Reapplying After Declining Acceptance

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Starch96

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Hey everyone! I have a kind of interesting/weird situation this cycle and was hoping I might be able to get some advice or opinions from people on here (especially if they've been in a similar position)

I applied to dental schools last year, and in hindsight definitely didn't apply as widely as I should've due to the cost as well as a few other factors. Anyways, I interviewed at 2/4 schools I applied to and was accepted to Nova Southeastern and waitlisted at UF. I decided to decline my offer to NSU for a number of reasons. While I was at the school for my interview day, multiple students straight up told me not to go there and said that they wish they had chosen a different dental school. They said it felt like it was the students against the administration, and spoke about other issues like finding patients and problems with curriculum. Obviously this was a pretty big red flag to me. On top of that, just a week before I was accepted, NSU Dental made headlines for potentially exposing over 1,000 patients to HIV and Hepatitis due to improper sterilization in their orthodontic clinics.

I know that people on the forums tend to say that this declining an acceptance to reapply isn't a good idea, but I feel like the host of problems (most notably currents students literally telling me not to go to their school) make this pretty reasonable. I just wanted to know if I should include some sort of brief explanation of the circumstances why I turned down the acceptance in my AADSAS application? Will schools even know that I turned down an acceptance? I'm also curious if there are any schools that are known to be particularly friendly or unfriendly of reapplicants. Any help is greatly appreciated as I'd like to submit my application as soon as possible. Thanks in advance.

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Every school goes through a scandal of some sort at some point. Listening to students rail about school is not always productive for an applicant. It’s like complaining about the price of an oil change on a Ferrari. They’re already in, so they can say what they want. Students against administration seems like the ongoing story at most schools. No place will be perfect. It’s only 4 years. So much happens after that.
 
Echoing setdoc7.

I helped a student last year who rescinded her offer because she didn't want to go to that school (Midwestern IL). She ended up reapplying to that school again but didnt get into that school.

Now this is only one isolated incidence and I don't want you to take this story with a grain of salt. But, I think schools do have a way to know who rescinded their offers. So, if you reapply, don't apply to Nova.

Also, as a reapplicant, you need to explain what has improved or changed in the last year or so. If you mention that you got accepted into a school last year, the situation becomes really complex. So, it might be a better idea to not mention that you got accepted and JUST discuss your improvements over the year.

Hope this helps.
 
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Every school goes through a scandal of some sort at some point. Listening to students rail about school is not always productive for an applicant. It’s like complaining about the price of an oil change on a Ferrari. They’re already in, so they can say what they want. Students against administration seems like the ongoing story at most schools. No place will be perfect. It’s only 4 years. So much happens after that.

I'm sure every school has their struggles at some point or another and stressed out students may not always be the best source of info, but with what I heard and the vibe that many many other potential students got (based on the NSU C/O 2023 thread in School Specific Discussions) it is not somewhere where I wanted to be for four years, especially when you consider the fact that NOVA is a particularly expensive school. I value my happiness and mental health more than to go somewhere and be miserable for four years only to come out $500K in debt after it all. Regardless, that's behind me and the point of the thread was just to ask for tips from anyone who's been in my shoes and to see if this is something I need to address in this cycle's application.
 
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Echoing setdoc7.

I helped a student last year who rescinded her offer because she didn't want to go to that school (Midwestern IL). She ended up reapplying to that school again but didnt get into that school.

Now this is only one isolated incidence and I don't want you to take this story with a grain of salt. But, I think schools do have a way to know who rescinded their offers. So, if you reapply, don't apply to Nova.

Also, as a reapplicant, you need to explain what has improved or changed in the last year or so. If you mention that you got accepted into a school last year, the situation becomes really complex. So, it might be a better idea to not mention that you got accepted and JUST discuss your improvements over the year.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the insight. I definitely won't be applying to Nova this cycle. When you say that I need to discuss my improvements, where do you suggest doing this? Is this something that needs to be addressed in my personal statement? Or somewhere else in my app? I'm not sure where exactly something like this would fit best
 
Thanks for the insight. I definitely won't be applying to Nova this cycle. When you say that I need to discuss my improvements, where do you suggest doing this? Is this something that needs to be addressed in my personal statement? Or somewhere else in my app? I'm not sure where exactly something like this would fit best

Once you mark that you are a reapplicant, I believe there is a box to write about what has changed
 
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Echoing setdoc7.

I helped a student last year who rescinded her offer because she didn't want to go to that school (Midwestern IL). She ended up reapplying to that school again but didnt get into that school.

Now this is only one isolated incidence and I don't want you to take this story with a grain of salt. But, I think schools do have a way to know who rescinded their offers. So, if you reapply, don't apply to Nova.

Also, as a reapplicant, you need to explain what has improved or changed in the last year or so. If you mention that you got accepted into a school last year, the situation becomes really complex. So, it might be a better idea to not mention that you got accepted and JUST discuss your improvements over the year.

Hope this helps.
Way to go “coach”! Show them how to lie to gain admission to a PROFESSIONAL school, no less.
 
Way to go “coach”! Show them how to lie to gain admission to a PROFESSIONAL school, no less.
Nowhere did he tell me to lie. He said to focus on my improvements and not bring up a previous acceptance if not needed. If the acceptance is something that comes up, I will have no problem at all explaining it. If the schools don't already know, there is no benefit of me bringing it to their attention if it's not something they're already concerned about.
 
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Nowhere did he tell me to lie. He said to focus on my improvements and not bring up a previous acceptance if not needed. If the acceptance is something that comes up, I will have no problem at all explaining it. If the schools don't already know, there is no benefit of me bringing it to their attention if it's not something they're already concerned about.


I think there’s a section in the application that asks you if you’ve been previously accepted to a health professions school
 
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