I am meeting with the asst. dean in a few days. My plan is to show her my DAT scores, gpa, ec, etc and see what she thinks. I will ask her where she thinks I stand. What other topics do you think i should bring up? Have any one you met with the dean and what was your experience?
meeting the asst. dean
- Thread starter topdent1
- Start date
One of the best decisions you have made.
I went today to the VCU dental club meeting and they had one of the asst. dean talking about the application cycle and the school itself. And me, checking this website every day and thinking that I knew everything about the application cycle, I was completely shocked with the amount of information that she was able to give us in just 30 minutes.
Just smile a lot and shake his hand firmly <--- this is what our asst. dean told us to do. hahahaha She also told us about this one guy who interviewed here at VCU. He shook the deans hand like those rappers at MTV (Im serious, I was rotfl)
I went today to the VCU dental club meeting and they had one of the asst. dean talking about the application cycle and the school itself. And me, checking this website every day and thinking that I knew everything about the application cycle, I was completely shocked with the amount of information that she was able to give us in just 30 minutes.
Just smile a lot and shake his hand firmly <--- this is what our asst. dean told us to do. hahahaha She also told us about this one guy who interviewed here at VCU. He shook the deans hand like those rappers at MTV (Im serious, I was rotfl)
You could ask about stats from the previous cycle. Number of applicants, and average GPA and DAT. I personally have never met any dean but I've emailed several of them about my sorry situation at the time. I think it is good that you are doing this.
I've met with a few of them, and most of them will lay it all out there and tell you what stats they are looking for and what stats won't cut it. It might not hurt to ask, other then improve my stats, what can I do in order to distinguish my application from others you might recieve as ****** is my #1.
thanks for your comments everyone. I think it will be a good idea to ask what can i do to distinguish myself from others. They have to give you a direct answer in that way.
Ask about the program, what they offer, what makes them good, what you will be taught to do (endo, extractions, implants, invisalign), graduation requirements, how their grads perform when they are out of school, where their grads tend to go.
Nearly every applicant that comes in asks the same dumb questions, questions that can be answered with a 2 minute scan of the ADEA book or with just a little intuitive reasoning. Know that information before you meet the dean. If you are a worthy applicant, the dean will want to sell the school to you. Remember, it is the job of the dean and the dean's colleagues to make the educational experience at their school as good as it can be. He or she is likely proud of the institution and will enjoy telling you about it, especially if you ask different questions that show a little knowledge and insight.
If you have to ask an admission question, towards the end, you could ask if there is anything besides the obvious that the school looks for and/or if they have a formula for rating applicants and how each component is weighed.
Nearly every applicant that comes in asks the same dumb questions, questions that can be answered with a 2 minute scan of the ADEA book or with just a little intuitive reasoning. Know that information before you meet the dean. If you are a worthy applicant, the dean will want to sell the school to you. Remember, it is the job of the dean and the dean's colleagues to make the educational experience at their school as good as it can be. He or she is likely proud of the institution and will enjoy telling you about it, especially if you ask different questions that show a little knowledge and insight.
If you have to ask an admission question, towards the end, you could ask if there is anything besides the obvious that the school looks for and/or if they have a formula for rating applicants and how each component is weighed.
Graduation requirements at times are hard to understand. I've asked around about that for UB and I still don't quite understand the clinical portion of it. If you are going to ask about graduation and where they end up maybe it will serve you well to try to contact an alumni as well.
Take what he/she says with a grain of salt. During the application cycle, at an interview, I sat down and talked with the Dean of Admissions and he went through my application and told me what schools he thought I would get into and which ones he thought I would not get into. When everything was all said and done, the schools he thought I would get into, including his, I did not get into, and the ones he thought I would NOT get into, I did. Alot of it is a crap shoot and how your application compares to the rest of the applicants. If this person tells you, "Looks good, you should be a shoe-in, etc," I would take it as a good sign, but not a fact.
Good Luck with the whole process.
Nobody can predict the outcome of a admission committee meeting behind closed doors with your file in front of them. The best anybody can tell you is they look at certain things favorably or unfavorably. They may tell you stuff like "we like that you've been improving" but nobody can predict if that will make any difference or not.