Help Making a Decision About School

[Buccal_Up]

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Does it look bad if I only get accepted to one school (it is a first year program) and then decline it for financial reasons? It would cheaper for me to do grad school to become more competitive, and then try to get into a cheaper school, whether it's in state or not.

 

[ncide]

Are you currently making 100k a year? If not, then go to the school.

 

[Buccal_Up]

Are you currently making 100k a year? If not, then go to the school.

No, I'm not making $100k a year. However, what I'm really asking is how it looks for future applications if I only get accepted to one school and turn it down for logical reasons.

 

[Scumbag_Steve]

.

 

[ncide]

I know someone who didn't get into their dental school the first year, but got into an expensive one and turned it down. Ended up taking 4 cycles to get into a dental school after that. I would go since you lose a year of earned income and a year of clinical experience, IF everything goes well next year.

 

[sumin5924]

It would be a bad move to decline an acceptance. There's no guarantee you'll ever get in ever. I wouldn't take that risk especially considering time lost making real money as a dentist.

 

[Buccal_Up]

It looks very bad. I asked this question before to an adcom before this cycle, and they very very strongly frown upon it. To them, it sends the message that you don't actually want to be a dentist, you just want to go to a particular school, more than half of people who apply to dental school don't even get accepted and you should be lucky to get accepted anywhere, etc etc etc.

Not my personal view, actually far from it, but I don't decide who gets accepted to dental schools and the dude who told me this does.

Yeah that's what I figured. I'm just very worried about the cost, and it will affect both me and my fiance's future. I do want to be a dentist, its been my dream for nearly a decade. I just didn't really think through the process of applying to this school. It's Touro in NY, and brand new. The applications didn't even go out until January and I applied on a whim because I had already gotten rejections from half of the schools I applied to.

 

[ncide]

Did you actually get accepted? I thought they haven't been accredited yet.

 

[Buccal_Up]

Did you actually get accepted? I thought they haven't been accredited yet.

No I haven't been accepted yet, I have an interview in two weeks. I'm just trying to stay on top of everything and keep my options as open as possible to get where I need to be.

 

[Ddsmd1]

No I haven't been accepted yet, I have an interview in two weeks. I'm just trying to stay on top of everything and keep my options as open as possible to get where I need to be.

if you have thoughts about declining an acceptance, then youre just wasting your time and money interviewing there.

 

[darknightzzz]

Does it look bad if I only get accepted to one school (it is a first year program) and then decline it for financial reasons? It would cheaper for me to do grad school to become more competitive, and then try to get into a cheaper school, whether it's in state or not.

since you got rejected from all the schools and have not even gotten accepted to Touro, NY yet. I would not fare to assume you already have an acceptance in hand just because it is a brand new school. I just read somewhere that school received 2000 applications for 100 spots. so you will not be sure if the coin is flipped in your favor.

at the end of the day, i understand you dont want to attend new school/schools with problems but since you got rejected/waitlist from almost all schools this year, that means your app is missing something critical (not good enough GPA, not good enough DAT). Do you think you can change this (especially GPA) within a year to become competitive to get into the school of your choice?

it depends on your perspective.

 

[Cranjis McBasketball]

Don't wait... Doing post grad and delaying years also delays a dentist's income. Its opportunity cost as well. Plus tuition increases fast. If you got accepted, go.

 

[BeaverLover]

I know someone who didn't get into their dental school the first year, but got into an expensive one and turned it down. Ended up taking 4 cycles to get into a dental school after that. I would go since you lose a year of earned income and a year of clinical experience, IF everything goes well next year.

Ouch. Was low grades a factor?

 

[pgex2t]

If you're thinking about turning it down, it's safer just to cancel the interview if you want to attempt another cycle. Note that there is no guarantee that you will get into your state school. Turning down an acceptance is akin to a death sentence as far as future cycles are concerned.

 

[sumin5924]

How will schools know in future cycles that you were accepted before? Is it self-disclosed or do they have open access to past AADSAS portal decisions? Just curious.

All the scary anecdotes I've heard were of students who enrolled and then dropped out to later apply again.

 

[SableFire]

If you are worried about finances deny the interview so that you don't have any chance of getting accepted.

 

[sweetpeeas]

I know someone who didn't get into their dental school the first year, but got into an expensive one and turned it down. Ended up taking 4 cycles to get into a dental school after that. I would go since you lose a year of earned income and a year of clinical experience, IF everything goes well next year.

I heard many stories like this one!! If I remember correctly your AADSAS app has a section where you have to explain if you got accepted to a health professional school (& if you subsequently didn't go, why). You should go if you got in

 

[SableFire]

I heard many stories like this one!! If I remember correctly your AADSAS app has a section where you have to explain if you got accepted to a health professional school (& if you subsequently didn't go, why). You should go if you got in

They do! And the schools know. I've heard horror stories of people getting in then having to drop their acceptances due to family situations and taking multiple years afterwards to get in.

 

[JLT223]

According to their site, Touro's tuition is pretty cheap compared to other private schools. Sounds like you don't want to be associated with the name. If you really want this opportunity, you go where you get accepted if you only have one acceptance, bottom line.