Do Dental Schools Favor Alumni Letters?

[JoeTran19]

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I hate to bring this controversy up but does anyone know if LOR's from alumni or current Grad School Students of the desired dental school will consider your application MORE for acceptance?

 

[DentalLonghorn2014]

It can help. But only if you are helping yourself. Shadow those alums. Ask them questions curiously about the dental field. Show your compassion for others by volunteering your time to the less fortunate. If you have a GPA that is like a 2.6 or if you have not shown any improvements in your grades, then the person writing your LOR would be hesitant to write you a good one or worse...they may NOT recommend you.

 

[JoeTran19]

It can help. But only if you are helping yourself. Shadow those alums. Ask them questions curiously about the dental field. Show your compassion for others by volunteering your time to the less fortunate. If you have a GPA that is like a 2.6 or if you have not shown any improvements in your grades, then the person writing your LOR would be hesitant to write you a good one or worse...they may NOT recommend you.

Thanks for the honesty

 

[Lock_Jaw]

I hate to bring this controversy up but does anyone know if LOR's from alumni or current Grad School Students of the desired dental school will consider your application MORE for acceptance? I plan on getting LORs from 2 of my science professors, and a committee letter from the Dean of Academics (former PhD graduate of NYU/ current adjunct at NYU dental). I plan on asking a priest who is doing his PhD in culture at NYU to write me a letter as well. Would the schools have more "open arms" to these LORs or does it really depend on your GPA and DAT score.

MY GPA is shaky with an overall 3.2, and I have not yet taken the DAT so I want to hypothetically say I will get a 20+. As you can tell my first favored school is NYU Dental. Again, hate to bring up the "Its not what you know but who you know" convo but wanted to weigh my potential advantages.

I applied to my state school and my LOR was by a somewhat recent graduate. I didn't get in, so I would say either no they don't prefer, or it depends on the school.

 

[dds2b219]

As I've seen from a friend who has been wait listed twice at NYU... Who you know can only get you so far. You must still have a competitive application because they can still wait list or reject you based on your initial application... A letter from an alumni or a connection can only do so much, as an interviewer told my friend.

 

[rev_rend]

It was mentioned in one of my interviews. It seemed like it was more a nice thing than an important thing. In my supplemental statement, I mentioned how strong my family's ties are to the institution. Having a recommendation from an alum helped underline that some more. But in no way did it seem like it overshadowed my own achievements in their assessment of me.

 

[DentalLonghorn2014]

Just to clarify. Letters from alums are one thing. Dental schools know their alums will write LORs. Letters from alums who are very important to the school regarding donations,alum of the yr, etc can really help you ONLY if you have done all that you can do to better your chances.

 

[doc toothache]

It all depends whether or not the alumnus/a in question is blacklisted.

 

[PointEstimate]

Why would the dental school care what some graduate student in "cultures" think about you? That you are some stand up guy? If the other letters aren't saying that, then you got a bigger problem on your hands. If this was Loma Linda we were talking about, that's a whole different story since they require a religious leader write one but not NYU.