Dental School Admissions Relative to Law and Medicine

[mdub]

Does anyone have a sense of how difficult dental school admissions are relative to law school and medical school admissions? I went to Northwestern University and I don't know of anyone who was pre-dental there. It just wasn't a part of the academic culture, so I have no clue how hard it is to get into dental school.

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[DrBowtie]

In general including all caliber schools:
Medical > Dental > Law

 

[mdub]

What's the relative importance of soft factors like letters of recommendation, essays, ECs, and things like that?

For law school those things are relatively unimportant. A few schools (e.g. Yale and Stanford) are big on them, but for the most part it's a numbers game where the only players are one's LSAT and GPA.

For medical school numbers are important, but soft factors are also quite important.

Where does dental school fall in relation to law schools and medical schools?

 

[DrBowtie]

I'm not that familiar since I am on the med side but I would say they are def. closer to med in the soft factors such as dental shadowing/assisting etc.

 

[benson_dds]

Does anyone have a sense of how difficult dental school admissions are relative to law school and medical school admissions? I went to Northwestern University and I don't know of anyone who was pre-dental there. It just wasn't a part of the academic culture, so I have no clue how hard it is to get into dental school.

I have seen a few pre-dental students from Northwestern, I agree with brett on that, medical school is harder or MCAT is harder than DAT, but definitely at this point of time, getting into dental school is very difficult because there are far less dental schools than medical schools and the number of students they take yearly is far less as well. Also depending on the area you reside in it can be even harder, if you are a Chicago resident, definitely dental school is a hassle because there is UIC college of dentistry left here in Chicago, and they only take 64 to 69 students a year!!! So I guess compare to other places here is very tough to get into dental school!

 

[Sprgrover]

What's the relative importance of soft factors like letters of recommendation, essays, ECs, and things like that?

For law school those things are relatively unimportant. A few schools (e.g. Yale and Stanford) are big on them, but for the most part it's a numbers game where the only players are one's LSAT and GPA.

For medical school numbers are important, but soft factors are also quite important.

Where does dental school fall in relation to law schools and medical schools?

It depends on the school as to how much importance is placed on them, but on the whole they are very important and should not be taken lightly. Not only are such 'soft' factors used to determine whether or not an invitation to interview is extended (the successful completion of an interview is required at almost all dental schools as a factor for admission) but often times schools turn to those when making final decisions about who's in and who's not.