40% acceptance rate for dental school?!

[twinklestarr]

Hi all - I've been working in IT for almost 10 years and am currently a software architect... I graduated 11 years ago with a BS in Computer Science and a Minor in Biology, along with a MS in Computer Science.

I'm contemplating making a career switch and noticed that dental school has a 40% acceptance rate... Why is that? Is it because the majority of students are sub-par? Or is it due to other factors? I guess i'm wondering because I'd like to know what would make me competitive... I am 35 years old and have a baby... I want to make sure that I have a shot of getting in... But at this rate, it looks like the majority of people do not make dental school... It's an interesting statistic to me.

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[jeffity]

I sort of thought the opposite when I saw the acceptance rate. I mean, you definitely can't just decide to be a dentist and apply and just get in. But if you're stats don't completely suck and you take the shotgun approach to applying, the chances are decent you'll get in somewhere.

Consider that there are a lot of factors involved to acceptance. If you fit certain criteria for certain schools, your chance of acceptance goes up significantly. It's not a clear-cut free-for-all with the entire pool of applicants.

 

[doc toothache]

I'm contemplating making a career switch and noticed that dental school has a 40% acceptance rate... Why is that? Is it because the majority of students are sub-par? Or is it due to other factors? I guess i'm wondering because I'd like to know what would make me competitive... I am 35 years old and have a baby... I want to make sure that I have a shot of getting in... But at this rate, it looks like the majority of people do not make dental school... It's an interesting statistic to me.

Or it could have something to do with the number of slots available vs the number of applicants.

 

[321931]

Hi all - I've been working in IT for almost 10 years and am currently a software architect... I graduated 11 years ago with a BS in Computer Science and a Minor in Biology, along with a MS in Computer Science.

I'm contemplating making a career switch and noticed that dental school has a 40% acceptance rate... Why is that? Is it because the majority of students are sub-par? Or is it due to other factors? I guess i'm wondering because I'd like to know what would make me competitive... I am 35 years old and have a baby... I want to make sure that I have a shot of getting in... But at this rate, it looks like the majority of people do not make dental school... It's an interesting statistic to me.

The hard part about dental school isn't the acceptance rate, but rather, getting into the school of your choice. Yes, on paper, 40% acceptance, sounds real nice, but thats for everyone out of all the dental schools. If you apply as a person to any single school that YOU want to go to, most likely, the chances of getting in is <5%. Therefore, you take a broad shot approach and apply to 20 schools. Most likely one school will accept you. Yes it's hard to get into dental school, but it's even harder to get into a school that YOU really want to attend.

 

[AR39]

The hard part about dental school isn't the acceptance rate, but rather, getting into the school of your choice. Yes, on paper, 40% acceptance, sounds real nice, but thats for everyone out of all the dental schools. If you apply as a person to any single school that YOU want to go to, most likely, the chances of getting in is <5%. Therefore, you take a broad shot approach and apply to 20 schools. Most likely one school will accept you. Yes it's hard to get into dental school, but it's even harder to get into a school that YOU really want to attend.

Hi Rainee,
I’m currently a finance major, with a 3.5 gpa. I’ve been considering changing my major, since it is not as interesting as I thought. I believe I would be happier in the healthcare field. I would like to became a dentist, but I am afraid of taking my chances and things not working out for me. I heard it’s very hard to get accepted into Dentistry School.
I failed 4 classes during the time I have been in college. However I retook those classes and got A’s. Do you believe that I would most likely have a very smaller chance to get accepted because I failed classes?
I also have 6 withdrawals

 

[Likkriue]

Closer to 52%

 

[sobertiger]

Closer to 52%

Yeah it's around 50%. 40% is closer to med school numbers, with DO at 36.6% and MD 41.2%.

Of course, it's much lower if you look at individual schools, for both dental and medical schools. These are just overall numbers.

 

[Harvard Dental Student]

Please check the thread dates. As a side note, Harvard's acceptance average is roughly 5%

 

[sobertiger]

Please check the thread dates. As a side note, Harvard's acceptance average is roughly 5%

Yea many private schools 5% or lower because they get apps from all over the country.

 

[ProspectivePostPreDent]

So this is an ancient thread, but since it's been resurrected, maybe a future applicant will benefit from a little peek into the numbers.

Essentially every dental and medical school has an acceptance rate in the single digits or teens, which in most any other field is considered very selective.

However, if you consider the earnestness of pre-health students compared to most other fields (neurotic sdn posting, "gunner" behavior, etc), it should come as no surprise that most matriculating dental and medical applicants are applying to 15+ schools. For medical, 25+ is not uncommon.

Pulling the numbers out of thin air, suppose an "average" applicant had an 8% chance at an "average" dental school. Modeled as unrelated events with set probabilities, his/her likelihood to receive one acceptance from a group of "average" schools would be (1-.08)^n where n is the number of applications.

In this case, the applicant only needs to apply to 9 schools to break the 50% likelihood barrier, even though each school individually is tough to get into.

Obviously, this is made vastly more complicated by interviews, particular preferences of the schools, etc, but hopefully you see the main point.

So if you applied the pre-health transcript neuroticism and these massive application numbers to other fields with less federal regulation (way more slots), like comp sci or even law, you'd be approaching a 100% matriculation rate.

Tldr: If you really want to study most subjects in the US, you're nearly guaranteed to get in *somewhere* if you try even a little bit and send out 15-20 apps to the "lowest" schools in the field.

This is not true for dent or med.

But, all applicants should understand the massive difference in applying to 12 (carefully chosen) instead of, say, 4-5 schools. If you don't want to waste a year in purgatory, why wouldn't you put your chances as high as possible?

That extra $1000 worth of apps could *easily* represent a year of a 140k+ income. In the gambling world, that would be called the lock of the century.

 

[10799102]

where does the 52 % come from? everywhere I look including the official ADA guide says around 40 %

 

[Likkriue]

where does the 52 % come from? everywhere I look including the official ADA guide says around 40 %

Look at the amount of applicants and then look at the total amount of seats.

 

[sobertiger]

Look at the amount of applicants and then look at the total amount of seats.

Yeah and considering that more offers are made than the number of seats available, the acceptance rate is actually higher than that.

 

[Harvard Dental Student]

Yeah and considering that more offers are made than the number of seats available, the acceptance rate is actually higher than that.

Not if you account for people who receive multiple acceptances. The overall acceptance rate is: seats/applicants.

 

[sobertiger]

Not if you account for people who receive multiple acceptances. The overall acceptance rate is: seats/applicants.

I meant in terms of acceptances given out. But you are right.

 

[ncide]

Yea many private schools 5% or lower because they get apps from all over the country.

Same goes with public schools.

 

[sobertiger]

Same goes with public schools.

For some OOS friendly schools, yes. But some are so unfriendly for OOS that many applicants just don't bother.

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