Any engineers?

[desiyaar]

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Any engineers here applying this cycle? I read that like <1% of apps are eng....woo woo

 

[uvaGirL07]

biomedical engineering! 👍

 

[sajjy]

Biomedical Engineering...woo hooo

 

[swartz23]

- Civil Engineer from Purdue University

I'm hoping our rarity will win us the uniqueness factor when compared to other applicants.

 

[playa2652]

Bioengineering too!

 

[sajjy]

- Civil Engineer from Purdue University

I'm hoping our rarity will win us the uniqueness factor when compared to other applicants.

It will....among the engineering applicant pool, the acceptance rate is 66% whereas among the bio majors the rate is 52%.

 

[GT Dental]

Industrial & Systems Engineering

good to know there are others out there!

 

[Pat Kelly]

It will....among the engineering applicant pool, the acceptance rate is 66% whereas among the bio majors the rate is 52%.

That's not because having an engineering degree will make your application better. A more likely explanation is the quality of engineering applicants are better than the biology applicants. A lot of people go into a biology major in hopes of going to med/dental school, and they will apply even if they have subpar scores in gpa and DAT, which drags the % of acceptance down by quite a bit.

 

[sajjy]

That's not because having an engineering degree will make your application better. A more likely explanation is the quality of engineering applicants are better than the biology applicants. A lot of people go into a biology major in hopes of going to med/dental school, and they will apply even if they have subpar scores in gpa and DAT, which drags the % of acceptance down by quite a bit.

It improves the whole package....so at the end it is 66%

 

[Pat Kelly]

It improves the whole package....so at the end it is 66%

How does it improve the whole package? Maybe you would have better quality control, but you lose out on taking upper level biology courses, which are also helpful to succeeding in dental school.

 

[sajjy]

How does it improve the whole package? Maybe you would have better quality control, but you lose out on taking upper level biology courses, which are also helpful to succeeding in dental school.

I have taken PNB1, Genetics, Biochem, Cell Bio and will be taking PNB2, along with a minor, all in 4years.
What else would be important for dental school?

 

[A8]

Mechanical Engineering! Good luck to everyone!

 

[TheMillionaireNextDoor]

I got mine in Electrical Engineering. 😱

Good luck everyone! 👍

 

[dentstd]

Personally, I'm wondering how you guys' QR is only an 18. I'd expect it to be 22+ for engineers.

 

[Pat Kelly]

I have taken PNB1, Genetics, Biochem, Cell Bio and will be taking PNB2, along with a minor, all in 4years.
What else would be important for dental school?

Some biology majors have to take 2 years of upper biological sciences in order to fulfill their grad requirement. What you are saying doesn't help your argument - just because YOU took 300+ level biological science courses doesn't mean that OVERALL engineering majors will have an advantage over biology majors - not every engineering major will take those courses that you do. I don't believe that there's a great advantage in choosing the right majors as the stats would suggest. The data is obviously biased because there's not as many engineering majors who have subpar GPA/DAT that apply to dental schools. If majors really mattered, why don't we all take a bachelor of dental science then? It's the closest undergrad training that you will receive that simulates what a dental education will be - you get clinical training, oral-related pathology/microbiology/histology/physiology, dental ethics, dental materials, and other courses. It should be a guarentee in being admitted to dental programs for a BDsc grad if they even have average stats on DAT/GPA right? That's obviously not the case, otherwise there would be an even larger shortage of dental hygienists in some areas than as of right now.

You have great stats, and surely you will get into dental school this year, but i think you are naive if you believe that having an engineering degree will make you better or more "unique" than other applicants.

 

[Andrew324]

Economics!! Yay!

 

[desiyaar]

sweeet.....yah im bioengineering at UCSD, and i figured our apps would stand out a bit, considering engineering is legit 😉

 

[uvaGirL07]

Personally, I'm wondering how you guys' QR is only an 18. I'd expect it to be 22+ for engineers.

haha honestly i have no clue. 😵
on kaplan & achiever i never got anything under 25. so seriously... i have no clue what went wrong. too bad it brought my AA down.

