Official AADSAS Q&A Thread 2020-2021

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For secondary apps, are you supposed to answer it with first person format (I, me, we) or is it supposed to be a more professional response compared to a personal statement?
 
em1012 said:
Note to everyone else: do NOT go back and re-read your app after submission - you'll notice stupid, minor mistakes. 🙁 Not on my personal statement, thank goodness. Just stupid, minor typos (one is the word "positive" is spelled "positve" and then the word "received" is spelled "recieved") in the experiences section. Thankfully no wrong dates or anything of that sort.
I hope this does not disqualify me 🙁
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You’ll be good. Most will probably not notice. That being said, for your supplemental apps, it’s always a good idea to run your sentences through microsoft word or some other error correction software (even gmail/google docs) to make sure there are no glaring spelling or grammatical errors.
 
jharden13fan said:
For secondary apps, are you supposed to answer it with first person format (I, me, we) or is it supposed to be a more professional response compared to a personal statement?
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Up to you. I always used my secondaries to explain more about me regarding stuff that wasn’t already in my app, so I did probably use I, me, we, etc.
 
S_Diamond_DDS said:
You’ll be good. Most will probably not notice. That being said, for your supplemental apps, it’s always a good idea to run your sentences through microsoft word or some other error correction software (even gmail/google docs) to make sure there are no glaring spelling or grammatical errors.
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Hi, thank you for your reply! 🙂 I did exactly that for my supplementals, actually! I should’ve done it for my whole app but, of course, it slipped by me.
Also - I’ll put this out there for anyone else who is having this issue and needs encouragement: my best friend’s mom is the dean of admissions at a local medical school. I told her about my spelling issues and she said this. “She said you really shouldn’t worry too much at all, really. Since it’s not your personal statement that’s good and it really shouldn’t make too much of an impact. There’s a chance someone who reviews it could notice and be picky but honestly it’s so small compared to youre entre app she’s not worried at all.”
I think I was just freaked out. 🙂 as usual lol
 
Hi guys, do you know where I can find my AADSAS number? I am trying to complete the supplementals but have trouble finding it. Thank you
 
notatoothfairy said:
Hi guys, do you know where I can find my AADSAS number? I am trying to complete the supplementals but have trouble finding it. Thank you
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Hey! Your AADSAS number is your CAS ID. So, log into your app and in the top righthand corner there's a large 10-digit number... it is that one. 🙂 I just know this because I've been doing supplemental as well and recognized this the other day! Best of luck with your apps 🙂
 
hello all! This might be obvious but I wanted to know for schools that have secondary type questions on AADSAS, like NYU or BU asks why do you want to attend their specific dental school, should those essays be entered before submitting my AADSAS app? Or can I go back and fill in my responses in the program materials section of the app after I have submitted? Thanks.
 
Any idea why AADSAS classifies Developmental Biology as a behavioral science? It's even typically covered in the biology section of the DAT so you'd think they would count it as a science class.
 
NJ_Doc said:
hello all! This might be obvious but I wanted to know for schools that have secondary type questions on AADSAS, like NYU or BU asks why do you want to attend their specific dental school, should those essays be entered before submitting my AADSAS app? Or can I go back and fill in my responses in the program materials section of the app after I have submitted? Thanks.
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You have to do those before submitting your app to that school. That is their secondary and you can't edit it later.
BMorePreDent said:
Any idea why AADSAS classifies Developmental Biology as a behavioral science? It's even typically covered in the biology section of the DAT so you'd think they would count it as a science class.
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It's just what they do. Can't argue with them: ADEA AADSAS Course Subjects
 
Sorry if it's already been asked, but when will schools start inviting people for interviews this cycle? I imagine they will start giving out invites later than usual for this cycle.
 
