Does anyone know how well Predents.com reflects the the general applicant stats? I have noticed that the stats of the students accepted and attending the the schools is often generally higher than the average statistics of the students attending the school provided by the school.
Predents.com Stats
- Thread starter jwdent
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Predents is only a small portion of the total applicant pool, and the stats seem to be a little higher than what is reported by individual schools...It probably has something to do with the fact that the people who are pro-active and seek out sites like this and predents are generally better prepared for and more knowledgable about the application requirements and process.
I would agree, for example we had a kid last year with a 3.5 overall and science GPA (roughly) and 18AA on the DAT and got into 4 schools, which isnt exactly what one would expect from looking at sites like predents.
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Generally speaking though only 10% of the entire applicant pool uses the website and usually its the ones who have good stats.
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as others have said, students seeking this website and predents seem to be more proactive and reflect higher stats. look at the schools stats, not just the stats of people on predents.
also keep in mind that although gpa/dat if the first (many times the main thing) that adcoms sees. its not the only.
my gpa and dat are lower than most people here and on predents, but i got accepted
also keep in mind that although gpa/dat if the first (many times the main thing) that adcoms sees. its not the only.
my gpa and dat are lower than most people here and on predents, but i got accepted
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enjoy Lloma Linda because it's in San Diego. Such a great place!! I wish there was another D-school there that wasn't private/christian. Not that there is anything wrong with religious schools..just not for me.
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First, what does this have to do with the rest of the thread?
Second, Loma Linda is over 100 miles from San Diego...
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thankyou very much 🙂
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That kid is still the exception, and not the rule. And Predents may have inflated stats, but it should serve as motivation for those that are applying.
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It can't serve as a motivator if you are currently applying, your GPA can't change that much. If anything (at the moment) Predents.com can even serve as a detriment for those with low stats, discouraging them from applying to schools which they otherwise would have had a chance at. Just saying whats on the mind of some who I know steer away from that site and say its "depressing" whenever they visit predents.com.
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I can see your point, though I meant as a motivator for those that are applying and yet to take the DAT. "This is the caliber of people getting interviews??? Oh shoot, I'd better clamp down and study harder for the DAT." When I did a practice Kaplan DAT, there were 20+ kids and most of them thought they'd be fine if they got a 17, because that's the average. Yes, the average for applicants (aka kids who didn't get in), not the matriculant average (which is 19). It's still better to overshoot the DAT than to undershoot it. 😉
And Predents.com isn't the only source of information out there, Doc Toothache uses the exact numbers from the ADEA booklet, so you can't complain if the numbers are inflated lol - http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=602109
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I do agree that it can serve as a motivator for those who haven't yet taken the DAT. Other than that the website is far from being representative of the entire applicant pool.
There are so many factors to take into consideration when viewing sites like Predents.com. One of them is the difficulty of the undergrad institution one attends, most posters leave that field blank. A 3.5 from Humboldt State isn't quite the same as a 3.5 from UCLA. I remember reading a post where the OP was quite proud of his 3.2 from UVA (justifiably so) but some poster was bashing on it, which I found baffling. The name of undergrad is pretty important IMO and when you have it blank all you see is a number which doesn't give you a true assesment of ones academics.
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True that a 3.2 from UVA may be difficult to achieve and is something to be proud of. However, when admissions are sifting through 4,000 applications, there will inevitably also be a 3.5 from UVA, a 3.5 from "Humboldt State", and a 3.8 from Humboldt State, and with all other factors being equal, all three of those other applicants may have admissions priority over the 3.2 from UVA. There are simply too many applicants for the numbers to be overriden by quality of undergrad. If admissions was just choosing between the 3.5 (maybe even 3.2) from UCLA and the 3.5 from Humboldt State, all else being equal, they would choose the student from UCLA. But when there are thousands of applicants, it is hard to justify choosing someone with a 3.2 (from wherever), over hundreds of applicants with better stats. You'd really need to wow adcoms for that to happen, like spent a year providing free dental care in Africa, or worked as a hygienist for a decade.. ok maybe not that extreme, but I'm just making a point 😉.
