I need help choosing which out of state schools to apply to.

[S_F]

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Hi

I'm a California resident (bay area) and I want to apply this cycle. My stats are good (26AA, 3.92 GPA, over 300 hours volunteering in clinic), but my professor recs may be less than stellar.

Here's my list of out of state schools I'm looking at. I'm wondering if there are any that stand out as being OOS unfriendly or that I should take off the list for whatever reason. Conversely, are there any schools not on the list that I may want to consider? I'm looking for schools that are close to home or have a strong research program.

Columbia
UPenn
NYU
Oregon
UNLV
Midwestern at Arizona
Arizona
Case Western
Boston
Tufts
Louisville

I will be applying to all or most of the schools in California.

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[macsak]

I wouldn't recommend applying to NYU and MW AZ

Hi

I'm a California resident (bay area) and I want to apply this cycle. My stats are good (26AA, 3.92 GPA, over 300 hours volunteering in clinic), but my professor recs may be less than stellar.

Here's my list of out of state schools I'm looking at. I'm wondering if there are any that stand out as being OOS unfriendly or that I should take off the list for whatever reason. Conversely, are there any schools not on the list that I may want to consider? I'm looking for schools that are close to home or have a strong research program.

Columbia
UPenn
NYU
Oregon
UNLV
Midwestern at Arizona
Arizona
Case Western
Boston
Tufts
Louisville

I will be applying to all or most of the schools in California.

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[HabituallyPlacid]

Hi

I'm a California resident (bay area) and I want to apply this cycle. My stats are good (26AA, 3.92 GPA, over 300 hours volunteering in clinic), but my professor recs may be less than stellar.

Here's my list of out of state schools I'm looking at. I'm wondering if there are any that stand out as being OOS unfriendly or that I should take off the list for whatever reason. Conversely, are there any schools not on the list that I may want to consider? I'm looking for schools that are close to home or have a strong research program.

Columbia
UPenn
NYU
Oregon
UNLV
Midwestern at Arizona
Arizona
Case Western
Boston
Tufts
Louisville

I will be applying to all or most of the schools in California.

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

UConn’s dental program has a strong research program and allows their admitted dental students to join a research lab at the UConn Health Center facilities (the same building where the dental school is located) during the summer, if I recall correctly. Not sure about during the school year though—you should look into their DMD/PhD program and see if that’s something you’d want to pursue.

Relevant link: Dental Students Participate in Annual Research Day - UConn Today

 

[axiumgod]

Consider applying to Michigan. They have very strong research but are also great clinically, and they seem to be friendly to OOS applicants with high stats

 

[S_F]

I wouldn't recommend applying to NYU and MW AZ

why?

 

[S_F]

Consider applying to Michigan. They have very strong research but are also great clinically, and they seem to be friendly to OOS applicants with high stats

Unfortunately Michigan requires microbio which I won't be able to take before applying

 

[murfee]

I had the most success as an OOS with private schools - they cost a whole bunch more, but I got interviews at all of the privates I applied to, my IS school and 0 of the public OOS state schools.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

What's your dental experience and community service? Why would our prof letters be less supportive than desired? Obviously your metrics should help you with getting screened in provided you really demonstrate your fit with the schools.

 

[S_F]

What's your dental experience and community service?

Extracurriculars:
- 350 hours volunteering at a hospital. A big chunk of those hours came from volunteering at the hospital's dental clinic.
- 30 volunteer hours tutoring underprivileged kids during my freshman year of college.
- I have done some dental shadowing but didn't keep track of the hours. I would assume this hurts me for schools that have a minimum number of shadowing hours?
- part time job tutoring kids (all 4 years of college)
- Participated in research at UC Davis. I have 1 publication and 2 conference presentations.

I graduated from UC Davis last summer (I was a transfer student - my GPA is just for the 2 years I attended Davis)

Why would our prof letters be less supportive than desired?

I didn't get to know them very well while taking the class.

 

[macsak]

Extracurriculars:
- 350 hours volunteering at a hospital. A big chunk of those hours came from volunteering at the hospital's dental clinic.
- 30 volunteer hours tutoring underprivileged kids during my freshman year of college.
- I have done some dental shadowing but didn't keep track of the hours. I would assume this hurts me for schools that have a minimum number of shadowing hours?
- part time job tutoring kids (all 4 years of college)
- Participated in research at UC Davis. I have 1 publication and 2 conference presentations.