USC asks 'Please list your professional achievements and include when and how long.' Are they asking about professional achievements related to dentistry? Do we leave this blank if everything is already on experiences/achievements?
 
predentttbear said:
USC asks 'Please list your professional achievements and include when and how long.' Are they asking about professional achievements related to dentistry? Do we leave this blank if everything is already on experiences/achievements?
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Don’t leave it blank. Talk about about any experiences you deem professional, ideally expanding on something in your app or talking about something you didn’t include in your app. Honestly, as long as it’s well written with no spelling or grammatical errors, they’ll be okay with it. No school gives much weight to the supplemental apps in my experience, so don’t spend more than a day or two on any single one.
 
Am I allowed to send the course syllabi to schools individually to see if they can accept one of the courses as English? I just sent a correction letter to AADSAS, but it was denied. I was certain my course would count towards literature at least because we read so many books and write papers on them. If the schools also deny the request, will I not be able to get an interview? Or can I tell them that I'll take a course at a community college and will they still be able to grant acceptance as long as I get the minimum grade?
 
senaj0495 said:
Am I allowed to send the course syllabi to schools individually to see if they can accept one of the courses as English? I just sent a correction letter to AADSAS, but it was denied. I was certain my course would count towards literature at least because we read so many books and write papers on them. If the schools also deny the request, will I not be able to get an interview? Or can I tell them that I'll take a course at a community college and will they still be able to grant acceptance as long as I get the minimum grade?
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Yes, send them the syllabus sometimes schools accept a class where aadsas does not. You’ll still get an interview if they want you. Yes, if the school rejects it as an english class, just explain that you’ll take the required english class before matriculation via cc, 4 yr university class, online etc.
 
I have certifications in BLS and Wilderness First Responder (WFR) from some of my extracurricular activities. Would this be worth including in the Licenses section of AADSAS? There is not too much guidance in the description of the license section so I am not sure if they mean more like X-ray, RDH stuff. I would leave it blank if I didn't include those two certs. Thanks.
 
Hey there, so I submitted my application last week and it’s been verified and under review for some schools already, but I have a quick question. I have shadowed 2 dentists this week and updated my experiences section to reflect that, and one of them offered to write me a LOR because she really liked me I guess. My question is, will my application be delayed if I add her as an evaluator and request a letter then wait for her to submit (she said she would have it done in the next few weeks)? I know a good LOR from a dentist is always a benefit, but I am just worried it will delay my application being reviewed. See my post under WAMC dental for more background on my situation.

Thanks in advance!
 
This is a stupid question but we can request/send transcripts after turning in the AADSAS applications right?
 
Hello! Sorry if it's been asked before (the search feature is down) but I was wondering exactly how you send dentist rec letters to schools. Can I send different letters of recs to different dental schools? For example ECU requires a dentist's letter of rec who's from North Carolina, but I may not want to send that same letter of rec to all my dental schools. Would I be able to select which school gets what rec letter, or does every school get the same set of rec letters?

I'm not applying this year so I don't have an open application to check this, but I would like to know which dentist I should spend more time shadowing with
 
marcieliu said:
Hello! Sorry if it's been asked before (the search feature is down) but I was wondering exactly how you send dentist rec letters to schools. Can I send different letters of recs to different dental schools? For example ECU requires a dentist's letter of rec who's from North Carolina, but I may not want to send that same letter of rec to all my dental schools. Would I be able to select which school gets what rec letter, or does every school get the same set of rec letters?

I'm not applying this year so I don't have an open application to check this, but I would like to know which dentist I should spend more time shadowing with
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No, you're not allowed to pick and choose which letter goes where. Every school will get all the letters that are uploaded to your AADSAS application.
 
artist2022 said:
No, you're not allowed to pick and choose which letter goes where. Every school will get all the letters that are uploaded to your AADSAS application.
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Don't some dental schools have different requirements of what kinds of LORs they need? Does that mean certain schools will have to be getting more letters than they need? Also my advisor told me I could use the North Carolina letter as an extra outside of the committee letter packet (which I plan on doing next year) and choose which schools to send that extra to, is that not true?
 
marcieliu said:
Don't some dental schools have different requirements of what kinds of LORs they need? Does that mean certain schools will have to be getting more letters than they need? Also my advisor told me I could use the North Carolina letter as an extra outside of the committee letter packet (which I plan on doing next year) and choose which schools to send that extra to, is that not true?
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Yes, you can always send in additional letters directly to the schools to meet their specific requirements if they accept extra letters (check websites), but anything uploaded onto AADSAS will be sent to every school you apply to.

