Harvard School of Dental Medicine?

[swimgrl554702]

What are the requirements for Harvard Dental?
Im a junior in high school right now but does it matter if i go to a state undergraduate college, like rutgers nj and graduate with a good GPA? I want to save money in the 4 year college by going to state, then trying out for dental schools.
Or for harvard dental, is it better to go to a good undergraduate university with a good but not as good GPA as what i would get in an okay/state college?

or does GPA/experience/DATS and PATS matter more?

I've recently decided to pursue dentistry, but I'm not sure what my first step should be...
Harvard's my #1,
then Columbia, then Stony Brook

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[PlasmaMembrane]

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[FROGGBUSTER]

I'm not sure how exactly it works at Harvard, but if you just want to get into a good dental school, where you go to undergrad won't matter as long as you have the GPA and DAT to back it up. At the same time, if you have good numbers from a prestigious school it should count for something imo (but not much in the grand scheme of things). I can tell you that you need significant research experience to be competitive for consideration at Harvard though; Harvard is very heavily research-oriented, and it may not be the school for you if you just want to graduate as, say, a skilled general dentist. Don't limit your choices to just the "name-brand" schools like Harvard, Columbia, etc. There are pros and cons to each program out there.

In general, I'd recommend reading up a little more on how the admission process works and look into the strengths and weaknesses of several schools as well. SDN has a wealth of information (use the Search function; almost every question you can think of has probably been answered) and you can browse dental school websites for helpful information as well. Also, I bet you'd also be interested in buying the ADEA Official Guide to Dental Schools handbook.

 

[uva09]

Individual schools list various requirements on their program websites. Peruse through the Harvard website and you will find answers to the majority of your basic questions.

As to your questions about 'what's worth more' or 'where should I go to school', etc. - there are simply no one-size-fits-all answers to those types of questions. And most answers you find on this website are rooted in pure speculation and unfounded opinion.

Aim to go to the best undergraduate program you can get into and/or afford to attend and then aim to get the best grades possible at said institution. But I'm sure this seems quite obvious.

While it's always good to have detailed goals and professional aspirations, don't slip into tunnel vision mode this early. As you noted, you have yet to even graduate high school. Don't get ahead of yourself and start arbitrarily ranking dental schools and claiming your #1.

Get into college. Do well. And the rest will begin to take shape and fall into place. But don't limit yourself. When you get to college, you will find that many people enroll with fairly concrete goals and only a tiny percentage of those individuals ever follow through. This is not a bad thing. It's the beauty of the traditional undergraduate experience.

 

[aquafoam]

I would beg to differ. To be honest, most of the incoming classes at HMS and HSDM went to Harvard undergrad & MIT & Wellesley... two years ago about four students from Wellesley went to HSDM, which is a high percentage from a single school considering the class size is about 35.

 

[PlasmaMembrane]

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[doc toothache]

It might be a bit of a surprise to find out the info you can get from their website.

 

[uva09]

It's always interesting to see the fiery defense and promotion of these candidates who were not even remotely in the realm of "IVY League" potential for undergraduate admissions and now because of a 4.0 GPA at some no name school and a solid DAT think they are suddenly the cream of the crop.

While you can technically gain acceptance into any dental school, including Harvard, from any undergraduate program - it is clearly an advantage to have graduated successfully from certain programs if your final aspiration is to matriculate at Harvard Dental School.

Moreover, enrollment at certain undergraduate programs (i.e. IVY League Schools) serves to at least highlight the colloquial potential for a student to develop and construct a highly competitive admissions portfolio. These schools recruit the best academic talent for undergraduate studies. As such, it would stand to reason that these schools would generate large numbers of top candidates for premier graduate programs.

Undergraduate representation is broad and diverse for all of Harvard's Schools, but if you look at the individual programs - the institutions represented in higher numbers are consistently the other IVY League Schools and a sampling of the remaining top national programs such as MIT, Stanford, Duke, Chicago, etc.

If you look at Harvard Law for example - the schools represented by 30 or more students are: Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Cal Berkeley, UCLA, Penn, Virginia

Many of the faculty and staff at Harvard were educated at other top institutions and/or completed training at these schools. There is apparent camaraderie between the IVY League institutions and given the inherent subjective nature of admissions, many of these schools gain favor. There is collaboration and mutual respect. Top schools maintain awareness and acknowledgment of other top undergraduate programs.

All things being equal (admittedly, this is a stretch - but for the sake of argument if you had two applicants that were top notch in all major categories - essentially equal on paper), an applicant from, say, Princeton will be favored over an applicant from a run of the mill state school.

To this end, where you go to school does have an affect - and for some schools, this affect may be large or effectively negligible. It just depends. But at the end of the day, a student must perform exceedingly well, no matter where he/she attends, if the goal is dental school acceptance, at Harvard or anywhere else.

 

[Lane138]

I would beg to differ. To be honest, most of the incoming classes at HMS and HSDM went to Harvard undergrad & MIT & Wellesley.

I'm not sure if that's fair to say. Most of the people at HSDM are currently from out of state, if you look on the ADEA guide, and they did not attend Harvard as their undergraduate. The rest of us still have a shot just because we're out of state. (well, fingers crossed anyway)

 

[GO BABY GO]

I would beg to differ. To be honest, most of the incoming classes at HMS and HSDM went to Harvard undergrad & MIT & Wellesley... two years ago about four students from Wellesley went to HSDM, which is a high percentage from a single school considering the class size is about 35.

This is false information.

It's always interesting to see the fiery defense and promotion of these candidates who were not even remotely in the realm of "IVY League" potential for undergraduate admissions and now because of a 4.0 GPA at some no name school and a solid DAT think they are suddenly the cream of the crop.

While you can technically gain acceptance into any dental school, including Harvard, from any undergraduate program - it is clearly an advantage to have graduated successfully from certain programs if your final aspiration is to matriculate at Harvard Dental School.

Moreover, enrollment at certain undergraduate programs (i.e. IVY League Schools) serves to at least highlight the colloquial potential for a student to develop and construct a highly competitive admissions portfolio. These schools recruit the best academic talent for undergraduate studies. As such, it would stand to reason that these schools would generate large numbers of top candidates for premier graduate programs.

Undergraduate representation is broad and diverse for all of Harvard's Schools, but if you look at the individual programs - the institutions represented in higher numbers are consistently the other IVY League Schools and a sampling of the remaining top national programs such as MIT, Stanford, Duke, Chicago, etc.

