Low acceptance rates - competitive or wishful applicants?

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dentalflossn

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(I wasn't sure if this belongs in /dental or /pre-dental -- mods, feel free to move)

Good day!

When I look at the percent of applicants accepted from total applicants for any given dental school they seem to fall in the 5-15% range.

Why are acceptance rates so low... is it that a large group of applicants have 3.5 GPAs and 20s DATs but the extracurriculars/leadership/shadowing experiences are what get you interviewed/accepted? Or, are there that many people applying well below (what would be considered) competitive stats with very little chance of making it but are applying anyways to see what happens?

I can't believe it's largely the latter but am interested in hearing experiences/opinions.
 
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