Reapplicant Situation - Applied 14 schools last year, no interviews

[Zymogenetics]

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Hi everyone,

For a variety of reasons, I was not given an interview last cycle after applying to 14 schools. Since then, I have slightly increased my GPA and greatly increased my shadowing/research hours and now I am contemplating whether I should apply again (to a smarter list of schools) or if I should wait a year and take upper level science class in the meantime. I contacted all the schools that rejected me and some said to pursue a masters program (difficult for me because of financial reasons) and some said to improve my shadowing hours. The other schools gave me generic advice or no advice at all.

My stats:
3.23 oGPA (3.16 last year)
3.18 sGPA (3.10 last year)
23 AA 23 TS 24 PA (everything above 20) DAT scores (same as last year)
800 Research hours with a publication in JDE (350 last year, no publication)
400 Volunteer hours (same as last year)
200 Shadowing hours (110 last year)
170 Dental assisting hours (none last year)
Good PS, mediocre science professor LORs, great dentist LORs

Given all this, I would appreciate it if anyone has any suggestions or insight for what to do in this situation. Please let me know if you have recommendations on schools to apply to as well. Thanks for looking!

 

[FeralisExtremum]

You've really upped your experience in dentistry, which is great. Your DAT is very strong. The weakness of the GPA remains, though - how well did you do in the most recent semesters?

 

[Zymogenetics]

You've really upped your experience in dentistry, which is great. Your DAT is very strong. The weakness of the GPA remains, though - how well did you do in the most recent semesters?

Thanks for the comment! For the past 2 semesters, I had a 3.20 then a 3.53 but the trend in my GPA has been going up and down over the past 4 years. Some of the dental schools I contacted mentioned that it was hard for them to believe that I could handle a full workload of upper-level science courses because of my 3 C's.

 

[DentalDoge]

Great improvements. Even on the GPA, assuming youre at the end of the undergrad route with about 100+ hours. 0.7 increase is great.

What are your plans whiel you're reapplying.

 

[Zymogenetics]

Great improvements. Even on the GPA, assuming youre at the end of the undergrad route with about 100+ hours. 0.7 increase is great.

What are your plans whiel you're reapplying.

Awesome, I'm glad to hear that, thanks! My current plan is to submit my application in June and work as a dental assistant while performing research at a lab. I am also thinking about taking more classes at a local university (instead of research) but I'm not sure how much this will help because dental schools won't see these grades until the academic update.

 

[ICUrunning]

Awesome, I'm glad to hear that, thanks! My current plan is to submit my application in June and work as a dental assistant while performing research at a lab. I am also thinking about taking more classes at a local university (instead of research) but I'm not sure how much this will help because dental schools won't see these grades until the academic update.

What schools did you apply to?

 

[DentalDoge]

Good that youre continuing your dental experiences.

What Im particularly interested in is the academic portion. Since some of the school believe that your history with upper science courses are not up to par. I would be working on those more than gathering more research and dental assistant experiences as you have plenty.

And this will be important because you can put down that you are taking upper science courses and the schools should wait til the academic update to see how well you fared.

Just my opinion, take it how you will.

 

[hii_world]

What schools did you apply to?

 

[Zymogenetics]

What schools did you apply to?

What schools did you apply to?

I have residency in CA and I applied to:
UCSF
UOP
UCLA
USC
Western
UWash
UMich
Boston U
Columbia
Indiana
Louisville
NYU
Buffalo
Rutgers

I know some of these schools were definitely a reach and I'm going to apply more broadly this time. Does anyone have suggestions on where else I should apply this year?

 

[ICUrunning]

I have residency in CA and I applied to:
UCSF
UOP
UCLA
USC
Western
UWash
UMich
Boston U
Columbia
Indiana
Louisville
NYU
Buffalo
Rutgers

I know some of these schools were definitely a reach and I'm going to apply more broadly this time. Does anyone have suggestions on where else I should apply this year?

Add some more private schools just to be on the safe side

 

[strep mutans]

For a variety of reasons, I was not given an interview last cycle after applying to 14 schools.

Does that mean you know of specific reasons you weren't offered an interview at any of the schools you applied to? Obviously some were OOS unfriendly or reach, but the others? (Did you apply late or not have the right LORs or something?)

I contacted all the schools that rejected me and some said to pursue a masters program (difficult for me because of financial reasons) and some said to improve my shadowing hours.

You applied last cycle with 110 shadowing hours and some schools recommended you get more hours?? Was there something odd about your hours? Which schools said this?

 

[Zymogenetics]

Does that mean you know of specific reasons you weren't offered an interview at any of the schools you applied to? Obviously some were OOS unfriendly or reach, but the others? (Did you apply late or not have the right LORs or something?)

You applied last cycle with 110 shadowing hours and some schools recommended you get more hours?? Was there something odd about your hours? Which schools said this?

I think the main reasons I wasn't offered an interview was because the schools were either OOS unfriendly or too far of a reach (like you said) or my GPA was too low and the other components of my application couldn't make up for that. I had all my application materials processed in mid-July and I had all the right LORs so I'm not sure what else it could have been.

In terms of shadowing hours, I had 40 that came from the local dental school clinic (not sure if that is odd to admission offices). I also shadowed at a practice that I later included in my academic update as a place I worked as a dental assistant... is this odd? I can only think of one of the schools that recommended me to get more hours (Indiana).

 

[strep mutans]

I think the main reasons I wasn't offered an interview was because the schools were either OOS unfriendly or too far of a reach (like you said) or my GPA was too low and the other components of my application couldn't make up for that. I had all my application materials processed in mid-July and I had all the right LORs so I'm not sure what else it could have been.

In that case I agree with DentalDoge that you should take some post bacc upper level bio courses to show you can handle it. And try to get better LORs if possible. Cool it on the research and focus on academics (unless you're interested in a DDS/PhD program, then maybe keep the research going also).

In terms of shadowing hours, I had 40 that came from the local dental school clinic (not sure if that is odd to admission offices). I also shadowed at a practice that I later included in my academic update as a place I worked as a dental assistant... is this odd? I can only think of one of the schools that recommended me to get more hours (Indiana).

I was thinking odd like if all your hours were from shadowing an OMFS. I would think the dental school clinic hours would be a positive.

 

[ajj70]

Most schools want your main shadow experience to be with a general dentist. I think that you did that at a dental school is maybe what they considered odd. I also agree that taking a couple post-bacc classes might be your best bet. If the admissions people expressed concern over your ability to handle the work, you need to prove you can. The only other thing that sticks out is maybe too much focus on research maybe???

 

[DentalDoge]

I have residency in CA and I applied to:
UCSF
UOP
UCLA
USC
Western
UWash
UMich
Boston U
Columbia
Indiana
Louisville
NYU
Buffalo
Rutgers

I know some of these schools were definitely a reach and I'm going to apply more broadly this time. Does anyone have suggestions on where else I should apply this year?

I think this is largely your problem right here, and Im surprised no one has mentioned it.

Most of these schools are in the range of 3.5+ GPA or OOS unfriendly. For most of them, you probably didnt even make it past the screening. These are mostly mid-tiered to high-tiered in terms of acceptance rates with varying degree of decent competitiveness. With GPA of 3.2, you shouldve at least had 1 or 2 safety schools.

I'd add schools like LECOM, Nova, and/or both of the MWUs