DAT done 08/15/10 --> depressed , pls advise!!!

[561manuela]

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OKAY GUYS,
the reason why I am depressed is because I studied my ass off these past 4 months, I literally didnt get to spend NO time with family or friends but I thought it would all pay back at the end. But it didnt!
Well I studied an average of 10 hours a day sometimes even more and these are my scores:

Bio: 22 (97.6%)
Gen Chem: 21 (91.6%)
Organic: 19 (75.7%)
PAT: 17 😳
RC: 18
QR : 16 😳

Total Science : 21 (96%)🙂

Academic AA : 19 !!!!!!! (85.4%)

Ok so what should I do?? I dont want to take this exam again!! These 4 months have been so tough and I was looking forward to go home and finally spend time with my family again! I never expected this!
I was shooting for a 20 or above and when I saw 19 I felt like crying!

My undergrad GPA is 3.7 and my science GPA is: 3.5

Pls let me know what in your opinion would be the best to do! should I call the schools I applied to and ask for advise?

My number one school is Pacific (UoP) will I have a chance?? 😕 🙁



Study Materials:
Kaplan course ( very good for GC and Orgo)
DAT destroyer ( def good for GC and Orgo too)
Crack dat PAT
Math Destroyer ( I mean I did poorly but the problems where so so so similar!!!dont know what went wrong!)

Topscore 3 I had 22 Bio/21GC/19 Orgo

pls guys if you can honestly give me advise I would appreciate it!
right now I am sitting on my couch with mixed feelings and I feel like I wanna cry 🙁 I know my science is fine, but the rest!😱

Some words about the DAT:
pls do not expect this test to be easy! many friends have told me that the dat is an easy test! i dont know what to tell you and I dont wanna scare you, but my exam today was totally NOT easy, the PAT was freaking me out and the BIO section was so random I had about 10 genetic questions, but not the easy type you see on kaplan topscore all the time! weird ones!and kind of like the MCAT, with lots of smaller passages to read and figure out from there what they actually want! I dont know but on kaplan and topscore Bio was a piece of cake. def be prepared for Bio!!
Gen Chem all the calculations were set up and pretty straightforward, two or three conceptual questions which i had a little trouble with and OC was straight forward too with a few reactions that I remember seeing in the destroyer but ended up not going over it enough so I must have missed all of those , I remember one of them where about the Dieckman condensation as well as a condensation mechanism and there was also a question asking about an intermediate step in a reaction mechansim, i had trouble with this question, since I never really learned each step of the mechanisms, but if you wanna get 20 and above def know those!

 

[DonutEater]

If UOP is the only school you want to attend, you have no chance. UOP loves high PAT and AA scores so you should retake and aim for 21AA+ to get into UOP. You 17 PAT and 19 AA will not get you in UOP. UOP also has cutoff score which is 17. Your 16 QR does not meet their cutoff. But you have high chance of acceptance elsewhere. Research other schools.

 

[dentalWorks]

I don't exactly understand why your upset. 19AA with 21TS and your very high GPAs are above average numbers. Yeh sure the PAT & RC could use a few bumps up, but its not that bad. You can't expect EVERYTHING to be above average and perfect, ya know what I mean?

If I had your GPA, I wouldn't retake those scores.

What other schools did you apply to? You might not have so much luck (keyword = 'might'), but if you applied to other schools, I think you have a good shot

 

[DrDientes]

UOP does not have a 17 cutoff I know people attending now that had one section below 17 as did many people. But he is right they put alot of emphasis on AA and PAT so it might hard to get in. One of the admissions director said they look at it like 21=A 20=B 19=C so I am not sure a 17 Pat would neccesarily jump out at them...doesn't hurt to apply though

 

[561manuela]

thanks guys,

Well I dont know what is actually competitive!! Everytime I check on SDN all I see are posts from people who had AA of 22 and above! this is exactly what scares me so much!

