My chances and school list

[sj71505]

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I am also in the process of applying this cycle. What do you guys think of my school list?

oGPA: 3.73
sGPA: 3.85

DAT: 19 AA/19TS/21PAT/21OC/20GC/21QR/17BIO/17RC 🙁🙁🙁

I know my scores are definitely not the best, but I'm hoping my gpa makes up for it? I am currently a Maryland resident. I have 150+ hours of shadowing and 100+ hours of volunteering at a hospital. I have also shadowed oversees in Pakistan. I was the founder of a club that i stayed heavily involved in on the exec board throughout my undergrad career. I also have many more extracurriculars. No research experience though 🙁. I have one committee LOE and one from a dentist.

School list:

Maryland
VCU
Temple
NYU
UMDNJ
Howard
Midwestern-IL
LECOM
Louiseville
Tufts
Penn

Are there any more that you guys think I should add or get rid of?

 

[irishmom]

Was talking with the admissions dept at one of the schools I visited..can't remember which one lol. They told me that if a person has high GPA, but low DAT that tells them that the college they attend grades easy. If you have lower GPA but high DAT it tells them the opposite. So in their opinion, lower GPA higher DAT was a better candidate.

 

[518590]

Was talking with the admissions dept at one of the schools I visited..can't remember which one lol. They told me that if a person has high GPA, but low DAT that tells them that the college they attend grades easy. If you have lower GPA but high DAT it tells them the opposite. So in their opinion, lower GPA higher DAT was a better candidate.

I would buy my chances to argue against that normalization.

GPA is accumulated over 4 years and DAT is very much like a luck of draw in my opinion. Yes, you do need to know your material to do well in DAT, but you can always be lucky enough to have all the questions you know. For GPAs, you may get lucky with one class, but you can't get lucky with 120 credits.

I am not saying GPA > DAT, but definitely NOT GPA < DAT.

They probably know way more than me, but I am surprised how they make such assumptions.

 

[JamieP]

I would buy my chances to argue against that normalization.

GPA is accumulated over 4 years and DAT is very much like a luck of draw in my opinion. Yes, you do need to know your material to do well in DAT, but you can always be lucky enough to have all the questions you know. For GPAs, you may get lucky with one class, but you can't get lucky with 120 credits.

I am not saying GPA > DAT, but definitely NOT GPA < DAT.

They probably know way more than me, but I am surprised how they make such assumptions.

GPA is much more variable (some schools and majors are easier than others) than the DAT and the DAT is essentially the same in difficulty for everyone that takes it. My opinion is that GPA and DAT are roughly equal and a high score in one can compensate for any deficit in the other.


OP, you'll be fine, you'll get in somewhere. If you had a 16 or less in any section then I would be worried. But you don't so you're good.

 

[518590]

GPA is much more variable (some schools and majors are easier than others) than the DAT and the DAT is essentially the same in difficulty for everyone that takes it. My opinion is that GPA and DAT are roughly equal and a high score in one can compensate for any deficit in the other.


OP, you'll be fine, you'll get in somewhere. If you had a 16 or less in any section then I would be worried. But you don't so you're good.

Of course I agree that GPA is much more variable in many different schools, but you cannot safely assume one school is easier because a candidate received high GPA score and low DAT score.

I would agree with you last statement though.

 

[mid]

Remember they also could easily have a large data set of DAT scores and GPAs from people who have applied taking the same courses from the same schools as well as knowing who has succeeded in their program over the years.

 

[518590]

Remember they also could easily have a large data set of DAT scores and GPAs from people who have applied taking the same courses from the same schools as well as knowing who has succeeded in their program over the years.

that sounds much more reliable to me

 

[Baba Yaga]

I would buy my chances to argue against that normalization.

GPA is accumulated over 4 years and DAT is very much like a luck of draw in my opinion. Yes, you do need to know your material to do well in DAT, but you can always be lucky enough to have all the questions you know. For GPAs, you may get lucky with one class, but you can't get lucky with 120 credits.

I am not saying GPA > DAT, but definitely NOT GPA < DAT.

They probably know way more than me, but I am surprised how they make such assumptions.

From what I have seen on these forums, it is more likely that someone with a high GPA and an average DAT (remember the average for accepted students is between a 19 and a 20!) will get in than someone with a low GPA and a high DAT.

Remember they also could easily have a large data set of DAT scores and GPAs from people who have applied taking the same courses from the same schools as well as knowing who has succeeded in their program over the years.

Easily? Well I say unlikely to the former idea, and probably to the latter idea.

I just don't think that adcoms would take time to input DAT scores, GPA's, and the courses people have taken from each university in order to do some crazy multiple regression scheme to determine who will be successful and who won't.

Do you know how many courses there are at each university? A lot. How many universities there are? A lot.

Plus, not everyone takes the same courses even within the same major/concentration. This would just be too much of an undertaking for them.

DAT + GPA + university --> prediction is something I could believe they have.

 

[mid]

I guarantee the AADSAS application/their Web portal has the ability to export data. How extensive I don't know.

Also about 350 colleges/universities that really matter each with a couple hundred to a couple thousand classes. It's not that huge.

 

[Eastcoast24]

From what I have seen on these forums, it is more likely that someone with a high GPA and an average DAT (remember the average for accepted students is between a 19 and a 20!) will get in than someone with a low GPA and a high DAT.


+1

 

[squigloo]

Your DAT is average, but GPA is above average (especially science). I have a friend who had very similar stats (3.8 GPA, 19 DAT), and she got into at least 4 schools, and is now happily going to her top choice.