Putting schools stats into perspective

[Tunaman]

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So this is something Ive been thinking about for years... With the decline of the economy, the number of applications are somehow going up making dental schools more competitive. Think about this- a school reports receiving 4500 applications last year and only filling 125 seats, yet their class profile shows an average DAT of 19 and GPA of 3.3. These are my thoughts....of these 4500 applicants, how many students actually fulfilled the necessary pre-reqs? How many don't meet the DAT cutoffs? How many applicants are just hoping someone will let them in with a 16? How many have GPA's below whats required? How many are international students that can't come up with the money for tuition? How many won't meet residency requirements when a schools state-specific? How many students will have leave their applications incomplete for that school- whether it be an LOR requirement or just something silly? How many students are legitimate candidates and not just applying on a whim?

Bottom line is that these are all filtering methods and the schools reported #'s are BS...a way to make their program sound more competitive than the next. Good luck this cycle, don't let their skewed numbers bum you out. 19+ DAT, 3.2+ GPA, strong LOR's and EC's, couple hundred shadowing hours ===== gets you in somewhere, just nail the intervirew!!!

 

[diene]

So this is something Ive been thinking about for years... With the decline of the economy, the number of applications are somehow going up making dental schools more competitive. Think about this- a school reports receiving 4500 applications last year and only filling 125 seats, yet their class profile shows an average DAT of 19 and GPA of 3.3. These are my thoughts....of these 4500 applicants, how many students actually fulfilled the necessary pre-reqs? How many don't meet the DAT cutoffs? How many applicants are just hoping someone will let them in with a 16? How many have GPA's below whats required? How many are international students that can't come up with the money for tuition? How many won't meet residency requirements when a schools state-specific? How many students will have leave their applications incomplete for that school- whether it be an LOR requirement or just something silly? How many students are legitimate candidates and not just applying on a whim?

Bottom line is that these are all filtering methods and the schools reported #'s are BS...a way to make their program sound more competitive than the next. Good luck this cycle, don't let their skewed numbers bum you out. 19+ DAT, 3.2+ GPA, strong LOR's and EC's, couple hundred shadowing hours ===== gets you in somewhere, just nail the intervirew!!!

This a good prospective! To add to the list, how many people are normal people with normal stats who don't use SDN *_*

 

[Tunaman]

Soooooo true lol!!!

 

[cwoodds]

This a good prospective! To add to the list, how many people are normal people with normal stats who don't use SDN *_*

Yes, thank you! I was so excited with my 23AA until coming here and seeing everyone's posted stats! 😱 It's good to get grounded anyway.

 

[sacapuntas]

For a point of reference, I believe a video posted at courseaver of U of Pacific's admissions rep said something along the lines of that out of the several thousands apps they receive, 800-900 are considered competitive. Forgive me if my numbers are a little off, it has been almost a year since I watched the video, but the jist was that 2/3 of applicants aren't meeting minimums and aren't otherwise competitive.

 

[Tunaman]

For a point of reference, I believe a video posted at courseaver of U of Pacific's admissions rep said something along the lines of that out of the several thousands apps they receive, 800-900 are considered competitive. Forgive me if my numbers are a little off, it has been almost a year since I watched the video, but the jist was that 2/3 of applicants aren't meeting minimums and aren't otherwise competitive.

And of those 800-900, they'll send out around 600 interview invites, end up accepting 500 students, of which statistically only 125 will end up attending because these top candidates likely have multiple offers awaiting them at other schools

 

[Zbtb7]

For a point of reference, I believe a video posted at courseaver of U of Pacific's admissions rep said something along the lines of that out of the several thousands apps they receive, 800-900 are considered competitive. Forgive me if my numbers are a little off, it has been almost a year since I watched the video, but the jist was that 2/3 of applicants aren't meeting minimums and aren't otherwise competitive.

Do you know how UoP screens applicants? From what I've read, it seems they like high stats.

 

[sacapuntas]

Do you know how UoP screens applicants? From what I've read, it seems they like high stats.

I don't have any specific knowledge about UoP. I recommend you watch the videos over at c o ur se sa ve r . c o m if you want to get more insight into the school. If memory of the videos serves me correctly, I believe they are a school that values a high DAT and wants a PAT greater than 20.