If you look at Harvard Law for example - the schools represented by 30 or more students are: Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Cal Berkeley, UCLA, Penn, Virginia

Many of the faculty and staff at Harvard were educated at other top institutions and/or completed training at these schools. There is apparent camaraderie between the IVY League institutions and given the inherent subjective nature of admissions, many of these schools gain favor. There is collaboration and mutual respect. Top schools maintain awareness and acknowledgment of other top undergraduate programs.

All things being equal (admittedly, this is a stretch - but for the sake of argument if you had two applicants that were top notch in all major categories - essentially equal on paper), an applicant from, say, Princeton will be favored over an applicant from a run of the mill state school.

To this end, where you go to school does have an affect - and for some schools, this affect may be large or effectively negligible. It just depends. But at the end of the day, a student must perform exceedingly well, no matter where he/she attends, if the goal is dental school acceptance, at Harvard or anywhere else.

This post made me gag periodically and almost throw up all over my key board. Here is an example of an Ivy League person who thinks he's something special and better than everyone else. Yuck.

Hate to break it to ya but it's not so much where you went but more so what you accomplished.

 

[FROGGBUSTER]

This post made me gag periodically and almost throw up all over my key board. Here is an example of an Ivy League person who thinks he's something special and better than everyone else. Yuck.

Actually, most of his post was pretty fair and objective. You're trying to make a big deal out of nothing.

Hate to break it to ya but it's not so much where you went but more so what you accomplished.

His last sentence made the same exact point.

 

[GO BABY GO]

Actually, most of his post was pretty fair and objective. You're trying to make a big deal out of nothing.



His last sentence made the same exact point.

Quote from Uva–
"It's always interesting to see the fiery defense and promotion of these candidates who were not even remotely in the realm of "IVY League" potential for undergraduate admissions and now because of a 4.0 GPA at some no name school and a solid DAT think they are suddenly the cream of the crop."

Are you saying these people can't be cream of the crop? There are many of them that are.

 

[DentalGunner]

It's always interesting to see the fiery defense and promotion of these candidates who were not even remotely in the realm of "IVY League" potential for undergraduate admissions and now because of a 4.0 GPA at some no name school and a solid DAT think they are suddenly the cream of the crop.

While you can technically gain acceptance into any dental school, including Harvard, from any undergraduate program - it is clearly an advantage to have graduated successfully from certain programs if your final aspiration is to matriculate at Harvard Dental School.

Moreover, enrollment at certain undergraduate programs (i.e. IVY League Schools) serves to at least highlight the colloquial potential for a student to develop and construct a highly competitive admissions portfolio. These schools recruit the best academic talent for undergraduate studies. As such, it would stand to reason that these schools would generate large numbers of top candidates for premier graduate programs.

Undergraduate representation is broad and diverse for all of Harvard's Schools, but if you look at the individual programs - the institutions represented in higher numbers are consistently the other IVY League Schools and a sampling of the remaining top national programs such as MIT, Stanford, Duke, Chicago, etc.

If you look at Harvard Law for example - the schools represented by 30 or more students are: Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Cal Berkeley, UCLA, Penn, Virginia

Many of the faculty and staff at Harvard were educated at other top institutions and/or completed training at these schools. There is apparent camaraderie between the IVY League institutions and given the inherent subjective nature of admissions, many of these schools gain favor. There is collaboration and mutual respect. Top schools maintain awareness and acknowledgment of other top undergraduate programs.

All things being equal (admittedly, this is a stretch - but for the sake of argument if you had two applicants that were top notch in all major categories - essentially equal on paper), an applicant from, say, Princeton will be favored over an applicant from a run of the mill state school.

To this end, where you go to school does have an affect - and for some schools, this affect may be large or effectively negligible. It just depends. But at the end of the day, a student must perform exceedingly well, no matter where he/she attends, if the goal is dental school acceptance, at Harvard or anywhere else.

I disagree with some of your points, but I'm inclined to agree with the vast majority of them. I really don't care if someone gets into a competitive dental program with me, even if they juked the admissions committee with a 4.0 from a podunk university and lucked out on their DAT. The real test comes in dental school: if their 4.0 kindergarten program didn't prepare them to endure the wrath of hell, called Ivy League Biochemistry/Immunology/Physiology/Anatomy/Neurophysiology/Embryology/etc., then that's their own damn fault. I know I won't be struggling in my classes, so people better not be asking for my notes or my help, until I get accepted to my specialty of choice.

One of the deans who spoke to us at our interviews said that "we've had Harvard grads fail out, and we've had transfer students graduate at the top of our dental class. Dental school is a new ball game, so I hope your program has prepared you to compete with the best." The message I got from that is, whatever program/school you chose, was your own choice. You made your bed, so get ready sleep in it.

 

[FROGGBUSTER]

Quote from Uva–
"It's always interesting to see the fiery defense and promotion of these candidates who were not even remotely in the realm of "IVY League" potential for undergraduate admissions and now because of a 4.0 GPA at some no name school and a solid DAT think they are suddenly the cream of the crop."

Are you saying these people can't be cream of the crop? There are many of them that are.

lulz

 

[tinman831]

Hate to break the news to yall, but if you think the name of the school you went to didn't matter, you're sorely mistaken. Why do you think dental schools want you to take your pre-reqs at a 4year university instead of a community college?

 

[SupDanLOL]

Hate to break the news to yall, but if you think the name of the school you went to didn't matter, you're sorely mistaken. Why do you think dental schools want you to take your pre-reqs at a 4year university instead of a community college?

Amen.

The people here that believe this are generally the same people who transfered credits from a less-than-prestigious institution, or went to a lesser known state school. They're afraid of the (perhaps unfair?) reality.

However: It's not so much the "name" of the school that matters... it's their reputation for feeding a given dental school with excellent students, i.e., the reputation of the undergrad school from the perspective of the dental school in question.

Perhaps a given dental school loves students from Yale, let's say. They might also love students from Tufts and Cornell. But they have a lesser opinion of students from Brown (despite it's Ivy reputation to the lay person). A whole lot goes into these decision, as we know. Often times ADCOMS use average GPAs from undergrad schools to gauge just how impressive a 3.97 is relative to the rest of the students in a given college/major for that school.

