Does this seem accurate ?

[HAWKDDS2014]

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First of all, I know this is COMPLETE conjecture, but I've been wondering lately, and would you guys agree that the following is a pretty good rough estimate of the importance for the different aspects of your application:

40% - DAT
35% - GPA/Science GPA
10% - Shadowing, Research, Volunteering, Work Experience, etc...
10% - LOR's
5% - Personal Statement

 

[93geo]

depends on the school...

 

[txlotusboys37]

yay

 

[predent18]

There are many factors that schools look at, and all of them are basically different, that is why I'd recommend researching each school individually. For example, you could have a 21 AA and there are some schools that wouldn't look at your DAT because of a low subject. There are a few schools that don't care about the DAT as much as the GPA, there are some that are into your demonstration of ethics, there are some that are into research, there are some that are into what state county you are from, etc.
In general for schools I'd rank it like this:
DAT 50%
GPA 25%
Interview 15%
Other 10%

 

[DavesNotHere]

This is no better than masturbating in the dark

 

[doc toothache]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=657139

 

[FLOSS UR TEETH]

First of all, I know this is COMPLETE conjecture, but I've been wondering lately, and would you guys agree that the following is a pretty good rough estimate of the importance for the different aspects of your application:

40% - DAT
35% - GPA/Science GPA
10% - Shadowing, Research, Volunteering, Work Experience, etc...
10% - LOR's
5% - Personal Statement

I would say that's about right.

 

[atoms]

No i believe the GPA has a higher percentage. I myself have a 21 DAT but a bit lower GPA and have barely gotten any interviews and no acceptances yet

 

[WastedTime]

21 is good but i dont think it is considered high enough to make up for a low gpa ... i was thinking maybe 24-25 would definitely trump a below average gpa

 

[Trilby]

First of all, I know this is COMPLETE conjecture, but I've been wondering lately, and would you guys agree that the following is a pretty good rough estimate of the importance for the different aspects of your application:

40% - DAT
35% - GPA/Science GPA
10% - Shadowing, Research, Volunteering, Work Experience, etc...
10% - LOR's
5% - Personal Statement

ECs are worth only 10% ?!?!

 

[Bereno]

ECs are worth only 10% ?!?!

I think the ECs are required but are not a means of stratifying applicants.They are either sufficient or not. This is of course a simplification, but it seems to me that this holds for the most part.

 

[letsdoitbama]

You forgot to account for attractiveness.

 

[UltimateHombre]

I would say it's more like...

10% luck,
20% skill,
15% concentrated power of will,
5% pleasure,
50% pain,
And 100% reason to remember the name!

 

[Trilby]

I think the ECs are required but are not a means of stratifying applicants.They are either sufficient or not. This is of course a simplification, but it seems to me that this holds for the most part.

Wow! I thought getting ECs was a huge arms race. It appears so among premeds. At what point would ECs be "sufficient" though?

 

[vellnueve]

I think you guys will find that many schools look at the whole package - not piecing together individual parts and percentages.

 

[dentalWorks]

First of all, I know this is COMPLETE conjecture, but I've been wondering lately, and would you guys agree that the following is a pretty good rough estimate of the importance for the different aspects of your application:

40% - DAT
35% - GPA/Science GPA
10% - Shadowing, Research, Volunteering, Work Experience, etc...
10% - LOR's
5% - Personal Statement

I agree with those 👍

 

[NonTradHopeful]

First of all, I know this is COMPLETE conjecture, but I've been wondering lately, and would you guys agree that the following is a pretty good rough estimate of the importance for the different aspects of your application:

40% - DAT
35% - GPA/Science GPA
10% - Shadowing, Research, Volunteering, Work Experience, etc...
10% - LOR's
5% - Personal Statement

I disagree with this, simply because you left out the interview. That's one of the biggest weights placed on a prospective student.

However, if you're asking whether these weights are for people who are being considered for interviews, then I'd agree.

