Question to Canadian students in U.S. (DAT Carving)

[puncho]

I hear that American universities don't care about the carving portion of the DAT. Is that true? If so I don't plan on practicing much on that section...Thanks.

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[Mithridates]

I hear that American universities don't care about the carving portion of the DAT. Is that true? If so I don't plan on practicing much on that section...Thanks.

I wouldn't say they don't care. If you already have a shaky application, a 4 or 8 on the carving may cause them to doubt your file.

You want my advice: go down and write the american dat. If you're from Toronto, drive down to Buffalo - it's only like an hour and a half drive. They don't have the carving, but they have QR (which is fun) and orgo (which is not fun). But I think it's worth it. You can write the american DAT on pretty much any day of the year; schools will see that you're serious about the US, schools may feel more comfortable about you because they can compare you to most applications (esp. orgo); and I personally felt waaay more comfortable doing the exam on a computer. good luck canuck!

 

[pbure]

I wouldn't say they don't care. If you already have a shaky application, a 4 or 8 on the carving may cause them to doubt your file.

You want my advice: go down and write the american dat. If you're from Toronto, drive down to Buffalo - it's only like an hour and a half drive. They don't have the carving, but they have QR (which is fun) and orgo (which is not fun). But I think it's worth it. You can write the american DAT on pretty much any day of the year; schools will see that you're serious about the US, schools may feel more comfortable about you because they can compare you to most applications (esp. orgo); and I personally felt waaay more comfortable doing the exam on a computer. good luck canuck!

i got an 8 on carving..i'm not worried. weird thing is i expected a much better score. don't know what happened. i think the whole carving thing is nonsense. proves nothing and most u.s schools choose not to place any emphasis on it for good reason. i know a lot of friends who got 26 on carving but got 17-18 academic averages..i wouldn't trade spots with them. thats for sure.

 

[Dr.BadVibes]

i got an 8 on carving..i'm not worried. weird thing is i expected a much better score. don't know what happened. i think the whole carving thing is nonsense. proves nothing and most u.s schools choose not to place any emphasis on it for good reason. i know a lot of friends who got 26 on carving but got 17-18 academic averages..i wouldn't trade spots with them. thats for sure.

With your scores, Im so suprised you havent heard anything from those schools u applied too, especially Temple

 

[Mithridates]

i got an 8 on carving..i'm not worried. weird thing is i expected a much better score. don't know what happened. i think the whole carving thing is nonsense. proves nothing and most u.s schools choose not to place any emphasis on it for good reason. i know a lot of friends who got 26 on carving but got 17-18 academic averages..i wouldn't trade spots with them. thats for sure.

I agree, the carving is b.s. I hear most canadian schools ignore it these days too. But still, to the op: if you're submitting your canadian scores, I wouldn't just write off the carving portion and score poorly. My point is: nothing in life doesn't count. Who knows who'll be looking at your application? Maybe some old-school dude who had to do carving himself to apply (which they did in the us back in the day).

pbure, good luck with the application. The rest of your dat scores are pretty sweet. I was surprised to see your aadsas number at 7000 by only oct 22. Looks like its a competetive year.

I don't think an 8 is particularly bad for the carving; I know a ton of people who scored an 8 who are geniuses. I just think it's bad in terms of an american looking at it. These americans don't know that an 8 is common; they might see an 8 and say to themselves "holy crap, an 8 in bio, chem, pat, or qr is garbage, so an 8 in carving is garbage too." You know what I'm saying here? It's all out of thirty!!

 

[paolorossifan]

There are a few schools (USC) which may even make you do an onsite carving test, but most do not care. I recieved an 8 and I had not problems with acceptances.

 

[favabean]

Carving is not a factor. Too bad, 'cuz I scored a 26! But as Mithridates pointed out, if you plan on applying to Canadian schools also, keep that carving score up. But do not let carving practice hinder your studying for chem/bio/PAT ect. I think I spent a bit to much time on carving and my chem score suffered (17). So, pbure makes a good point when he says that the academic portion is much more important. good luck!