Am I only applying to top ones? Should I add couple of safety schools?

[clubwestpua]

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I just submitted my AADSAS and here are my schools:

Columbia
Harvard
Ohio State
Colorado
Buffalo
UCLA
UCSF
Louisville
Maryland
New Jersey UMDNJ
UNC
Michigan
Penn
Pittsburg
Western
Three Texas Schools

Am I stretching too far? Do u guys think I should add couple more safety schools?


Here are my stats

General Stats
Residency: Maryland
School: Top 50 US News Ranking School
Major: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
100% Tuition Scholarship
cGPA: 3.72
sGPA: 3.68
Upward trend: 3.6 freshman, 3.65 sophomore, 3.72 junior, 3.9 senior year (GPA lowered due to AADSAS calculation)
graduated Summa Cum Laude

DAT (taken once)
Perceptual Ability: 21
Quantitative Reasoning: 24
Reading Comprehension: 20
Biology: 24
General Chemistry: 23
Organic Chemistry: 23
Total Science: 24
Academic Average: 23


Research
(1) 3 years in undergrad, research scholarship, poster, senior thesis (summa cum laude)
(2) National Institutes of Health Postbacc Intramural Research Fellow
2 year long research, poster presentation, will have authorship in several papers with impact factors higher than 10 and possibly one 1st author publication

Dental Shadowing/volunteering
(1) general dentist shadowing: 60 hours
(2) dental clinic volunteering: 60 hours
(3) planning to shadow specialists

Non-dental Volunteering
(1) Homeless clinic 3 years
(2) Hospice 2 years
(3) Big Brothers and Big Sisters mentoring 1 year
(4) various service projects for the poor and underprivileged including ronald mcdonald house, pleasant place, and etc
(5) Medical Mission Trip to Ecuador (2 weeks)

Leadership
(1) Community service club president
- devised a mentoring/tutoring program to underprivileged kids
- devised several service projects including habitat for humanity, feeding homeless and etc.

(2) Japanese fencing club vice president
- taught beginners

Other ECs:
NIH Academy Health Disparity Fellowship program
- round table sessions with national leaders in health disparity research
- worked on an independent project on public health and health disparity

LOR:
(1) NIH National Institutes of Dental Craniofacial Research Clinical Research Director
(2) Physical chemistry professor
(3) Biochemistry professor
(4) NIH National Institutes of Diabetes, Digestive disease and kidneys principal investigator (my boss)

Flaws:
- One C+ during first semester, and one withdraw during sophomore year
- Only 2 As from upper bio courses and majority of As are from chemistry and physics
- Pretty much started to shadow in 2012 there was one day endodontist shadowing in 2008 though
- Research topics are not directly dentistry related

 

[Troyvdg]

your stats are great (research experience is stronger than mine, GPA is higher than mine, also have a C+ freshman year) and we're applying to a lot of the same schools...🙄 I'm not worried about it, I don't think you should be either. If you aren't confident then it never hurts (anything but the bank account) to apply to some super safeties, but I don't think its necessary.

good luck

 

[Ionz]

Well, if you don't get into any of those schools, I don't know what does.👍

 

[jeffity]

You could trim that down even if you just hated the price or place.

 

[Blake1e]

Your list seems fine. Id argue that a person with your stats doesnt need to apply to that many schools but you never know what could happen.

 

[NDPitch]

Do u guys think I should add couple more safety schools?

There is no such thing as a safety school in dentistry, haha. They're all hard to get into.

 

[hunterx2]

Dude 15 schools is too many I would trim it down to 12, 10, or even 8 with your app and stats you should be fine. Some of your schools are very tough OOS for like Colorado, OSU, and both UC's.

 

[clubwestpua]

Dude 15 schools is too many I would trim it down to 12, 10, or even 8 with your app and stats you should be fine. Some of your schools are very tough OOS for like Colorado, OSU, and both UC's.

thank you guys.

so that gives me 10 possible schools then since harvard would be near impossible.