Pre-Health office Interview a DISASTER!!

[sheikha9]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hi everyone,

I just had my pre-health office interview on Friday for the committee recommendation letter, and I'm scared ****less right now

Instead of having a regular advisor from our school, I happened to be interviewed by a retired MEDICAL school admissions committee member who volunteers at UMD. He told me he didn't know he was going to be interviewing a pre-dental student and then started looking at my transcipt and such.

So in the end, he pretty much told me that my GPA was not anything special, my extracuriculars were lacking, and that I show nothing special to be accepted to a D.School. Also, he told me that he wants to wait for my DAT score before writing me a letter because he wants to mention my score in it.

Here are my stats: BCP 3.33, nonsci 3.54, cumulative 3.43

I'm taking the DAT in a week, and am aiming for a 22.

I have 90hours shadowing with a general dentist who I got a LOR from. I also worked as a receptionist last summer for 125hours with another dentist, and currently am working as an assistant with an orthodonist in a brand new practice.

The interview itself went fine, he told me that he thought I had a great personality and supported my reasons for wanting to enter Dentistry. But all throughout the interview, he completely skipped over my experience in the Dental field, he also made it seem like it was a bad thing that I am graduating a year early, even though I know people who had worse stats than me and graduated a year early and got into D.School.

I feel like he was comparing me to Pre-med students, which is not exactly fair to me since we don't have the same requirements.

So my question is, if this guy writes me a LOR, even though he liked my personality and all, I have a feeling his letter will actually hurt me!

What should I do?????? Any advice would be appreciated, also, are my stats really THAT BAD??? He said he doesn't even think i will get into my state school in Baltimore!!!!

 

[ryan85]

the guy seems like a douche. try asking whether they can assign some one else to write it for you.

 

[Yah-E]

Perhaps you can skip the prehealth advising LOR entirely and simply seek for individual science professors where in their classes you did well in. I'm sure Univ. Maryland Dental will respect a LOR from a faculty member just as much as a prehealth advise committee's LOR.

 

[toofache32]

I went to a small college where there was only one "Pre-health" advisor and he told me the same thing. Remember....he works for your university....not you. This means that he only cares about the statistics at his university...he wants to be able to say "over 90% of our graduates who apply to med/dental school are accepted" because it looks good for the university. This is why they discourage applicants who aren't shoe-ins. For the same reason, as soon as I let my advisor know that I was applying anyway, he did all he could to help me out so that I wouldn't contribute to the percentage that doesn't get accepted.

Don't listen to him. Let him know you will be applying regardless, and see if he starts working in your favor. If not, apply anyway.

 

[Uracil]

the guy seems like a douche. try asking whether they can assign some one else to write it for you.

I agree..just get a LOR from your professors and that would be totally fine as well!! Good Luck 😀

 

[tinman831]

You should voice your concerns with the person who runs the pre-health department at your school. Usually pre-health committees are there for your benefit and to help you get INTO graduate school. At my school, when they write a LOR, they highlight an applicants strengths (not weaknesses). Any weaknesses are usually conveyed to the applicant so they can improve on them and do well during real interviews. A 3.5 GPA is pretty good, and assuming you score well on the DAT, you have a good chance of getting accepted.

 

[starbright]

ya i would skip on having him write it. it's one of the worse possible things that could go wrong when applying to d school, having a letter of rec that views you in a negative light. Only get letters from those who think highly of u and want to do it.

 

[tom_servo_dds]

You should voice your concerns with the person who runs the pre-health department at your school. Usually pre-health committees are there for your benefit and to help you get INTO graduate school. At my school, when they write a LOR, they highlight an applicants strengths (not weaknesses). Any weaknesses are usually conveyed to the applicant so they can improve on them and do well during real interviews. A 3.5 GPA is pretty good, and assuming you score well on the DAT, you have a good chance of getting accepted.

I second that! Also, you may be able to get someone who is on the committee to read through your letters and see which ones they would/wouldn't send out. Not sure if your committee will do this, but it may be worth a shot. Best of luck!

 

[dexadental]

Here is what I would do. First I would make sure I could get reccomendations from other people, you don't neccesarily need to have a pre-health department write your letter for you. Then I would call the guy up, or ask to speak with him in person, and let him know how ignorant and unprofessional he was with the process...choose your own words, I'm sure you can think of something creative. Then when you do get accepted, I'd photocopy your acceptance and find his school or home address and mail him a nice little letter. Good luck.

 

[sheikha9]

Thanks everyone for replying!

I just went to talk to my prehealth advisors today and pretty much walked out with a reassurance that they will re-evaluate his recommendation letter before signing on it.

Has anyone else experienced something similar? I though the prehealth office is supposed to push you to get in, but everyone in our office seems like they are trying to discourage us from applying.

I mean, I realize I am not on the top of the applicant pool, but then again, I am not exactly BELOW average either...this is just very frustrating and at the same time it is making me nervous and doubting my abilities to get accepted into a D.School!!!

 

[Mr.E]

Thanks everyone for replying!

I just went to talk to my prehealth advisors today and pretty much walked out with a reassurance that they will re-evaluate his recommendation letter before signing on it.

Has anyone else experienced something similar? I though the prehealth office is supposed to push you to get in, but everyone in our office seems like they are trying to discourage us from applying.

I mean, I realize I am not on the top of the applicant pool, but then again, I am not exactly BELOW average either...this is just very frustrating and at the same time it is making me nervous and doubting my abilities to get accepted into a D.School!!!

Read carefully. You do not need a LOR from an advisory board to get into d-school. If they will not work with you, or if you feel you may be at a disadvantage because of their criticism, disregard their service. In fact, given what you've already stated, it appears the service may be providing a disservice to its students. Screw the service and ask three science professors to write you LORs instead. Good luck.