Dual Citizenship/When should I apply?

[HopefulPreDent13]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hello!

I'll be finishing my final year of undergrad this April, with around a 3.3 GPA.
I'm both American and Canadian, but attended University in Canada. I have no idea if/how this affects my application.
I haven't written the DAT yet. I plan to write the American DAT and only apply to US schools.

I have ~2000 hrs research experience (and a publication), ~350 hrs volunteering (hospitals, homeless shelters, medical first response team, Ronald McDonald House), but only ~30 hrs shadowing (I know this is really bad, currently working on it)

My question is - should I squeeze in writing the DAT in as soon as I finish my exams at the end of April, and apply for the upcoming cycle?
In that case I would try to write the DAT mid/end of June. Will that still be early enough in the application cycle, considering my below average GPA? Is ~6 weeks enough time to do very well on the DAT?

My other option is to take the following year to work and save money, gain more shadowing/volunteer/research experience, and write the DAT giving myself 2 months or more to study. I'm just considering this because I know I'm the type of person who takes their time studying. And because I have hardly any shadowing.

Thank you 🙂

 

[queenki]

Hello!

I'll be finishing my final year of undergrad this April, with around a 3.3 GPA.
I'm both American and Canadian, but attended University in Canada. I have no idea if/how this affects my application.
I haven't written the DAT yet. I plan to write the American DAT and only apply to US schools.

I have ~2000 hrs research experience (and a publication), ~350 hrs volunteering (hospitals, homeless shelters, medical first response team, Ronald McDonald House), but only ~30 hrs shadowing (I know this is really bad, currently working on it)

My question is - should I squeeze in writing the DAT in as soon as I finish my exams at the end of April, and apply for the upcoming cycle?
In that case I would try to write the DAT mid/end of June. Will that still be early enough in the application cycle, considering my below average GPA? Is ~6 weeks enough time to do very well on the DAT?

My other option is to take the following year to work and save money, gain more shadowing/volunteer/research experience, and write the DAT giving myself 2 months or more to study. I'm just considering this because I know I'm the type of person who takes their time studying. And because I have hardly any shadowing.

Thank you 🙂

If I were you, I would study hard during winter break and take DAT early Jan. I assume you have no kid, no full time job, right? the whole 1 month is free, right? just study dawn to dusk for whole month and take DAT. and kill it. it should be more than enough time...

and do shadowing from Jan when you are done with DAT, that should be plenty time for you to meet 100+ hours by May.
There is no concern...you got plenty time.

Good luck.

 

[HopefulPreDent13]

If I were you, I would study hard during winter break and take DAT early Jan. I assume you have no kid, no full time job, right? the whole 1 month is free, right? just study dawn to dusk for whole month and take DAT. and kill it. it should be more than enough time...

and do shadowing from Jan when you are done with DAT, that should be plenty time for you to meet 100+ hours by May.
There is no concern...you got plenty time.

Good luck.

Thanks for your reply 🙂 I'm currently studying abroad in The Netherlands and we only get 1.5 weeks off from school before starting my heavy course load back in Canada in January.
Do you think it's possible to instead study for the whole month of May (after I finish my April exams and graudate) and then submit my application for this cycle?

 

[queenki]

Thanks for your reply 🙂 I'm currently studying abroad in The Netherlands and we only get 1.5 weeks off from school before starting my heavy course load back in Canada in January.
Do you think it's possible to instead study for the whole month of May (after I finish my April exams and graudate) and then submit my application for this cycle?

If you write your SOP and ask professors to write LOR during the semester and make sure it is all complete before the semester ends, 1 month of dawn to dusk studying should be more than enough. I did 1-2 hr per 5 days a week for a few weeks, and 8 hr per day for 3 weeks and took DAT. IT depends how focused you are an how much you need to refresh. I invested very little to PAT and RC since I already had confidence in those. I also invested not much on QR since I knew I am already weak ( lol ) and couldn't improve in a short time, so I did just some time. but I focused on science which I could improve fast/refresh/memorize. I couldn't invest more time since I have 2 little kids, so I could't use any evening or weekend time and I was full time working so I took 3weeks of vacation and used the day time 8 hr per day for studying.

If you need some more time in PAT , just start PAT little by little during the entire semester-it just needs a lot of practice if you aren't confident yet. Read a lot of science articles during the semester too. then by the time of May, you will just have to do science, and some QR. totally doable.

Good luck.