Dent 2002:
You ask if you're applying late? Well, the quickest answer is "YES".
You asked do you have a chance? My answer for you will be "YES".
Well you need DAT good numbers (20/20) since you're applying this late? My answer for you is also "YES"
Admission process and interview selection is a very interesting cycled process. You see, when applicants apply early, you'll be going against some of the finest applicants in the entire country, applicants with 3.8s and 25/25s with research and volunteering experiences up the @ss.
Dental schools usually have two "official" accepting cycles, one on December 1st of each application cycle and the second one around mid February-beginning of March. Usually by March, 80% of each dental school incoming dental class are filled. It is during the first acceptance cycle, that a lot of our SDN pre-dents will be accepted and for those people who applied early (before August).
Now, I applied LATE! Late Novemeber, schools didn't even get my AADSAS application unitl the beginning of January. I had all the holidays against my application (Thanksgiving, X-mas, and New Years). My cumulative undergraduate AND my overall sciencei GPAs are less than a 2.5.
According to A LOT of people, either on SDN or school counselors, I had NO CHANCE of getting an interview. Well, you know what, with a little help of my new DAT scores (in Januray), a number of passionate phone calls to admissions directors, my graduate level GPAs, and a little determination. I was accepted to dental schools quick.
Listen to this, I started to interview by dental schools in March, guess what, I was accepted by them in March. It has nothing to do with "luck", it's all timing and getting your name/application known!
You see, this is how it works. After December 1st (the first round of acceptances), dental schools will send out enough acceptances to fill their classes. So around mid December, for those applicants that wants to know if they got into a certain school via phoine calls to the admissions offices, that particular school will tell you that we're full FOR THAT TIME BEING!
Wait a couple of weeks, spots will open because not all accepted applicants will accept certain schools acceptances. Then, the same **** will happen again after the second round of acceptances and the classes will get filled a little bit more officially. Then in March, that's when the final picture of how full the classes will comes out.
At times, I almost think it advantageous to apply late, kind of like avoiding the rush hour for traffic thing! If you drive to your destination after rush hour, you'll get there quicker, right? Of course, you should have a car the runs (Your GPAs and DATS) and you know where you're going (your determination). You'll get there where you want to be eventually. Does it matter if you're there first (get accepted first) or if you're there 50th? I think not! As long as you get there.
To have the best chances of getting accepted by dental schools, yes, there's no doubt that you should have a GPA greater than 3.3 and DATs greater than 18 across the board AND apply early. But y'all know what, those are guidelines/recommendations, in reality, things are very different.
Remember, SDN Pre-dents are sharing what they feel it's the best way to get accepted, take their advice and integrated into your application circumstances and make the best out of it.
I had EVERYTHING going against my application, the late submission and the low GPA numbers, but guess what, I'm now a D1, I've been elected Class President, I'm top 10 of my class currently if not top 5, I was accepted by more than one dental schools, and most importantly, I arrived at my destination after rush hour because I knew that I wanted to be there!
Good luck to you all and keep up the spirits.
Now I'm going to go get some Sushi with my classmates!