You don't often hear it talked about from dental schools...but during my interview at Tufts, the dean of admissions flat out said that one of their (many) criteria for acceptance is strength of undergraduate school. I then privately asked what exactly that might mean-- and I was told, that for instance, Tufts loves applicants from Boston University to their program (again, not an Ivy, but a nearby, private, large, research university that they have close connections with and have come to appreciate the caliber of the student that graduates from their pre-health curriculum). They are hardly head over heels over students from UMass Boston (for example)...even with a 3.9.

It's just the reality of the situation.

 

[MUSCDMD]

I interviewed at Harvard in early November and actually, no, most current HSDM students did NOT go to Harvard or Ivy League schools. Most Harvard medical students DID go to Stanford, Harvard, etc., but the dental students come from a bunch of completely random schools, from private schools to big, public universities. I go to a large, public university that US News ranks in the top 20-25 every year. It's no public Ivy, but apparently my 4.0 here is just as good as anywhere else.

 

[uva09]

I interviewed at Harvard in early November and actually, no, most current HSDM students did NOT go to Harvard or Ivy League schools. Most Harvard medical students DID go to Stanford, Harvard, etc., but the dental students come from a bunch of completely random schools, from private schools to big, public universities. I go to a large, public university that US News ranks in the top 20-25 every year. It's no public Ivy, but apparently my 4.0 here is just as good as anywhere else.

Perhaps you should re-read some of the posts. I never once implied or stated that most of the current Harvard Dental School students went to Harvard or another IVY league institution. I said that you are much more likely to see significant numbers (i.e. 1 or more than 1 student) represented by one the aforementioned schools than any other undergraduate institution(s) at any one of Harvard's graduate schools. HSDM is the smallest of Harvard's schools with less than 40 students per class. Clearly there is going to be great diversity amongst each class. Clearly, you will meet individuals that hail from all over the country and world. But the students that come from the "random" schools you speak of were most assuredly alone in their attendance that year. The schools you are likely to see multiple students from or even one student from, consistently, each year, are any one of the previously listed top-programs. Are there exceptions? Sure. The key word is: consistently. And no, most Harvard Medical students did not go to Harvard or Stanford - those two schools may, however, represent a higher number of enrollees than other schools. But there is a distinction that must be clarified in your phrasing. Most implies greater than 50% of a given class. Also, it was never my intention to imply that students that come from different "random" schools are, in any way, inferior. An excellent academic record from any program of study can boost the competitiveness of a dental applicant. However, if that same excellent academic record were achieved at an IVY League, or other top-ranked school, I am not sure how you could argue that it would not be advantageous. Cream of the crop at an IVY League school means something different than cream of the crop at a run of the mill state school. This is just a fact.

 

[yappy]

Sorry, you're wrong. Enjoy your debt lol.

Amen.

It's just the reality of the situation.

 

[iralex801]

It's always interesting to see the fiery defense and promotion of these candidates who were not even remotely in the realm of "IVY League" potential for undergraduate admissions and now because of a 4.0 GPA at some no name school and a solid DAT think they are suddenly the cream of the crop.

It's also interesting to see the fiery defense from students who got lower GPAs and claim it was because of the rigor of their "prestigious" undergrad school and that they are better than students with higher GPAs at lower ranked schools (not talking about community colleges) . If you are truly smarter than the kid who got a lower GPA at a less prestigious college, you should do better on the DAT than him, right?

Come on. You can't luck out on your DAT. That's absurd. It's called a standardized test for a reason. The standardized test will validate someone's GPA. IMO, the DAT and standardized tests in general should be the most important factor. It is the only factor where you are sure students took a test that had the same content and in similar conditions every time the test is taken.

Students who attend Ivies tend to be the smartest, so they get accepted into a lot of schools. This does not mean prestige of your undergrad was the reason you get accepted lol.

 

[MUSCDMD]

I'm sorry, have you interviewed at Harvard yourself? Where are you getting your facts? Because mine come directly from the dental students' mouths. Asking where they come from, many come from top tier schools while many come from small, private schools no one has every heard of. And they told me that most of their medical classmates went to Harvard and Stanford and one other school I can't remember (their point being that the dental students are far more diverse than the medical students). As for everything else you said, yeah, that's common sense and I don't think anyone is arguing against that. Take a chill pill.

 

[SupDanLOL]

Sorry, you're wrong. Enjoy your debt lol.

Pardon?

 

[Pat Kelly]

delete

 

[uva09]

It's also interesting to see the fiery defense from students who got lower GPAs and claim it was because of the rigor of their "prestigious" undergrad school and that they are better than students with higher GPAs at lower ranked schools (not talking about community colleges) . If you are truly smarter than the kid who got a lower GPA at a less prestigious college, you should do better on the DAT than him, right?

Come on. You can't luck out on your DAT. That's absurd. It's called a standardized test for a reason. The standardized test will validate someone's GPA. IMO, the DAT and standardized tests in general should be the most important factor. It is the only factor where you are sure students took a test that had the same content and in similar conditions every time the test is taken.

Students who attend Ivies tend to be the smartest, so they get accepted into a lot of schools. This does not mean prestige of your undergrad was the reason you get accepted lol.

You are arguing against yourself. In order to make your own claim believable, you altered the comparison such that the student from a top school had a lower GPA. I don't believe anyone here is defending students that achieved lower marks at a prestigious school over those that performed exceedingly well at a lesser known school. The comparison, at hand, was between students that performed equally well at their respective institutions. Regardless, I'm not sure how you could overlook the fact that a more competitive, prestigious undergraduate program would have higher academic standards as a result of greater competition due to the depth and breadth of the student body. More smart kids at an IVY League caliber school equates to a more difficult time achieving high marks. Not everyone can get the 4.0. As such, Dental Schools or other programs will be more likely to consider the place of study in lieu of a 'perfect' GPA. There is much more wiggle room and laterally flexibility afforded to one's GPA if he/she went to a top-rated school.

Clearly, you can't "luck out" on the entire DAT. But I'm not sure how you make the claim that the DAT validates someone's college GPA. Maybe. The Perceptual Abilities component is outside the scope of undergraduate studies. The Critical Reading and Quantitative Reasoning portions both necessitate high school level skills. And the Total Science section requires a semester or two, at most, of relevant coursework at the undergraduate level. If you take individual, isolated questions from the TS, they are likely much, much easier than testable questions in a relevant college course. If you are truly smarter than the kid who got a lower GPA at a less prestigious college, you should do better on the DAT than him, right? No one is discussing specific situations or individuals.

