Dental School Selection Advice?

[a_hildy]

Hey All, I am going to give y'all a little bit of information about myself. I am looking for some advice. I have 5 dental schools that I am applying to as of now. I am looking to submit my application this SUNDAY (7/16/2017)!!!


The schools that I have chosen to apply to are:

1. University of MN

2. Marquette University

3. University of Iowa

4. University of Missouri Kansas City

5. AT Still University Missouri


I just finished taking my DAT and here is what I got:

PAT: 19

RCT: 21

BIO: 21

GCHEM: 21

OCHEM: 23

Total Science: 22

AA: 21


My current GPA is 3.98, with a science GPA of 4.0


I have around 160 hours shadowing, around 160 hours of volunteer work and some clinical experience (about 20 hours working as a volunteer dental assistant.) My letters of recommendation should be solid as I have a good and close relationship with all of the letter writers. Also 2 years of undergraduate University level research.


Should I apply to a few more schools? Are there any schools in my list that you do or do not like? Any other advice would be greatly appreciated! What would you do if you were in my shoes?


Thanks!!

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[Kingfish23]

What is your state of residency?

 

[a_hildy]

What is your state of residency?

My state of residency is Minnesota.

 

[chives_irvine]

Your stats look pretty great. If I were you, I would apply to a few more just for a safety net. I'd rather waste a few hundred dollars applying to a few extra schools to make sure I get in than not get in because I didn't apply enough and have to wait an entire year before reapplying.

 

[a_hildy]

Your stats look pretty great. If I were you, I would apply to a few more just for a safety net. I'd rather waste a few hundred dollars applying to a few extra schools to make sure I get in than not get in because I didn't apply enough and have to wait an entire year before reapplying.

Thank you! Do you have any recommendation for how many extra I should apply to? or any schools that you take a particular liking to that I should research?

 

[chives_irvine]

Thank you! Do you have any recommendation for how many extra I should apply to? or any schools that you take a particular liking to that I should research?

No more than 5. At my school, the advisement office strongly recommends that everyone apply to at least 15 (and my school is one of the largest dental feeder schools), with that being said your stats are strong and you clearly want to stay in the midwest so I recommend up to 5 for you from that area

 

[Buck-E-Badger]

If I were you I would feel pretty comfortable with your current list of schools. I applied to eight schools total and felt comfortable with that amount; it's not so much about the volume of programs, but rather how you as an applicant align with these programs. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that you're a shoe in at Minnesota so long as you don't tell them you hate dentistry in your interview. With your strong GPA, I wouldn't be surprised if you got an interview from Iowa (lots of Minnesotans at my Iowa interview). Marquette is hit or miss with who they choose to interview, I had much higher stats than many of my friends that interviewed there and never heard from them. I'm not as familiar with AT Still or UMKC, however I might replace UMKC with Creighton as I remember reading some upsetting things about the dean a couple of months ago.

 

[a_hildy]

If I were you I would feel pretty comfortable with your current list of schools. I applied to eight schools total and felt comfortable with that amount; it's not so much about the volume of programs, but rather how you as an applicant align with these programs. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that you're a shoe in at Minnesota so long as you don't tell them you hate dentistry in your interview. With your strong GPA, I wouldn't be surprised if you got an interview from Iowa (lots of Minnesotans at my Iowa interview). Marquette is hit or miss with who they choose to interview, I had much higher stats than many of my friends that interviewed there and never heard from them. I'm not as familiar with AT Still or UMKC, however I might replace UMKC with Creighton as I remember reading some upsetting things about the dean a couple of months ago.

If you don't mind asking, what were your stats? Im interested as to what it took to get into Iowa!

 

[Buck-E-Badger]

If you don't mind asking, what were your stats? Im interested as to what it took to get into Iowa!

Yeah, I had a 3.5 cGPA and a 3.65 sGPA (same as bcp) with a 24 AA and a 25 RC. The GPAs don't tell the whole story though, I had just over a 2.0 my first year of college and averaged about a 3.8-3.9 my last three years.

 

[a_hildy]

Yeah, I had a 3.5 cGPA and a 3.65 sGPA (same as bcp) with a 22 AA & TS and a 25 RC. The GPAs don't tell the whole story though, I had just over a 2.0 my first year of college and averaged about a 3.8-3.9 my last three years.

Thank you for sharing! Very impressive comeback after the first year. Which 8 schools did you apply to? Are you from the Midwest?

 

[deleted696582]

Should I apply to a few more schools? Are there any schools in my list that you do or do not like? Any other advice would be greatly appreciated! What would you do if you were in my shoes?

You should be able to get into Minnesota for sure. In-state tuition is nice. I was there for undergrad and I thought it was a really nice campus and city (I'm sure you've been there too as a resident).

Since you seem to be shooting around the Midwest you could add Michigan, but after that six schools really should be fine for you.

 

[Buck-E-Badger]

Thank you for sharing! Very impressive comeback after the first year. Which 8 schools did you apply to? Are you from the Midwest?

I am from the Midwest, I grew up in both Iowa and Wisconsin. My girlfriend lives in MN, so I've spent a good amount of time there too. I applied to Iowa, Minnesota, Marquette, Creighton, Columbia, Penn, and Pitt; so now that I look back I suppose it was only seven schools. I'll second that Michigan would be a good school to add, I would have applied there had I had the 100 hours of shadowing they require (I decided to pursue dentistry last August and finished my app, shadowing and DAT all within about three weeks and didn't have enough time to reach 100 hrs).