Need some advices

[paulee1983]

Hi all SDNers,

I am an undergraduate students in a community college that will be transferring to UCs next semester. However, I am now struggling between whether I should choose some famous UCs (like UCLA or UCB) or the relatively easier one (like UCD/UCI/UCR)

What I am concerning is, as my ultimate goal is to be a dentist, it doesn't really matter where I get my B.S., and getting in a easier school may raise my GPA as the classes should be relatively easier, whereas UCLA would be much harder and lower the grades.

Right now I have a 3.8 transferrable GPA (by the end of this semester, I think I can get up to 3.85), so if you were me, would you pick UCLA/UCB for more classes choices but harder classes? or go for UCD/UCR for easier grades?


Besides that,I also have some questions on the AADAS. If I decided to mail the LORs and transcripts directly to the dental schools, can I put them into the same envelop and ship them from my address? Or they must be sent by the evaluators and school?

Thx for your valuble advices!

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[nnjh]

Hi all SDNers,

I am an undergraduate students in a community college that will be transferring to UCs next semester. However, I am now struggling between whether I should choose some famous UCs (like UCLA or UCB) or the relatively easier one (like UCD/UCI/UCR)

What I am concerning is, as my ultimate goal is to be a dentist, it doesn't really matter where I get my B.S., and getting in a easier school may raise my GPA as the classes should be relatively easier, whereas UCLA would be much harder and lower the grades.

Right now I have a 3.8 transferrable GPA (by the end of this semester, I think I can get up to 3.85), so if you were me, would you pick UCLA/UCB for more classes choices but harder classes? or go for UCD/UCR for easier grades?


Besides that,I also have some questions on the AADAS. If I decided to mail the LORs and transcripts directly to the dental schools, can I put them into the same envelop and ship them from my address? Or they must be sent by the evaluators and school?

Thx for your valuble advices!

I've noticed that some schools (NOT all mind you) MAY look at the undergrad institute attended. I'm not saying I've heard this personally from the adcom ppl. But if you see people on the freshmen class list mostly coming in from the business week top fifty schools and you see ppl from other schools with comparable or in some cases higher grades getting the boot you kinda start guessing. MAYBE adcoms give a few extra points for schools like LA/B. (again I stress MAYBE)

I'd appreciate anybody else's opinion on this matter as well as I am NOT sure myself.
.

 

[F*R*I*E*N*D*S]

I've noticed that some schools (NOT all mind you) MAY look at the undergrad institute attended. I'm not saying I've heard this personally from the adcom ppl. But if you see people on the freshmen class list mostly coming in from the business week top fifty schools and you see ppl from other schools with comparable or in some cases higher grades getting the boot you kinda start guessing. MAYBE adcoms give a few extra points for schools like LA/B. (again I stress MAYBE)

I'd appreciate anybody else's opinion on this matter as well as I am NOT sure myself.
.

i agree. if there was one applicant with awesome stats but from an "easier" school and another applicant that had a lower gpa from a "harder" school, i think it sways the adcom towards the lower gpa student, BUT this is only an opinion agreeing with another!

i went to visit bu's campus and the student giving me a tour introduced me to a faculty member. after i told him where i was receiving my undergrad educ. he added that it was an excellent school. the adcom have an idea of the reputations of the applicants they consider.

one last thing: if you want to attend ucla's dental school, find out if they give preference to ucla undergrads

GOOD LUCK!

 

[paulee1983]

Thx for the advices!

So both of you will pick a harder school.....um....
That may be true, especially for a community college student applied as a 3rd year student.............

How about the AADDAS questions?

 

[paulee1983]

oh
one more questions
If I transfer to UCs, they will only count my transferrable courses and their grades.
When I apply to AADAS, do I just report those classes, or even the non-transferable classes in my college?

Thx guys!! I know SDNer's are so helpful and friendly!!

 

[golden bough]

If u choose not to use the service provided by AADSAS, u can send the letters directly to the dental schools. I submitted my LORs & transcripts directly to AADSAS... everything in one manila envelope. Going thru AADSAS would be easier, will save u the time, money (remember acquiring multiple transcripts will cost u) and effort of having to mail every single school the necessary documents.

 

[airvent]

Most Schools have a "Health Profession Evaluation Committee". You have the Professors send the LORs to the committee. They package and copy the LORs and send them to the schools for you. This is what Adcoms prefer.

Avoid using ADSAS for anything other than your transcripts.

 

[crazy_sherm]

Thx for the advices!

So both of you will pick a harder school.....um....
That may be true, especially for a community college student applied as a 3rd year student.............

