Dental Rejected from three schools this cycle. What should I do next?

[TheBoneDoctah]

Hi guys, I got rejected from three dental schools already. I am assuming the rest of the schools (about 6 others) are going to do the same. It really sucks, but I am not giving up. I graduated with my bachelor's in May of 2020, 3.4 overall gpa and 3.3science gpa, my dat was low AA 19. I had a committee letter, lots of volunteer hours outside of the dental field, I had both shadowing and working experience as a dental assistant for a year and I was also the president of the pre-dental club in college, unfortunately, this was not enough. I have been working full-time as a dental assistant since last July at a dental company, but my question now is should I do a post bacc or a master's program to raise my gpa and re-take the DAT? Or can I just re-take the DAT and improve my score and that will be sufficient enough to get me an interview for the next cycle. Any advice/suggestion is appreciated, thanks!

GPA is the bigger issue here. 19 is low but not too low. What schools did you apply to?

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[TheBoneDoctah]

I am a NY resident, I applied to NYU, Columbia, Stony Brook, BU, Tufts, Penn, Temple, Western U, LECOM, Touro, and Buffalo

With your current scores, of the places you applied only BU, NYU, Tufts, Western, LECOM, maybe Touro and Buffalo are remotely close to you being competitive based on your GPA/DAT.

Arizona
Midwestern-IL and AZ
Roseman
UNE
Missouri
UNLV
East Carolina

The schools above are also closest to your scores if you weren't going to retake the DAT or try to do a post-bac. I am not sure about the regional bias of the schools I listed above...this is purely based on scores.

 

[artist2022]

East Carolina

Definitely do not apply to ECU, they only accept NC residents.

If I choose to apply to the northeastern schools again, would you suggest I do a post bacc/masters and re-take the DAT?

I don't think you need to do a post-bacc or a master's because your GPAs seem relatively "okay" BUT what did you major in? And what was the full breakdown of your DAT? Penn and Columbia may not have been good schools to apply to since your DAT is lower than their avgs/they're very competitive Ivys, but I would ask the schools that rejected you for feedback on your application.

 

[artist2022]

I majored in human biology and minored in chemistry. Yes, I knew I wouldn’t get into the ivy leagues, but did attend their student impressions day and shadowed a dr who was on the committee, so thought that might help. Orgo 22, Ochem 21, Bio 19, Math 18, Reading 17 and Pat 16. Western u and Rutgers specifically wrote that due to the high volume of applications they will not be able to provide me specific guidance/questions regarding my application

Okay, then yeah I think your DAT is the biggest red flag on your app because of the low reading and PAT scores (ideally everything should be 18+, and 20 is usually competitive enough). I would definitely study now to retake by May/June and apply when the cycle opens, and change up your school list a bit. Apply to 12-13 schools because you'll be a reapplicant now and you'll have this old DAT score on your app (as compared to first-time applicants with 1 DAT score). Apply to 4 NY schools and some of the privates you already had, as well as other privates. Add Ivys if your DAT shows significant improvement (23+ with no section below 20). Also, if they said that in an email, then I would try calling them and asking a person directly.