Help me please --- I'm at my wits end!

[RedheadedNerd]

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What do I do? I am applying to dental school in a little over a week and my advisor will not return my phone calls or email to respond to me whatsoever. Can you please help me ---I need some solid good advice. IThanks SO Much

Megan

 

[Nendo21]

i dont know if the service you will use is much different than the aadsas but what we have to do is print an evaluation form, fill in some info then give it to the professor who is writing your recommendation. the form has the aadsas address on it where the professor can send the letter to, don't panic you do not need your advisor as long as you can get 2 letters from science professors one from a dentist, by the way your gpa is above average and 15 credits is way better than taking 20 and doing poorly in the classes. good luck

 

[wimmcs]

What I did is I printed a copy of the LOR form, I filled out what I needed, gave them instructions to sign it, gave them to my professors (with envelope) and they returned to me sealed and signed (across the seal of envelope). This way I was assured I got them all together and I personally mailed them to AADSAS. Good luck and we are sympathetic with your situation, hope this helps.

 

[jr8047]

just out of curiosity....do you go to utd???

 

[msf41]

Hey RedNerd,

Whoa....take a little breath. Welcome to the wonderful world of dental school applications. Yes it is frustrating. Yes, there are numerous contradictions. Yes, you are going to feel like a circus monkey jumping through hoops all the time. The truth is you are ahead of many people in the application cycle. You still have plenty of time to get that application in order. You won't die if you don't get you app in until June 1st instead of May 20th. Your grades look great so you should be feeling good.

I sympathize with you having a dental advisor that is not very helpful. I had a poor dental advisor as well. He actually said "It won't hurt you at all to wait until October to apply. Most of the application deadlines aren't until November" **idiot**. My suggestion is just to do things on your own. Don't count on your advisor to take any initiative to help you out.

Anyway, you can bypass that dental comittee usually. Just have those professors send in the letters themselves. Or what I did was just had them write a letter, sign over the cover, and I mailed it in when I mailed my transcripts (which I mailed myself as well). However, I applied through AADSAS so your situation might be different since you are in TX.

Losing parts of your application is not unique to just your advisor. Your app gets passed through so many parties that it's not suprising things get lost. You'll want to make sure each school gets what they need. Call them and ask: Do you have my 1) aasas application 2) LOR 3) transcripts 4) DAT scores. Just make a spread sheet and track when each school has everything.

Good luck...and you might want to stock up on the Advil cause you've just begun with the headaches. 👍

 

[r0entgen]

Well, not to scare you or anything, but this is what one of my deans here at Washington University told me. She said that if your school HAS a pre-health committee, you REALLY should obtain a composite letter from them. Dentals schools will wonder why your undergraduate school is not supporting you for the dental program if you don't have one from the pre-health advisory committee (if it exists at your school)...

Anyway, good luck with everything! By the way, I'll be applying to Texas schools too =)

 

[budge311]

So can I send my sealed LOR that I got from my teachers, or do my teachers who are writing my LOR send them to AADSAS? Or does it not matter. I've heard of people doing both, but I'm a little confused 😕

 

[ISU_Steve]

What if there is no committee? Just one ***** like both Redhead and I have to deal with (at seperate schools). I am not a declared pre-dental major simply for the fact that I don't want the lying sack of crap that is the preprofessional advisor as my advisor. She doesn't write letters (at least not that I am aware of), she's disorganized, lies through her teeth, is rude to anyone who doesn't kiss her ass, and in general is an obnoxious distraction. Personally, one of my letters will (most likely) be coming from the head of my department. I think that would more than signify school and department support for me, than a letter from a woman who probably hasn't talked to a school of dentistry in at least a couple of years.

 

[Biogirl361]

budge - you have your professors send the letter, sealed, to aadsas.
isusteve - if there is no committee, you just go around to individual professors and have them each write a letter and send it in. i looked into this because my school has no committee. if there isn't one then it isn't required.

 

[Megalofyia]

I would think you were applying through my undergrad except I know they got rid of the idiot that was in charge of the biology dept and replaced her with someone who's fabulous.

Can you talk to your woman's boss? That's what many of us did because bitch woman was too difficult to deal with.

Other than that I"m really sorry your in your situation.. I fully sympathise.

 

[r0entgen]

What if there is no committee? Just one ***** like both Redhead and I have to deal with (at seperate schools). I am not a declared pre-dental major simply for the fact that I don't want the lying sack of crap that is the preprofessional advisor as my advisor. She doesn't write letters (at least not that I am aware of), she's disorganized, lies through her teeth, is rude to anyone who doesn't kiss her ass, and in general is an obnoxious distraction. Personally, one of my letters will (most likely) be coming from the head of my department. I think that would more than signify school and department support for me, than a letter from a woman who probably hasn't talked to a school of dentistry in at least a couple of years.

Yeah, if there's no committee, then it's fine. Most schools require you obtain one from a committee though, if it does exist. As i said earlier, it is really suspicious if your undergrad has a pre-health committee, but did not write a letter to support you for a program. Dental schools may begin to wonder why your own school is not actively supporting you with a letter.

 

[RedheadedNerd]

Yeah, if there's no committee, then it's fine. Most schools require you obtain one from a committee though, if it does exist. As i said earlier, it is really suspicious if your undergrad has a pre-health committee, but did not write a letter to support you for a program. Dental schools may begin to wonder why your own school is not actively supporting you with a letter.

A committee does exist but at first I wasn't going to do it and I changed my mind and I have called and sent emails to the advisor with no response ---I dont know what to do...

i am worried it will affect my application badly without having the interview---
Maybe I should put an explanation about this in the area where it says to explain anything you would want them to know?

 

[onetoothleft]

That sucks not having support from the people who are supposed to be supporting you the most!

I would try to get everything in on time by getting your LOR's into AADSAS/TxAADSAS individually. Don't wait for the committee to do your letter. If you can get them to do it then send it in as soon as they can. but don't set yourself up for them to screw you.

 

[ISU_Steve]

Actually, what makes it so bad is she's getting paid to support us (and paid quite well I might add).

No, the ones who should be supporting me most are my fiancee (who is), my dad (who is), and my mom (who is not- she wanted me to be a "real doctor" until someone pointed out to her that an orthodontist makes more than most MD's; nice to see where her priorities lie; but she's still not being supportive).