Please Help!!!!!!!

[dentaldude8]

For all of you who read this I would greatly appreciate your advice on my situation. I am a 25 yr old white male dental school re-applicant. I applied early (May 18) to twelve schools, interviewed at only one where I am currently on the waitlist. I posted this same thread on the pre-dental forum but thought I should do it here considering that pre med students know the most ( for the most part) about post bacc and SMP programs.

Stats………………….
Cumulative GPA 3.50
BCP 3.44
Science GPA 3.36
DAT:
PAT 16
Quantitative 18
Reading Comp 19
General Chemistry 20
Organic Chemistry 19
Biology 22
AA 20 (for you non dental people AA=academic average, 20=85 percentile)
TS 20 (TS=total science)

Additionally- I have lots of dental experience, research experience, community service, etc.

I don’t want to give up on my dream but I really don’t know what direction I should go! I’ve thought about retaking the DAT but I don’t think I can do better than those scores. I studied full time for two months and won’t have time to do that again now that I work full time. But, what I’m really considering is a Special Masters program or a post-bacc program. I’ve spent countless hours looking into these options and really don’t know what the best option is. Most are flippin expensive, is it worth it to go 30-50k in debt for a masters degree? Would a post-bacc program that is affiliated with a dental or medical school be a better option? Do you have any programs that you would recommend, masters or post-bacc? Any information or advice is appreciated, thank you to everyone who replies!

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[snowy117]

It might be the PAT score that's hurting you. I know a lot of dental schools consider PAT to be very important and I've heard that you need it to be > 18.
Also, I know that there's a postbacc program at SFU/UCSF for pre-dental/reapp. students (http://online.sfsu.edu/~brothman/DentPBP.htm), which you might want to check out.

This is all I can give.. I wish I had more... MAybe someone with better info will reply soon.

 

[halekulani]

your gpa is fine
the PAT is holding you back.

 

[daeojkim]

I am not in dental school but since the admissions process is similar to medical school I give my opinion on this.

If I was in your situation, I would not do a SMP program and spend a year and $50K. Instead, I would rather not work or work part time and study DAT for few months like hell and retake it.

It looks like DAT is the only thing that is holding you back.

good luck