Please be honest. Do I have a chance to get into VCU or any Dental school?

[TheVoMan]

Hi SDN!

I recently took my DAT's and I'm very nervous about whether I can get into dental school or not.

My DAT scores:
Bio: 20
GC; 18
Orgo: 20
PAT: 21
RC: 20
QR: 18

Overall DAT AA: 19
Overat DAT TS: 19

My Overall GPA 3.80
Cumulative Science GPA 3.70

I've over 250 hours of Dental Shadowing experience and Working experience as a small chair side assisting and front desk reception.

Slightly few hours of volunteering. 6 hours of Mission of Mercy volunteering

I've more but I'm not sure High School volunteering counts:
Over 50 hours volunteering in an elderly retirement home
25 hours volunteering at a library
3 hours volunteering in the neighborhood clean up/recycle committee of the community

I've 4 recommendation letters ready.

Special Circumstances:
-Asian
-First Generation High school-College student
-Transfer Student
-Dependent on Single Parent
-Family income of $50,000

Extracurricular:
Member of Golden Key Honor society
3 years Deans List at College
Member of Vietnamese Student Association
1 Summer work experience as Pool Life Guard


Prospective Schools (I live in Virginia)
-Virginia Commonwealth (Dream School)
-Howard Dental School
-West Virginia University
-University of Kentucky
-Medical College of Georgia
-University of Missouri (Kansas City)
-Marquette University
-University of Louisville
-Indiana University
-Boston University
-Temple University
-University of Maryland

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you for your time. Please be honest. I really appreciate your help.

I'm very worried, considering that my Mom will be disowning me if I don't get accepted within two years. A lot rides on whether I can get in or not, and my Mom believes I will fail.

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[grivacobae]

I wish I had your stats, I should be worried with 3.27 cGPA and 4.0 sGPA (only 2 classes ), you should be relaxing and deciding which one to chose after your accepted

 

[y3nd0]

Average DAT scores, but good GPA. A few things:
- Being an Asian does not mean URM. We are not underrepresented. Haha.
- The other "special circumstances" won't have any huge impact on your chances to dental school unless they have affected you in a large way (if it has, it can be something you bring up in your personal statement or secondary applications).
- You have a good number of shadowing hours, but you should definitely beef up your volunteer hours. High school hours DO NOT count. Those 6 hours volunteering won't seem like much in the grand scheme of your overall application.
- Those extracurriculars you listed (no offense) aren't very special. Golden Key is pretty easy to get into, the majority of applicants will have been on the Dean's List plenty of times, being a "member" of a club (and holding no cabinet positions) is virtually meaningless. The summer swimming program is OK, but is considered to be "work experience", not volunteer work.

As for your school list, you picked a few state schools that are not out of state friendly.
I'd take out:
- Georgia
- Kentucky
- Indiana and Missouri accept an okay amount of OOS people, but I'd expect they take the best of the best. Apply if you'd like, but know chances aren't that high.
- Howard caters mostly to African Americans/Hispanics (?). Apply if you'd like, but I'd personally take them off my list.

I'd add on more private schools that don't discriminate against OOS. Schools like Case Western, the Midwestern University's, NYU, Tufts, etc.

No one on this forum can tell you for sure whether or not you will get into any school. We can only provide advice. It never hurts to apply (only hurts your pocket book).

I highly recommend you purchase that ADEA Official Guide to Dental Schools. It's $10 for the e-Book, $35 for a hard copy, and is a very invaluable source of information. If you can't purchase it, you should check out doctoothache's mini Guide to Dental Schools, found here: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/2013-guide-mini-guide-to-dental-school-admission.942453/

 

[LFA20]

Hi SDN!

I recently took my DAT's and I'm very nervous about whether I can get into dental school or not.

My DAT scores:
Bio: 20
GC; 18
Orgo: 20
PAT: 21
RC: 20
QR: 18

Overall DAT AA: 19
Overat DAT TS: 19

My Overall GPA 3.80
Cumulative Science GPA 3.70

I've over 250 hours of Dental Shadowing experience and Working experience as a small chair side assisting and front desk reception.

Slightly few hours of volunteering. 6 hours of Mission of Mercy volunteering

I've more but I'm not sure High School volunteering counts:
Over 50 hours volunteering in an elderly retirement home
25 hours volunteering at a library
3 hours volunteering in the neighborhood clean up/recycle committee of the community

I've 4 recommendation letters ready.

Special Circumstances:
-Asian
-First Generation High school-College student
-Transfer Student
-Dependent on Single Parent
-Family income of $50,000

Extracurricular:
Member of Golden Key Honor society
3 years Deans List at College
Member of Vietnamese Student Association
1 Summer work experience as Pool Life Guard


Prospective Schools (I live in Virginia)
-Virginia Commonwealth (Dream School)
-Howard Dental School
-West Virginia University
-University of Kentucky
-Medical College of Georgia
-University of Missouri (Kansas City)
-Marquette University
-University of Louisville
-Indiana University
-Boston University
-Temple University
-University of Maryland

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you for your time. Please be honest. I really appreciate your help.

