Hey Seniors...Advice?!

[jmac81]

Hi guys,

I am going to take my DAT in a few weeks now, starting to get a little nervous about that. But i guess i wanted to ask the seniors out there right now that are applying a couple of questions...

1. How many of you guys out there took Kaplan? I took it and am starting to get nervous because my diagnostic was average, and the midterm and final scores increased a little bit, but not near where i ewanted them to be...I was getting like a 16 science average and a 19 pat. Did your scores go up? Or do you ahve any advice? Was the material they highlighted covered "enough"?

2. What schools out there right now are labeled as good schools, but easier to get into? Right now I have a 3.3, and plan to raise it to a 3.4 by the end of the year, but still I'm nervous...

3. I'm currently volunteering in a dental office where I'm getting to see a lot of great stuff and I'm also involved in a reaseach project at my school, anything else you could recommend getting involved in that will make me look more appealing?

4. Ok, last one! Any of you guys heard of these summer enrichment prgrams that are out there? Supposedly they are great and as expected look great on your apps. Any comments on those?

Ok, thanks for your time guys. Good luck to all the seniors in this upcoming year.

 

[Pi__Guy1]

I'm not a senior, but I'll be starting in this fall. There's really no dental school that is "easy" to get in AND a labeled as a "good" school. BUT I would recommend schools that have an overall good name AND "easier" to get into. Granted, dental schools in general aren't "easy" to get into, but aim for these schools with good names:

1)Boston
2)NYU
3)Tufts

Schools like NYU (my future school) is a great name. Everybody knows about NYU. #3 in the nation for law school. It might be somewhat "easier" to get into b/c it is the largest dental school in the nation, but still pretty competitive....(I know a lot of people that got rejected to NYU also)

 

[UBTom]

to Jmac81:

Back when I was applying to dental school, I took the one-month summer Kaplan crash course (heh heh) right before I took the DATs. But in addition to that, I also reviewed the questions in all those bookstore-bought review books and any old published DAT tests I could get my hands on. I ended up with a 21 total score. If you do Kaplan and also do a lot of practice tests on your own, you should do well on the DATs.

The "good" schools that are the "easiest" to get into are the ones in your state of residence. Because there are so few dental schools in the U.S., almost all of them gives preference to their state residents first.

Unless you got a very good academic record and DATs, it's probably a good idea to just apply to the schools in your state/region.

Good luck!