I think you should visit the schools you're considering and decide on which one you think you would enjoy the most. I've met plenty of people that went to less prestigious UCs and have gotten into dental school. If you're able to keep that 3.8 GPA and do decent on the DAT, it won't matter which school you graduated from.

I graduated from Cal and wished I had looked at more schools before applying. I think I got a great education, but its a really big school and easy to get lost or fall behind. However, since you'll be transferring, you'll likely only have to take upper division courses which only have about 250 students in them as opposed to 1000+.

Try not to get fooled by the name and go to the school you like. You're gonna have to study hard no matter where you go.

 

[nothen2do]

Try not to get fooled by the name and go to the school you like. You're gonna have to study hard no matter where you go.

Agreed. Any UC is going to be equally challenging once you're there. The difference is getting into one UC over another from high school is a different story. And truthfully, it probably is a step up from the CC you're going to right now. If class size matters to you, remember that UCLA and UCB have a total student population of just under 40,000 students, each! My 2 cents, good luck.

 

[paulee1983]

Again, thx all!!

I also e-mailed my previous Chemistry instructor for advices, here is his reply:

"I wouldn't consider UCD or UCI to be 'easier' in terms of earning grades. Once you get to the UC level, and upper division classes in science in particular, the difficulty level in a class will be very dependent upon the individual instructor and your particular group of classmates. It's too small of a sample size to draw firm conclusions. Now, a UCB or UCLA grad will tell you that their classes are the hardest in the world, but that's mostly their prejudice regarding their alma mater.

UCLA/UCB might have more course offerings overall, but you should look into which UC has the classes you want, since one school might offer more in what you are looking for in some narrow area than others.

Plus, you want to go where you think you can enjoy living. Big difference between UCLA (So Cal, big city) and UCD (small town, more isolated). Neither is better necessarily, but one might be better for you. Personally, I would pick UCD, since I don't like big cities, but Galen Reed is doing great at UCLA.

I think you are most correct when you say that it doesn't really matter where you get your BS. All the UC's are good schools."

What do you guys think? I believe he is right too....

um....how about the transferrable courses policy?^^"

And for crazy_sherm:

I notice that you are now in UOP, which is the dental school I want to get in (3 yrs program..cool), what would you suggest to take in my following year in UC to fulfill all the predental requirements? My plan is to take one year of organic Chem (or half O. Chem half Biochem better?), anatomy, histology, microbiology, and physiology. Would that be a good idea?

Besides that, do you think it would be tough in UOP? Because it is a 3 yrs program compare to 4 yrs of other school, so it must have much more materials to deal with in the first 2 yrs......

I would be glad if other UOP dental students can help me on this too

thx a lot!

 

[crazy_sherm]

And for crazy_sherm:

I notice that you are now in UOP, which is the dental school I want to get in (3 yrs program..cool), what would you suggest to take in my following year in UC to fulfill all the predental requirements? My plan is to take one year of organic Chem (or half O. Chem half Biochem better?), anatomy, histology, microbiology, and physiology. Would that be a good idea?

Besides that, do you think it would be tough in UOP? Because it is a 3 yrs program compare to 4 yrs of other school, so it must have much more materials to deal with in the first 2 yrs......

I've only been accepted to UOP and will start this July, so I can't tell you first hand which classes would be better to take. Anatomy, biochem, histology, microbio, and physiology are recommended by UOP, but they are not prerequisites to admission.

I'm not sure how it works for transfers or for other UCs, but the chem series at Berkeley is kinda strange. All bio related majors take only one semester of general chem, 2 semesters of o-chem and at least 1 semester of biochem. Its a little strange, but it seems that all the dental and med schools recognize Berkeley's chem curriculum and are fine with it. Each class is a prereq for the other, so you have to finish the o-chem series first in order to be enrolled in a biochem class...guess they wanna weed out the people who can't cut it.

The first year is supposed to be tough at UOP because of all the material that needs to be covered, but if you look at the schedule, there is just as much class time as a 4-year program. Its just that there are fewer breaks and we start a summer earlier.

I would say the best thing is to keep an open mind before setting your heart on a school, both undergrad and dental. Search the forums, do everything people say like shadow, volunteer, research(optional), get a kick ass GPA and rock the DAT. You should shoot for getting into a bunch of schools and not make a decision until you've visited each school.

Good luck!

 

[paulee1983]

I've only been accepted to UOP and will start this July, so I can't tell you first hand which classes would be better to take. Anatomy, biochem, histology, microbio, and physiology are recommended by UOP, but they are not prerequisites to admission.

