Am I allowed to be picky?

[youraverageasia]

---

Members do not see this ad.

So my parents don't want to waste money for the secondary application fees/plane ticket fees if I get interviews for some of the schools (such as NYU) because they want me to stay around the west coast (Im from WA). Are my stats good enough for me to be picky like this and bank on getting into schools such as UCLA, UOP, UW?

MBS graduate gpa from UMDNJ - 3.94
DAT: 21 AA/ 21 TS
undergrad gpa: 3.2
Dental activities (shadowing/volunteering) - 200 hours
Research - 1000 hours
Community service - 300 hours
Public health internship - 400 hours

 

[PlasmaMembrane]

Are my stats good enough for me to be picky like this and bank on getting into schools such as UCLA, UOP, UW?

Honestly...no.

 

[MRZ8]

No, because GPA.

 

[RuffDay]

You are applying to few schools and all the schools you are applying to are highly competitive.

 

[Bifenthrin]

It would be an even bigger waste of money to not go to certain interviews or whatever and then wind up not getting accepted anywhere.

 

[Mushibachan]

So my parents don't want to waste money for the secondary application fees/plane ticket fees if I get interviews for some of the schools (such as NYU) because they want me to stay around the west coast (Im from WA). Are my stats good enough for me to be picky like this and bank on getting into schools such as UCLA, UOP, UW?

MBS graduate gpa from UMDNJ - 3.94
DAT: 21 AA/ 21 TS
undergrad gpa: 3.2
Dental activities (shadowing/volunteering) - 200 hours
Research - 1000 hours
Community service - 300 hours
Public health internship - 400 hours

I agree with all of them... It's better to be safe than sorry

 

[youraverageasia]

Hm alright thanks for the feedback guys!

 

[Skyrising]

I'm risk adverse so I agree with all of the above. That said, I'm curious on why everyone thought your GPA was not competitive enough. The undergrad GPA of 3.2 is somewhat okay but your MBS GPA of 3.94 is amazing! <-- I assume this is like a masters or post-bac. Wouldn't adcoms give more weight to the MBS GPA rather than the undergrad?

 

[youraverageasia]

I'm risk adverse so I agree with all of the above. That said, I'm curious on why everyone thought your GPA was not competitive enough. The undergrad GPA of 3.2 is somewhat okay but your MBS GPA of 3.94 is amazing! <-- I assume this is like a masters or post-bac. Wouldn't adcoms give more weight to the MBS GPA rather than the undergrad?

Haha yeah I guess that's what is giving me a bit of confidence but I guess you never know how a subpar undergrad GPA can affect the adcoms decisions

 

[PlasmaMembrane]

Wouldn't adcoms give more weight to the MBS GPA rather than the undergrad?

Master's/grad school GPA is expected to be higher than undergrad - the grading is typically way more lenient.

 

[youraverageasia]

Master's/grad school GPA is expected to be higher than undergrad - the grading is typically way more lenient.

I also took actual dental courses from Rutgers School of Dentistry because the grad school is connected to the dental/medical school and did very well in those courses. Do you think adcoms would put this into consideration when comparing other Masters students?

 

[darknightzzz]

Master's/grad school GPA is expected to be higher than undergrad - the grading is typically way more lenient.

agree with this. graduate programs have confirmed to give out 50% A and 50%B some class even give out more As. Whereas some schools (like my school) practice 16% A for every class (this also includes A-)

 

[youraverageasia]

agree with this. graduate programs have confirmed to give out 50% A and 50%B some class even give out more As. Whereas some schools (like my school) practice 16% A for every class (this also includes A-)

I don't think you can just group All graduate schools under this grading statistic haha. Our professors would give out the grading percentages for the class at the end, and for most of the larger ones there were never more than 20% of the class getting an A. Although of course there were some courses that were supposed to be an easy A.

 

[RuffDay]

agree with this. graduate programs have confirmed to give out 50% A and 50%B some class even give out more As. Whereas some schools (like my school) practice 16% A for every class (this also includes A-)

16% A's and A-'s?! That's insane.

 

[jaymaster7]

No way in hell the professors are lenient because I got 89.74% in my 6 credit SMP class and I was stuck with B. I think the overall grades are higher for majority of the students is because this is your last chance to prove yourself to adcoms and if you screw this up then there's no way you're getting in dental school.

 

[kyle nguyen]

Considering I had a few friends last cycle with 3.8-3.9 GPA and 22AA not even get interviews to those schools I would agree that to not apply more broadly would be unwise. Please keep in mind that stats are only a portion of your application and to assume that at a certain score, getting into such schools are safe would only hurt you in the end. Just going by stats only, your DAT score is still below the average accepted for UCLA thus nothing should be "banked on".

