just curious..

[goldfish85]

i ran in here and started reading, love how dentistry and business are nicely tied together. also i really like the life style... i was always inclined towards premed but i am starting to realize it is not what i imagined.

anyways,
i have a 2.9 gpa, from UC Berkeley. i have of course, not taken the DAT, i am just considering dental school but i need to look at how long it may take me to get in.

my main concern is: do dental schools place a heavy emphasis on GPA? is a sub 3.0 gpa competitive enough? how about URM status, do dental schools give a crap?

thanks!

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[wuyide]

a 2.9 is seems to be about the lowest gpa that people get accepted with (of course there are a bunch more factors). if you can get a great score on the DAT (21+) then you give yourself a much better chance.

as far as how long it will take, it depends on how far along you are. most dental schools want you to have a four year degree. they also want you to have bio, gen-chem, o-chem, physics all with labs as well as some english courses. more and more schools are requiring biochem as a pre-req.

good luck.

 

[SunnyDay]

i ran in here and started reading, love how dentistry and business are nicely tied together. also i really like the life style... i was always inclined towards premed but i am starting to realize it is not what i imagined.

anyways,
i have a 2.9 gpa, from UC Berkeley. i have of course, not taken the DAT, i am just considering dental school but i need to look at how long it may take me to get in.

my main concern is: do dental schools place a heavy emphasis on GPA? is a sub 3.0 gpa competitive enough? how about URM status, do dental schools give a crap?

thanks!

With your gpa, you have a very low chance of gaining admission into dental school. You will have to destroy the DAT in order for your application to immediatly not get tossed out, and even that is not a guarantee. I would consider entering a master's program and getting all A's there.

 

[swanlake]

I don't know about how reliable DAT score is.
Last year, there was a guy with 4.0 GPA and AA16/TS16/PA25. He applied to UNC, Harvard, and UOP, received acceptance letters from all.
So, DAT score does not mean TOO MUCH. Apparently, he attended DUKE UNIVERSITY. So, I am guessing that reputation of your undergraduate school matters A LOT. I would say UC-Berkeley has a good reputation. That's all I can say. I don't want to take it any further. You make your own judgement.

 

[SunnyDay]

I don't know about how reliable DAT score is.
Last year, there was a guy with 4.0 GPA and AA16/TS16/PA25. He applied to UNC, Harvard, and UOP, received acceptance letters from all.
So, DAT score does not mean TOO MUCH. Apparently, he attended DUKE UNIVERSITY. So, I am guessing that reputation of your undergraduate school matters A LOT. I would say UC-Berkeley has a good reputation. That's all I can say. I don't want to take it any further. You make your own judgement.

I don't know if you personally know the guy who had a 4.0 from Duke with low AA/TS DAT scores, but I would sincerely question this information. I would be extremely surprised if someone had a 4.0 from Duke and did score that low on the DAT. I strongly believe that a 4.0 Duke student would have scored higher than a 16 even without studying. However, I do believe that the name of your undergraduate institution does matter, but probalby not as much as students from top universities would like. Ultimately, I think adcoms care most about your gpa regardless of the institution you attended.

 

[cowsgomoo]

I don't know about how reliable DAT score is.
Last year, there was a guy with 4.0 GPA and AA16/TS16/PA25. He applied to UNC, Harvard, and UOP, received acceptance letters from all.
So, DAT score does not mean TOO MUCH. Apparently, he attended DUKE UNIVERSITY. So, I am guessing that reputation of your undergraduate school matters A LOT. I would say UC-Berkeley has a good reputation. That's all I can say. I don't want to take it any further. You make your own judgement.

I would say UC-Berkeley (#2) has a very good reputation if Dat_Student's post of best schools in world is legit.

 

[swanlake]

I don't know if you personally know the guy who had a 4.0 from Duke with such low DAT scores, but I would sincerely question this information. I would be extremely surprised if someone had a 4.0 from Duke and did score that low on the DAT. I only had a 3.25 science gpa, and scored a 17 on my diagnostic TS so it only makes sense that someone with a 4.0 could at least score that. What I am saying is that even without a studying a 4.0 Duke student should have scored higher than a 16, if not, as an adcom I would really question how they got those grades.

100% agree with you SunnyDay. If anyone would make 4.0 at Duke, he/she should gotten 20+ score AT LEAST. However, apparently he claims he got 16. He received phone calls from UNC & Harvard on Dec. 1st. He was really upset that he didn't get into UOP, his first choice. A couple of weeks later, he received another phone call from UOP that he got accepted. So, he said "Bye Bye Harvard~~!!!" He chose to attend UOP. He said three-year program at UOP was attractive. Based on these facts, I don't think that he's making up stories (who knows?). I would like to trust people at first.
I guess he had an unbelievable excuse for his really modest DAT score during his interview and adcom believed him. If he only got into one school, then I can imagine that he had a connection, but I don't think he would have connections to all three schools he applied.

 

[wuyide]

I don't know about how reliable DAT score is.
Last year, there was a guy with 4.0 GPA and AA16/TS16/PA25. He applied to UNC, Harvard, and UOP, received acceptance letters from all.
So, DAT score does not mean TOO MUCH. Apparently, he attended DUKE UNIVERSITY. So, I am guessing that reputation of your undergraduate school matters A LOT. I would say UC-Berkeley has a good reputation. That's all I can say. I don't want to take it any further. You make your own judgement.

i think this is one of the most incredible stories i've ever heard... to get a 4.0 and then a 16 it seems as though he would have to try to score that low... but then again, the 25 on the PAT is amazing.

 

[SunnyDay]

100% agree with you SunnyDay. If anyone would make 4.0 at Duke, he/she should gotten 20+ score AT LEAST. However, apparently he claims he got 16. He received phone calls from UNC & Harvard on Dec. 1st. He was really upset that he didn't get into UOP, his first choice. A couple of weeks later, he received another phone call from UOP that he got accepted. So, he said "Bye Bye Harvard~~!!!" He chose to attend UOP. He said three-year program at UOP was attractive. Based on these facts, I don't think that he's making up stories (who knows?). I would like to trust people at first.
I guess he had an unbelievable excuse for his really modest DAT score during his interview and adcom believed him. If he only got into one school, then I can imagine that he had a connection, but I don't think he would have connections to all three schools he applied.

Well, if you know him then I am sure your information is correct, and I can't see any possible reason why someone would lie and say they have a lower DAT than what they actually obtained. I hope you are right and that adcoms do consider the school you went to as I attend Vanderbilt University, another highly ranked school (not as high as Duke though). The weight of the undergraduate school might also be more more or less important at different dental schools. I can see how Harvard and UNC might value a highly ranked school because their undergraduate schools are also top ranked.