 

[sajjy]

Some biology majors have to take 2 years of upper biological sciences in order to fulfill their grad requirement. What you are saying doesn't help your argument - just because YOU took 300+ level biological science courses doesn't mean that OVERALL engineering majors will have an advantage over biology majors - not every engineering major will take those courses that you do. I don't believe that there's a great advantage in choosing the right majors as the stats would suggest. The data is obviously biased because there's not as many engineering majors who have subpar GPA/DAT that apply to dental schools. If majors really mattered, why don't we all take a bachelor of dental science then? It's the closest undergrad training that you will receive that simulates what a dental education will be - you get clinical training, oral-related pathology/microbiology/histology/physiology, dental ethics, dental materials, and other courses. It should be a guarentee in being admitted to dental programs for a BDsc grad if they even have average stats on DAT/GPA right? That's obviously not the case, otherwise there would be an even larger shortage of dental hygienists in some areas than as of right now.

You have great stats, and surely you will get into dental school this year, but i think you are naive if you believe that having an engineering degree will make you better or more "unique" than other applicants.

May be you are right. But i have talked to Dean's or representatives of many schools and apparently they like it. But at the end all it matters is to be a dentist and serve people. I hope you wont discriminate your patients as you are showing your antagonistic nature towards engineers here. For some reason, engineers accept and welcome every other major but engineers get no love when it comes to med/dent field. I wonder why?

As far as courses go, if 2 yrs of upper level bio courses would be that important that pre-reqs for many schools will not be "1 year of General Bio". I am not saying that Bio majors dont have an advanatge , sure they do, but that doesnt mean having a non-bio major puts anyone at a disadvantage.
And more engineers are being accepted every year with comparatively lesser number of bio courses, so they must be doing well in the dental school as well. Because if not then Admission people will not accept engineers at all because every school wants students who will succeed in their school and will do great in the boards.

Btw would you mind posting your stats if you are applying to dental schools?

But as i said, being a dentist is what matters, so relax dude.....gluck

PS: If you read my first post as how engineering majors have 66% acceptance rate, i mentioned "among the engineering applicants pool"...

 

[Pat Kelly]

May be you are right. But i have talked to Dean's or representatives of many schools and apparently they like it. But at the end all it matters is to be a dentist and serve people. I hope you wont discriminate your patients as you are showing your antagonistic nature towards engineers here. For some reason, engineers accept and welcome every other major but engineers get no love when it comes to med/dent field. I wonder why?

As far as courses go, if 2 yrs of upper level bio courses would be that important that pre-reqs for many schools will not be "1 year of General Bio". I am not saying that Bio majors don't have an advantage , sure they do, but that doesn't mean having a non-bio major puts anyone at a disadvantage.
And more engineers are being accepted every year with comparatively lesser number of bio courses, so they must be doing well in the dental school as well. Because if not then Admission people will not accept engineers at all because every school wants students who will succeed in their school and will do great in the boards.

Btw would you mind posting your stats if you are applying to dental schools?

But as i said, being a dentist is what matters, so relax dude.....gluck

PS: If you read my first post as how engineering majors have 66% acceptance rate, i mentioned "among the engineering applicants pool"...

There's no discriminating anyone here. You and mostly likely any other people who read the stats suggested that having an engineering degree is somehow better than having a biology degree because it's more "unique" and will factor greatly in the adcom's decision. I merely said that in my opinion, there's no great difference between having a biology major and an engineering major as the stats would suggest. As my stats professor said in the first class I had with him - stats can never tell the whole story because it's too hard to eliminate bias from the equation.

I am not antagonistic towards engineering majors, and if I come off like that then it's my wrong choice of words, not my overall sentiment. Never did I say that engineering majors are somehow below people with science degrees, and in fact, I believe that whichever premed/predent that has a engineering background can do just as well, if not better, than science grads. The only thought I have is that they don't have the perceived advantage over any other majors as the stats would suggest. They are just as competitive if not better than science grads, but not significantly more so.


I mentioned the fact that some biology majors are required to take more upper level courses only to counter your thought that people such as you can easily take a bio minor and expect to be negate the advantage of a biology grad in terms of being prepared for dental school in some areas. It's nice to have those courses but I wouldn't lose sleep over not taking it if that's what you think I am suggesting. I didn't say that by having those courses - which you can't as a non-bio major - you are somehow at a huge disadvantage, I am just trying to say that biology majors have their perks too.

