DAT Information

[mckenna87]

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So I was really confused about the new DAT system and did some research, so anyone who is confused I hope this helps.

1. If you are taking the DAT, and select the 5 "free" schools included in your DAT fee then aadsas will automatically recieve your scores.

2. AADSAS will send your unofficial DAT scores to all the schools you select on your aadsas application. And for MOST schools, that is all they will require, so you will not have to pay the extra $25 on ada to have an official score report sent to ALL the schools you are applying too

a) However, if the supplemental application requests DAT scores then that is a request for official score reports and you will have to pay $25 to have your scores sent to THAT school.

3. If you are a re-applicant, and you are not retaking your DAT. You will have to send your DAT official score report to aadsas. You can do this by sending it to a school of your choice. If it is sent to a school, aadsas will also recieve your score report and will mail the "unofficial" scores to all the schools you are applying to.

a) If you are a re-applicant and are taking your DATs again, when you take your new DAT and select your 5 "free" schools then your new scores and your old scores (up to 4 tests) will be sent to aadsas.

4. Your DAT scores do not hold up your application. The earliest mailing date for Applications is June 23rd.

I called and confirmed this information with ADA and AADSAS. I hope this helps because I was completely confused after reading everyone's posts!

 

[mckenna87]

receive***

 

[UndergradGuy7]

So I was really confused about the new DAT system and did some research, so anyone who is confused I hope this helps.

1. If you are taking the DAT, and select the 5 "free" schools included in your DAT fee then aadsas will automatically recieve your scores.


I think this was only true last year. This year, when you first register for the DAT you can pick as many schools as you want and not pay anything extra. But if you only add 2 schools and then later want to add more, you will pay extra. It would be best to just select almost every school you plan on applying to when you first sign up since it would be free. Check on this though.

2. AADSAS will send your unofficial DAT scores to all the schools you select on your aadsas application. And for MOST schools, that is all they will require, so you will not have to pay the extra $25 on ada to have an official score report sent to ALL the schools you are applying too

The scores on AADSAS are fine for almost all schools. Do not pay the extra $25. If you are unsure, call a school. But almost all will accept the AADSAS scores. See above too.


a) However, if the supplemental application requests DAT scores then that is a request for official score reports and you will have to pay $25 to have your scores sent to THAT school.

False. AADSAS ones are fine. Its not like you can change and lie about the scores on AADSAS (in the past you were able to self-report your scores I think). Now it is automatically linked from the ADA, so you can't type the wrong info.

3. If you are a re-applicant, and you are not retaking your DAT. You will have to send your DAT official score report to aadsas. You can do this by sending it to a school of your choice. If it is sent to a school, aadsas will also recieve your score report and will mail the "unofficial" scores to all the schools you are applying to.

a) If you are a re-applicant and are taking your DATs again, when you take your new DAT and select your 5 "free" schools then your new scores and your old scores (up to 4 tests) will be sent to aadsas.

4. Your DAT scores do not hold up your application. The earliest mailing date for Applications is June 23rd.

True. Your application will have the gpa verified and sent out at the earliest date. But, if there are no DAT scores, it is incomplete. Schools may look at your application anyway. When you do get your scores, a new application will be printed with the scores and sent again, and you will have to wait for the next mailing date again (b y this time it will be packed and probably be 2-3 weeks from when it gets printed). Schools can also view your application over the internet and not wait for the paper copy, making it faster.

I called and confirmed this information with ADA and AADSAS. I hope this helps because I was completely confused after reading everyone's posts!

The ADA will always tell you to pay the extra $25. If you are giving away free money, sure they will take it. If you still are not sure if you should pay the extra $25 to the ADA, ask the schools. Most/almost all will accept AADSAS scores.

See above.

 

[ScratchMan]

Very informative thread. Thanks a lot.

 

[MAR89]

2. AADSAS will send your unofficial DAT scores to all the schools you select on your aadsas application. And for MOST schools, that is all they will require, so you will not have to pay the extra $25 on ada to have an official score report sent to ALL the schools you are applying too

The scores on AADSAS are fine for almost all schools. Do not pay the extra $25. If you are unsure, call a school. But almost all will accept the AADSAS scores. See above too.

What exactly is the difference between unofficial and official scores? If the unofficial scores are all that schools require, then what exactly is the 2-4 week wait for? I thought this was for AADSAS to verify the scores and send out the official scores.

4. Your DAT scores do not hold up your application. The earliest mailing date for Applications is June 23rd.

True. Your application will have the gpa verified and sent out at the earliest date. But, if there are no DAT scores, it is incomplete. Schools may look at your application anyway. When you do get your scores, a new application will be printed with the scores and sent again, and you will have to wait for the next mailing date again (b y this time it will be packed and probably be 2-3 weeks from when it gets printed). Schools can also view your application over the internet and not wait for the paper copy, making it faster.

Would you happen to know which schools view the application over the internet? I had never heard of that before. Would this eliminate that 2-4 week waiting period?

 

[BoxerRumble]

Thanks so much for this thread because this DAT thing was really confusing and annoying. I don't understand why reapplicants who took the DAT before and had their scores sent out to like 20 schools (25x20 = $500) would have to pay AGAIN, on top of the initial fee to take the DATs back in like 2009 which was $225. That's like $725 vs people who are taking it now that have to pay $320 dollars but can submit to as many schools as they want??? Shouldn't the people who took the test in 2009 and paid for their schools be able to send the scores to AADSAS free of charge??


And to triple check, if you are a reapplicant, and you are not planning on taking the DATs because you have your scores from 2009, you should request ONE score to be sent to any schools, for 25 dollars, and AADSAS should get the score to send to the rest of the schools? For 25 bucks I will do this jsut to make sure htey get my score. It was my understanding that all I needed to do was put in my DENTPIN and my birth date, and AADSAS will pull the scores from my record automatically without me doing anything.