Students who attend Ivies tend to be the smartest. Okay, I'm with you. So they get accepted into a lot of [Dental] schools. Again, I'm with you. This does not mean prestige of your undergrad was the reason you get accepted lol. No, it does not as an isolated fact. But, if you weren't cream of the crop at the high school level, you would not have been accepted at the prestigious university in the first place. So what's your point? No one is claiming that you can go to Harvard and jerk around for four years and still get into graduate school.

I'm sorry, have you interviewed at Harvard yourself? Where are you getting your facts? Because mine come directly from the dental students' mouths. Asking where they come from, many come from top tier schools while many come from small, private schools no one has every heard of. And they told me that most of their medical classmates went to Harvard and Stanford and one other school I can't remember (their point being that the dental students are far more diverse than the medical students). As for everything else you said, yeah, that's common sense and I don't think anyone is arguing against that. Take a chill pill.

The specific demographics of most of Harvard's graduate schools can be found online. The Dental School is an exception. Were you interviewed at Harvard or did you interview Harvard students? Unless, you took the time to document where each and every current student went to school, your statements are no more precise or factual than anyone else's. There are 165 people in each Medical School class and 35 in each Dental School class. Yet, the DS is more diverse? Even if there were just 5 kids that each came from one of the aforementioned schools, given that there are only 35 slots, there would be meaningful significance to the numbers. Again, I was talking about the likelihood of seeing representation from certain schools. With only 35 students, these numbers would obviously be more subtle.

 

[FLOSS UR TEETH]

Hate to break the news to yall, but if you think the name of the school you went to didn't matter, you're sorely mistaken. Why do you think dental schools want you to take your pre-reqs at a 4year university instead of a community college?

You are arguing against yourself. In order to make your own claim believable, you altered the comparison such that the student from a top school had a lower GPA. I don't believe anyone here is defending students that achieved lower marks at a prestigious school over those that performed exceedingly well at a lesser known school. The comparison, at hand, was between students that performed equally well at their respective institutions. Regardless, I'm not sure how you could overlook the fact that a more competitive, prestigious undergraduate program would have higher academic standards as a result of greater competition due to the depth and breadth of the student body. More smart kids at an IVY League caliber school equates to a more difficult time achieving high marks. Not everyone can get the 4.0. As such, Dental Schools or other programs will be more likely to consider the place of study in lieu of a 'perfect' GPA. There is much more wiggle room and laterally flexibility afforded to one's GPA if he/she went to a top-rated school.

Clearly, you can't "luck out" on the entire DAT. But I'm not sure how you make the claim that the DAT validates someone's college GPA. Maybe. The Perceptual Abilities component is outside the scope of undergraduate studies. The Critical Reading and Quantitative Reasoning portions both necessitate high school level skills. And the Total Science section requires a semester or two, at most, of relevant coursework at the undergraduate level. If you take individual, isolated questions from the TS, they are likely much, much easier than testable questions in a relevant college course. If you are truly smarter than the kid who got a lower GPA at a less prestigious college, you should do better on the DAT than him, right? No one is discussing specific situations or individuals.

Students who attend Ivies tend to be the smartest. Okay, I'm with you. So they get accepted into a lot of [Dental] schools. Again, I'm with you. This does not mean prestige of your undergrad was the reason you get accepted lol. No, it does not as an isolated fact. But, if you weren't cream of the crop at the high school level, you would not have been accepted at the prestigious university in the first place. So what's your point? No one is claiming that you can go to Harvard and jerk around for four years and still get into graduate school.

I'm sorry, have you interviewed at Harvard yourself? Where are you getting your facts? Because mine come directly from the dental students' mouths. Asking where they come from, many come from top tier schools while many come from small, private schools no one has every heard of. And they told me that most of their medical classmates went to Harvard and Stanford and one other school I can't remember (their point being that the dental students are far more diverse than the medical students). As for everything else you said, yeah, that's common sense and I don't think anyone is arguing against that. Take a chill pill.

The specific demographics of most of Harvard's graduate schools can be found online. The Dental School is an exception. Were you interviewed at Harvard or did you interview Harvard students? Unless, you took the time to document where each and every current student went to school, your statements are no more precise or factual than anyone else's. There are 165 people in each Medical School class and 35 in each Dental School class. Yet, the DS is more diverse? Even if there were just 5 kids that each came from one of the aforementioned schools, given that there are only 35 slots, there would be meaningful significance to the numbers. Again, I was talking about the likelihood of seeing representation from certain schools. With only 35 students, these numbers would obviously be more subtle.

Just to let you know, one of my good friends received an interview which was preceded by an acceptance last year from Harvard SDM and came from a "no name school"– a public branch school that is ranked 180 something in the nation to be exact. In fact, his DAT score was lower (although higher than the national average of matriculants to all dental schools) than everyone else at his interview and his GPA was roughly average of the group. And no he was not a URM. He is 23 and white.

Another point that must be made is the fact that not everyone chooses to go to a school such as Harvard coming straight out of high school.

Uva, you said, "It's always interesting to see the fiery defense and promotion of these candidates who were not even remotely in the realm of "IVY League" potential for undergraduate admissions and now because of a 4.0 GPA at some no name school and a solid DAT think they are suddenly the cream of the crop."

Some can't afford a big name school and some want to stay closer to home. Therefore, you cannot make assumptions that people who come from a no name school were not good enough to get into an Ivy League school. For all you know they could have been accepted there and chose their state school where it would be cheaper and closer to home.

Moreover, you will never know which school will give you the best education. Just because its not an Ivy League does not mean it won't prepare you for professional school just as well as its Ivy counterpart. Anyways, not everyone from Ivy Leagues are extremely smart. One must consider the political sway such a school can have (i.e. dean's son, president's daughter, etc.)

Personally, I have attended both an Ivy League and a branch public school. Believe it or not, I felt that my education was on par if not better at the public branch school. I was also able to do research much earlier on (which culminated into a publication in Nature– one of the most respected journals in the world) which was a non-existant opportunity at the Ivy school. You are probably asking yourself why did he transfer out? It was to save an enormous amount of money. Who would have known you could get a publication in Nature under the biochemistry genre as a rising Senior and over 10 dental school interviews coming from a "no name school?"

 

[uva09]

And over the past 5 years, how many people do you think went to Harvard Dental from your friend's school?

Likely, just him.

Over the same 5 year period, how many people do you think went to Harvard Dental from another IVY League or other top-ranked program?

Likely, many more than 1.


