I attend to apply to about 40-50 dental schools. How much money should I save?

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Mouthhole

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I intend* rather. Will $15,000 be enough? Factoring in possible interview travel costs
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Take a step back for a moment. If you're applying that broadly, chances are your application has some significant weakness(es) that make such a strategy necessary in the first place. Why not take the time to strengthen your application rather than just spinning the application wheel and potentially wasting a lot of money?

This all rests on the giant assumption your application is weak in some way but if you're applying to 40-50 dental schools - I don't even think there are 40-50 OOS friendly dental schools in the first place, especially not to someone with weak stats - there's clearly something wrong.

EDIT: Your post history indicates you haven't even taken the DAT yet - maybe slow down and wait for your stats to finalize before planning how many schools to apply to?
 
According to ADEA, "
Q: How much is the ADEA AADSAS application processing fee?

A: The ADEA AADSAS processing fee is $244 for the first dental school, and $90 for each additional school. The Fee Table is located in the Instructions section of the ADEA AADSAS application. "

So, let's say you apply to 50. $244 + $90x 49 = $4654.00.

Assume that you have a thrifty interview budget of $200 (car rental, airline ticket, hotel) per school, and that you attend an interview at ~50% of the schools that you originally apply to.
25 schools x $200/school = $5,000

Total = $4654.00 + $5,000 =$9,654.00. So it appears that your budget is reasonable.
 
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Incis0r said:
According to ADEA, "
Q: How much is the ADEA AADSAS application processing fee?

A: The ADEA AADSAS processing fee is $244 for the first dental school, and $90 for each additional school. The Fee Table is located in the Instructions section of the ADEA AADSAS application. "

So, let's say you apply to 50. $244 + $90x 49 = $4654.00.

Assume that you have a thrifty interview budget of $200 (car rental, airline ticket, hotel) per school, and that you attend an interview at ~50% of the schools that you originally apply to.
25 schools x $200/school = $5,000

Total = $4654.00 + $5,000 =$9,654.00. So it appears that your budget is reasonable.
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Don't forget the secondary fees!
 
FeralisExtremum said:
Take a step back for a moment. If you're applying that broadly, chances are your application has some significant weakness(es) that make such a strategy necessary in the first place. Why not take the time to strengthen your application rather than just spinning the application wheel and potentially wasting a lot of money?

This all rests on the giant assumption your application is weak in some way but if you're applying to 40-50 dental schools - I don't even think there are 40-50 OOS friendly dental schools in the first place - there's clearly something wrong.
Click to expand...


Yes my cumulative GPA is my weakness but I don't want to go into an SMP without trying my luck first. I would rather shell out $15k 2x than spend $30,000-40,000 for a useless (if I don't make it into D-school, I will be forced to live with my parents for a decade after that thing) one year master's right off the bat. I noticed many pre-meds applying to a huge bulk of schools, so why not. As a URM, I figure I have a decent chance to get into Howard or Meharry at least
 
Incis0r said:
THERE'S MORE? WHAT? How much are secondary fees?
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The amount can vary per school - use this link for details: http://www.adea.org/dental_educatio.../Pages/ADEAAADSASSupplementalInformation.aspx

Mouthhole said:
Yes my cumulative GPA is my weakness but I don't want to go into an SMP without trying my luck first. I would rather shell out $15k 2x than spend $30,000-40,000 for a useless (if I don't make it into D-school, I will be forced to live with my parents for a decade after that thing) one year master's right off the bat. I noticed many pre-meds applying to a huge bulk of schools, so why not. As a URM, I figure I have a decent chance to get into Howard or Meharry at least
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If your cumulative GPA is that bad, and your DAT doesn't turn out well either, applying to 40-50 schools would still be an enormous waste of time and money because many of those schools will never seriously consider you in the first place. You should target your application based on where you have a reasonable chance of acceptance with your stats, not just a shotgun "hope this works somewhere maybe possibly" approach.
 
Incis0r said:
According to ADEA, "
Q: How much is the ADEA AADSAS application processing fee?

