How does this DAT make my awful GPA look?

[limonada]

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I rarely post but am curious if anyone has insight on how applicants with sub-standard GPAs but decent DAT scores do. My DAT scores were kind of all over the place though:

PAT: 17 (42.4 percentile) 😱
QR: 18 (86.6)
RC: 24 (98)
Bio: 18 (72.1) 🙁
GC: 20 (86)
OC: 25 (98.4)
TS: 20 (91.3)
AA: 21 (97.2)

Undergrad GPA: 3.08
Science GPA: 2.85 🙁
^does not contain my summer course grades. I got a B+ in Physics I, an A in the lab, an A- in Physics II, and a B in the lab. I am trying to see if there's a way to get this to schools before the academic update period.
Grad GPA: 3.46 (MPH)
Worked two years in clinical research while getting my MPH, currently working in a research fellowship.

PAT: I guess I could be the poster child for why you should invest in Crack the PAT. I relied solely on Kaplan, and was getting 20-21 on the practice tests, mostly because I kept getting 100% on the hole-punching and angle ranking sections. I'd heard they were tougher on the real exam, and fully intended to get Crack the PAT, but I was under a horrible time crunch between summer classes, full-time work, and studying for the sciences. I hope this doesn't immediately remove me from some schools' consideration.

QR: I never ran out of time on any of my 6 practice tests, but I was so completely stumped on some questions that I ended up have very little time for the last five. Math has never been my thing though, so I'll take this score and run.

RC: I'd like to attribute this to being a lifelong bookworm, but my passages were much easier than the Kaplan ones full of scientists' name, dates, specific experiments, and technical jargon. My topics were aging, gene therapy, and telomere shortening.

Bio: Ahhh! This hurts worse than my PAT score! I was a bio major in undergrad and I thought I studied pretty well for this, but 10 questions in, I had to talk myself off the ledge of a panic attack. The topics I studied really hard, like cellular respiration, organ systems, mitosis/meiosis, had only one or two questions each. The rest were so random.

GC: I took GC eight years ago, and did terribly. THANK GOD for both Chad and DAT Destroyer.

OC: Honestly, I am not sure how this happened. This was my worst subject on every Kaplan practice exam, and I never got higher than a 16. I chalk this up to Destroyer, Chad, and a lot of luck.

Schools I applied to:
VCU
Howard
UMD
Temple
NYU
Tufts
BU
UoP
My friend is trying to talk me into adding Columbia, but with my GPA I regard my current schools as enough reaches. I was thinking of adding Roseman and LECOM, any advice?

 

[Philippines03j]

Great scores!

I am not sure that any DAT score can really make up for a sub-par gpa. The gpa indicates a longer term dedication to becoming a Dr. and indicates to the school whether you will be able to handle the class load (28-32 credits a semester).

With that said a very good DAT score (like yours), an upward trend in your gpa, volunteer experiences, shadowing, etc... can all play a role in helping you get into dental school.

With that said you still have a shot at getting in. However, one problem that I see with the schools that you have applied to is that there are only 8 of them. Research some more schools and add at least another 8. Not saying you won't get an interview but the more schools you apply to the better the odds.

GOOD LUCK!👍

 

[limonada]

Nuts, I was afraid someone would say that! I agree with you but don't know where else to apply. I basically went through the list on this sticky http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=635046and applied to the private schools with the lowest average GPAs according to pre-dents.com. My in-state school is VCU but their FAQ indicates they only take about 50 in-state students per year. I haven't applied to Roseman and LECOM yet because I'm still trying to figure out how they'll build patient bases in such small cities. I'll research some more. Thanks for your input!

 

[Clutch34]

This city isn't that small and I'm sure people will flock here once they find out we're doing free/discounted dental work! (Roseman) But I'll let ya know lol

Nuts, I was afraid someone would say that! I agree with you but don't know where else to apply. I basically went through the list on this sticky http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=635046and applied to the private schools with the lowest average GPAs according to pre-dents.com. My in-state school is VCU but their FAQ indicates they only take about 50 in-state students per year. I haven't applied to Roseman and LECOM yet because I'm still trying to figure out <b>how they'll build patient bases in such small cities</b>. I'll research some more. Thanks for your input!

 

[limonada]

Please do! What do you think of your instruction so far? Have you seen the clinic? I'd love to hear your general impression so far.

 

[Clutch34]

Please do! What do you think of your instruction so far? Have you seen the clinic? I'd love to hear your general impression so far.

Instruction so far isn't all too bad. Powerpoint presentations are fairly lengthy, but that can be expected when having 1 class all day. lol Actually, we have not been able to enter the building because it's still under its final stages of construction. I doubt we'll be in there until January, but they're hoping for November, so we'll see. We're currently in the nursing school. Thus far, I'd say I really like our program in comparison to some of my friends at other schools. They're stressed as hell and dying, and I'm just a little stressed. lol So far so good in my opinion!

 

[jmukid]

Not trying to be picky but a 21 AA is not 97 percentile, i believe its 93 percentile. But still really good scores, congrats. Im sort of in the same boat as you(good dat score, crappy gpa) so i guess itll be an interesting ride for both of us

 

[Philippines03j]

Not trying to be picky but a 21 AA is not 97 percentile, i believe its 93 percentile. But still really good scores, congrats. Im sort of in the same boat as you(good dat score, crappy gpa) so i guess itll be an interesting ride for both of us

The percentile is going to be different for each test. The level of difficulty and the way the students perform on each is going to vary test to test. Ex: one person might have had a slightly "easier" test thus a 21 = 93 percintile while another test may have been more "difficult" and thus the percentile for a 21 is 97. 👍

In the end the percentile doesn't matter. They just look at the scores.🙂

 

[jmukid]

The percentile is going to be different for each test. The level of difficulty and the way the students perform on each is going to vary test to test. Ex: one person might have had a slightly "easier" test thus a 21 = 93 percintile while another test may have been more "difficult" and thus the percentile for a 21 is 97. 👍

In the end the percentile doesn't matter. They just look at the scores.🙂

ohh gotcha well then my b, thanks for clearing that up

 

[limonada]

The percentile is going to be different for each test. The level of difficulty and the way the students perform on each is going to vary test to test. Ex: one person might have had a slightly "easier" test thus a 21 = 93 percintile while another test may have been more "difficult" and thus the percentile for a 21 is 97. 👍

In the end the percentile doesn't matter. They just look at the scores.🙂

I didn't know that either. I hope none of the schools see my 42%, then!

Good luck, jmukid! Personally I find this ride kind of nauseating, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.