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- Thread starter newstudent
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Great question and im wondering the same thing myself. Im in a similar situation but unfortunately my DAT isnt quite as high as yours. Im definitely retaking the DAT, completing my second degree in Biology, applying to many more school, getting my application in on May 15, submitting additional letters of recommendation from professors, dentists, and volunteer coordinators, and then all I can do is hope for the best.
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probably best to email the schools instead of calling them. you may get a form letter or you may actually get some constructive criticism. Sometimes, though, you can get lucky if you call and speak to someone other than the dean. Once, I spoke to someone at a school about my situation and she filled me in on some prevailing opinions, and said she would pull my file and stick it under the nose of the dean. He looked at it, and she emailed me back with his critique.
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I had the same results as you for last year's cycle. After reviewing my school choices, I called those who had denied me and asked for some constructive criticism. It made all the difference in the world! My app was pretty strong before but by applying what I learned from the admissions people I was able to make a better showing this year. I just completed my 4th interview and have already been accepted to two schools.
congrats on the acceptances, DMDreaming! You just called and asked them what you could work on? How do you improve so much in one year? It must be hard work!
If you don't mind, can you tell me which schools you applied to and got interviewed and accepted at? I have similar stats too and it's not bad yet not good. just at the borderline (these stats are the hardest!) 😕 so some valuable advice as to which universities are worth applying to would be appreciated. thanks!!
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I didn't mean to suggest that calling schools would allow miraculous improvements. However, I felt it was beneficial to me to have made the calls and here is why:
When I talked to the schools, they focused, IMO, more on how I marketed myself and made suggestions about things I would have never known were important on my own. They realize most pre-dents know what competitive GPA and DAT scores are. Instead, they focused on other things. For instance, it was suggested that I use my personal statement to address my academic issues from early on in my college career rather than directly address "why I want to be a dentist". (I'm a non-trad. College life for me started before some of you were born.) Two of the schools recommended this because they felt it would get schools to look at my academic trend more so than my AADSAS stats. This really helped at Colorado where they weed through the apps initially just based on the AADSAS stats.
Also, I have almost 17 years of dental assisting experience. It was brought to my attention that even though this is an asset my experience was all in general dentistry. It was recommended I spend time shadowing in specialty practices. I did this before submitting this year's application and had one of the oral surgeons write me a letter of recommendation. At all but one interview, this was brought up. They seemed to like the fact that even though I've been in the field, I'm still in love with learning about it. I'd have never thought of this on my own.
