I am reapplying and need help..

[bandzharian]

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Ok guys, what I thought would be a beautiful new year for me this year has become one of my worst. For the first time in my academic career, I will be left with nothing to do for a whole year! I have never taken a break from school and wanted to continue my trend and get into dental school this year but nothing worked out for me. I have now turned to the help of my fellow peers and ask you guys for any advice you have for me for this year. Below I have outlined my scores, grades, and everything I have done. Please, just help me and guide me in a direction that I did not know I could go or help me in improving my application if I can or what I did wrong that I could fix this year:

I took my DAT's in August and recieved the following grades:

Biology 24

Gen Chemistry 23

Org Chemistry 24

Reading 20

PAT 21

Quantitive Ana. 14

Total Science 24

Academic Average 21

_____________________________________________________

After I did this, I applied and submited my application in September of 2008. Now, I dont know if applying around that time period really effected my acceptence into dental school. After I did this, I filled out some secoderies around a month or two later and submitted any final transcripts, papers, or anything that the schools asked.

_______________________________________________________

I am a UCLA student graduating with a Bachelors in Science of Biology this June. My overall GPA is around 3.2 and my science is around 3.0. My non-science is around 3.9. I took many honors classes in my community college and transfered to UCLA. I have done and included many extra curr. on my application and put about 300 hours of dental shadowing.

I know some people are asking me to do research but I thought what benefit would that be if I were already applying for this cycle and cant show anything on the application.

I will have a whole year off in which I have been looking for a job so I could pay some debts and hopefully get myself involved more in the dental field. I dont know what to do and again hope that you guys can help me for this year.

I thank you all in advance and if any other people had a question, post it here and I will try to answer or others will.

 

[ddsbruin]

those are great scores! i'd check with each school to check if a 14 is okay in QR even though you rocked the other sections. your gpa is low, but your dat should definitely help you out. your ec's/background sound fine. you applied REAL late. if you said u submitted sept and finished secondaries within a month or two, that's basically cutting it too close. im surprised though that you didn't get a few late interviews at least.

only thing i can say during this upcoming cycle is APPLY EARLY-get your stuff submitted by JUNE 1st. (meaning EVERYTHING)-when you get the early secondaries, dont waste time. finish them as they come, meaning within weeks! also, i dont know how many schools you applied to, but apply to at least 15. change up your personal statement a bit, b/c they will have your 2008 application on file. keep your same lors, update w/e you've done since last cycle. stay occupied by taking a few cc classes again like anatomy/histology/microbiology if they have em all, and find a part time job. also if you can do any sort of volunteer work to stay active in the community, that would probably be nice as well. maybe volunteer dental assist if any dentist will let you. other than that, you should have a shot somewhere next cycle and should definitely get some interviews. good luck!

 

[doc toothache]

If you had honors courses at CC and were not able to continue with the same degree of success at UCLA it may be suggesting that you would be having a difficult time with the ds courses and, unfortunately even the stratospheric DAT scores were not able to save you. Your QR score may have attracted as much attention as the tail on a white tail deer. Most times a DAT retake is not advisable. In your case, however, a need for improvement of the QR is mandatory even if it is at the expense of the AA. If possible, you may need to show that you can handle upper division science courses by enrolling in a M.S. program. With 300 hours of shadowing, any dental assisting would be an absolute and total waste of time.

 

[homeskillet2]

Just like everyone has already told you, apply early. Also consider applying to more schools. Here are a couple of schools that my friends got into with 14-15's on the QR. UOP, USC, Stonybrook, and VCU. I don't think research will help out a whole lot. Rewrite your personal statement, even if you think it is in good shape. If it didn't work before, good chances are that it won't work again this cycle. With all my secondaries, I filled them out the day that they arrived, and I had my application in the first hour that aadsas was open. There shouldn't be any reason not too when applying again. Other than that, you should be fine with your DAT score.

 

[oreoeater82]

hey, i'm in the same boat here! We have almost identical DAT scores however my GPA is a 3.16 (a little lower) but my science is higher than my overall GPA (3.3)

I have worked in a dental office for 5 1/2 years and have a TON of dental experience. couple hundred hours of service (honestly i can't remember w/o checking my records but i think it's enough) And about 25 hours of research (do you think that is enough research?)

The only other question i have is about my letters of recommendation... i actually applied previously in the 2007 cycle and didn't get in b/c my DAT scores were pretty low. I took a year off of school and worked at the dental office so i haven't been in contact with many of the people who wrote my letters. I was wondering if these letters written back in 2007 (and one of the three was written in Dec 2006) are too old to use for this upcoming cycle... any thoughts?

 

[Habslive]

Ok guys, what I thought would be a beautiful new year for me this year has become one of my worst. For the first time in my academic career, I will be left with nothing to do for a whole year! I have never taken a break from school and wanted to continue my trend and get into dental school this year but nothing worked out for me. I have now turned to the help of my fellow peers and ask you guys for any advice you have for me for this year. Below I have outlined my scores, grades, and everything I have done. Please, just help me and guide me in a direction that I did not know I could go or help me in improving my application if I can or what I did wrong that I could fix this year:

I took my DAT's in August and recieved the following grades:

Biology 24

Gen Chemistry 23

Org Chemistry 24

Reading 20

PAT 21

Quantitive Ana. 14

Total Science 24

Academic Average 21

_____________________________________________________

After I did this, I applied and submited my application in September of 2008. Now, I dont know if applying around that time period really effected my acceptence into dental school. After I did this, I filled out some secoderies around a month or two later and submitted any final transcripts, papers, or anything that the schools asked.

_______________________________________________________

I am a UCLA student graduating with a Bachelors in Science of Biology this June. My overall GPA is around 3.2 and my science is around 3.0. My non-science is around 3.9. I took many honors classes in my community college and transfered to UCLA. I have done and included many extra curr. on my application and put about 300 hours of dental shadowing.

I know some people are asking me to do research but I thought what benefit would that be if I were already applying for this cycle and cant show anything on the application.

I will have a whole year off in which I have been looking for a job so I could pay some debts and hopefully get myself involved more in the dental field. I dont know what to do and again hope that you guys can help me for this year.

I thank you all in advance and if any other people had a question, post it here and I will try to answer or others will.

I didn't get into any of the schools I applied to last year either, and there are TONS who don't get in the first time around. Are there specific courses that committees look at that you might not have done so well in? (important ones like orgo, physio, something like that)

One thing I did was tried to get involved with as much research as possible. I am now working on a literature review and I was able to talk about it in some of my interviews. If you can- look for dental research specifically, I think it makes a difference. The nice thing about reviews is that all you need is a supervisor but they don't have to commit resources to you except for a topic.

In general, just do a lot of stuff and try to show them that you're trying to participate in as many activities as possible that are relevant to dentistry.

Your GPA is a little lower than a lot of dental schools like, but if you do your research on which schools place more value on extracurriculars (which you seem to have a lot of), you should have a good idea of where to apply. I mean, it doesn't make sense to apply to Harvard or something like that, right?

The choice of school you apply to is not as important as your stats themselves, but is still extremely key.