If anything, you are the one who's antagonistic towards biology majors because you believe that having an engineering degree improves the whole package - which I am still not sure how, and that's something I don't know about and won't comment on because I have never taken an engineering course before and I would be foolish to say anything about. I would like to hear your reasons on how it will help you significantly in the eyes of the adcoms. (This is not supposed to come off as argumentative as it is, I just want to understand what your thoughts are)

I am not applying for dental school this year, and won't be for another two years. My stats are average, haven't taken the DAT yet, and I am NOT a biology major. I have already revealed what my major is in my previous post so if anything I am not arguing "from the other side of the fence" but rather just disagreeing with some people's interpretation of the stats.

For the record, I have no harsh feelings towards you and any other engineers, I am just stating my opinion that if any of you get into dental school, which you will, it's not because of your degree, but your hard work in school and extracurriculars.

 

[LuckyMiner]

🙂

 

[Pat Kelly]

I got my B.S. in biological engineering, and I'm working on an M.S. in biomaterials.

Modern dentistry wouldn't exist without biomaterials, so be nice to us engineers 😉 The professor I did my undergrad research under was in mechanical engineering, yet his research was on dental composites and bone cement.

I'd be curious as to the average GPAs of engineering vs. non-engineering majors in the 66% vs. 52% comparison. Engineering classes aren't really known for giving out A's like candy, but there are gunners in every degree program.

Ages ago, my pre-med advisor at my undergrad school told me that their school of medicine admissions "unofficially" curves engineering GPAs by 0.2. (A 3.5 in engineering is equivalent to a 3.7 in biology, so to speak.) Anyone know if any dental schools have admitted to curving GPAs like this?

Again, I would like to refute the notion that I somehow dislike engineers - I don't 😛. In fact, I am trying to do apply to do research in biomaterials and I am not even in engineering.

I agree with you that engineering courses are generally harder than science courses. A lot of my engineering friends have complained to me about their situation.

 

[sajjy]

I got my B.S. in biological engineering, and I'm working on an M.S. in biomaterials.

Modern dentistry wouldn't exist without biomaterials, so be nice to us engineers 😉 The professor I did my undergrad research under was in mechanical engineering, yet his research was on dental composites and bone cement.

I'd be curious as to the average GPAs of engineering vs. non-engineering majors in the 66% vs. 52% comparison. Engineering classes aren't really known for giving out A's like candy, but there are gunners in every degree program.

Ages ago, my pre-med advisor at my undergrad school told me that their school of medicine admissions "unofficially" curves engineering GPAs by 0.2. (A 3.5 in engineering is equivalent to a 3.7 in biology, so to speak.) Anyone know if any dental schools have admitted to curving GPAs like this?

Edit to add: Maybe it's just that university. They curve latin honors too. Cum laude in engineering is a 3.5, but a 3.7 for everyone else.

Pat, this would be one reason, and its true.
I know about UConn Med, where engineering avg GPA is 3.4 whereas for Bio major its around 3.6.
But lets end this discussion here, all majors are good as long as you get in and be a humane dentist.

Lucky, Biomaterials rock man....thats my concentration and minor in Material Science. Its difficult to imagine dentistry without Biomaterials.

 

[DrReo]

Some biology majors have to take 2 years of upper biological sciences in order to fulfill their grad requirement. What you are saying doesn't help your argument - just because YOU took 300+ level biological science courses doesn't mean that OVERALL engineering majors will have an advantage over biology majors - not every engineering major will take those courses that you do. I don't believe that there's a great advantage in choosing the right majors as the stats would suggest. The data is obviously biased because there's not as many engineering majors who have subpar GPA/DAT that apply to dental schools. If majors really mattered, why don't we all take a bachelor of dental science then? It's the closest undergrad training that you will receive that simulates what a dental education will be - you get clinical training, oral-related pathology/microbiology/histology/physiology, dental ethics, dental materials, and other courses. It should be a guarentee in being admitted to dental programs for a BDsc grad if they even have average stats on DAT/GPA right? That's obviously not the case, otherwise there would be an even larger shortage of dental hygienists in some areas than as of right now.

You have great stats, and surely you will get into dental school this year, but i think you are naive if you believe that having an engineering degree will make you better or more "unique" than other applicants.