 

[doc toothache]

It may be hard to find adcoms that are willing to grade the non cognitive criteria. Ds with high DAT scores obviously place greater weight on DAT than GPA.

 

[HAWKDDS2014]

I disagree with this, simply because you left out the interview. That's one of the biggest weights placed on a prospective student.

However, if you're asking whether these weights are for people who are being considered for interviews, then I'd agree.

First of all, thank you to everyone who has responded, I do appreciate your input. Secondly, I should have been more clear - what I intended to say was the criteria to land you interviews.

I realize this formula is absolutely flawed and there is no real way to determine anybody's chances of being accepted as all schools are different, just as each individual applicant is different. I just wanted to get everyone's opinions on the matter so I could find a general way to direct my time to make my application as competitive as I possibly can.

 

[wired202808]

First of all, I know this is COMPLETE conjecture, but I've been wondering lately, and would you guys agree that the following is a pretty good rough estimate of the importance for the different aspects of your application:

40% - DAT
35% - GPA/Science GPA
10% - Shadowing, Research, Volunteering, Work Experience, etc...
10% - LOR's
5% - Personal Statement

%s are different for each school and each situation, so I'd rather rank them in order vs. assigning %s.

Pre Interview
1. sGPA
2. DAT
3. LOR
4. PS
5. Research

Post Interview
same as above except the Interview would take the first place and then the list would be moved down accordingly.

 

[Trilby]

%s are different for each school and each situation, so I'd rather rank them in order vs. assigning %s.

Pre Interview
1. sGPA
2. DAT
3. LOR
4. PS
5. Research

Post Interview
same as above except the Interview would take the first place and then the list would be moved down accordingly.

Where would ECs rank in there?

 

[wired202808]

Where would ECs rank in there?

ECs are not that important. Bing12 posted the link to an ADEA AADSAS survey. So if you can find that you can see what's ranked and in what order. But as a I said ECs wont make or break you. If your sGPA is low or DAT is low, an EC will not increase your chances.

 

[Trilby]

So if your sGPA and DAT is high, mediocre ECs won't significantly decrease your chances?

 

[AwesomeTeeth]

So if your sGPA and DAT is high, mediocre ECs won't significantly decrease your chances?

No one can give you an answer to that except a dental school. And even then, each of them do it differently.

 

[wired202808]

So if your sGPA and DAT is high, mediocre ECs won't significantly decrease your chances?

On average, ECs wont affect your chances of admission at any particular school. sGPA and DAT scores are the decisive factors in the admission process.

 

[averagejoedds]

EC's and letters of recommendation shouldn't be looked at all that closely and shouldn't be used to separate candidates. These two groups tend to be the same all throughout the applicant pool. How many pre dental club officers do they see listed? and how many biology professors do they want to hear from.

Sure there are outliers. But generally speaking, its all the same.

 

[Bereno]

So if your sGPA and DAT is high, mediocre ECs won't significantly decrease your chances?

The point of ECs is two fold: to show that you are not a book-worm-nerd, and to show that you can multitask your schedule. If you include shadowing in ECs then they want to see that you are already very familiar with dentistry, and you're ready to commit. If they can garner this information from you ECs then they are sufficient IMO. 👍

 

[Trilby]

Do we need community service all 4 years of college? I was active in clubs as a Freshman and Sophomore but I didn't get big into volunteering and leadership stuff until Junior and Senior year.

 

[SupDanLOL]

Based on several interviews, and the reactions I've had to my application-- I could posit several (each very different) rankings for the importance of the components of an application to dental school. But at the end of the day it's just conjecture, and we'll never really have a better grasp on the entire process.

e.g., Anecdote based on a quote from my Penn interview: "You'd be surprised, but over half of the applications we receive barely have any research experience at all-- and those that do have it, don't quite stack up to yours. It really helped you stand out."

