Contacting Schools Directly

[jbarnett2020]

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For some reason I have seen a lot of people on here advising people that contacting a school directly is a bad idea. This is horrible advice. There is absolutely no one better to give you advice on how to get into a school than that school directly. It is of vital importance however that you call correctly. A procedure for doing so is:

1) Introduce yourself as "Good morning/afternoon _____ (say the person's name that answered the phone)! My name is ______ _____ and my AADSAS ID is. I am currently in the application cycle and I am very interested in your school! I have a few quick questions for you and I was hoping that you would be able to answer them if that would be okay?"

2) After they say yes reply with, "Great! Thank you so much! So I was looking at your website and I was a little confused about ______. (Then proceed to ask a very specific question that you have)." After each question say thank you and repeat for your additional questions.

3) After all of your questions are answered say, "Well _____ (person's name) I appreciate all of your help today. I look forward to you reading my application and hope to hear from you soon!"

4) Keep a Word document or a Note on your phone (doesn't matter the method) and write down everything that was discussed including the person's name that you talked to and the date and time that the conversation happened.

5) The next time that you call (there should be at least a few days/weeks between calls) after they answer say, "Good morning/afternoon _____ (say the person's name that answered the phone)! My name is ______ _____ and my AADSAS ID is. I am currently in the application cycle and I am very interested in your school! A few days/weeks ago (don't say the exact date because that sounds kind of weird and rehearsed) I spoke with ______ and they were very helpful. Then repeat steps 2-4. Except on step 3 end with, "Do me a favor and tell _____ I said hello and thank you for all of their help again! I look forward to you reading my application and hope to hear from you soon!"

CONTACT SCHOOLS DIRECTLY. You want to be a dentist and dentists are persistent. People, dental school admissions people included, respond to persistence. Be professional and persistent.

 

[doc toothache]

What school would not be thrilled to receive hundreds, if not thousand, of phone calls clarifying a "confusion" 😉about their website ?

 

[jbarnett2020]

What school would not be thrilled to receive hundreds, if not thousand, of phone calls clarifying a "confusion" 😉about their website ?

haha like I said, it is all about the how you call them. I called 3 schools about 5-6 times throughout the cycle and got interviews at all 3 of those schools!

 

[schmoob]

What school would not be thrilled to receive hundreds, if not thousand, of phone calls clarifying a "confusion" 😉about their website ?

The same schools that were thrilled to take payment from students applying there.

 

[jbarnett2020]

The same schools that were thrilled to take payment from students applying there.

100%. Amen.

 

[doc toothache]

haha like I said, it is all about the how you call them. I called 3 schools about 5-6 times throughout the cycle and got interviews at all 3 of those schools!

You mean the ds(s) in question chose you over otherwise more qualified applicants because of your persistence?

 

[jbarnett2020]

You mean the ds(s) in question chose you over otherwise more qualified applicants because of your persistence?

Answering yes or no would be completely speculative. The fact of the matter is, I was there and others were not. Given the mean for both GPA and DAT and I was standard deviation(s) below. Thus it would be reasonable to assume that my place there was instead of others that were, as you put it, more qualified applicants.

When you really think about it a GPA is subjective. So many factors can change it and do not have a strong correlation with intelligence. If I were a member of the admissions committee I would take a high GPA to mean that the applicant was serious when it came to school and cared. I knew that I had that lacking in my application. I made up for that by getting in touch with the schools directly to show them how serious I was towards obtaining a school in their school.

 

[masnat]

Answering yes or no would be completely speculative. The fact of the matter is, I was there and others were not. Given the mean for both GPA and DAT and I was standard deviation(s) below. Thus it would be reasonable to assume that my place there was instead of others that were, as you put it, more qualified applicants.

When you really think about it a GPA is subjective. So many factors can change it and do not have a strong correlation with intelligence. If I were a member of the admissions committee I would take a high GPA to mean that the applicant was serious when it came to school and cared. I knew that I had that lacking in my application. I made up for that by getting in touch with the schools directly to show them how serious I was towards obtaining a school in their school.

In the experience of my peers who have been accepted into dental school, this has been proven to be correct. I have a very close relationship with an admissions director at a major university who would agree with your advice that establishing a relationship with an admissions committee member through phone or e-mail is beneficial to the applicant.

 

[blablabla1]

You should edit your post to clarify the following:

DO NOT call a school about information that can be otherwise found online on their website. Do not call to ask about your current status unless it's post December and you either haven't gotten an interview or are on the waitlist.

If you want to indicate your interest to a school, write a well written email telling them about your strong interest and WHY you think you would fit in with the mission statement/principles of the school. Don't call them about this kind of thing, having an email allows them to add it onto your file.

 

[masnat]

You should edit your post to clarify the following:

DO NOT call a school about information that can be otherwise found online on their website. Do not call to ask about your current status unless it's post December and you either haven't gotten an interview or are on the waitlist.

If you want to indicate your interest to a school, write a well written email telling them about your strong interest and WHY you think you would fit in with the mission statement/principles of the school. Don't call them about this kind of thing, having an email allows them to add it onto your file.

Yes, I agree.