The advantage is: if both a biology and an engineering major didn't get into dental school. Biology major would be jobless for longer. Engineers are in high demand 🙂

 

[uvaGirL07]

Yeah, I talked to an admissions officer when I was pre-med and he said they would curve my gpa about 0.2 or so because of my engineering major and because of my school (top tier). I wonder if dental school adcoms think the same way though. 😕

 

[DrReo]

Yeah, I talked to an admissions officer when I was pre-med and he said they would curve my gpa about 0.2 or so because of my engineering major and because of my school (top tier). I wonder if dental school adcoms think the same way though. 😕

What defines top tier? Top 50. http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/grad/eng/search/title+virginia

Says their graduate, I know you're undergraduate, is ranked 38...

I'm confused by the term "top tier"

 

[swartz23]

From my experience, most engineering classes require a higher degree of application of learned principles than do biology courses. This might be what makes engineering classes more difficult. It also might be what appeals to dental admission committees. They know that good dental practitioners must be able to apply their knowledge to unique cases.

 

[uvaGirL07]

What defines top tier? Top 50. http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/grad/eng/search/title+virginia

Says their graduate, I know you're undergraduate, is ranked 38...

I'm confused by the term "top tier"

According to US News, "top tier" means "The top 50 percent of schools in this category, ranked numerically." Since there are about 100 schools listed in that category, I guess top tier would mean top 25. Correct me if I am wrong. UVa is ranked #23, so it makes sense that it would be considered top tier. Even if it does mean Top 50, 23 still goes into 50. 🙂

I don't think the graduate school ranking applies to me since I only attended as an undergraduate. As for the undergraduate biomedical engineering program though... I believe it is ranked 15 or 16. Not sure.

How do the rest of you feel about PBL? I'm thinking that I may perform better in a PBL program since it's pretty much a do it yourself type of thing--just like engineering was (at least at my school). I'm so used to having to teach myself everything.

 

[sajjy]

I hope Pat Kelly got the message.
Yes PBL is fun. I am attending UConn's Summer Program where we have PBL's every week and its fun. Its definitely similar to the engineering classes where its like you are left in a desert and you have to search for water.

So, bottom line, Engineers rock😀😀

 

[uvaGirL07]

I hope Pat Kelly got the message.
Yes PBL is fun. I am attending UConn's Summer Program where we have PBL's every week and its fun. Its definitely similar to the engineering classes where its like you are left in a desert and you have to search for water.

So, bottom line, Engineers rock😀😀

hahahaha I love your analogy. 👍

 

[Pat Kelly]

The advantage is: if both a biology and an engineering major didn't get into dental school. Biology major would be jobless for longer. Engineers are in high demand 🙂

Sure, that's definitely true. What does that have to do with the Adcom's perception though? Just because you finish a degree in a high demand field doesn't make you a better applicant.

Pharmacology majors have harder courses than all of us, yet they don't get bailed out by the supposed curve that exist for engineers. Maybe I should transfer into engineering now and take advantage of this.

 

[Quattro DMD]

I have a B.S. in Biology and I really regretted choosing that degree. I just picked it because it was the only degree that required all the dental school pre-reqs. But to be honest I had to take a lot of stupid classes to fulfill my degree requirements, such as 2 semesters of plant biology! I graduated in 2006 and the only job I could get was at a medical lab. A biology degree has almost zero application unless you're going to med/dental school or getting a more advanced degree like a Ph.D. Right now I'm working on an MPH with Dental Emphasis, which hopefully will help my dental application. However I really don't think it matters what degree you have, whether its biology or engineering, as long as you can demonstrate to the Adcom that you can excel in their program.

 

[sl2obel2ts]

BioEngineering from Cal, hopefully this acts as a positive factor on my admission

 

[sajjy]

Sure, that's definitely true. What does that have to do with the Adcom's perception though? Just because you finish a degree in a high demand field doesn't make you a better applicant.

Pharmacology majors have harder courses than all of us, yet they don't get bailed out by the supposed curve that exist for engineers. Maybe I should transfer into engineering now and take advantage of this.

Sure you should. That would a smart move from your side.

 

[bjhath]

BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering from Berkeley.

Just a slight change of heart wrt career path...

Brian