With a committee letter, it takes up 3 spots on AADSAS out of the 4 given, so you have room for one more. If you use the NC letter in that spot, it'll go to every school, but if you have the writer send it directly to ECU, it'll only go there obviously.

For extra letters, your writer has to send it to the school directly to maintain confidentiality, so keep this in mind...
 
artist2022 said:
Yes, you can always send in additional letters directly to the schools to meet their specific requirements if they accept extra letters (check websites), but anything uploaded onto AADSAS will be sent to every school you apply to.

With a committee letter, it takes up 3 spots on AADSAS out of the 4 given, so you have room for one more. If you use the NC letter in that spot, it'll go to every school, but if you have the writer send it directly to ECU, it'll only go there obviously.

For extra letters, your writer has to send it to the school directly to maintain confidentiality, so keep this in mind...
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I see, thank you so much!
 
Hi, I was recently going to submit my application bit the submission button is locked. I read online it can be due to the FAP processing my fee waiver. I just wanted to know, is that the case? Is anyone else experiencing this?
 
Hello,

I need to update the date that I am taking the DAT due to it being pushed back, do I go ahead and change the date on the application and resubmit it?
 
I have completed my undergraduate and graduate studies, but I might still need to take a couple of courses to fulfil my prerequisites. However, I am still not sure as to what exact courses I will be taking. When I contacted AADSAS regarding this issue, I was informed that not identifying courses that I have taken or plan to take to fulfill the prerequisites, will result in my application being incomplete and thus they will not send my application to the school. But, also they said that during the Academic update we are not able to edit the courses that I identified to fulfil the prerequisites (we are just able to add the mark). Therefore, I was wondering if it is possible that I put down a potential course as a placeholder and identify it as planned for now. Then, should I need to edit the course code, would it be okay for me to follow up with the schools directly.
 
johnbassili1 said:
Hi, I was recently going to submit my application bit the submission button is locked. I read online it can be due to the FAP processing my fee waiver. I just wanted to know, is that the case? Is anyone else experiencing this?
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I have no idea how FAP works but it looks like you're not the only one: "Submit" button greyed out! help!
niobaltz said:
Hello,

I need to update the date that I am taking the DAT due to it being pushed back, do I go ahead and change the date on the application and resubmit it?
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I think changing the date will just notify the schools that an update has been made to your application. There's no "resubmitting" involved.
DentalApplicant2.0 said:
I have completed my undergraduate and graduate studies, but I might still need to take a couple of courses to fulfil my prerequisites. However, I am still not sure as to what exact courses I will be taking. When I contacted AADSAS regarding this issue, I was informed that not identifying courses that I have taken or plan to take to fulfill the prerequisites, will result in my application being incomplete and thus they will not send my application to the school. But, also they said that during the Academic update we are not able to edit the courses that I identified to fulfil the prerequisites (we are just able to add the mark). Therefore, I was wondering if it is possible that I put down a potential course as a placeholder and identify it as planned for now. Then, should I need to edit the course code, would it be okay for me to follow up with the schools directly.
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So reading this, it looks like you might not have pre-reqs to match on the application for certain schools, and thus you won't be able to submit to those schools. A lot of schools already have fall schedules out so I'd suggest looking at those and figuring out what you'll be taking so you can add it. It's a lot of trouble putting down a course, matching it, and not taking it because AADSAS does not let you make any changes at all. It's up to the school at that point if they want to consider you, even if you followed up with the schools directly. I had the same thing happen where I think I needed to take an extra class for Boston U and I matched a potential class as a pre-req, but I couldn't get in cause it filled up too quickly. I had to send them an email explaining this change and honestly they took my money and everything before this but I never heard back from them :shrug:
Dwerfy said:
Can I pay my supplemental fees before my application has been verified by AADSAS?
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Check the websites of the schools you applied to. Some are okay with the fee being paid earlier, but some (like UCLA), will tell you when they want you to pay, and paying early can cause delays in your app.
 