I graduated from UC Davis last summer (I was a transfer student - my GPA is just for the 2 years I attended Davis)


I didn't get to know them very well while taking the class.

that's not how it works...

 

[macsak]

why?

I was going to say with your stats, you don't need to apply to those expensive schools
but now I want to see why you omitted the first two years from your GPA...

 

[S_F]

I was going to say with your stats, you don't need to apply to those expensive schools
but now I want to see why you omitted the first two years from your GPA...

Ok, My GPA for all four years is 3.96. I assumed community college wouldn't be as relevant, although I guess I wasn't clear about that.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Extracurriculars:
- 350 hours volunteering at a hospital. A big chunk of those hours came from volunteering at the hospital's dental clinic.
- 30 volunteer hours tutoring underprivileged kids during my freshman year of college.
- I have done some dental shadowing but didn't keep track of the hours. I would assume this hurts me for schools that have a minimum number of shadowing hours?
- part time job tutoring kids (all 4 years of college)
- Participated in research at UC Davis. I have 1 publication and 2 conference presentations.

I graduated from UC Davis last summer (I was a transfer student - my GPA is just for the 2 years I attended Davis)

I didn't get to know them very well while taking the class.

1) What type of cases were seen at the hospital dental clinic? Was it a general practice? Was it associated with the ENT so it covered a little more than just cleanings and crowns? Was it an oral surgery practice? Details...

2) Okay... we need you to actually calculate your AADSAS GPA's which will include all post-secondary/high school coursework and your grades before you went to UCDavis. Overall, Science, and BCP. Granted, it might be higher than the 3.92 you disclosed, but calculate your GPA's properly. (It doesn't mean that we won't look specifically at your last 2 years of courses and grades separately, but to be honest and on the same level as everyone else here...)

3) On your letters not being fully supportive: you have at least one research PI who I would expect would give you a strong recommendation (since you have 2 conference abstracts and a publication).

4) If you are looking to stay close to home, then why are you applying to the Ivies? I know you promise you'll apply to all your in-states, realizing there's no guarantees, but I would be super shocked with a 3.96 oGPA if you didn't get IIs.

 

[S_F]

What type of cases were seen at the hospital dental clinic? Was it a general practice? Was it associated with the ENT so it covered a little more than just cleanings and crowns? Was it an oral surgery practice? Details...

It was mainly general practice, with a little bit of pediatrics and perio.

On your letters not being fully supportive: you have at least one research PI who I would expect would give you a strong recommendation (since you have 2 conference abstracts and a publication).

Should I get the letter from my grad student mentor or from the PI? I worked much more with my grad student mentor so the letter might be stronger.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Should I get the letter from my grad student mentor or from the PI? I worked much more with my grad student mentor so the letter might be stronger.

See if your PI can co-author or co-sign your letter. Graduate student-authored LOR's have no standing and do not count to fulfill science professor letter requirements.

 

[S_F]

See if your PI can co-author or co-sign your letter. Graduate student-authored LOR's have no standing and do not count to fulfill science professor letter requirements.

Ah ok. I'll see if she can do that. I never took a science class with my PI, so I won't be able to use this letter to fulfill my science professor letter requirements. Instead I was planning to use it to fulfill the supervisor requirement. But like you said, I'll see if my PI can co-author it since it will have more credibility. Thanks for the help.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Ah ok. I'll see if she can do that. I never took a science class with my PI, so I won't be able to use this letter to fulfill my science professor letter requirements. Instead I was planning to use it to fulfill the supervisor requirement. But like you said, I'll see if my PI can co-author it since it will have more credibility. Thanks for the help.

Just telling you: technically graduate students do not have standing as a supervisor either (they are students too, and supervising undergraduates is not part of their job description or why they are getting paid*). Register for the AAMC Virtual Fair and ask admissions representatives there. I'll guess that they'll have advice similar to what I posted.

* At a lot of small liberal arts colleges with research facilities, senior undergraduates supervise their peers who are sophomores or juniors as there are no/not many graduate students.

 

[LeagueofLigTies]

With those scores you’ll definitely get into NYU, but the cost is insane unless you get a scholarship. But you probably will with those scores