 

[JustwantDDS]

thank u!!! for clarifying all of this

 

[mckenna87]

Thanks so much for this thread because this DAT thing was really confusing and annoying. I don't understand why reapplicants who took the DAT before and had their scores sent out to like 20 schools (25x20 = $500) would have to pay AGAIN, on top of the initial fee to take the DATs back in like 2009 which was $225. That's like $725 vs people who are taking it now that have to pay $320 dollars but can submit to as many schools as they want??? Shouldn't the people who took the test in 2009 and paid for their schools be able to send the scores to AADSAS free of charge??


And to triple check, if you are a reapplicant, and you are not planning on taking the DATs because you have your scores from 2009, you should request ONE score to be sent to any schools, for 25 dollars, and AADSAS should get the score to send to the rest of the schools? For 25 bucks I will do this jsut to make sure htey get my score. It was my understanding that all I needed to do was put in my DENTPIN and my birth date, and AADSAS will pull the scores from my record automatically without me doing anything.

I know I think its silly to pay again too but its free money for them!

I called ADA and AADSAS about reapplicants because I thought the website said they would retrieve our scores using our DENTPIN and birth date too but THAT IS NOT THE CASE. You need to send your scores to at least one school. That is what they told me and then they will be able to retrieve your scores using the dentpin and birth date. I figured $25 wasn't as bad as $500.

 

[BoxerRumble]

I know I think its silly to pay again too but its free money for them!

I called ADA and AADSAS about reapplicants because I thought the website said they would retrieve our scores using our DENTPIN and birth date too but THAT IS NOT THE CASE. You need to send your scores to at least one school. That is what they told me and then they will be able to retrieve your scores using the dentpin and birth date. I figured $25 wasn't as bad as $500.

Yeah man, thank you SO much for the post. I was going to call them sometime this week to find out too, but you saved me some time. I might call them just to make sure. Not that I don't believe you, but you know, sometimes the people answering the phone don't even know what's going on. I do not want what happened to me in 2009 to happen again. Had a huge mix up with sending in my scores and instead of receiving my scores in late August, they didn't get them until late October which really screwed me.

 

[mckenna87]

MAR89- the 2-4 week wait is processing time. Once you e-submit your app on aadsas it will take 4-6 weeks for the schools to receive them.

If you are taking your DATs, you are handed your unoffical score report at the end of your test but aadsas will not receive your scores until 2-4 weeks later.

The 2-4 week waiting period isn't going anywhere. Now that aadsas has the re-applicant app transfer, I thought my application would be sent earlier (since my transcripts were already there) but the earliest date to mail apps are still June 23rd. There aren't any schools that will see your app as soon as you submit it.

I hope I answered your question correctly.

As for Unofficial vs official DAT score reports. AADSAS verifies your score and reports it on your application. This is the unofficial score report because it was not sent to the school straight from ada. Only some schools require scores straight from ada. Reports straight from ada are the "official" score reports.

 

[UndergradGuy7]

What exactly is the difference between unofficial and official scores? If the unofficial scores are all that schools require, then what exactly is the 2-4 week wait for? I thought this was for AADSAS to verify the scores and send out the official scores.



Would you happen to know which schools view the application over the internet? I had never heard of that before. Would this eliminate that 2-4 week waiting period?

Which 2-4 week waiting period are you talking about? After you take your DAT, the ADA does some audits and checks on the exam before sending out scores. It usually takes 2-3 weeks.

Don't know which schools look at the electronic copy. I think most wait for the paper copy.

 

[mckenna87]

Yeah man, thank you SO much for the post. I was going to call them sometime this week to find out too, but you saved me some time. I might call them just to make sure. Not that I don't believe you, but you know, sometimes the people answering the phone don't even know what's going on. I do not want what happened to me in 2009 to happen again. Had a huge mix up with sending in my scores and instead of receiving my scores in late August, they didn't get them until late October which really screwed me.

PLEASE call! haha. I called aadsas 5 times today and ada twice to straighten everything out with the DAT stuff. So if I think I have it about right but if you find anything new out please update this post. I didn't know about the new fee covering all the schools. THAT SUCKS (for the people who have already shelled out so much money)! I didn't even know to ask about that.

 

[MAR89]

K great. Thanks for the clarification guys.👍

 

[moler]

Sorry to resurrect an old post but I'm in dire need of help!

Does anyone know what happens if you did NOT select any schools when you register for the DAT's? Is it sufficient to send my DAT transcript to one school after I take my test if I did this?

 

[CedarZ4]

Sorry to resurrect an old post but I'm in dire need of help!

Does anyone know what happens if you did NOT select any schools when you register for the DAT's? Is it sufficient to send my DAT transcript to one school after I take my test if I did this?

Yes. Requesting ADA to send your DAT scores to one school (which would mean ADA sends to AADSAS), then every school with AADSAS will get the scores.

 

[dmdluffy]

Yes. Requesting ADA to send your DAT scores to one school (which would mean ADA sends to AADSAS), then every school with AADSAS will get the scores.

I thought the ADA sends requested score reports directly to the school/individual. I remember reading something about schools that were designated at the time of registration receive official score mails out from the ADA at the same time AADSAS receives them.

 

[CedarZ4]

I thought the ADA sends requested score reports directly to the school/individual. I remember reading something about schools that were designated at the time of registration receive official score mails out from the ADA at the same time AADSAS receives them.

I'm not sure about the official scores, as I haven't needed to send any schools an official report yet... I might have to call ADA when that time comes, or if anyone else on here knows.

All I know is, by requesting one school's score to be sent, AADSAS gets the score and every school will have the "unofficial" AADSAS version.