Everyone becomes a dentist.... Eventually :)

[Nasem]

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This thread is not based on any facts, it's merely my opinion~

I think EVERY pre-dental student (Or I should say 99%>) eventually gets into dentistry school. It might not happen first time you apply, or second, but EVENTUALLY it will happen. All you have to do is stick with it and suffer and eventually you'll get it.

Heres my reasoning for this assumption:
Suppose every year, you have a total of 10,000 applicants, statistics tells us that about 40-43% gets accepted (lets assume for the easiness of math, 45% get accepted). So that leaves us with 5500 who did not get accepted because of XYZ reasons (reasons include low DAT, not enough experience, a bit lower GPA than average, whatever the reason is, most of the time its workable and can be changed..... Low DAT score? no problem study ur butt off and retake and get a higher score..... Low GPA? no problem takes more science classes and bump up that GPA.... etc)

So those 5500, go back and "try" to fix whatever they didn't have, and apply again in the next cycle. This time lets say, 10,500 apply, out of those are the 5500 from last year who "had" problems, HOWEVER this time around, they are applying to the same schools they applied the year before, so its looks better on them because 1) shows resilience 2) shows they are willing to work on their short comings 3) shows they "really want it". Now, out of those 5500 from last cycle, another 45% of them get accepted ( leaving us with about 3000 that still have short comings)....

3rd cycle around, those 3000, most of them will have all their problems worked out and hopefully most of them will be in.

 

[DAT_MAN]

I like your reasoning and I was thinking the same thing, but it seems that the ~10,000 students who apply each year are new applicants. I know they are not all new applicants but more than half are. ADEA website says for 2003 ~55% of applicants are accepted. It also says 50% of the applicants are in the 3.0-3.5 gpa range. So 25% have a GPA above 3.5 and 25% have a gpa below 3.0. If you take the students with the highest gpa, then all the students with ~3.25 gpa and higher are accepted into d-school.

 

[RozhonDDS]

try about 20,000 students this year and that is more realistic

 

[4thQtrDreams]

I dont know that everyone can overcome the problems in their application..
Some folks have a low gpa and even if they try harder, they are not ready put enough sweat & tears into it to overcome the past grades.. they end up working hard for B's and that might not be enough...
Same with the DAT.. some go back and study 3 times as hard for 3 times as long and end up with the same or worse grade.. or go up from 17 to 18..

and as the years go by, its getting harder and harder.. so if you dont get in this year, next years competition will make your GPA/DAT look even worse..

I dont think this applies to a large percentage.. but still you cant just get in to dental school because you applied 4 years straight..

 

[dddsmack]

People also have a hard time developing a personality, even in a year.

Some poeple are just sticks in the mud in interviews

 

[Nasem]

The Idea I was trying to get at is showing that improvments over time usually pays off. If you keep applying year after year and your grades / DAT never improved, it just stayed the same, then yes, you will (most likely) never get in and dentistry is not the thing for you......

But I have never experienced such issue, EVERYTIME i put my heart into something and work my butt off, it ALWAYS pays off, yes sometimes its hard and painfull but it pays off eventually.

 

[LIer2010]

The Idea I was trying to get at is showing that improvments over time usually pays off. If you keep applying year after year and your grades / DAT never improved, it just stayed the same, then yes, you will (most likely) never get in and dentistry is not the thing for you......

But I have never experienced such issue, EVERYTIME i put my heart into something and work my butt off, it ALWAYS pays off, yes sometimes its hard and painfull but it pays off eventually.

Just because it may be true for you doesn't mean it's true for everyone else. There are plenty of people who apply several times to dental school and never get accepted.
Actually, the statistics show the chance of acceptance is lower for the second-time applicants than the first-time applicants.

 

[Envision]

Just because it may be true for you doesn't mean it's true for everyone else. There are plenty of people who apply several times to dental school and never get accepted.
Actually, the statistics show the chance of acceptance is lower for the second-time applicants than the first-time applicants.

Lets put statistics aside. this thread strikes me more like a motivational thread. If your motivated to do something or get somewhere, preserverance and determination will get you there. this no guarantee, merely a mentality that usually leads to happy stories 😉.

 

[PickMe]

i totally disagree. if someone takes many cycles to get in, there is a reason-schools dont think they can handle their curriculum. it may show dedication, but when there are better qualified students who can show that they can handle dental school, who are the admissions committee going to pick? i also agree that personality is hard to change, and thats another thing schools look at.

 

[Envision]

i totally disagree. if someone takes many cycles to get in, there is a reason-schools dont think they can handle their curriculum. it may show dedication, but when there are better qualified students who can show that they can handle dental school, who are the admissions committee going to pick? i also agree that personality is hard to change, and thats another thing schools look at.

Although i have a more optimistic perspective, your opinion also has valid reasoning. Course both sides can be argued. who is to say people cannot improve? was there not a predent by the name of hockey dentist on these forums that reapplied 2 or 3 times before getting into dental school? this may not be the norm, but again, i still believe with preserverence and determination people can obtain their goals. of course, if the applicant is blindly reapplying over and over with little to no improvement...then yes this applicant may never get in. I do not believe all reapplicants will get in, only those who stick with it and are willing to do what it takes to get in (I'm going to assume they are normal people..not people with terrible personalities). course, im not trying to convince you i'm right, just providing a different perspective. take care all.

 

[Nasem]

Lets put statistics aside. this thread strikes me more like a motivational thread. If your motivated to do something or get somewhere, preserverance and determination will get you there. this no guarantee, merely a mentality that usually leads to happy stories 😉.

Envision hit it right on the button.

This thread is simply an opinion of mine, ALOT of people once they get rejected thier first cycle, they tend to "slow" down sometimes and thats why Im betting that their chances aren't as good the second time around because some of them stopped trying hard enough. You have to keep pushing and keep suffering, its the only way for success if you have huge challenges (not high enough GPA, low DAT, etc etc etc)

One thing I know about this world is grades don't mean jack, nor do DAT scores or anything, its alllll about your patients and how "bad you want it". If you show them you want it bad, and they can see you improve dramatically every time you apply for a new cycle, then one school will respect you for that and WILL accept you. Not all students who get accepted have 3.5+ GPAs and 20+ DATs, I bet you alot of them have ALOT less stats and still get in because they know how to show the school that they "want it bad".

If you have crappy personall skills (ie interview skills), **** then work it, its just a skill in the making, go and apply to every god darn job you can see in an add, go to job interviews, not because you want the job, but just so you can handle interviews.... most interviews are the same, either stress interview, or "personall" interview, or technical interview. Read books oh how to improve your interview skills, you'll be amazed how much good infor you'll find. Its how I got my first I.T job, I sucked at interviews, man, I was so bad at them, one time one of the managers interviewing me litterally told me to "alright wells, seems like you got it all wrong on why you want to work here, I don't wish to have you on my team" and litterally rejected me to my face, it was terrible feeling. I got multiple books on writting good resumes along with interview skills.... 3 months later, I gotta job here with Accenture.

 

[lemoncurry]

even Gabe becomes a dentist:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/10/09

 

[I'mFillingFine]

It also says 50% of the applicants are in the 3.0-3.5 gpa range. So 25% have a GPA above 3.5 and 25% have a gpa below 3.0.

er.....math? der? 😕 Something doesn't add up there....😉

Lets put statistics aside. this thread strikes me more like a motivational thread. If your motivated to do something or get somewhere, preserverance and determination will get you there. this no guarantee, merely a mentality that usually leads to happy stories .

👍 👍 👍