Bunch of Quick Questions

[Soloair]

Hi guys, I just have a few quick questions

1. Is 2 months sufficient time to study for the DAT? (Goal: 21 AA)
2. Is applying Mid-Late July detrimental to getting accepted? (Planning to take DAT mid July next year)
3. Is 100 hours of volunteering and shadowing enough?
   1. If not is it worth taking a gap year to get more (200+ hrs in each)
4. Is it acceptable to only have 1 extracurricular activity (predental society) if I work a lot (2500+ hrs)?
5. Hypothetically if I apply with raw stats of 21 DAT, 3.8 GPA, 100 Volunteering hrs, 100 Shadowing hrs how likely is it for me to get accepted?

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[Lemillion]

Hi guys, I just have a few quick questions

1. Is 2 months sufficient time to study for the DAT? (Goal: 21 AA)
2. Is applying Mid-Late July detrimental to getting accepted? (Planning to take DAT mid July next year)
3. Is 100 hours of volunteering and shadowing enough?
   1. If not is it worth taking a gap year to get more (200+ hrs in each)
4. Is it acceptable to only have 1 extracurricular activity (predental society) if I work a lot (2500+ hrs)?
5. Hypothetically if I apply with raw stats of 21 DAT, 3.8 GPA, 100 Volunteering hrs, 100 Shadowing hrs how likely is it for me to get accepted?

1. Yes if you make good use of time during those two months. I studied for about 2 months and had a 20 AA. But everyone progresses differently, I would take benchmark practice tests to see if you are hitting your target score.
2. It's been a while since I applied (2012) but I remember getting mine submitted in mid-July. You can always submit everything in earlier and then send in your DAT score once it's official.
3. Yes, I had 50 hours of volunteering and 100ish of shadowing. My rule of thumb was 50 hours in each category (service, shadowing and extra-curricular) at the minimum. **That was my goal, not a standard/commonplace thing.
4. Not sure on this one, I did not have a lot during college (pre-dental society, tour guide and entrepreneurship club). I think the quality of involvement will make a difference.
5. If you had those stats, I would say your chances of getting an interview are good. From there, it depends on how well your interview goes. I knew of people will those stats and better who did not get in because of a poor/awkward interview.

Good luck!

 

[Redwing9]

1. That is enough time, from personal experience I did it in 6 weeks but it was not fun but possible.
2. I took the DAT July 1st, and applied later that day mid-July should be fine, most of my interviews came in September-November
4. Work is awesome to have on your application, I had a similar amount of hours at a retail job and it came up during my interviews.

Regarding the rest of your questions, I'm confused. You have 11 months between now and when you plan to apply I don't see why you couldn't have way more to show. If you shadowed somewhere 4 hours a week that's 200 hours. Do you play any pick-up sports or instruments or anything because that is EC activity? Something I did on my application was in one listing I said community volunteering and went over some places I only spent a day because they didn't require a whole 600-word description. Another thing you can do is look out for events by ASDA, ADEA, and the ADA. Go to the pre-dental days at a nearby dental school, or the ADEA godental fair, watch their live webinars and talk about what you learn by being involved with some of these organizations.

 

[TanMan]

Hi guys, I just have a few quick questions

1. Is 2 months sufficient time to study for the DAT? (Goal: 21 AA)
2. Is applying Mid-Late July detrimental to getting accepted? (Planning to take DAT mid July next year)
3. Is 100 hours of volunteering and shadowing enough?
   1. If not is it worth taking a gap year to get more (200+ hrs in each)
4. Is it acceptable to only have 1 extracurricular activity (predental society) if I work a lot (2500+ hrs)?
5. Hypothetically if I apply with raw stats of 21 DAT, 3.8 GPA, 100 Volunteering hrs, 100 Shadowing hrs how likely is it for me to get accepted?

1. Definitely. I recall studying for 13 days (or 10 days - less than 2 weeks). Got 23TS/AA.
2. Not at all. I applied late too.
3. That's plenty. Don't waste an extra year because volunteering/shadowing doesn't really matter a lot. I think I had 50 hours of shadowing or some other useless activity.
4. It's ok if you can talk about working somewhere in the application. Better if you have a bleeding heart sob story about supporting your single parent migrant worker family or something of the like.
5. Very likely, as long as you don't get below an 18 in any single category. Just don't say stupid **** during the interview. Applicants say the darndest things sometimes... and disqualify themselves.

Disclaimer: I'm old, so your application experience may vary.

 

[Soleus715]

Hi guys, I just have a few quick questions

1. Is 2 months sufficient time to study for the DAT? (Goal: 21 AA)
2. Is applying Mid-Late July detrimental to getting accepted? (Planning to take DAT mid July next year)
3. Is 100 hours of volunteering and shadowing enough?
   1. If not is it worth taking a gap year to get more (200+ hrs in each)
4. Is it acceptable to only have 1 extracurricular activity (predental society) if I work a lot (2500+ hrs)?
5. Hypothetically if I apply with raw stats of 21 DAT, 3.8 GPA, 100 Volunteering hrs, 100 Shadowing hrs how likely is it for me to get accepted?

1. Yes
2. No
3. Yes
4. Yes
5. Yes (I had 3.0 gpa, 2.9s sgpa, 23AA/24TS. No masters/post-bac. Do everything you can do save yourself time and get in the first try, I applied to 21 schools!! Really refine your application and make this cycle count. I would NOT take a gap year. Dentistry has a bad ROI already, you want to get your degree ASAP)