Hey!

For those of you who did dual enrollment in high school or took community college classes, how did you go about inputing those classes?

I think I may need to order a copy of all my transcripts because I took classes at the college so long ago that I forgot what terms I was there and the grades I got. Did you all use the unoffical transcripts on your school's website? I want everything to match up.

Also, I made the mistake of not selecting the option to send my scores to all dental schools. Do I have to go back and pay extra to send it to 1 school, or is there any way to add it for free?
 
FutureDentDee said:
Hey!

For those of you who did dual enrollment in high school or took community college classes, how did you go about inputing those classes?

I think I may need to order a copy of all my transcripts because I took classes at the college so long ago that I forgot what terms I was there and the grades I got. Did you all use the unoffical transcripts on your school's website? I want everything to match up.

Also, I made the mistake of not selecting the option to send my scores to all dental schools. Do I have to go back and pay extra to send it to 1 school, or is there any way to add it for free?
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1) Search up dual enrollment on this page: Transcript Entry
2) If you don't think your unofficial transcript is a duplicate of your official, order an official so that your transcript entry is correct and your application isn't returned back to you to fix.
3) As long as you selected one school at the time of registration for your DAT, it will be sent to all.
 
artist2022 said:
1) Search up dual enrollment on this page: Transcript Entry
2) If you don't think your unofficial transcript is a duplicate of your official, order an official so that your transcript entry is correct and your application isn't returned back to you to fix.
3) As long as you selected one school at the time of registration for your DAT, it will be sent to all.
Click to expand...

Thanks! As for #3 , I saw somewhere that if you didn't select all the schools, you would have to go back later and pay to send your scores to any schools you didn't select. I don't know how valid that is, but I hope you're right and I don't have to worry about sending them again.

I'm not sure how accurate unofficial transcripts are, so I was wondering what others experienced when using it.
 
FutureDentDee said:
I'm not sure how accurate unofficial transcripts are, so I was wondering what others experienced when using it.
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It really depends on your school, so others won't be much help unless they happen to go to the same school.... I'd call and ask your school to see if they're the same or if there are any differences.
 
Hi I’m a predental student applying this cycle 21AA 3.65 gpa 3.53 science
I recently saw a post that said med school applicants are up 50% this cycle and I’m assuming that means a similar trend in pre dental applicants. I was wondering if this was true? I don’t know if you’re able to verify this but I thought I’d try out of curiosity. I was told by others before this stat that this cycle would be less competitive but i guess not‍♂️
 
predentstudent39 said:
Hi I’m a predental student applying this cycle 21AA 3.65 gpa 3.53 science
I recently saw a post that said med school applicants are up 50% this cycle and I’m assuming that means a similar trend in pre dental applicants. I was wondering if this was true? I don’t know if you’re able to verify this but I thought I’d try out of curiosity. I was told by others before this stat that this cycle would be less competitive but i guess not‍♂
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Hi! Do you mind linking the article where you found this?
 
predentstudent39 said:
Hi I’m a predental student applying this cycle 21AA 3.65 gpa 3.53 science
I recently saw a post that said med school applicants are up 50% this cycle and I’m assuming that means a similar trend in pre dental applicants. I was wondering if this was true? I don’t know if you’re able to verify this but I thought I’d try out of curiosity. I was told by others before this stat that this cycle would be less competitive but i guess not‍♂
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I've read something similar too. I believe what it meant was that the first day the cycle soft opened, 50% more people signed up/began filling out their applications. It makes sense considering everyone is at home. I highly doubt it means there are 50% more applicants this year because the process and application in general isn't the type you can randomly decide to fill out and submit, since there are so many variables. Shadowing, pre-reqs, LoRs, DAT, etc that you need planned far out in advance.
 