I will say it for the hundredth time, NO ONE is saying that you cannot get into a certain dental school unless you attended a specific undergraduate school. Clearly, anyone can get in from anywhere. Clearly, a quality education can be afforded at any number of places. I am merely saying that there is a competitive advantage associated with certain schools. And certain schools are likely to represent larger numbers of enrollees on a consistant basis, year to year at a school like Harvard.

Also, I want to clarify that I am not making bulletproof, sweeping generalizations with regards to the student profile of IVY League caliber college applicants. Obviously, there are exceptions and outliers. I am saying that, on average, and as a whole, these schools tend to recruit the best academic talent and these schools tend to have higher standards of excellence and competition due to the composition of their student bodies. If this weren't true, they wouldn't be ranked were they are nor would people recognize them as prestigious institutions. There are more competitive, IVY League caliber applicants than there are undergraduate positions just as there are more competitive dental applicants than there are dental school seats.

 

[FLOSS UR TEETH]

And over the past 5 years, how many people do you think went to Harvard Dental from your friend's school?

Likely, just him.

Over the same 5 year period, how many people do you think went to Harvard Dental from another IVY League or other top-ranked program?

Likely, many more than 1.


I will say it for the hundredth time, NO ONE is saying that you cannot get into a certain dental school unless you attended a specific undergraduate school. Clearly, anyone can get in from anywhere. Clearly, a quality education can be afforded at any number of places. I am merely saying that there is a competitive advantage associated with certain schools. And certain schools are likely to represent larger numbers of enrollees on a consistant basis, year to year at a school like Harvard.

Also, I want to clarify that I am not making bulletproof, sweeping generalizations with regards to the student profile of IVY League caliber college applicants. Obviously, there are exceptions and outliers. I am saying that, on average, and as a whole, these schools tend to recruit the best academic talent and these schools tend to have higher standards of excellence and competition due to the composition of their student bodies. If this weren't true, they wouldn't be ranked were they are nor would people recognize them as prestigious institutions. There are more competitive, IVY League caliber applicants than there are undergraduate positions just as there are more competitive dental applicants than there are dental school seats.

I can call him right now and ask him what the school demographics are if you really want me to. But again, many people choose to go to the cheaper school especially for dental school since they aren't even ranked. Therefore, there really is no way of telling how many schools were given the chance to represent a HSDM seat considering they hand out more acceptances than seats. Question is where are you getting your information for their dental school? Do you have any sources?

Judging by your previous post "It's always interesting to see the fiery defense and promotion of these candidates who were not even remotely in the realm of "IVY League" potential for undergraduate admissions and now because of a 4.0 GPA at some no name school and a solid DAT think they are suddenly the cream of the crop." it sounded as if you were making a sweeping generalization of both the Ivy League student profile and the non-Ivy League student profile. Sorry if I misinterpreted your statement.

Again, as a student who has attended both an Ivy League and a non-Ivy League, I personally don't believe they had a higher standard of excellence. Don't get me wrong, their standards were set very high but so was the public school. IMHO, public schools ALSO recruit very bright individuals that shouldn't be underestimated. Public schools are also generally much larger and there is a larger student body so, yes, you get a wide competitive spectrum of people (some being not at all competitive while others being extremely competitive). This is just my opinion though. We have two very different opinions and we can just leave it at that.

 

[aquafoam]

I'm not sure if that's fair to say. Most of the people at HSDM are currently from out of state, if you look on the ADEA guide, and they did not attend Harvard as their undergraduate. The rest of us still have a shot just because we're out of state. (well, fingers crossed anyway)

Hm, is out-of-state vs in-state dependent on your state of residence or where you attended undergrad? Maybe going off on a tangent but does that mean even if you attended undergrad in Massachusetts, you are considered out-of-state if your state of residence is not MA?

 

[uva09]

Your state residency has no bearing on where you attend undergraduate school unless you apply for a residency change under the rules and regulations of the state in which you are attending school.

For example, one can have and maintain residency in the state of New Jersey and attend college in New Hampshire without becoming a NH resident.

 

[uva09]

To address the previous post - no, I do not have any officially released data covering Harvard Dental School demographics. To my knowledge, this is unavailable to anyone publicly. My sources, like yours (i.e. friends in attendance), are informal and would not offer a sweeping, factual assessment. Your friend is unlikely to be able to list out every school of origin for every member of his/her class and the remaining classes at Harvard currently. And even if he/she could, it would not be official.

What is available are demographic breakdowns of some of Harvard's other schools, such as the Law School, Business School, or Medical School. And at the Law School, for example, one can see significance in the school of origin as the schools represented by numerous students (i.e. more than 1 student, or in this case, more than 30 students), year to year, are those that have been listed. I was simply drawing presumptuous parallels based on this data and widely recognized information regarding top undergraduate schools.

And why would their dental school be that much different than any other professional graduate school? They all require GPA's and some standardized test. Given a class size of 35, I'm sure there are only a small handful of students that attended the aforementioned schools. But that number is still going to be more than the numbers represented by individual, lesser known schools on a yearly basis. And even as small as 5 students from any one of the IVY League schools would be significant with a class that small.

Finally, the cream of the crop comment was merely to highlight the fact that 'cream of the crop' is a relative term. Someone at Ole Miss, for example, might have a 4.0 GPA and great DAT scores. Congratulations. That person is cream of the crop at Ole Miss. That person met the standards of admission. And that person may very well enter dental school. But to say that person is cream of the crop, with regards to the national population, is another statement. On the other hand, a student from Harvard with a 4.0 GPA and great DAT's would have a more reasonable time making that claim. Sorry if this fact offends anyone. But I'm not sure how it can be argued in general terms. Your GPA is inherently tied to the program of study, the standards of excellence, and competition level therein.

 

[FLOSS UR TEETH]

To address the previous post - no, I do not have any officially released data covering Harvard Dental School demographics. To my knowledge, this is unavailable to anyone publicly. My sources, like yours (i.e. friends in attendance), are informal and would not offer a sweeping, factual assessment. Your friend is unlikely to be able to list out every school of origin for every member of his/her class and the remaining classes at Harvard currently. And even if he/she could, it would not be official.

What is available are demographic breakdowns of some of Harvard's other schools, such as the Law School, Business School, or Medical School. And at the Law School, for example, one can see significance in the school of origin as the schools represented by numerous students (i.e. more than 1 student, or in this case, more than 30 students), year to year, are those that have been listed. I was simply drawing presumptuous parallels based on this data and widely recognized information regarding top undergraduate schools.

