Do I even have a chance?

[lil tiger146]

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Hey everyone,

Soo I took my DATs today.. & i did not that amazing. Im kinda upset.

Ive been studying for my MCATs which i take next week & i underestimated the DATs & didnt study for them for more than a week. Heres my breakdown..

PA:14 🙁
QR:16 🙁
RC:20
Bio:19
GC:15 🙁
Org:14 🙁
TS:16
AA:17

Im a sr right now & im double majoring in Biology & Psychology and double minoring in Chemistry & Holistic Health. I have a 3.7 Non Science GPA and like a 3.6 Science. I graduate in 2 semesters!

Ive completed & presented 2 research projects, one on beach replenishment & its cost & effect on the economy which we presented at the Northeast Regional Honors Conference and the other on HPLC analysis of Advanced Glycated End Products. Im doing an independent research this coming semester for psychology on the physiological effects of aromatherapy on induced stress.

Im in the honors program at my school, I give tours of the college, i work about 10-15 hours a week part time & ive volunteered at my local hospital for 7 years, and a nursing home for a few weeks.

Do i have a chance of getting into a dental school for 2010? or should i take my DATs again? and if so.. whens the latest i can do that & still be ok to apply?

Any help is much appreciated!! 🙂

 

[Kneecoal]

first, maybe you should make up your mind on whether you really want to do med or dent.

second, allow me to say on the behalf of all the others on here who have studied and stressed about the dats for weeks and weeks that i (we) are quite insulted that you would underestimate the test so much so that you only put in a week's worth of time for this test when i can only imagine how much time you're putting into the mcats, no matter how much harder they are. give us predents some credit.

third, no, you cannot get into dental schools with those scores. the earliest you can retake the test is three months after the last date that you took the test. by the time that rolls around, you're going to be pretty late.

i apologize for my frankness, but i'm tired and rather cranky. but everything i said on here is honest.

 

[head2heel]

^ +1

15 & 14 in GC & OC as a Chem minor with a 3.6 science? The material on the DAT is pretty straightforward.

 

[iamsyc]

ditto kneecoal .. sorry but this is my life dream not some other person's back-up plan .. but i wish you the best of luck with whatever road you decide to go down

 

[dennisDDS]

I TOTALLY AGREE...

please make up your mind so we can support you.. nothing worse then a med student saying being a dentist is so easy...

though you didn't say it directly, by not putting time into the DAT gave that response.

 

[solstice]

Why are you taking two tests back to back????

Now: My advise to you is that I know you are registered for the last MCAT of this year (if they still have the same dates), but reschedule your MCAT. if you could not do well in stands alone question, how do you want to handle the passage based MCAT, where you not only need to know everything, but integrate whatever new info they are giving you and you have less time per passage?

Take AAMC test 6, 9 or 10 and see how you are doing and if you are getting less than a 9 in any section then do not write MCAT.

Good Luck!

 

[whatzuppal]

Definitely a retake.

 

[sixkiller]

No chance in hell unless you're a URM; both of the historically black schools have AA averages around 16 so I'd say you're good to go if you're an URM.

If you're white or asian you need to retake. Just a heads up but it doesn't look like you'll do very well on the MCAT either.

 

[solstice]

first, maybe you should make up your mind on whether you really want to do med or dent.

second, allow me to say on the behalf of all the others on here who have studied and stressed about the dats for weeks and weeks that i (we) are quite insulted that you would underestimate the test so much so that you only put in a week's worth of time for this test when i can only imagine how much time you're putting into the mcats, no matter how much harder they are. give us predents some credit.

i apologize for my frankness, but i'm tired and rather cranky. but everything i said on here is honest.

TO EVERY ONE: let's not Judge people we don't even know. I know that there are schools and some professional programs that accept either DAT or MCAT as their standardized test. I know from a friend that podiatric program was accepting both MCAT or DAT up until this year and she took both to see which one she does better. And there are some other program as well. So please do not get insulted.

Cheers~

 

[Ramil]

I know many people that got great scores on their DAT and MCAT with 3.6+ GPAs that didn't get in. Apply...you only get a chance if you click submit.

 

[alanan84]

If you're white or asian you need to retake. Just a heads up but it doesn't look like you'll do very well on the MCAT either.

Haha, I agree. And OP, I can't say that I feel sorry for you.

 

[WOAHHI]

double major ... double minor ... wanting to take DAT and MCAT ... wow - trying so hard to overachieve

I don't understand how you can be taking the MCAT in a week and do so poorly on the DAT - sciences and bio can't be that different? I would understand if it was PAT that owned you but seriously dude - in order to get a 14 in bio you basically missed 50-60 questions out of the 90 and in order to get those chem scores you got around 50%... (http://www.ada.org/prof/ed/testing/dat/dat_estimate_score.pdf) you are not qualified at all to get into dental school this cycle - make up your mind between medical and dental and apply when you figure that out. I guess now I fully understand why schools frown upon people who are trying to go both ways - it is rather insulting.