A: The ADEA AADSAS processing fee is $244 for the first dental school, and $90 for each additional school. The Fee Table is located in the Instructions section of the ADEA AADSAS application. "

So, let's say you apply to 50. $244 + $90x 49 = $4654.00.

Assume that you have a thrifty interview budget of $200 (car rental, airline ticket, hotel) per school, and that you attend an interview at ~50% of the schools that you originally apply to.
25 schools x $200/school = $5,000

Total = $4654.00 + $5,000 =$9,654.00. So it appears that your budget is reasonable.
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I'm curious, how do you only spend like $200 per school on interviews? Plane tickets alone were like $200+ for most places for me and that was one way from one school to the next.
 
I want to go to there said:
I'm curious, how do you only spend like $200 per school on interviews? Plane tickets alone were like $200+ for most places for me and that was one way from one school to the next.
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Lol have fun flying from coast to coast, that's like a $300-400 ticket + $100-$200 hotel per night. Plus food.
 
I want to go to there said:
I'm curious, how do you only spend like $200 per school on interviews? Plane tickets alone were like 200+ for most places for me and that was one way from one school to the next.
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Huge disclaimer: I'm applying next cycle, not this one, so I have no interview experience yet.

That said, my estimate is that you can find good round-trip regional flights for ~120-130 if you go through priceline, expedia, etc.. Hotels in a somewhat decent distance + car can run another $50-60. What do you think is a more fair amount?
 
BrazilianRider said:
Lol have fun flying from coast to coast, that's like a $300-400 ticket + $100-$200 hotel per night. Plus food.
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Yep, I was staying at mostly motels($40-70 per night), it still cost me like $500+ per city. I was living out of hotel since it would cost more to fly back home and go to another interview the week later.
 
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FeralisExtremum said:
The amount can vary per school - use this link for details: http://www.adea.org/dental_educatio.../Pages/ADEAAADSASSupplementalInformation.aspx



If your cumulative GPA is that bad, and your DAT doesn't turn out well either, applying to 40-50 schools would still be an enormous waste of time and money because many of those schools will never seriously consider you in the first place. You should target your application based on where you have a reasonable chance of acceptance with your stats, not just a shotgun "hope this works somewhere maybe possibly" approach.
Click to expand...

Assuming everything goes as planned
cGPA: 2.9
sGPA: low 3
DAT: 20 or seppuku

25 would be the minimum amount I would apply to but since I'm working and saving up, 40-50 seems safer. Only need that one acceptance
 
Incis0r said:
Huge disclaimer: I'm applying next cycle, not this one, so I have no interview experience yet.

That said, my estimate is that you can find good round-trip regional flights for ~120-130 if you go through priceline, expedia, etc.. Hotels in a somewhat decent distance + car can run another $50-60. What do you think is a more fair amount?
Click to expand...

I'm really good at finding cheap flights, hotels, and deals. Even then, it was $40-70 per night for motel, $200+ for flights, and food. I traveled via public transportation. I had interviews one after the other and it would have cost me more to fly back home and then to the next school than just staying in hotels til my next interview and explore the city. Excluding the money I spent on tours and entertainment, I spent about $500-600 per city.
 
Mouthhole said:
Yes my cumulative GPA is my weakness but I don't want to go into an SMP without trying my luck first. I would rather shell out $15k 2x than spend $30,000-40,000 for a useless (if I don't make it into D-school, I will be forced to live with my parents for a decade after that thing) one year master's right off the bat. I noticed many pre-meds applying to a huge bulk of schools, so why not. As a URM, I figure I have a decent chance to get into Howard or Meharry at least
Click to expand...


Rather spend $15000 2x and never get into school or spend $15000 for a SMP and have a really good chance at acceptance?
 
FeralisExtremum said:
Maybe work less and study more? Would go a lot further towards your odds of acceptance than arbitrarily applying to 40-50 schools.
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Why not both ? 🙂


cacajuate said:
Rather spend $15000 2x and never get into school or spend $15000 for a SMP and have a really good chance at acceptance?
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Well, I would have to move away from home to find a $15,000 SMP and once I factor in rent and food and travel costs, it would be well over $30,000.
If for some reason I do manage to get rejected from the 40-50 schools, even the hisorically black colleges, then I have another year to boost my GPA and my ECs.
 
