Fall 2002

[Yah-E]

Dear fellow Pre-Dent & Newly accepted students,

I'm new to this forum and I'm already loving it!! Seeing all you guys pumped up about next year only makes me nervous about my application! Unlike you guys, I'm not your traditional >3.5 GPA students and who already got acceptances in the first round of notifications! As matter of fact, I JUST submitted my AADSAS application last week! Knowing it's kind of late, but anxious to see what will happen to my applications!

Let me know what you guys think of my situation!

Undergrad: 2.76 GPA
Post-bac: Osteopathic Medical school curriculum:
3.20 GPA
DAT: 17/24 (PAT) back in 1999
Retaking DAT in two weeks!(aiming for 20s)

Ample orientation to dentistry including dental research at Marquette Univ. and Univ. of Minnesota, shadowing/observing dental faculty members and students, members of ASDA & ADEA, dental summer programs plus lots of other stuff!

Schools that I applied to:

Marquette Univ
Nova Southeastern
Columbia
Temple
NYU
U Penn
UOPacific
Tufts
BU

I have spoken to every single admission coordinators/directors to those schools and they all said that I'm on the right track with the Post-bac. program and if I get 20s across the board on my second DAT, I will be in good shoes for Fall 2002!!

What do y'all think? I'll have a chance? No way in hell I'll have a chance?

Any input would be greatly appreciated!!

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[lmmn27]

I think you're stats look really good, and I think with your research experience you'll get in. I actually have a question for you-I'm deciding between going to Marquette and Minnesota-do you have any feelings good or bad about either school?
Good Luck!

 

[Yah-E]

Immn27,

First, thanks for your reply! Second, to answer your question, I think that you're in a tough place to decide which school because both schools are great schools! For Minnesota, I did my undergrad there and I did research with the dental school and have numerous of friends that are current 1st and 2nd year students! None of them have complained about the school or the curriculum! Positives things about MN are, you're in a GREAT city, small class size (86), and negatives are older facility, not very diverse student population (every one from midwest), plus it's extremely cold during the winter! Now for Marquette, I have nothing to bad to say about this school. I spend an entire summer there last summer doing dental research and getting my hands on laboratory stuff and clinical settings. Couple of things that may attract you about Marquette that is attracting me!

First, they're building a BRAND SPANKING new building for the school! State of the art technolongy including video conderencing for procedures and plus many more. Second, they're changing their traditional curriculum of lectures the first two years of dental school to Problem-Based Learning (PBL) curriculum like many medical school curriculi!

In PBL, you will get your hands on in patient exposure early during your first year (instead of in your 3rd year in the traditional learning), you'll teach yourself and your group in front of the whole class instead of professors teaching you! (this sounds horrible, but trust me it's not bad at all, I'm currently taking classes with the Osteopathic medical students and our Biochemistry AND Physiology course is PBL! It's kind of scary at first to present in front of class, but you get used to it and after while it's actually fun! A lot of my colleagues and I rather do PBL cases than sit in lecture for 8 hours a day!)

Lastly, what I like about Marquette is that they have a great student diversity in their small class size of 80 students! Since it's a private school verse public like MN, you'll have classmates from across the country as well as other countries.

I hope this helps, either way, you will not loose by choosing one or the other!!