I'm very worried, considering that my Mom will be disowning me if I don't get accepted within two years. A lot rides on whether I can get in or not, and my Mom believes I will fail.

you have very good chance of getting in somewhere. I recommend adding more schools though (15 schools at least) with some private schools in the mix (nova, UDM, Tufts, Case, etc).

I had similar DAT scores(19aa/ts) and applied to 18 schools. Ended up with 6 predecember interviews and 3 acceptances on december 2nd

I had little to none EC's except being a member of a club. I also worked a few jobs. I am also asian

good luck

 

[TheVoMan]

Thank you all for the advice and responses. This not only helps me narrow down my list of schools, but allows me to decide on whether I should put some information down.

Do you think I should retake my DAT's? Would it hurt me to include the high school information?

Also, I could rejoin the committee's recycling again, would that be an acceptable example of community service?

 

[y3nd0]

Thank you all for the advice and responses. This not only helps me narrow down my list of schools, but allows me to decide on whether I should put some information down.

Do you think I should retake my DAT's? Would it hurt me to include the high school information?

Also, I could rejoin the committee's recycling again, would that be an acceptable example of community service?

I think your DAT score is fine, especially with that GPA, so no need to retake.

I actually do think that including high school information could hurt you because they'll know you're trying to cover up your lack of community work by taking things from your high school career. You aren't using your SAT scores to get into dental school, so why are you using your high school volunteer work? The only way this would be accepted is if you continued your high school volunteer work in college.

That would definitely be considered volunteer work as long as you put in valuable hours.

As a final note: the application process is a complete crap shoot. You never know what's going to happen, no matter what your credentials are. This could mean that you'll get invited/accepted to schools that you never expected to get invited to, and you could get rejected from schools you thought you were a shoo-in to. I think all of us that applied this cycle learned that the hard way.

 

[Illuminati33]

YES!! I just got into VCU we have the same GPA and similar DAT scores! Good Luck I would potentially consider trying to do a little more volunteer work that is dental related at a free clinic. Also I think the above suggestion about adding Case is a good one!

 

[AFlo1770]

I just finished with the application, interview, acceptance process and my stats were very similar to yours. I suggest picking your five top schools (especially if they are in your region) and just apply there. It costs a lot of money to apply and if you are a personable, determined individual, it will shine through in your interviews and you'll get in. Your stats are plenty high so try and relax and enjoy the process!

 

[TheVoMan]

So if I update my list do you think I've a high chance of acceptance in this order?

-Virginia Commonwealth (Dream School)
-University of Maryland
-Howard Dental School
-West Virginia University
-University of Michigan
-Nova Southeastern
-Temple University
-Marquette University
-The Midwestern's
-Case Western Reserve University
-University of Louisville
-Boston University
-UDM
-Tufts

My fear is that I might not get in. I was told that my stats were too low to apply for:
-Case
-UDM
-Nova

Also, I apologize because I failed to mention that before becoming a small chair side assistant, I had been a volunteer for the dentist I work for today. Mixed in with the 250 hours of shadowing, in reality I should probably term my "shadowing" experience as interning because I spent most of my time volunteering as I shadowed her. What I did was I would pass tools to my dentist, use high speed and low speed evacuaters, clean tools, autoclave, and perform all the front desk activities such as insurance calls, patient appointment reminders, and receiving phone calls. Would this count as my volunteer hours or would this just be considered shadowing? Additionally, I need community service hours on top of my dental volunteer hours right?

Again, thank you so much for helping me; this truly means a lot to me.

 

[Gaucho4Life]

So if I update my list do you think I've a high chance of acceptance in this order?

-Virginia Commonwealth (Dream School)
-University of Maryland
-Howard Dental School
-West Virginia University
-University of Michigan
-Nova Southeastern
-Temple University
-Marquette University
-The Midwestern's
-Case Western Reserve University
-University of Louisville
-Boston University
-UDM
-Tufts

My fear is that I might not get in. I was told that my stats were too low to apply for:
-Case
-UDM
-Nova

Also, I apologize because I failed to mention that before becoming a small chair side assistant, I had been a volunteer for the dentist I work for today. Mixed in with the 250 hours of shadowing, in reality I should probably term my "shadowing" experience as interning because I spent most of my time volunteering as I shadowed her. What I did was I would pass tools to my dentist, use high speed and low speed evacuaters, clean tools, autoclave, and perform all the front desk activities such as insurance calls, patient appointment reminders, and receiving phone calls. Would this count as my volunteer hours or would this just be considered shadowing? Additionally, I need community service hours on top of my dental volunteer hours right?

Again, thank you so much for helping me; this truly means a lot to me.

....you were an intern who assisted. Just say you have both clinical and administrative experience in the practice

 

[y3nd0]

So if I update my list do you think I've a high chance of acceptance in this order?