Incis0r said:
Huge disclaimer: I'm applying next cycle, not this one, so I have no interview experience yet.

That said, my estimate is that you can find good round-trip regional flights for ~120-130 if you go through priceline, expedia, etc.. Hotels in a somewhat decent distance + car can run another $50-60. What do you think is a more fair amount?
Click to expand...
Lol not sure where you think you can find a round trip airplane ticket for $120. Hotels aren't cheap and car rentals at the airport have added fees. Better start saving.
 
Mouthhole said:
Why not both ? 🙂




Well, I would have to move away from home to find a $15,000 and once I factor in rent and food and travel costs, it would be well over $30,000.
If I get rejected from the 40-50 schools, then I have another year to boost my GPA and my ECs
Click to expand...

Btw you can easily narrow those schools down to about 20ish. A lot of schools aren't oos friendly unless you got some killer stats which you don't. So you can eliminate a ton right there. Just stick with oos friendly private schools and the Howard and meharry and you can do about 20 schools.
 
Mouthhole said:
Why not both ? 🙂




Well, I would have to move away from home to find a $15,000 SMP and once I factor in rent and food and travel costs, it would be well over $30,000.
If for some reason I do manage to get rejected from the 40-50 schools, even the hisorically black colleges, then I have another year to boost my GPA and my ECs.
Click to expand...

Buy adea book or use this data http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/2014-ranking-of-ds-based-on-dat-gpa-other.1137667/ and apply from bottom 20 for GPA.

I don't think there's any point applying to more than 20 from bottom due to your academics.

You most likely won't get that many interviews, so $15k should more than plenty.

Also, only apply to private schools aside from your state school unless it's a minority school.
 
asusundevilll said:
Btw you can easily narrow those schools down to about 20ish. A lot of schools aren't oos friendly unless you got some killer stats which you don't. So you can eliminate a ton right there. Just stick with oos friendly private schools and the Howard and meharry and you can do about 20 schools.
Click to expand...

I want to go to there said:
Buy adea book or use this data http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/2014-ranking-of-ds-based-on-dat-gpa-other.1137667/ and apply from bottom 20 for GPA.

I don't think there's any point applying to more than 20 from bottom due to your academics.

You most likely won't get that many interviews, so $15k should more than plenty.

Also, only apply to private schools aside from your state school unless it's a minority school.
Click to expand...

Interesting, thank you. I'll start making a list.
 
just start robbing the bank 😉

yea @Incis0r the priceline advertise the car as just 70$ but if you are under age 23 or something, they make you buy insurance and stuff.

I never see an airplane tickets for 120$ round trip that cheap (the shortest distasnce I see is 600 miles from socal to norcal for 80$ 1 trip).
 
My interview cost me 500$ total? Airline and hotel and travel expenses and meals and such. This thread makes me angry. If you need to apply to that many schools there's something seriously wrong... And you're just being wasteful. Are there even 40-50 schools that will accept someone with low stats? I don't think there are 40-50 OOS friendly schools that don't include Ivys and highly competitive state schools.
 
dds2b219 said:
My interview cost me 500$ total? Airline and hotel and travel expenses and meals and such. This thread makes me angry. If you need to apply to that many schools there's something seriously wrong... And you're just being wasteful. Are there even 40-50 schools that will accept someone with low stats? I don't think there are 40-50 OOS friendly schools that don't include Ivys and highly competitive state schools.
Click to expand...


Lol doesn't take much to get you angry, huh? It's my time and money, not yours, I think? Right? I'm the only one who should be mad
 
Mouthhole said:
Lol doesn't take much to get you angry, huh? It's my time and money, not yours, I think? Right? I'm the only one who should be mad
Click to expand...

@Mouthhole please appreciate the above responses, she/he is right that there are not even 20 schools that fit your stats if you do your research carefully. Yea sure go waste the money you spend hard time earning.

you should go look in under 3.0 gpa club that make it to dental school. Most if not all of them do post bach or SMP and this takes a long time for time with very few acceptance.

not sounding discouraging but what makes you think you will score above 20 on the DAT given that GPA?. even a URM I think 3.2 3.3 will put you in the running since some standards must be met.
 