 

[lil tiger146]

Mh.. wow, well I never said predent was easy. So i dont want anyone to get the wrong Idea. Im taking both because I am unsure of what I wanna do. I never really thought about dentistry because I was always so gung ho about med school. Until one day.. my tooth hurt. & i met an awesome dentist who opened my eyes to the field of dentistry.

Thanks solstice & Ramil for being the only ones who didnt decide to insult me. But thanks everyone else for keeping it real.

Im not an over achiever, the reason for my double major was because along with bio, psychology has always been an intrest of mines.. & my school did not offer it has a minor. So i didnt want to regret not doing something i really liked when i had the chance. And same with holistic health.

I dont know what happened with my science scored honesty. I was surprised as well.

The reason i started studying so late for the DATs was because i thought about them late (my tooth incdent) and i thought alot of the material would overlap & i didnt take any practice tests. The material did overlap. but i just froze test day. which i hope doesnt happen on next friday.

 

[Kneecoal]

Mh.. wow, well I never said predent was easy. So i dont want anyone to get the wrong Idea. Im taking both because I am unsure of what I wanna do. I never really thought about dentistry because I was always so gung ho about med school. Until one day.. my tooth hurt. & i met an awesome dentist who opened my eyes to the field of dentistry.

Thanks solstice & Ramil for being the only ones who didnt decide to insult me. But thanks everyone else for keeping it real.

Im not an over achiever, the reason for my double major was because along with bio, psychology has always been an intrest of mines.. & my school did not offer it has a minor. So i didnt want to regret not doing something i really liked when i had the chance. And same with holistic health.

I dont know what happened with my science scored honesty. I was surprised as well.

The reason i started studying so late for the DATs was because i thought about them late (my tooth incdent) and i thought alot of the material would overlap & i didnt take any practice tests. The material did overlap. but i just froze test day. which i hope doesnt happen on next friday.

i did notice that you said you'd volunteered in a hospital for 7 years and have recently started at a nursing home. have you done anything similar with a dentist? i'd recommend you do something like that, and soon. it looks like you've dedicated a LOT of time towards doing things medically related. go with your gut, and good luck! (i just slept 9.5 hours and am now less cranky)

 

[UCB05]

double major ... double minor ... wanting to take DAT and MCAT ... wow - trying so hard to overachieve

I don't understand how you can be taking the MCAT in a week and do so poorly on the DAT - sciences and bio can't be that different? I would understand if it was PAT that owned you but seriously dude - in order to get a 14 in bio you basically missed 50-60 questions out of the 90 and in order to get those chem scores you got around 50%... (http://www.ada.org/prof/ed/testing/dat/dat_estimate_score.pdf) you are not qualified at all to get into dental school this cycle - make up your mind between medical and dental and apply when you figure that out. I guess now I fully understand why schools frown upon people who are trying to go both ways - it is rather insulting.

To be fair, there's much less that you have to know for the MCAT in terms of breadth and depth. It tests more understanding and application through passages (and tend to give important equations/info in the passages) whereas DAT is mostly just straight recall sciences =/ Who knows, tiger might do great on the MCAT next week.

 

[lil tiger146]

i did notice that you said you'd volunteered in a hospital for 7 years and have recently started at a nursing home. have you done anything similar with a dentist? i'd recommend you do something like that, and soon. it looks like you've dedicated a LOT of time towards doing things medically related. go with your gut, and good luck! (i just slept 9.5 hours and am now less cranky)

Lol yea ive always been pre med pre med pre med.. and didnt think of dentistry until it was brought to my attention. I shadowed my dentist for a day.. and thats all i have for dentistry. Im going to see how my MCATs go, maybe ill end up taking a year off after i graduate to intern/shadow and def. improve my DAT score who knows =/

 

[lil tiger146]

To be fair, there's much less that you have to know for the MCAT in terms of breadth and depth. It tests more understanding and application through passages (and tend to give important equations/info in the passages) whereas DAT is mostly just straight recall sciences =/ Who knows, tiger might do great on the MCAT next week.

That is true its more passages & applying things. I def thought the Verbal on the DATs was a ton more easier than the MCATs. I didnt study for that section, and i got "pianoed" also but it ended up being my best section. I hope i do well! thanks 🙂

 

[dennisDDS]

I didn't mean to be insulting.. but when people always says oh its so easy to be a dentist.. or a dentist is nothing more than a person who failed to get into med school... just gets under my skin.

People do not know how much both professions (med and dent) need sacrifice and dedication to get in..

Everyone wants to be a doctor when they grow up until they see how much work is needed.. 👍

I hope you do your best.. and that you finally choose what is best for you.

 

[lil tiger146]

I know what you mean, its not being any sort of doctor honestly, be it a dentist, a chiropractor, vet , optometrist, or whatever.

What i meant by underestimating the DAT was that ive been studying for my MCATs, so i assumed it would be the same, same type of questions, same format.. etc, i should have looked more at the question types, and taken a few practice exams.

Does anyone know if theres a schedule of what days you can take the DATs? or where i can find out when i can re-take them?

 

[iamsyc]

i believe you have to wait about 90 days before you re-take it? you can look it up on the ADA website to find out. but good luck on the MCATs and in your future endeavors, whatever that may turn out to be lol