Advice?

[Dawgs13]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Heres the deal. I’m a re-applicant and I applied to a handful of schools some what blindly last year so I’m trying to polish everything up for this cycle.

I have a 3.5 GPA and got an 18AA 21 PAT on the DAT I know this is not ideal and probably the huge crutch. I am going to get my masters this year and hopefully show I’m a committed student as I believe my ECs are sufficient:
Dental assistant 2 years full time
Job shadowing ~400 hrs
Collegiate athlete with many NCAA awards
Leadership/coaching/volunteering (800 hrs)
Running the family farm what seems like forever.
I don’t have any research or anything crazy to help me out.

I am planning on re-taking my DAT however time to study right now is not ideal I got a lot done last month, now in harvest and struggling to find time as it’s the 8am-8pm hours right now and then I start my masters in July.. the BEST time for me would probably be August to re-take the DAT.
However anyone have advice on the best schools to apply to and anyone willing to look over my application and help a girl out? I’m not scared of the work I am nervous I am heading in the wrong direction of where I want my dreams to be.

Y’all are great. And be as harsh or kind as needed.

Thank you

 

[predent2151]

Sounds like the only thing holding you back is your slightly low DAT score. You really don’t need a masters honestly. A 3.8 masters with an 18 AA and a 3.5 undergrad GPA is worse IMO than a 3.5 undergraduate gpa and a 22AA. Dental schools expensive and your gpa is not bad at all. I would recommend forgoing the masters to study full time for the DAT and maybe do some dental assisting

 

[Dawgs13]

Sounds like the only thing holding you back is your slightly low DAT score. You really don’t need a masters honestly. A 3.8 masters with an 18 AA and a 3.5 undergrad GPA is worse IMO than a 3.5 undergraduate gpa and a 22AA. Dental schools expensive and your gpa is not bad at all. I would recommend forgoing the masters to study full time for the DAT and maybe do some dental assisting

Does it change your opinion if the masters program is a connection to a dental school? If done well in the program students are almost always accepted?

Thank you for your advice.

 

[predent2151]

Does it change your opinion if the masters program is a connection to a dental school? If done well in the program students are almost always accepted?

Thank you for your advice.

Sure it would look good if you did well, but to me I look at it financially.

OPTION 1: go to a 1 year masters, pay 30k+ and lose out on a year of dental income, let’s say 200k. You’re out 230K at least by doing the masters.

OPTION 2: spend 2 months studying for a retake, get a good score, apply to ~15 schools and you’d get plenty of interviews if other things in your app were good

Right now your GPA won’t be viewed as a negative just a relatively average part of your application. If you do a masters and don’t do good it will hurt you. If you do well in a masters but aren’t able to improve your DAT then it really doesn’t help you either. Either way the best way to improve your app is just nail the DAT. 20+ and you’d definitely have interviews. Most schools averages are 3.5-3.6 with a 20-21 average Dat. You’ve checked off the GPA box. Now you need to check off the DAT.

 

[AKtoTXstudent]

Sure it would look good if you did well, but to me I look at it financially.

OPTION 1: go to a 1 year masters, pay 30k+ and lose out on a year of dental income, let’s say 200k. You’re out 230K at least by doing the masters.

OPTION 2: spend 2 months studying for a retake, get a good score, apply to ~15 schools and you’d get plenty of interviews if other things in your app were good

Right now your GPA won’t be viewed as a negative just a relatively average part of your application. If you do a masters and don’t do good it will hurt you. If you do well in a masters but aren’t able to improve your DAT then it really doesn’t help you either. Either way the best way to improve your app is just nail the DAT. 20+ and you’d definitely have interviews. Most schools averages are 3.5-3.6 with a 20-21 average Dat. You’ve checked off the GPA box. Now you need to check off the DAT.

+1