And then I read a lot about UoP that they love high PAT scores,
God, I wish I could just become invisible for a moment, I am so stressed and have been literally in a prison for the past 4 months, I needed this time off like no other....🙁
dentalworks:
I applied to 15 schools, mostly the bigger, well known ones, like NYU, BU, UoP, Tempel, NOVA, Tufts etc but I also have two back up schools just in case. But the thing is I really had UoP in mind and I thought I would deserve to get in because I did sacrifice so much for this DAT. I still cant believe I have a 19 AA. Today I slept until 2pm,I was having nightmares to have to retake, i guess I am depressed 😳

Dentalworks, do you think I should go to UoP personally and talk to the dean and see what he/she says? I am from florida but I rather spend 400$ on a plane ticket instead of another 3 months of nightmare studying...?😕

 

[rippinitez]

I know that you really want to be at UOP, but it doesn't seem practical to fly to California, talk to the dean and have him "possibly" tell you that you need to retake or to just apply and see what happens. Just my 2 cents.

You're stats are good overall, you will probably get a few interviews, UOP may or not work out, but your #1 priority should be to get that dental education!

Don't stress!

 

[dentalWorks]

thanks guys,

Well I dont know what is actually competitive!! Everytime I check on SDN all I see are posts from people who had AA of 22 and above! this is exactly what scares me so much!

And then I read a lot about UoP that they love high PAT scores,
God, I wish I could just become invisible for a moment, I am so stressed and have been literally in a prison for the past 4 months, I needed this time off like no other....🙁
dentalworks:
I applied to 15 schools, mostly the bigger, well known ones, like NYU, BU, UoP, Tempel, NOVA, Tufts etc but I also have two back up schools just in case. But the thing is I really had UoP in mind and I thought I would deserve to get in because I did sacrifice so much for this DAT. I still cant believe I have a 19 AA. Today I slept until 2pm,I was having nightmares to have to retake, i guess I am depressed 😳

Dentalworks, do you think I should go to UoP personally and talk to the dean and see what he/she says? I am from florida but I rather spend 400$ on a plane ticket instead of another 3 months of nightmare studying...?😕

Last year (or I think it was 2008) the national average for ACCEPTED pre-dents into dental schools was 19.2 AA (thats right up your alley). If you visit http://www.predents.com/ you will quickly notice that only 20 (of the possible 57 schools) have DAT AA averages of 19.5 or higher. This means the other 37 have averages that are just around your AA.

Honestly, I used to like UoP alot, until I saw the cost for 1 year + living expense (being california and all) was like 120k per year 😱😱😱.... and I quickly said "no thnx"

If UoP doesn't give you any love, you got nothing to worry about, you got 14 other schools that I believe you have a good shot with. Good luck to you, I would actually be happy, at least you didn't bomb the DAT.

Oh another thing, don't look at SDN and how many people earn that 22AA+, for every 22AA you see on SND, there are around 100 or so 17-18AA that accompany it... but you just don't see those people posting lol

 

[561manuela]

hey you... dentalworks,
Thank you for helping me feel more confident about my scores and less depressed! I checked out the site u sent me and I looked at the schools, and you are right, i might have a shot at the other 14 schools I applied, but damn I guess I just gotta forget about UoP. And yea I know 120K is A LOT! but i also thought that u have one year less to pay and in that year u can already earn money working...I looked at it like that. But I guess I wont have to worry about UoP anyway...

Thank you 👍 😉

 

[shiftypoptart]

If you are depressed about a 19AA and 21 TS then you may have some self esteem issues =/. Then again SDN makes you get those issues in the first place... lol. You may have trouble getting interviews with your DAT scores only because its a bit late and it'll take about 3-6weeks for schools to get scores. You'll still probably get some though since you're stats are pretty competitive. If it doesn't go according to plan then there's always next year where you will definitely get interviews if you apply early. Good luck with everything =D

 

[561manuela]

hmm yea you are right I should not be depressed.And I am really proud about my TS its just that my other sections were low and brought my AA down. I also think about all the time I put into this and then i get an AA of what is almost the national DAT average 👎.... I studied like a maniac, mostly because I knew I wanted this to be the first and last time to study for this exam...🙄
I know I will def get some interviews , just not at my top school, which is kinda disappointing🙁
I know a lot of people who barely studied 2months for the DAT and got an AA of 19...so yea it kind of makes your self esteem suffer

 

[561manuela]

by the way....I submitted my AADSAS in July, basically I have everything completed.Except my Scores. I was planing to fax my scores to the schools that allow students to fax your scores. But I didnt know that It takes 3-4 weeks to get your scores sent to the school, I thought it was more like 2 weeks! 😱 dang!

 

[mustardseed5]

uhhh CHIN UP, manuela. Those AA and TS are scores you can be proud to apply with!