I'm not sure how it works for transfers or for other UCs, but the chem series at Berkeley is kinda strange. All bio related majors take only one semester of general chem, 2 semesters of o-chem and at least 1 semester of biochem. Its a little strange, but it seems that all the dental and med schools recognize Berkeley's chem curriculum and are fine with it. Each class is a prereq for the other, so you have to finish the o-chem series first in order to be enrolled in a biochem class...guess they wanna weed out the people who can't cut it.

The first year is supposed to be tough at UOP because of all the material that needs to be covered, but if you look at the schedule, there is just as much class time as a 4-year program. Its just that there are fewer breaks and we start a summer earlier.

I would say the best thing is to keep an open mind before setting your heart on a school, both undergrad and dental. Search the forums, do everything people say like shadow, volunteer, research(optional), get a kick ass GPA and rock the DAT. You should shoot for getting into a bunch of schools and not make a decision until you've visited each school.

Good luck!

When I looked at the UOP dental admission requirement site, I found out that they required 4 semesters of Biology, but my CC can only offer 2. So I just wondering if anatomy or microbiology would be counted into this area. (I can take anatomy in my CC though)

UCB probably will not be my place........I would rather goto UCR/UCI though

I just wondering, if:
1. student A gets 3.4 GPA in UCLA
2. student B gets 3.9 GPA in UCD

assume they took the same classes and everything besides GPA and school held constant, which adcom would prefer more?

by the way, if you were living in CA, which dental schools would you apply to? I can't travel too far, so my only transpotation is my mum's car. So I want to know which are the most possible schools (that I can actually go for their interviews ). And ya, I live in Bakersfield

Thx crazy_sherm for your useful information. Would you mind sharing your DAT stats so I can know what I should aim for?

 

[paulee1983]

Thx for the PM from you guys, they are really helpful!!
(Oh man, I just discovered that I have my own message box LOL)

 

[aceking]

i see it like this


UCR has a unique premed bio program that if you qualify for it you are probably getting better recog than LA or UCB. However, the location is not what many students look for. But cheap living exp.

UCI bio sci upper classes and labs are very competitive that at lots of people underestimate and mess up pretty bad, tough curve. U will be surprised

UCLA is no different that UCI or UCR, the benefit is that you get more variety of majors within the Bio Sci. Dept. Some classes are pretty easy because a lot of prof. want to teach in ucla and there are so many part time prof that make a little kick back to get good feedback in order to become full time.
However, the negative part of the school is that there is not student support for Bio sci students like a councelors and stuff. However, UCLAwidely known.

Basically, if you take away the Basketball team, football team and media, academically for upper div classes are pretty much the same for most of the UC probably with the exception of Santa Cruz cause of the unique grading system.

if you are into the rec of which college u go to feel better i would go to UCLA because UC competition is going to be the same where ever u go as a transfer student.

dont konw much about UCD, UCB, but i know that UCSD is great school too for a sci major(best UC medical shool)
good luck buddy

 

[paulee1983]

thx aceking!

I heard the premed bio program in UCR too, but it is just for UCLA medical school, so I don't know if it works for dental also.

However, I got a PM from a SDNer
saying that UCB,UCD are the feeder schools of UOP-- the dental school I want to get in
I checked the UOP website, and found that:

"Our primary undergraduate feeder schools continue to be the University of the Pacific, UC Davis, Brigham Young University, and other UC schools. "

Since then, would that be a better idea to go into UCD?

 

[elz787]

Hey, I have a quick question, so I just realized that I want to graduate (i'm an undergrad) a year early, so i'm planning to take the DAT at the beginning of August, and apply right after that and it takes a while to process everything, the only problem is, is that the first set of interviews come out around october and november and acceptances dec-january, and its a first come first serve basis. so myquestion is, should i go ahead and apply? wouldn't i be cutting it close to the deadline??

 

[crazy_sherm]

Hey, I have a quick question, so I just realized that I want to graduate (i'm an undergrad) a year early, so i'm planning to take the DAT at the beginning of August, and apply right after that and it takes a while to process everything, the only problem is, is that the first set of interviews come out around october and november and acceptances dec-january, and its a first come first serve basis. so myquestion is, should i go ahead and apply? wouldn't i be cutting it close to the deadline??

To be on the safe side, just submit your app in May or June. You don't need to take the DAT in order to submit the app. Schools won't look at the application until they get the DAT scores, but the turn around time on the DAT is much faster than the AADSAS app.