Canadian Re-Applicant - What to do?

[kodal]

Hello everyone!

I've applied to several USA dental schools last year and that did not turn out well, where only one school gave me an interview and put me on the wait-list. My overall statistics are cGPA of 3.4 and DAT of 20AA. I have over 100 hours of shadowing, several leadership positions in university clubs, did a "research" project as part of one of my courses, and have been working at a dental clinic as an assistant for about 3 years.

I was so disappointed to not hear back from any of the other schools and I have been struggling on finding what was wrong with my application. Here's what I think deterred them:

- applying in September and my overall application being approved in October
- my GPA and DAT is too low for Canadian applicant
- I basically don't have any community volunteering hours
- my personal statement was not good enough

Could anyone provide me with advice on how to proceed and on what else to improve on? Thank you very much!

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[S_Diamond_DDS]

Yes september/october is very late, this was probably your biggest issue. cGPA tends to not matter that much, what’s your sGPA? And also, through my research I found that 21AA tended to be a safe score, but 20AA wouldn’t be a deal breaker I don’t think. You don’t necessarily need community volunteer hours, especially if you were strong in other ways extracurricularly. You should definitly re-think your personal statement, have a couple of different readers read it this time and give their input, maybe there’s something you missed last time. At the very least, don’t send the exact same personal statement this cycle, and change a few lines (possibly a more grabbing intro or what have you learned from applying and being rejected last cycle, how have you improved yourself since then, what new experiences have you been a part of, etc?) sometimes adcoms remember recycled personal statements. Additionally, I would apply to EVERY international friendly program, since I know there is only a handful of them, to increase your chances.

 

[doc toothache]

Shouldn't you be getting input from the school where you applied, rather than SDN?

 

[kodal]

Yes september/october is very late, this was probably your biggest issue. cGPA tends to not matter that much, what’s your sGPA? And also, through my research I found that 21AA tended to be a safe score, but 20AA wouldn’t be a deal breaker I don’t think. You don’t necessarily need community volunteer hours, especially if you were strong in other ways extracurricularly. You should definitly re-think your personal statement, have a couple of different readers read it this time and give their input, maybe there’s something you missed last time. At the very least, don’t send the exact same personal statement this cycle, and change a few lines (possibly a more grabbing intro or what have you learned from applying and being rejected last cycle, how have you improved yourself since then, what new experiences have you been a part of, etc?) sometimes adcoms remember recycled personal statements. Additionally, I would apply to EVERY international friendly program, since I know there is only a handful of them, to increase your chances.

Thank you for some recommended improvements, I'll try to act on them next cycle! My sGPA I think is around 3.2.

 

[kodal]

Shouldn't you be getting input from the school where you applied, rather than SDN?

I have sent emails to schools, but only several have replied and they did not provide any specifics regarding my application. I will be emailing ones that have not replied again though.