And why would their dental school be that much different than any other professional graduate school? They all require GPA's and some standardized test. Given a class size of 35, I'm sure there are only a small handful of students that attended the aforementioned schools. But that number is still going to be more than the numbers represented by individual, lesser known schools on a yearly basis. And even as small as 5 students from any one of the IVY League schools would be significant with a class that small.

Finally, the cream of the crop comment was merely to highlight the fact that 'cream of the crop' is a relative term. Someone at Ole Miss, for example, might have a 4.0 GPA and great DAT scores. Congratulations. That person is cream of the crop at Ole Miss. That person met the standards of admission. And that person may very well enter dental school. But to say that person is cream of the crop, with regards to the national population, is another statement. On the other hand, a student from Harvard with a 4.0 GPA and great DAT's would have a more reasonable time making that claim. Sorry if this fact offends anyone. But I'm not sure how it can be argued in general terms. Your GPA is inherently tied to the program of study, the standards of excellence, and competition level therein.

You should take a look at predents.com. It looks like more applicants that were interviewed and accepted are coming from state schools than Ivy League. Heck, some applicants were accepted coming from schools I never heard of! Take a look for yourself. The cycle of 2010 is a good place to start.

 

[molar3]

What are the requirements for Harvard Dental?
Im a junior in high school right now but does it matter if i go to a state undergraduate college, like rutgers nj and graduate with a good GPA? I want to save money in the 4 year college by going to state, then trying out for dental schools.
Or for harvard dental, is it better to go to a good undergraduate university with a good but not as good GPA as what i would get in an okay/state college?

or does GPA/experience/DATS and PATS matter more?

I've recently decided to pursue dentistry, but I'm not sure what my first step should be...
Harvard's my #1,
then Columbia, then Stony Brook

it doesnt matter where you go to UG. i know 2 ppl who were accepted to harvard from "no name" schools. altho these kids i know who got in defly had amazing sci GPAs + extracurrics/top of their class etc etc.
i know alot more people who have been accepted to ivy league dental/med schools who went to an ivy undergrad. i think the thing about going to an ivy league undergrad is for the education obvi, the name and for the connections ....and for the leverage .
i went to a private highschool, 98% of the graduating students in my class went on to ivy leagues. bc we had leverage over public school kids in the area....the really dedicated public school kids also were accepted to ivy's. but more of us were accepted. maybe bc we had opportunities they didnt have, we had connections they didnt have, etc etc. perhaps this is the same with ivy vs public colleges.
but im sure getting an acceptance to harvard dental, does not require a pre req of going to an ivy UG.

 

[AlbinoPolarBear]

Finally, the cream of the crop comment was merely to highlight the fact that 'cream of the crop' is a relative term. Someone at Ole Miss, for example, might have a 4.0 GPA and great DAT scores. Congratulations. That person is cream of the crop at Ole Miss. That person met the standards of admission. And that person may very well enter dental school. But to say that person is cream of the crop, with regards to the national population, is another statement. On the other hand, a student from Harvard with a 4.0 GPA and great DAT's would have a more reasonable time making that claim. Sorry if this fact offends anyone. But I'm not sure how it can be argued in general terms. Your GPA is inherently tied to the program of study, the standards of excellence, and competition level therein.

I beg to differ. Malcolm Gladwell wrote a nice article in the New Yorker about the Ivy league institutions, and he presents very good evidence of you should not overrate it.
If anyone wants a good read, please follow this link:
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/10/10/051010crat_atlarge


First off, going to an Ivy league school does not make you smarter than a person going to a school such as Ole Miss. Ivy league schools do not create intelligent people. They are selective for intelligent people in the same way modeling agencies are selective for beautiful people. They were not beautiful because they were in the modeling agency, they would be beautiful without or without it.

Penn and Penn state are great examples for this experiment. Penn is an Ivy league and Penn state is just the regular state school. When you look at the average salaries of both schools, you'll see that the average Penn graduate makes more. But there are a lot of people who got into Penn and Penn state, and decided for whatever reason to attend Penn state. If you take these Penn state graduates, and compare it to the graduates from Penn, the salaries are very similar.

Who's to say that the person with the 4.0 from Ole Miss would not be cream of the crop at an Ivy league too? He maxed out on the GPA system at Ole Miss. Who knows what his potential is. That's why DAT scores are important. This is a standardized test. I hope everyone knows what standardization means and I don't have to go explain why it's important. There are numerous studies to show that there is great correlation between DAT AA scores and dental school success. So if that said person from Ole Miss gets a 4.0 and gets a 17 DAT. You know there's a problem, and his GPA gets discounted. But what if Mr. Ole Miss gets a 25 DAT? Can you say that he does not have the potential to be cream of the crop at Harvard too?

Another example. If Goku had a power level of 1000, and Vegeta had a power level of 900.
If the scouter (state school scouter) only reads to 100, both of them will have power levels of 100.
They both get 4.0 GPAs at the state school.
But Trunks has a power level of 500, and his scouter (the Ivy league) one reads to 500.
He gets a 4.0 at his Ivy league school too.

The power level readings only go up to 100 for Goku and Vegeta, but they maxed out the state school scouter rating, does it mean they are only worth a 100 power level? Which means they have power levels lower than Ivy league Trunks? No, there are tons of potential still left over.

So when we have the DAT scouter, which reads up to 1000, we can finally have a good reading on everyone's power level. And give us a more accurate reading on who's the strongest.

 

[yappy]

Lets remember one key fact:

What determines if someone will attend an Ivy undergrad?

HS grades and SAT.

Enough said

edit: +1 for Gladwell on Ivy education.

 

[SupDanLOL]

You should take a look at predents.com. It looks like more applicants that were interviewed and accepted are coming from state schools than Ivy League. Heck, some applicants were accepted coming from schools I never heard of! Take a look for yourself. The cycle of 2010 is a good place to start.

Predents.com -- The Wikipedia of the dental school application process.

I could say I went to Santa Claus University or North Pole State if I wanted to on that site.


Anyways... going to a big-name school helps your application. Take anyone's stats from any school, and switch the name of the school they attended to a better institution and it's only going to improve their chances. Simple.

Maybe I'm missing the subtleties of this argument though.

 

[uva09]

Agreed. Predents is a garbage website. There is absolutely nothing scientific or factual about it aside from the basic facts listed for each school - information that could easily be recovered from a school's official website. It's voluntary. No one is vetted and nothing is verified. I would never trust anything on that site.