PreDentGator2021 said:
Sorry if it's already been asked, but when will schools start inviting people for interviews this cycle? I imagine they will start giving out invites later than usual for this cycle.
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Curious if later invites will occur as well. MWU - AZ sent invitations out around 10 days after the cycle opened last year. I think we should hear from them soon.
 
FosterWallace said:
Where should I specify that I’m going to be pursuing a masters degree in the fall? I have a not great undergrad gpa and One of the main things that is distinguishing my application from the one I submitted last year is that I will be in a masters this year Improving it. I wrote about this in the slot that asks what’s different about your application this year than your previous one. Should I mention it somewhere else? Personal statement?
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PS would be a good place, and also I'd add it as a school for the Academic History part, and list the classes you'll be taking as "Planned".
 
Do mission trips fall under both dental experience/shadowing and volunteer hours? Because I definitely did both on my trip.
 
Kayrun said:
Curious if later invites will occur as well. MWU - AZ sent invitations out around 10 days after the cycle opened last year. I think we should hear from them soon.
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I've been wondering that about MWU-AZ as well. My online application says complete on their portal, and it says "Received/Under Review" on AADSAS's Status page. hm. I guess we'll see. I'm also wondering about Iowa
 
FutureDentDee said:
Do mission trips fall under both dental experience/shadowing and volunteer hours? Because I definitely did both on my trip.
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You could split the hours between the three or put them all in one place. I put it all under volunteering and explained that I shadowed and assisted in the description.
 
I just submitted my AADSAS yesterday so it will be awhile before my transcripts and evaluations are verified. For schools that say send in supplemental app or fee asap (UPENN etc) and schools that dont really say a timeline, should I complete those apps and pay the fees before my AADSAS is verified?
 
Curious about the "title" listed after the supervisor's name. Is it asking about the supervisor's title? I had a mentor in my organization. Do I just list it as a mentor for its title?
 
When c/ping personal statement into adea, how do people usually indicate paragraphs? indentation/skipping a line between paragraphs or just entering to the next line? or does it not matter?!

and if we enter supervisors for the experiences section, do we need to enter the email/number
 
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predentttbear said:
When c/ping personal statement into adea, how do people usually indicate paragraphs? indentation/skipping a line between paragraphs or just entering to the next line? or does it not matter?!

and if we enter supervisors for the experiences section, do we need to enter the email/number
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I personally entered and skipped a line to make an empty space between paragraphs to make it easier to read. The application doesn’t recognize indentions.

And I don’t think you have to put emails and phone numbers for supervisors of you don’t have them, but I do think it adds credibility.
 
I just took the DAT and am now working on my application, after i finish the application and select my programs and submit my application what do i have to do for the DAT scores? i already entered the unofficial scores but what about the official? do i need to send them to each school i apply to or will they automatically go to them when i submit my application? if so how long does it take to get to them i applied july 2 so when should i submit my application? thank you.
 
When matching prereqs, if I retook a class, should I click on the class for both times I took it?
 
saidsayegh said:
I just took the DAT and am now working on my application, after i finish the application and select my programs and submit my application what do i have to do for the DAT scores? i already entered the unofficial scores but what about the official? do i need to send them to each school i apply to or will they automatically go to them when i submit my application? if so how long does it take to get to them i applied july 2 so when should i submit my application? thank you.
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As along as you selected ONE school when you were submitting your application to take the DAT, they will be sent to AADSAS anywhere from 2-4 weeks after you took the test without you needing to do anything. If you didn't, you will need to go to the ADA website and request scores be sent. You can submit your application anyway because it can take some time for your transcripts to be verified and your GPAs to be calculated.
FosterWallace said:
When matching prereqs, if I retook a class, should I click on the class for both times I took it?
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No. Only the one that meets the pre-req grade.
 
For Loma Linda University, do international applicants have to take Toefl exam in order to apply or does graduating from an US institution fill satisfy the requirement? Thank you.
 
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