-Virginia Commonwealth (Dream School)
-University of Maryland
-Howard Dental School
-West Virginia University
-University of Michigan
-Nova Southeastern
-Temple University
-Marquette University
-The Midwestern's
-Case Western Reserve University
-University of Louisville
-Boston University
-UDM
-Tufts

My fear is that I might not get in. I was told that my stats were too low to apply for:
-Case
-UDM
-Nova

Also, I apologize because I failed to mention that before becoming a small chair side assistant, I had been a volunteer for the dentist I work for today. Mixed in with the 250 hours of shadowing, in reality I should probably term my "shadowing" experience as interning because I spent most of my time volunteering as I shadowed her. What I did was I would pass tools to my dentist, use high speed and low speed evacuaters, clean tools, autoclave, and perform all the front desk activities such as insurance calls, patient appointment reminders, and receiving phone calls. Would this count as my volunteer hours or would this just be considered shadowing? Additionally, I need community service hours on top of my dental volunteer hours right?

Again, thank you so much for helping me; this truly means a lot to me.

I think the list looks better, and I agree with what Gaucho4Life said. In AADSAS, you have two separate areas for your activities: extracurricular/volunteer/community, and dental related experience. The hours are tallied up separately for each. So yes, you need something nice to put into the volunteer/community service section. It will look pretty unbalanced if you list 250 hours of dental related experience and 6 hours of community (I still highly recommend you don't put down high school activities).

As for those schools, I'd try applying anyway. Your GPA is really good and your DAT is not bad. Just take a shot and see what happens. I'd rather spend an extra $270 for one cycle than have to spend more money to reapply.

 

[TheVoMan]

....you were an intern who assisted. Just say you have both clinical and administrative experience in the practice

Ah you're right. That would be a better way of phrasing it. Thank you!

 

[TheVoMan]

I think the list looks better, and I agree with what Gaucho4Life said. In AADSAS, you have two separate areas for your activities: extracurricular/volunteer/community, and dental related experience. The hours are tallied up separately for each. So yes, you need something nice to put into the volunteer/community service section. It will look pretty unbalanced if you list 250 hours of dental related experience and 6 hours of community (I still highly recommend you don't put down high school activities).

As for those schools, I'd try applying anyway. Your GPA is really good and your DAT is not bad. Just take a shot and see what happens. I'd rather spend an extra $270 for one cycle than have to spend more money to reapply.

You're absolutely right. I already emailed the head of the community's recycling committee to see if I can pitch in again. I won't include my high school experience in the application. The reasons you stated make complete sense to me, again thank you for the advice.

 

[Qtn2x]

i would also cross out West Virginia from your list, it's a state school that gives preference to their state residents

 

[TheVoMan]

i would also cross out West Virginia from your list, it's a state school that gives preference to their state residents

Ah yes, I had intended on crossing off West Virginia. Thank you! Have you all any more schools recommended for me to applying?

 

[y3nd0]

Here's a list of schools with a good amount of OOS acceptances, taken from the ADEA Official guide. Up to you to take a look at the schools (their pre-reqs, cost, average acceptance information, etc.).

MWU-AZ
MWU-IL
Loma Linda University (if you are religious)
University of the Pacific (high DAT preferred)
University of Southern California (most expensive in the country)
Western University
Nova
Boston University
Harvard University (obviously high stats and research preferred)
Tufts University
University of Detroit Mercy
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota
Creighton University
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Columbia University (likes research)
New York University
Case Western
University of Pennsylvania
University of Pittsburgh
Temple University
Roseman University
Marquette University

I pulled this list out of the 2012 ADEA Official guide (meant for the previous cycle, but information should still be good).

 

[TheVoMan]

Here's a list of schools with a good amount of OOS acceptances, taken from the ADEA Official guide. Up to you to take a look at the schools (their pre-reqs, cost, average acceptance information, etc.).

MWU-AZ
MWU-IL
Loma Linda University (if you are religious)
University of the Pacific (high DAT preferred)
University of Southern California (most expensive in the country)
Western University
Nova
Boston University
Harvard University (obviously high stats and research preferred)
Tufts University
University of Detroit Mercy
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota
Creighton University
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Columbia University (likes research)
New York University
Case Western
University of Pennsylvania
University of Pittsburgh
Temple University
Roseman University
Marquette University

I pulled this list out of the 2012 ADEA Official guide (meant for the previous cycle, but information should still be good).

Thank you so much for this list!

 

[TheVoMan]

you have very good chance of getting in somewhere. I recommend adding more schools though (15 schools at least) with some private schools in the mix (nova, UDM, Tufts, Case, etc).

I had similar DAT scores(19aa/ts) and applied to 18 schools. Ended up with 6 predecember interviews and 3 acceptances on december 2nd

I had little to none EC's except being a member of a club. I also worked a few jobs. I am also asian

good luck

I just wanted to say thank you again. Your comment definitely helped me get into the proper mindset this cycle. Thank you so much