I don't even know where to begin with the modeling and dragon ball references...

So you are trying to claim that a smart student gains acceptance to an IVY League school because of his/her intelligence and then that school does nothing to make that student smarter? What is the point of the education then? They do not create intelligent people, they help further the development of already intelligent students. Universities foster personal, social, and academic growth. If you don't feel smarter after your college experience, you probably wasted a lot of time and money.

So nothing can be said about the superior faculty and staff? What about the more competitive student body? What about the standards of admission? There are a multitude of factors that help foster educational development and build strong graduates. If you study and work amongst other highly intelligent and motivated individuals, you will benefit. If you study under well regarded, internationally known faculty, you will benefit. If the standard of excellence is set above an already impressive student body, you will benefit.

So an all-american high school football player wouldn't choose an undergraduate program because it offered a competitive advantage if the goal is the next level? The school must do nothing to make that person a better athlete, right? Clearly, just as many active NFL players are from Division 1-AA schools as with SEC or PAC-10 schools, right?

Once again, you can get into dental school from anywhere. No one is debating this fact. People get in from all over the place every year. However, graduating from certain schools presents a competitive advantage. Top schools have greater representation amongst graduate schools - that's one of the criterion in their ranking in the first place. Anyone that thinks where you went does not matter at all is simply foolish or still sore over the fact that he/she went to a lesser undergraduate program. Sorry. And the person from Ole Miss can talk all day about how he/she has some great potential. But at the end of the day, it's just potential and unproven at that. That 4.0 was earned amongst a population of students with average credentials and average SAT scores, at best. Clearly, he/she should be considered amongst the cream of 4.0 Harvard students that earned grades amongst the premier high school talent with top 1% SAT and GPA values, nationally...

 

[Bereno]

I think this whole debate is centered around something that is supposed to be simple. If you have the same stats between two applicants, the applicant that went to the more prestigious school (Ivy) is more LIKELY (not that they will) to get an acceptance at a DS. Simple as that.

 

[Bereno]

I beg to differ. Malcolm Gladwell wrote a nice article in the New Yorker about the Ivy league institutions, and he presents very good evidence of you should not overrate it.
If anyone wants a good read, please follow this link:
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/10/10/051010crat_atlarge

Good read! I have a family friend who attended Harvard. I think he would get a kick out of this article haha

 

[DentalJedi]

I think this whole debate is centered around something that is supposed to be simple. If you have the same stats between two applicants, the applicant that went to the more prestigious school (Ivy) is more LIKELY (not that they will) to get an acceptance at a DS. Simple as that.

But if we admit that it's that simple, what will we argue about?

 

[hahahigh]

Compelling arguments, uva09. Go Hoos.

 

[Bereno]

But if we admit that it's that simple, what will we argue about?

haha touché

 

[iralex801]

Eh. If 2 people who had the same GPA and DAT, I do not think the person who went to the Ivy would get the acceptance just like that. I believe the reason for the DAT is to make sure you understand concepts at the level your GPA suggests. Thus, if they have the same DAT, adcoms would consider the GPA's of both applicants to be equal. Therefore, I believe both applicants would be considered equally adept in academics.

This is where your EC's, PS, and interview skills come into play and will ultimately decide which one of these 2 applicants receive admission.

 

[AlbinoPolarBear]

I don't even know where to begin with the modeling and dragon ball references...

you began and you stopped. hope you understood it though. i made it really easy to understand and hope it's convincing. if you have a counter argument, i would like to hear it, instead of of saying "i'm clueless to where to begin".

So you are trying to claim that a smart student gains acceptance to an IVY League school because of his/her intelligence and then that school does nothing to make that student smarter?

I did not make that claim anywhere. Then you go on and start making generalized statements on how school is good for you.

What is the point of the education then? They do not create intelligent people, they help further the development of already intelligent students. Universities foster personal, social, and academic growth. If you don't feel smarter after your college experience, you probably wasted a lot of time and money.

Again, ranting about how school is still good for you.

So nothing can be said about the superior faculty and staff? What about the more competitive student body? What about the standards of admission? There are a multitude of factors that help foster educational development and build strong graduates. If you study and work amongst other highly intelligent and motivated individuals, you will benefit. If you study under well regarded, internationally known faculty, you will benefit. If the standard of excellence is set above an already impressive student body, you will benefit.

Superior researchers do not mean superior teachers. There were awesome researchers at my school who were the biggest douches as profs. Alright, so what are they teaching at Harvard freshman chemistry? Graduate level organic chemistry? Stereoselective synthesis of complex natural products? No, they teach the same **** at every undergraduate institution. If a student can memorize a textbook for his exam, he can memorize it whether he goes to Harvard or Ole Miss. Hope you realize that Ole Miss isn't full of ******s who can't get into an Ivy. Mr. 4.0 at Ole Miss may have had a top 1 percentile SAT, but decided to stay at Ole Miss because of many reason. Since you didn't get it the first time, I'll name some reasons for you:
1. Closer to home/Misses family.
2. Has a significant other who attends Ole Miss.
3. Has nicer scholarship to go to Ole Miss.
4. Likes the relaxed environment better than the cutthroat one.
5. Cheaper tuition.
6. Likes the football team better.
etc.

So an all-american high school football player wouldn't choose an undergraduate program because it offered a competitive advantage if the goal is the next level? The school must do nothing to make that person a better athlete, right? Clearly, just as many active NFL players are from Division 1-AA schools as with SEC or PAC-10 schools, right?

The NFL, year after year, drafts from Division 1-A.
If the all-american high school football player wants to one day play in the NFL, he'll increase his odds by playing Division 1-A.

If Harvard Dental is picking only students of Ivies every year, then we'd all be attending Ivies if we want to go to Harvard dental. But do they? No. They accept a diverse group of students, even from state schools.

I hope you see where your NFL to Harvard dental comparison is flawed.

Once again, you can get into dental school from anywhere. No one is debating this fact. People get in from all over the place every year. However, graduating from certain schools presents a competitive advantage. Top schools have greater representation amongst graduate schools - that's one of the criterion in their ranking in the first place. Anyone that thinks where you went does not matter at all is simply foolish or still sore over the fact that he/she went to a lesser undergraduate program.

No one is arguing over this. Except. There are a lot of smart people at Ivys. But not all smart people go to Ivys. Please refer to the above list of reasons why a smart person may not choose to go to an Ivy.

