Are my chances at admission lower because I am currently applying with only 2 years of undergrad?

[drawingdentist]

Hey everyone,

I am about to start my Junior year ( aka my last year in college) and I am applying to dental school this current cycle. I have noticed that a lot of people applying have their masters or have 3+ years of undergrad under their belt. This also means that they are able to list more experiences on their application. Am I at a disadvantage for applying with only 2 years of undergrad?

Currently freaking out, so thanks for taking the time to respond lol!

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[Jlm50]

Why is your junior year your last year?

 

[biochem5]

Not necessarily. As long as you’ve had some rigorous semesters and have sufficient amount of hours in your acitivites.

 

[drawingdentist]

Why is your junior year your last year?

I did a year of dual enrollment and had AP credits so I entered college with about 45 credits!

 

[DentalDegree3]

What are your stats and EC? You may not be mature enough for DS. Not to sound harsh.

 

[biochem5]

What are your stats and EC? You may not be mature enough for DS. Not to sound harsh.

Everyone in d-school acts like they are in middle school anyway

 

[biochem5]

What are your stats and EC? You may not be mature enough for DS. Not to sound harsh.

Also DentalDegree3 you just posted a taco thread on sdn...soo

 

[Likkriue]

Everyone in d-school acts like they are in middle school anyway

Middle school is giving too much credit. More like 5th grade.

 

[Jlm50]

Yeah, ignore the maturity comment.

Can you describe your extracurriculars?

 

[cooliyak]

Speaking from my experience attempting the same thing, you need to be more on top of your game than others who are applying with a degree. I viewed it as the same thing as applying for a job where 4+ years of experience is preferred, but given the right experience and skills, they will take someone with 3 years. Yes, you will be at a disadvantage, but nothing you can’t easily overcome. Some schools won’t even look at you (do your research ahead of time), some will be condescending about it (won’t know until your interview usually), and some don’t care (hopefully most that you apply to). Everything that you do needs to be slightly better than other applicants. If you take the advice that everyone gives and kick it up one notch, you should be just fine.
For example:
-general advice says you need to apply early. This means you need to apply within the first week of AADSAS opening, if not the day it opens.
-general advice says a 3.5+ GPA is competitive. This means you need a 3.8+
-general advice says a 19-20 DAT score is safe (depending on GPA, it could be recommended higher). This means you need 21-22+.
-general advice says a variety of shadowing experiences that gets you the minimum for the schools you are applying to is enough. This means you need to do more and ideally have dental assisting or lab tech experience.

The above isn’t necessarily my advice on numbers/specifics, but I hope you see what I mean. With that mentality, you should get into plenty of schools. I applied to 15, got 8 interviews, accepted to 7 w/ one interview that I rejected. The one school that rejected me after my interview told me at my interview that I didn’t have enough classes completed to earn the application “points” I needed for an acceptance and basically said they only interviewed me as a courtesy since my dad was an alum. He was more upset about it than I was (which was funny because he said he hated it there...).