Incis0r said:
Huge disclaimer: I'm applying next cycle, not this one, so I have no interview experience yet.

That said, my estimate is that you can find good round-trip regional flights for ~120-130 if you go through priceline, expedia, etc.. Hotels in a somewhat decent distance + car can run another $50-60. What do you think is a more fair amount?
Click to expand...

It all depends on where you are flying from/to. If you live near Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta chances are you can get some reasonable flights to several places, but fly into Iowa, Utah, or some other smaller, regional airport and your price goes up. Then, you might only have a week or two to book a flight, so no discounts that close to your flight really. Hotels and such you can find some pretty good last minute deals so you could save money there, but then again, any savings might be lost cleaning out the bedbugs from your apartment when you get back too. You can always drive, if you have a car, to save some money too.
 
ajj70 said:
again, any savings might be lost cleaning out the bedbugs from your apartment when you get back too. You can always drive, if you have a car, to save some money too.
Click to expand...

I quite don't get this part of your post. What bedbugs?
 
Mouthhole said:
Lol doesn't take much to get you angry, huh? It's my time and money, not yours, I think? Right? I'm the only one who should be mad
Click to expand...

There are 65 dental schools. Out of those 65, with your stats, you have 0% chance of getting into about 40 of them, 35 to be generous, so applying to 50 schools does nothing to increase your chances of getting in at all. It's just tossing money out the window with no hope of any return.
 
darknightzzz said:
I quite don't get this part of your post. What bedbugs?
Click to expand...

cheep hotels usually have bedbugs--so staying in a $40/night motel will probably mean you will bring bedbugs home with you...and the extermination fees will be more than spending an extra $40-50 on the hotel.
 
darknightzzz said:
@Mouthhole please appreciate the above responses, she/he is right that there are not even 20 schools that fit your stats if you do your research carefully. Yea sure go waste the money you spend hard time earning.

you should go look in under 3.0 gpa club that make it to dental school. Most if not all of them do post bach or SMP and this takes a long time for time with very few acceptance.

not sounding discouraging but what makes you think you will score above 20 on the DAT given that GPA?. even a URM I think 3.2 3.3 will put you in the running since some standards must be met.
Click to expand...

I am doing a DIY post-bacc currently and I'm doing quite well. My cGPA is the result of a non-STEM major. Even if I did the SMP, I would still be applying to dental schools (25 bare minimum). I just want to avoid the SMP, especially since I don't have 30 grand to throw down... I would honestly rather just have a solid 4.0 year of upper level sciences at a cheap local university (if I were rejected)...
 
ajj70 said:
cheep hotels usually have bedbugs--so staying in a $40/night motel will probably mean you will bring bedbugs home with you...and the extermination fees will be more than spending an extra $40-50 on the hotel.
Click to expand...

wat ....:boom:
 
Mouthhole said:
I am doing a DIY post-bacc currently and I'm doing quite well. My cGPA is the result of a non-STEM major. Even if I did the SMP, I would still be applying to dental schools (25 bare minimum). I just want to avoid the SMP, especially since I don't have 30 grand to throw down... I would honestly rather just have a solid 4.0 year of upper level sciences at a cheap local university (if I were rejected)...
Click to expand...

okay that is a good plan. no one can stop you from what you want to do. they just want to give you different perspectives.

you get a low GPA in a non-STEM major and you hope you will get a 4.0 in STEM classes
 
darknightzzz said:
okay that is a good plan. no one can stop you from what you want to do. they just want to give you different perspectives.

you get a low GPA in a non-STEM major and you hope you will get a 4.0 in STEM classes
Click to expand...

Well, except for that one guy that got angry over it.
 
darknightzzz said:
okay that is a good plan. no one can stop you from what you want to do. they just want to give you different perspectives.

you get a low GPA in a non-STEM major and you hope you will get a 4.0 in STEM classes
Click to expand...

