My initial school list - looking for feedback!

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NDPitch

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  1. Dentist
Current Stats

-MA resident
-Cumulative - 3.69
-Science - 3.60
-DAT TBD, taking at the end of July or early August. Let's assume at least a 19 in all areas? Hopefully higher obviously
-100+ hours of shadowing
-400+ hours of service over the last 10 years, helping to raise over $100,000 towards cancer research


Western U
UConn
NOVA
Louisville
Boston U
Tufts
U Maryland
U Michigan
UMD New Jersey
U Buffalo
NYU
Stony Brook
Case Western
Temple
Virginia Commonwealth
Marquette

That's 16 schools. Money isn't a huge issue when it comes to applying, so I could go up to 20. I want to e-submit soon, and I'm looking to either trim schools off that aren't worth applying, or adding schools that I have a good shot at. Are there any other state schools I could add that are cheaper, and that I might get an interview at?
 
Last edited:
Current Stats

-MA resident
-Cumulative - 3.69
-Science - 3.60
-DAT TBD, taking at the end of July or early August. Let's assume at least a 19 in all areas? Hopefully higher obviously
-100+ hours of shadowing
-400+ hours of service over the last 10 years, helping to raise over $100,000 towards cancer research


Western U
UConn
NOVA
Louisville
Boston U
Tufts
U Maryland
U Michigan
UMD New Jersey
U Buffalo
NYU
Stony Brook
Case Western
Temple
Virginia Commonwealth
Marquette

That's 15 schools. Money isn't a huge issue when it comes to applying, so I could go up to 20. I want to e-submit soon, and I'm looking to either trim schools off that aren't worth applying, or adding schools that I have a good shot at. Are there any other state schools I could add that are cheaper, and that I might get an interview at?

It's difficult to say where you should consider applying without you being able to provide an actual DAT score. It's a large piece of the process.
 
It's difficult to say where you should consider applying without you being able to provide an actual DAT score. It's a large piece of the process.

I know. But it's definitely better to apply now and have the DAT score sent later. If I wait to E-submit until I have my scores, I think I'll be at a greater disadvantage compared to if I applied to schools now.
 
SBU is not OOS friendly, so you might want to remove that.
 
So how many schools is considered too many? I've seen people apply to like 20, or even as much as 30 (some profiles on predents). Is there a point where it just becomes too many? I'm taking my DAT late, as in the end of July-ish, so I feel like I should apply to as many as I can. I used the ADEA guide to make my own spreadsheet of schools so I could manipulate and sort the data and all that. I narrowed my schools down to the ones in the image below.

I need to e-submit tonight or tomorrow to be done with this portion, and have my GPA verification going so I can do nothing but study for the DAT. I was originally going to just apply to 1 school initially, and then send my apps out to other schools after the DAT. But now I'm leaning towards applying to my full list and just taking a chance. If I do poor on the DAT, then oh well, I will have a full year to re-apply and save back up the 2 grand it would cost to apply to a full set of schools.

Ignore my color coding. Just something I was doing to keep track of stuff. Also the percentages for BU and Tufts are in state numbers, not OOS like the column indicates. I also am aware that some of the state schools on this list are not OOS friendly, but the if you could get an interview, you'd have a shot at getting in and becoming a resident for in state tuition after a year (I think). But anyway, I'm finding it very hard to come up with a list of schools to apply to without a DAT. But I need to come up with a good list from these schools. I need help! 🙁

http://postimage.org/image/sycqyfkk7/
 
Too many? That's hard to say really. If money was no object for me I would have applied to as many schools that accept at least 1 OOS student. However, since money is an object I had to make a personal decision as to how many I think was appropriate. For me that turned out to be 12. For others that might be 15, or 20, or 5, or whatever they can afford. I know this is not too much help, but its the truth behind it.

Personally, I think 16 is a pretty safe bet. 🙂
 
So how many schools is considered too many? I've seen people apply to like 20, or even as much as 30 (some profiles on predents). Is there a point where it just becomes too many? I'm taking my DAT late, as in the end of July-ish, so I feel like I should apply to as many as I can. I used the ADEA guide to make my own spreadsheet of schools so I could manipulate and sort the data and all that. I narrowed my schools down to the ones in the image below.

I need to e-submit tonight or tomorrow to be done with this portion, and have my GPA verification going so I can do nothing but study for the DAT. I was originally going to just apply to 1 school initially, and then send my apps out to other schools after the DAT. But now I'm leaning towards applying to my full list and just taking a chance. If I do poor on the DAT, then oh well, I will have a full year to re-apply and save back up the 2 grand it would cost to apply to a full set of schools.

Ignore my color coding. Just something I was doing to keep track of stuff. Also the percentages for BU and Tufts are in state numbers, not OOS like the column indicates. I also am aware that some of the state schools on this list are not OOS friendly, but the if you could get an interview, you'd have a shot at getting in and becoming a resident for in state tuition after a year (I think). But anyway, I'm finding it very hard to come up with a list of schools to apply to without a DAT. But I need to come up with a good list from these schools. I need help! 🙁

http://postimage.org/image/sycqyfkk7/

Here's what I did when I applied, I submitted my app to only 1 school so that it gets processed by AADSAS. After I took my DAT I submitted my app to the remaining schools based on the DAT score. There is no advantage of submitting your app to schools w/o knowing your DAT scores because schools won't review your file until its complete. A complete file includes GPA calculations, all your LORs and your DAT score. Therefore, you should submit the app to as few schools as possible until the DAT score comes in, this way you dont waste application fees. After you get your score you can make a better judgment of where to apply and since your app will be processed by AADSAS your file will go out to the newly submitted schools as early as the same or next week after you submit your app. Plus if you change your mind you can always add more schools later.

Additionally, your GPAs are very high and assuming you'll score a 20 or above on every section you'd be a great candidate at many institutions. Your list is very good in the sense that you will be applying to a lot of state schools, however I would add a few more private schools to be safe i.e. Case Western, Midwestern AZ. I would also remove the really low OOS % schools, i.e the ones with 3% OOS students or less. a 3% shot isn't really worth it, if you ask me.
 
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