LHUEMT911 said:
How difficult is it to get into dental school as compared to med school?
I have some experience in the dental vs. med school application process. Here's the deal:
Obviously med school is VERY difficult to get into in the U.S. - top MCAT scores and high GPA's are the way in.
Dental schools used to be an easier road. The ave. GPA was a 3.2 and the DAT scores acceptable at a 16 (22 or above with a good gpa was an obvious acceptance). However, Dental schools have become much more competetive to get into. The ave. GPA is around 3.6 and the DAT score ave. around 20. For a good school, 22.
This raised level is due mostly to the jump in d-school applications in the past 5 years. Most schools accept 50 to 100 students per year with the most being schools like NYU at 200'ish. The number of applications for these 50 to 100 spots is in the thousands. The numbers are WAY up.
My first hope was to become a doctor, but with the competetiveness of the application pool for med schools, i set my sights on dentistry - i've worked in the field for about 5 years and had a 3.3 GPA and an 18 on the PAT, and a 17 for the general sciences, 22 on the english. I didn't get in. I was waitlisted at 4 schools but nothing panned out. I found out about med schools in the carib and searched for dental schools but as is said above, there are none accredited in the states. The Puerto Rican school requires fluency in Spanish and if you go to an international school, you'll still have to take an exam upon your return and most often, must take the final year of dental school over in an American school setting. Anyway, I ended up applying to a caribbean med school and got in asap. I didn't want to spend any more time re-taking the DAT and re-applying ... but if you really want to do it, take the time and effort to try again. Second times a charm?
Good Luck.
. D-school is tough to get in, and only looks to get harder with the rise in applicants anticipated.
