HELP! Advice needed. Rejections.

[NeuroscEYEnce]

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Hey everyone. I applied this cycle and have gotten two rejections from NYU and New England. Mind you I've applied late on Nov. 1 mainly because of family issues and hospitalizations, so I'm a little worried. I'm a nontraditional student and have many years of work experience building a business and other endeavors. I have 150 hours of shadowing and volunteer in a dental clinic. I already have a masters degree with a 3.3 GPA and undergrad of 2.8.

DAT scores: PAT- 20, QR- 14, RC- 21, Bio- 17, GC- 17, OC- 19, TS- 18, AA-18

I know I applied late and I knew to apply to many schools, 24 to be exact. I kind of sensed the rejection letter from New England mainly because they didn't accept my new score that I just posted. But seeing another rejection letter really made me depressed. I have two bachelors degrees and a masters and I'm just hoping someone gives me a chance. I've been calling/emailing every school and asking questions. Is there anything else I can do? I'm really worried. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[watermelon15]

I know this is probably not what you may want to hear right now, but you need to retake your DAT. I have similar scores as you and I was adviced to take my test again which I'm studying for. The thing is the 14 in QR is not gonna meet the cutoffs for some schools, they will automatically reject you without even looking at the rest of your application. You need a strong DAT score to be competitive for admissions so I'd say don't keep your hopes up too high for this cycle and plan on retaking the DAT, killing the exam and reapplying as soon as the cycle opens up in June. Best of luck 🙂

 

[BillyJoel]

Sadly to say there are many problems with your application. First of all with your stats you should have applied early. Like June 6th early. Second, your masters GPA doesn't show that you've really improved since undergrad. For a person with your undergrad GPA I would think you would need at least a 3.8 in a masters program or maybe a 3.5 in a well known difficult program. Finally your DAT scores won't cut it with that GPA. You need at least 20s in all the subjects but even then I'd think at least 23AA should be a must for a person in your situation.

If you are really set on pursuing dentistry, I'd first retake DATs. An excellent score would be great since then you will be able to know if you are competitive. Then you should call dental schools you are interested in for advice in what to do next since you already did a masters. Good luck man.