Application advice

[andrewkleypas]

Howdy y'all, I am currently an undergraduate senior at Texas A&M University. I am applying to dental school this semester. I have been working on my application for a while now and I am very close to being done. I am worried that I might not make it into dental school on my first try, thats okay, but I'm going to give it my best shot. Currently my GPA is a 3.2 and I scored a 19AA and a 19 total sciences on my DAT (21 perceptual, 20 Quant, 20 Reading comp, 20 Biology, 19 Gen chem, 18 Ochem). I also have plenty of shadowing hours, lots of leadership roles, and community service (I am philanthropy chair for my fraternity). I am hoping to raise my GPA by having a 4.0 semester! (Hopefully my first). I was wondering if there are any services people would recommend using to fine tune my application? I am wanting professional guidance on formatting my application, making sure I include all the right things, personal statement help, and general application guidance. My school offers application advising and essay reviews, but I want to take it a step further.

I also was curious weather to mention certain aspects of my grades on my application or during an interview. During my time as an undergrad I have had lots of "almost's", I'm referring to my uncanny ability to get 87's-89's in classes. This is the single greatest contributor to my lower than desirable GPA. I have recorded a whopping 10 classes that I've gotten between 87-89's. Is this something I should try and mention my application or during an interview?

I was reading a forum on SDN regarding convictions and applications. I was curious if anyone had any more insight on this issue. When I was younger in college I was ticketed for a disorderly conduct (A class C misdemeanor). The forum I read mentioned that I should not try to hide this, and that I should take responsibility of it. I was curious if this means that I should mention this in my application or if I should just be prepared to answer that question during an interview?

I look forward to hearing back from the SDN community!

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[1942]

DAT is average and GPA is on the lower end. You will need to apply broadly and very strategically. There are some services out there that charge several thousand dollars for help with the entire application process (school selection, application content, PS, interviews etc). I do not have experience with that so I can not recommend a particular service. However, my personal opinion is that it’s not really necessary. SDN is a tremendous resource and you can find sound advice/guidance on a variety of topics. Your schools career services center is probably a great resource too and can help you prepare a resume/CV and conduct mock interviews for free! I know some friends who purchased PS editing services through fiverr but the general consensus was that its hit and miss. Sending your PS to Friends/family/colleagues/mentors and soliciting feedback will be similarly as effective.

I would not mention that at all. Its an excuse. Is 87-89 your ceiling and that was the best you could have done given the circumstance? Could you have worked harder, put in more hours, learned effective studying techniques to perform better? Adcoms don’t care about almost haha. For all they know that 89 you claim for a class could have been 80. What’s more important is you undergo some introspection and take ownership of your low GPA. Recognize your faults and weaknesses and provide concrete examples of how addressed those issues and they will not affect you in grad school. That’s more effective than some excuses

Yes I would mention it, especially if you were older than 18 when this occurred (disclaimer, I am not sure if arrests for misdemeanors show up in background checks). Again take ownership of the mistake and discuss how you have matured and are a completely different person. You can potentially use this to write a powerful response to a supplemental question. If you don’t answer it in the application, decent likelihood it will come up in the interview so be prepared to discuss the situation

 

[MavsFanForLife]

I had similar(ish) stats. (3.15 sgpa, 21 aa/ts but 16 QR). I got the book from the ADEA that has all the schools and their stats. I also looked up the class profile for every school within my range (make sure you are not applying to a school that pretty much exclusively takes URMs, or applicants in certain states). I think you have a real shot IF you apply broadly and to schools within your range.
I applied to 19 schools and received several interviews. Hope that helps man! Let me know if I can help with anything else.