 

[Skyrising]

Considering I had a few friends last cycle with 3.8-3.9 GPA and 22AA not even get interviews to those schools I would agree that to not apply more broadly would be unwise. Please keep in mind that stats are only a portion of your application and to assume that at a certain score, getting into such schools are safe would only hurt you in the end. Just going by stats only, your DAT score is still below the average accepted for UCLA thus nothing should be "banked on".

Holy crap that's insane. How does a 3.8-3.9 gpa 22AA not even get an interview? Assuming they've done the required shadowing/volunteer hours.. I don't see what else Adcoms could tell about an applicant without meeting them face to face.

 

[predent_mathlete]

16% A's and A-'s?! That's insane

The math department at my uni practices completely arbitrary grading. Last fall I took a class and got a B+, later to be told by the prof that I was in the top 10% of the class. It's very frustrating -_-

 

[nonociceptors]

Because if you're an awesome student, but you have no social skills or lack certain life experience that would contribute to your success in dentistry, chances are you'll be passed over.

GPA's and DAT scores make for great cutoffs, but they're certainly not the ONLY things considered by MOST dental schools.

I think his point was along the lines of "how the hell would an adcom know you lack social skills through paper files." Stats like that should be enough for an interview. If you're a weirdo come interview time I totally understand that person not getting acceptances. That's obvious lol but they must have had one terrible PS or some bad LORs to get denied the opportunity to put their foot in the door. damn...

 

[PlasmaMembrane]

Holy crap that's insane. How does a 3.8-3.9 gpa 22AA not even get an interview? Assuming they've done the required shadowing/volunteer hours.. I don't see what else Adcoms could tell about an applicant without meeting them face to face.

He said that they didn't get interviews at those schools, not necessarily no schools. UCLA, UoP, and UW are all pretty competitive for OOS spots - enough so that those stats alone may not cut it.

 

[dds2b219]

O

 

[darknightzzz]

i didnt say all master programs have grade inflation but most programs do have grade inflation. like there r so many undegrad that their grade inflation are blown off the roof

yes 16% A to A- for all science major classes at my school. this is considered generous and the % can go down to 13-14%. I went to a public california school so no grade inflation. avg gpa of everyone graduating is always 2.8-2.9

 

[kyle nguyen]

He said that they didn't get interviews at those schools, not necessarily no schools. UCLA, UoP, and UW are all pretty competitive for OOS spots - enough so that those stats alone may not cut it.

Correct, they got plenty of interviews such as Western and USC plus many out of states but was very disappointed about UCLA and UOP.

 

[doc toothache]

So my parents don't want to waste money for the secondary application fees/plane ticket fees if I get interviews for some of the schools (such as NYU) because they want me to stay around the west coast (Im from WA). Are my stats good enough for me to be picky like this and bank on getting into schools such as UCLA, UOP, UW?

Tell your mom and dad that, when it comes to being picky, dss reign supreme.

 

[kyle nguyen]

I think his point was along the lines of "how the hell would an adcom know you lack social skills through paper files." Stats like that should be enough for an interview. If you're a weirdo come interview time I totally understand that person not getting acceptances. That's obvious lol but they must have had one terrible PS or some bad LORs to get denied the opportunity to put their foot in the door. damn...

Considering the entering mean of UCLA stats are 3.7gpa and 22AA, it should be a surprise that a person scoring scores could possibly not get an invitation for an interview. Those states represents the average of the class and does not equate to an automatic interview. Many people applying to schools such as UCLA would likely have scores close to that range or else they would not apply in the first place.

 

[rendal]

Just my opinion, but you're not really allowed to be picky until you've been accepted to multiple schools.

 

[Bars]

As a WA resident you have a 25% chance at UW (if your RC above 17). The other choices are possible, though, I would not even get upset being rejected from them.

 

[Intercontidental]

I agree with all of them... It's better to be safe than sorry

I know it's better to be safe than sorry but I made the mistake of tattooing my ex-boyfriend's name across my neck. Do you think I'll ever meet anyone in school named Pat, or should I settle for this other guy that I met on Tinder named Chris???? Please help!!!

 

[Master Yoda]

So my parents don't want to waste money for the secondary application fees/plane ticket fees if I get interviews for some of the schools (such as NYU) because they want me to stay around the west coast (Im from WA). Are my stats good enough for me to be picky like this and bank on getting into schools such as UCLA, UOP, UW?

MBS graduate gpa from UMDNJ - 3.94
DAT: 21 AA/ 21 TS
undergrad gpa: 3.2
Dental activities (shadowing/volunteering) - 200 hours
Research - 1000 hours
Community service - 300 hours
Public health internship - 400 hours

You should educate them that it is not a waste to visit the schools and learn about their programs....It is an investment.

 

[Faefly]

Haha, you are your own person, you should not follow what your parents tell you, you should respect it and learn from their mistakes, but don't follow their orders and regret it later.
You should go.
Best of luck!

Oh wait I just noticed that this topic is 2 years old.

Op, tell us where did you end up?