Now I don't have any publications or anything, yet I still have a really solid amount of operative research in a neuroscience laboratory where I conducted craniotomies on rats to produce lesions. So I think, at least in my specific case at this specific school, my research alone was probably about 20% of what made my application stand out. They also loved my personal statement. So I'd give that maybe 15%. These two things would be useless, however, had I not had the numbers to initiate the look into my application.

TL;DR: People here will sometimes tell you not to waste your time with X or Y, and to instead just focus on Z... but I think that none of us have any ****ing clue what we're talking about... although it is fun and maybe a little helpful to speculate anyways.

After the (boring) numbers, that everybody has-- the most important thing in your application is whatever makes you unique.

 

[Vaheb]

I'm not sure about volunteering and all that...

But I know for schools that are pretty research based like UCLA, UCSF, and Columbia really like to see applicants with research in any field of medicine/dental medicine. Obviously research is considered after GPA and DAT, but it does look really good!

 

[toothhornet88]

First of all, I know this is COMPLETE conjecture, but I've been wondering lately, and would you guys agree that the following is a pretty good rough estimate of the importance for the different aspects of your application:

40% - DAT
35% - GPA/Science GPA
10% - Shadowing, Research, Volunteering, Work Experience, etc...
10% - LOR's
5% - Personal Statement

I honestly believe I got couple of interviews purely because of my Personal statement and EC's and my DAT. My GPA sucks! 🙁....oh and LOTS and LOTS of praying 😉

 

[SupDanLOL]

I happened across this from Cornell's College of Veterinarian Medicine (ranked #1). Unrelated in a lot of ways, sure-- but it's still an interesting look into what a similar type of professional program is looking for in an applicant... it's also interesting how transparent they are about the whole process as opposed to dental schools.


25% Overall GPA

25% GRE (verbal and quantitative) or MCAT

5% Quality of Academic Program

20% Animal/Veterinary/Biomedical Experience
(supported with letters of evaluation)

10% Non-Cognitive Skills

10% All Other Achievements and Letters
of Evaluation

5% Personal Statement


Link can be found here:

http://www.vet.cornell.edu/admissions/PSAdmissFormula.cfm

 

[r2thekesh]

But the thing is, having anything throws you out of the race. Writing a bad PS will throw you out of the race just as much as a bad DAT or GPA. Not having done some sort of shadowing or whatever will also stop you as well.

Just a thought.

 

[wired202808]

I happened across this from Cornell's College of Veterinarian Medicine (ranked #1). Unrelated in a lot of ways, sure-- but it's still an interesting look into what a similar type of professional program is looking for in an applicant... it's also interesting how transparent they are about the whole process as opposed to dental schools.


25% Overall GPA

25% GRE (verbal and quantitative) or MCAT

5% Quality of Academic Program

20% Animal/Veterinary/Biomedical Experience
(supported with letters of evaluation)

10% Non-Cognitive Skills

10% All Other Achievements and Letters
of Evaluation

5% Personal Statement


Link can be found here:

http://www.vet.cornell.edu/admissions/PSAdmissFormula.cfm

I really suggest you don't look at Vet programs and compare them to a d-school program. Thats like comparing apples to oranges.

The proper way of looking at this is via this link:
http://www.ada.org/sections/professionalResources/pdfs/survey_ed_vol2.pdf

Pg 34 clearly shows what # of schools found what to be important, to summarize:

sGPA, oGPA, Interview, and LORs had the highest responses of very important amongst all schools. Things like Community Service, Professional Experiences, and Overcoming Personal Challenges to be "somewhat important." Meaning, you shouldnt focus your app on those sorts of things because they may or may not help you get accepted. The proof is in the pudding a good sGPA, oGPA, DAT score, LOR and Interview are the main component of a successful application. Additionally, this makes sense and is probably the best way to be ranked. I dont think its easy to compare applicants based on Community Service or Personal Challenges, since everyone has different experiences and its impossible to compare them objectively.