know these stats. Shadow, shadow, shadow, different doctors and specialties and show you're still committed to this and interested in learning about it. good luck

btw, i did these things and got into multiple schools this past cycle. so it's definitely possbile!

 

[jvss123]

thank u so much goffdent!! your advice is great.

1) I do know why the schools rejected me. It was the gpa so i had two options either to go back to the undergrad and take upper level science courses and boost up gpa or enter a masters (which is what i did)

2) this past cycle i had my personal statement edited by friends in dental schools, professors and career center advisors.. they all pretty much liked it and didnt not give me much feedback as to what i can change or improve. hence, this cycle i am struggling with it again. when you applied three times, did you change your statement drastically each time or just made some minor changes.

3) I thought i applied smart the last cycle. i applied to 13 schools who are all OOS friendly. I dont know if me being a canadian is whats making it harder for me to get entrance

I am totally running out of options and I am hoping that my application stands out this cycle after going thru with a masters...

 

[DDSTX]

I dont know how much of my personal statement i should change from last cycle. I will definitely include what changes or improvements i have made within one year but other than that I dont really know what more i can do. i read through it many times and i am satisfied with what i wrote so im totally confused.. any advice?? thanx

Most definitely update your personal statement and make sure to mention what you are working on (masters) to improve your application. And take as many courses as possible in a semester to show you can handle upper level courses' workload
Good luck!

 

[goffdent]

Your welcome, it seems you've done a lot of what I said to do. Each time, i wrote a completely new personal statement. Improving my dat was the big thing for me since I have a decent GPA. so i also enrolled in the Kaplan course. Many think it's a waste of money, but I thought it had lots of tools and opportunities which proved valuable to me. Doing all this improved my interview invite count from 1-2 to 9 interview invites. Probably more had I not applied in august. So apply EARLY!!!

thank u so much goffdent!! your advice is
great.

1) I do know why the schools rejected me. It was the gpa so i had two options either to go back to the undergrad and take upper level science courses and boost up gpa or enter a masters (which is what i did)

2) this past cycle i had my personal statement edited by friends in dental schools, professors and career center advisors.. they all pretty much liked it and didnt not give me much feedback as to what i can change or improve. hence, this cycle i am struggling with it again. when you applied three times, did you change your statement drastically each time or just made some minor changes.

3) I thought i applied smart the last cycle. i applied to 13 schools who are all OOS friendly. I dont know if me being a canadian is whats making it harder for me to get entrance

I am totally running out of options and I am hoping that my application stands out this cycle after going thru with a masters...

 

[dentalWorks]

My opinion about this is that people who apply 2x times in a row and both times get rejected by every school NEED to take some time off from applying and start fixing their application.

Your spending thousands and thousands of dollars applying when you could be using that money doing post-bacc or masters program.. I don't believe you should apply this cycle. Do the 1-year masters, or do 1 -year heavy post-bacc (30+ credits) and try to 4.0 ALL your courses. This should significantly improve your chance of getting in. Simply reapplying with similar stats like last year's woun't really do the trick

If you do my post-bacc suggestion, you can bring up that science GPA to a much more respectable level (3.3 or even 3.4 ~ of course depends on how many courses your going to take and what kinda grades you'll get). On top of that, you'll also be bringing up your overall GPA, top it off with your nice DAT score, you'll have a much better shot.

Good luck to ya

 

[jvss123]

goffdent: I am planning to apply right on June 3rd. Do you mind sharing your stats plzz??

dentalworks: I began fixing my application since january when i started getting rejection letters.. i volunteered more, improved my dat scores, took 3 upper level science courses at my undergrad (all A or A+) to bump up the science gpa from 2.9 to 3.1 and I also enrolled into the masters.. I do not want a lag year so I chose to enroll into the 1-year track (36 Credits), while also apply to dental schools for 2011 cycle. I am going to put all my efforts into school in order to obtain a 4.0 in every one of my classes.
I totally understand what you are saying but i feel like if i dont apply this cycle i will be very depressed and really stressed out... my parents are also being very supportive, financially and mentally, so im grateful for that... i just hope that the 3rd time is the charm!!