Are you implying general biology, general chemistry, and general physics are difficult courses? What a joke. Pre-dental is solely route memorization. Get off your high horse and go ride your Nimbus 2000 to a different thread.
 
ajj70 said:
cheep hotels usually have bedbugs--so staying in a $40/night motel will probably mean you will bring bedbugs home with you...and the extermination fees will be more than spending an extra $40-50 on the hotel.
Click to expand...

Read reviews before you book online(there are discounts available) and you can find decent, yet cheap motels/hotels free of bedbugs.
 
ajj70 said:
good luck with that...and with getting into dental school....
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Hey, people are different. I think Bio, Orgo, Biochem, etc. were infinitely easier than most math classes. My brain can't really math (as my DAT shows). It's completely believable to think that someone thinks those classes are easy, and other classes (which you think are easy in comparison) are difficult.
 
:troll:

Jk- to be honest, I can see both points of view. The sciences are very taxing, but are conquer able quite readily if you have the proper strategies in place to deal with them.
 
Incis0r said:
:troll:
.
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Why is everyone bashing me ITT? I literally just asked for financial advice and it turns into this lol.
The general sciences are objectively not difficult. Say they are to any engineering, physics, chemistry major, and enjoy getting laughed at. My ex was a chemistry major and my current gf is a environmental engineering major, and my non-STEM major required much more difficult upper levels, I'm well-prepared.
 
Incis0r said:
:troll:

Jk- to be honest, I can see both points of view. The sciences are very taxing, but are conquer able quite readily if you have the proper strategies in place to deal with them.
Click to expand...

Yep, I had to work way harder in composition classes than sciences to get the same grade. There's not much you can do to improve your writing ability in such short amount of time other than having many people edit it and spending much time on it if your writing ability isn't quite at college level.
 
Mouthhole said:
Yes my cumulative GPA is my weakness but I don't want to go into an SMP without trying my luck first. I would rather shell out $15k 2x than spend $30,000-40,000 for a useless (if I don't make it into D-school, I will be forced to live with my parents for a decade after that thing) one year master's right off the bat. I noticed many pre-meds applying to a huge bulk of schools, so why not. As a URM, I figure I have a decent chance to get into Howard or Meharry at least
Click to expand...
If you are so confident about Meh/Howard why are you planning on applying to 40-50 schools? Incidentally, ds admission is not a lottery, which requires luck.
 
Mouthhole said:
Why is everyone bashing me ITT? I literally just asked for financial advice and it turns into this lol.
Click to expand...

Did you see the part below it where I said "jk [...]?"
 
doc toothache said:
If you are so confident about Meh/Howard why are you planning on applying to 40-50 schools? Incidentally, ds admission is not a lottery, which requires luck.
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I'm not confident but I'm merely saying that if I do well on the DAT, I figure I have a chance at Howard/Meharry. Which is exactly why I'll be applying to both and many other schools. Well, in my opinion it is based on luck since humans are in charge of the process. Humans who have different views . If the adcoms(?) were computers then I would agree with you.

Incis0r said:
Did you see the part below it where I said "jk [...]?"
Click to expand...

I see now. Thank you
 
Mouthhole said:
Thanks bro. I'll send you a snapshot of the excessive amount of schools I apply to just to get you angry. Good riddance lol.
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Again just proving how ignorant and wasteful you are. :clap: you're pretty much saying hey I'm about to throw out 10,000-20,000$ because I think that will give me a better chance of getting into dental school with extremely low stats. Good luck! 🙂
 
Mouthhole said:
Are you implying general biology, general chemistry, and general physics are difficult courses? What a joke. Pre-dental is solely route memorization. Get off your high horse and go ride your Nimbus 2000 to a different thread.
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lol if you think these courses are route memorization then you will find yourself a big surprise. idk what post bach classes you take and at what schools.

for example, CC and state university in california teach bio/chem in such a route memorization way.

However, public university level do not and that is why they are considered hard. Plus, you can't do the minimum gen bio to get in anymore, there are upper division bio classes/chem you need to take to become competitive.


as many posters can guarantee you that with that GPA, unless you have above 23+ AA DAT (which is the top 4%), your chance is slim.
 
After I finished reading this thread and all of OP's comments this is my response to OP:
Shaq-points-laughs-and-leaves-press-conference.gif
 
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