Chances at the big name schools/evaluate my app.

[mgc]

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Hi all,

I have a great interest/passion for OMFS and have heard many times that schools such as Columbia, UConn, UPenn, UCSF, Harvard, etc... have high OMFS specialty rates (usually as a product of their students taking courses with med students and crushing the CBSE). I know that it can be done from almost any school, however I want to maximize my chances by getting into one of these schools.

I was hoping some of you current Dental Students could please look over my stats and give me your thoughts on my chances for this cycle and what I should do to improve my application.

NY Resident
Attending a CUNY with strong science foundation.
GPA: ~3.86, sc.GPA: ~3.7 Econ Major, Chem Minor
(Not many upper tier sci courses because I started pre-dent late in my junior year - although planning on taking biochem/microbio in the following semesters).

Letters: A few I know will be good, the rest will prob be ok.

ECs: This worries me b.c I see people on this site with 10000000 hours of volunteer, shadowing 100 diff dentists and specialists, cancer research, etc.

Here's mine:

Spent about 100 hrs at OMFS Clinic that had a GPR program so I got to see a wide range of both dental and OMS procedures (including a lot of time in the OR). - Loved trauma and orthognathics btw, so freakin' cool.

Participated in a few impressions programs, GNYDM twice, and Columbia's OMFS symposium.

Volunteer: Approx. 150-200 hrs throughout college in local community center helping set up events/babysit kids in after school, etc.

Spent two summers as a camp counselor in hockey program coaching young kids. (100+hrs for sure)

Currently work basically full time at a high pressure financial services company (middle market investment banking). (2 years - started when I began my pre-dent courses).

Through HS and first years of undergrad, I worked approx 30 hrs a week as a supervisor at a very busy sports facility where I was the ice rink supervisor (jack of all trades) and did so much that I don't even know where to start: Some of duties include - coaching, rink management, responding to injuries (we had some serious injuries: lacerated limbs and cut fingers, broken bones, face trauma and concussions, fights,etc.. I managed all these incidents and wrcommunicated with Federal officers/EMS. (Worked here for 5 years)

Trying to get into a biochem lab where they study telomere disruption during cell replication. Anyways, can't put something I'm planning to do on my app so - No research :/

Music Producer and Engineer - produced, recorded, marketed an album that is on every major online distributor in the world including amazon, google music, spotify, itunes, etc. Also, I play guitar and bass for over 10 years so this should cover the manual dexterity part.

Played competitive ice hockey in early semesters of undergrad.

Lastly: I will begin my DAT prep May 20th and will be doing nothing but study (quitting my job) until late August when I plan to take the exam. I am hoping that with hard work I can score at least a 20 AA.

My greatest worry is and the fact that I will be applying relatively late... I am going to submit early in the cycle (~June/July), but the app won't be technically finished and ready for review until after the end of August, potentially to mid sept, depending upon how long it takes for the DAT to get processed. Either way, I'm faxing it as soon as I get my score.

Apologize in advance for the long message - I am an anxious dude by nature and was hoping some of you guys could help evaluate my chances.

Thanks for reading!

 

[I want to go to there]

Can't evaluate your chances til you get your DAT scores, but if it's 23+, you should stand a good chance in all the schools besides Harvard. I think you need 25+ for Harvard.

Don't worry about the cycle time, it won't affect you negatively since Sept. isn't even late. Just do well on the DAT and rest of the semester and you will be solid.

 

[Faux]

You can take the dat late June or early/mid July. Just focus on biology and pat for now. A lot of stuff in biology, and pat needs some time to settle in. Maybe do RC once a week. By the time summer is here, just hammer out chads chemistry videos for two weeks and finish destroyer biology. And do test material the last two weeks and see where you're at.

Don't foeget stony brook too!

 

[mgc]

Unfortunately, that won't work because of how time pressed I am right now with orgo, physics, two reading/essay heavy courses and my job. Also, I am taking a summer review course that is scheduled to end Aug 14th.

I much rather apply late with a strong DAT than rush it to get poor results.

Thanks for the suggestion though!

 

[mgc]

Applying to Stony for sure.. I participated in their impressions program and got to meet some of the students and staff. The people at that school are awesome, facilities look great, and can't beat that cost.

 

[Faux]

With your strong gpa and background, review course would be a waste of time imo. You'd cover more ground on your own. DAT isn't difficult, just time consuming and a lot of material.

 

[mgc]

Yeah very true.. the only reason I'm doing it is because so many of my friends in NY have recommend this specific review course. Supposedly the program has yielded incredible results.

 

[dds2b219]

I applied late with a pretty decent DAT score and I do not recommend applying later than aug 1 w/ dat scores. Do all you can to start studying NOW. You'll thank yourself later.

 

[caserpode]

The people at that school are awesome, facilities look great, and can't beat that cost.

 

[l4dygaga]

All the school's you mentioned are high stats. So getting 23+ DAT score would definitely land you interviews no doubt.