Sorry. And the person from Ole Miss can talk all day about how he/she has some great potential. But at the end of the day, it's just potential and unproven at that. That 4.0 was earned amongst a population of students with average credentials and average SAT scores, at best. Clearly, he/she should be considered amongst the cream of 4.0 Harvard students that earned grades amongst the premier high school talent with top 1% SAT and GPA values, nationally...

Great potential? Dude, if the Mr. Ole Miss has a 25AA, how is that unproven? Wouldn't a 25AA confirm his potential?

Alright, you're a dental student now buddy, why are you still talking about SAT scores? LOL. It's about DAT and GPA. Who gives a rat's ass about the SAT. Wait, you do.

 

[FLOSS UR TEETH]

Agreed. Predents is a garbage website. There is absolutely nothing scientific or factual about it aside from the basic facts listed for each school - information that could easily be recovered from a school's official website. It's voluntary. No one is vetted and nothing is verified. I would never trust anything on that site.

I don't even know where to begin with the modeling and dragon ball references...

So you are trying to claim that a smart student gains acceptance to an IVY League school because of his/her intelligence and then that school does nothing to make that student smarter? What is the point of the education then? They do not create intelligent people, they help further the development of already intelligent students. Universities foster personal, social, and academic growth. If you don't feel smarter after your college experience, you probably wasted a lot of time and money.

So nothing can be said about the superior faculty and staff? What about the more competitive student body? What about the standards of admission? There are a multitude of factors that help foster educational development and build strong graduates. If you study and work amongst other highly intelligent and motivated individuals, you will benefit. If you study under well regarded, internationally known faculty, you will benefit. If the standard of excellence is set above an already impressive student body, you will benefit.

So an all-american high school football player wouldn't choose an undergraduate program because it offered a competitive advantage if the goal is the next level? The school must do nothing to make that person a better athlete, right? Clearly, just as many active NFL players are from Division 1-AA schools as with SEC or PAC-10 schools, right?

Once again, you can get into dental school from anywhere. No one is debating this fact. People get in from all over the place every year. However, graduating from certain schools presents a competitive advantage. Top schools have greater representation amongst graduate schools - that's one of the criterion in their ranking in the first place. Anyone that thinks where you went does not matter at all is simply foolish or still sore over the fact that he/she went to a lesser undergraduate program. Sorry. And the person from Ole Miss can talk all day about how he/she has some great potential. But at the end of the day, it's just potential and unproven at that. That 4.0 was earned amongst a population of students with average credentials and average SAT scores, at best. Clearly, he/she should be considered amongst the cream of 4.0 Harvard students that earned grades amongst the premier high school talent with top 1% SAT and GPA values, nationally...

Dude, you don't make any sense. First you start "drawing presumptuous parallels" by using other graduate schools backed up by no evidence.

1) Who the hell cares about the other graduate schools and how would that model the dental school? We are looking at Harvard Dental School not the business school. Two completely different admission committees and fields.

2) You don't even provide evidence of where the hell you are getting this information.

As for predents, it is much better than your BS "preseumptuos parallels" that you are trying to make. You are just unhappy that the website is showing all these applicants coming from public schools and that it is going against your argument.

You are acting like your education will suffer if you don't go to an Ivy League. Long story short, this is a false accusation. There is a reason why we now have "public ivy's", "little ivy's", "southern ivy's" and other schools such as Cal Tech who rank higher than most the ivy's in national rankings. Oh well Cal Tech wasn't part of the "athletic league" so I guess you will argue with me on this one as well.

Another fun read–

http://www.cis.gvsu.edu/~mcguire/worth_college_leagues.html

ps: I understood your analogy AlbinoPolarBear and yes it's tough to compare two applicants from two different schools in which both students have 4.0's (the "glass ceiling" per say of college grades). That's why we have the standardized tests and a section for extracurriculars. And I am willing to bet that moments like non-ivy students scoring higher on the DAT than their Ivy counterparts occur all the time and vice versa.

 

[FLOSS UR TEETH]

Predents.com -- The Wikipedia of the dental school application process.

I could say I went to Santa Claus University or North Pole State if I wanted to on that site.


Anyways... going to a big-name school helps your application. Take anyone's stats from any school, and switch the name of the school they attended to a better institution and it's only going to improve their chances. Simple.

Maybe I'm missing the subtleties of this argument though.

Hey, I use Wikipedia all the time! Wow, it also seems to be accurate 99% of the time! When I was attending Ivy League, my professor brought up a Wikipedia page to supplement his lecture. Uh oh.

 

[SupDanLOL]

Hey, I use Wikipedia all the time! Wow, it also seems to be accurate 99% of the time! When I was attending Ivy League, my professor brought up a Wikipedia page to supplement his lecture. Uh oh.

It was probably a "verified' Wikipedia article. Predents, unfortunately, has no such equivalent. Do I still look at both from time to time? Yes. But I'm cautious to preach what I read on either site as gospel.

Or maybe your professor straight didn't give a **** haha....

 

[Toothshucker]

predents=waste of time

 

[hahahigh]

Eh. If 2 people who had the same GPA and DAT, I do not think the person who went to the Ivy would get the acceptance just like that. I believe the reason for the DAT is to make sure you understand concepts at the level your GPA suggests. Thus, if they have the same DAT, adcoms would consider the GPA's of both applicants to be equal. Therefore, I believe both applicants would be considered equally adept in academics.

This is where your EC's, PS, and interview skills come into play and will ultimately decide which one of these 2 applicants receive admission.

Of course other aspects of each respective applicant would be considered before a final decision can be made, and the fact that the offer will go to the Ivy League student is not assured, but that does not necessarily mean their GPAs would be weighted equally. State universities with intimate knowledge of the high schools in their area do consider where a candidate is from and the competitiveness of his or her high school when evaluating the overall legitimacy of an application. I see no reason for the process to deviate significantly for professional schools.

 

[iralex801]

Honestly this issue is a matter of an opinion. Like I said, I believe the DAT, which is a standardized test, is the factor that determines whether Adcoms will view the GPA's as equals or not. The purpose of a standarized test is to see how candidates perform when the content and conditions are the same. It is the only objective, true, unbiased form of evaluating a candidates abilities.

Other factors can be skewed. For example, LOR's can be written if a student pays the teacher (extreme examples but just saying possibilities). PS can be written by another person. etc,

 

[jonle82]

so true.