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- May 7, 2013
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Hi fellow Canadians (or to be Canadians),
I went through the 2014 application cycle so if there are any questions regarding application process specifically for Canadians please don't hesitate to post your question on to this thread! I will try to answer your questions as much as I can.
Here are answers to some questions I came across last year.
1. cDAT or aDAT?
First of all, check to see if your school accepts Canadian DAT!!! This is very important! If they do and if you have decent scores and decent gpa? Go ahead and apply with your cDAT. If your scores are mediocre (below 21) personally, I would go ahead and take the aDAT. You get to choose when to take the test and usually this advantage allows higher scores. If you haven't taken the DAT, don't wait until this Nov to take the cDAT. It'll take at least 6 weeks for the scores to get to aadsas.
2. Pre-reqs
Canadian schools usually require very little pre-req courses. This isn't the case for many schools in the states. Different schools have different requirements. You can apply without them and then finish them during the summer but again Canadian summer goes up till the end of Aug. American ds starts in Aug. Make sure you've got all the pre-reqs!
3. IB, AP, CC
In most cases, Canadian ds accepts IB credits/AP credits. However, this isn't the case for American ds. I actually had a hard time after application process was over because I had lots of IB credits including 6 English credits. Some ds asked me to take English classes and some didn't. I ended up deciding to go to a Canadian school so it doesn't really matter now.
4. Which schools?
Okay this is a tough one. There are 70 or so ds in the states. However, only a fraction of those schools accept Canadians. There are the expensive private schools and relatively cheaper state schools. There's a thread for this already so study that carefully. Just to let you know, Tufts stopped accepting Canadians.
5. LOC
After you are accepted, unless your parents are willing to pay for tuition+expenses or if you had an amazing career before starting ds and racked up half a million dollars, you'll need to get a LOC from a bank. If you go to school's financial aid sessions on the interview day, they will tell you to apply for a LOC from an American bank with a cosigner. This is a really bad idea since 1. interest rates are ridiculously high as far as I know. 2. Where are you going to get an American cosigner?
Right now, Canada's professional LOC's interest rate for dental students is set to prime which is 3%. This hasn't been changed since 2010. Unfortunately, you need a cosigner for this as well and the maximum amount is 250k (275k in some banks). You get around 15k/yr from student loan so all together it adds up to 310k. If you are going to schools like NYU/USC/Boston and even Buffalo, this won't be enough so make sure you can afford the school before you apply!
I went through the 2014 application cycle so if there are any questions regarding application process specifically for Canadians please don't hesitate to post your question on to this thread! I will try to answer your questions as much as I can.
Here are answers to some questions I came across last year.
1. cDAT or aDAT?
First of all, check to see if your school accepts Canadian DAT!!! This is very important! If they do and if you have decent scores and decent gpa? Go ahead and apply with your cDAT. If your scores are mediocre (below 21) personally, I would go ahead and take the aDAT. You get to choose when to take the test and usually this advantage allows higher scores. If you haven't taken the DAT, don't wait until this Nov to take the cDAT. It'll take at least 6 weeks for the scores to get to aadsas.
2. Pre-reqs
Canadian schools usually require very little pre-req courses. This isn't the case for many schools in the states. Different schools have different requirements. You can apply without them and then finish them during the summer but again Canadian summer goes up till the end of Aug. American ds starts in Aug. Make sure you've got all the pre-reqs!
3. IB, AP, CC
In most cases, Canadian ds accepts IB credits/AP credits. However, this isn't the case for American ds. I actually had a hard time after application process was over because I had lots of IB credits including 6 English credits. Some ds asked me to take English classes and some didn't. I ended up deciding to go to a Canadian school so it doesn't really matter now.
4. Which schools?
Okay this is a tough one. There are 70 or so ds in the states. However, only a fraction of those schools accept Canadians. There are the expensive private schools and relatively cheaper state schools. There's a thread for this already so study that carefully. Just to let you know, Tufts stopped accepting Canadians.
5. LOC
After you are accepted, unless your parents are willing to pay for tuition+expenses or if you had an amazing career before starting ds and racked up half a million dollars, you'll need to get a LOC from a bank. If you go to school's financial aid sessions on the interview day, they will tell you to apply for a LOC from an American bank with a cosigner. This is a really bad idea since 1. interest rates are ridiculously high as far as I know. 2. Where are you going to get an American cosigner?
Right now, Canada's professional LOC's interest rate for dental students is set to prime which is 3%. This hasn't been changed since 2010. Unfortunately, you need a cosigner for this as well and the maximum amount is 250k (275k in some banks). You get around 15k/yr from student loan so all together it adds up to 310k. If you are going to schools like NYU/USC/Boston and even Buffalo, this won't be enough so make sure you can afford the school before you apply!
