Safety Schools

[pudz]

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Hello my friends,

So, I'm trying to get together a list of dental schools that I want to apply to.
If I could, i swear i would apply to every single school, but obviously... well that's crazy.

how many schools are you guys applying to?

and also, is there such a thing as safety schools when it comes to dental schools -- i feel like there isn't, but i'm just trying to strategize. i got a book from the adea, i'm starting to read it -- i was just wondering what you guys think.

THANKS!

 

[muz]

nyu depending on your stats...overall getting into any dental school is tough... some are just tougher than others

 

[pacbum]

ya i don't think there really are safety schoosl for d school. there are def reach schools, but at the professional level, most people are pretty qualified

 

[UJ007]

Someone's safety school is someone elses 1st choice. It all depends on where you want to go and what you want to do. I would say since its a professional program they are all very good.

 

[DDSY]

www.predents.com. The stats are a little inflated, however you will get a good idea regarding the difficulty of getting into individual dental schools.

Also note that some schools have larger class size than others and the popularity of schools change every few years. For example, Stony Brook wasn't that difficult to get into a few years ago, but it has gotten really competitive nowadays.

 

[pmantz]

I applied to 6, and my experience says there are no safety schools. I did not even get an interview to my state school. I am glad though cause if I would have gotten into my "safety" school which would have been a 100K cheaper, I might not have gone to my first choice, which I think overall is the best fit for me.

 

[4thQtrDreams]

There are schools i applied to as "safety" school and while i got into my top choice, i did not get in at the "safety" schools. Also, people often apply to Meharry and Howard because the overall numbers are lower there, but that does not translate into an easy acceptance.

I think that your strategy should be to just apply to more schools.. somewhere between 15 & 20..

 

[Drill2Fill]

There is no such thing as a saftey school in dentistry anymore.

 

[UJ007]

There is no such thing as a saftey school in dentistry anymore.

Totally agree, they all seem pretty hard to get into!

 

[reapply2007]

I'd say the era of the safety school is gone. Apply where you would want to go if it was the only place you were admitted. This is not a vanity contest. Once you know how many schools this is, figure out the AADSAS and DAT costs to apply. Triple - quadruple that and you'll be pretty close for total cost of secondaries and travel costs associated with interviews. Don't forget to set aside money for the slot reservation fee.

 

[miamifeet]

I don't think safety schools really exist anymore. Even the better applicants I know are wavering between one or two school choices; none of them are getting into anywhere near every school they apply to. Just be grateful for the opportunities you are given to go somewhere, wherever it may be. So I guess my point is, don't apply to a school because the stats are lower than your own thinking it is a "safety" school. Many of these schools are that way because they look for more than a GPA or DAT score alone when accepting students. Do some research on SDN, find out which schools you would be best in. I think that's the key.

 

[Joe70h8]

I don't think I would call them safety schools, but I would think about applying to some of the large/expensive private schools. While these schools aren't easy to get into, they do have to interview/accept/waitlist a lot of applicants in order to fill there spots. Also, a fair amount of acceptances will be turned down for state schools and other schools.

 

[Red Falcon]

"Safety" schools are very much alive and well. All that means is that they are the easiest schools of the ones out there to gain admission to. That usually means entering DAT scores between 17-20 and GPA averages from 3.3-3.5 required for an interview. Schools that average over 20 DAT and above 3.5 GPA are not candidates for "safety" school status for obvious reasons.

Many appicants will simply say, "there are no safety schools anymore", which is not accurate because there will always be plenty of dental schools in the US that do not require biting your fingers and toes off for admission. Maybe just an ear. Dental school has never been easy to get into, but there are some schools that are easier to gain admission to than others. When I hear "safety school" used by a predental student, that's usually synonymous with "best chances for admission" in my eyes. I do not see "safety school" as guaranteed acceptance. Nothing is ever guaranteed in this life.

Want to find your safety schools?
1)Look toward your instate dental school(s) first. Chances of admission are usually the highest here, although this is not always the situation in a few states.

2)In that case, look for dental schools that fall with your GPA/DAT score range and apply to those schools. If your stats exceed the entering averages, then you are applying toward a "safe school" since your stats will put you into an excellent position for an interview.

That's what I go by when I hear the term "safety school" used by predental students. It all comes down to the applicants wanting to find the dental school with their best chances at getting accepted based on their stats, so the term "safety school" is thrown around to mean just that. That's really as safe as it ever gets in the application process for dental school.

 

[UJ007]

Hey miamifeet, did you steal my avatar???

 

[Drill2Fill]

Hey miamifeet, did you steal my avatar???

Lol. I noticed that.

 

[MrTeeth]

nyu depending on your stats...overall getting into any dental school is tough... some are just tougher than others

nyu was my back up plan, and i had a 3.9 science and a 3.8 overall aadsas gpa, with 20AA on the DATs with a 2 years dental managing experience and didn't even get an interview from them. but i did get into my number one school. i would agree with others on here that you just don't know, so don't count certain schools as bakc ups, it really is weird what schools are looking for. my situation was opposite, that i got interviews and acceptance into my top schools but not even interviews from my back up schools which had low stats; tufts, nyu, columbia

i would apply to at least 10 schools and do research on them as well. good luck

 

[dentalwannabee]

and also, is there such a thing as safety schools when it comes to dental schools -- i feel like there isn't, but i'm just trying to strategize. i got a book from the adea, i'm starting to read it -- i was just wondering what you guys think

There are no safety schools . I have 21+ DATs and a 3.5+, and barely any interviews.

By the way, I applied to NYU and got rejected

 

[johntara04]

I would think that "saftey" schools would be different for each applicant. Each school has different pros and cons to the school and look for students that will match their strengths. So a safety school for me, might be your number 1 choice, and my number 1 choice may be your safety school. So, the point is, depending on your application's strengths, you may have a great chance at one school and a bad one at the other (like the person above who didn't get an interview at NYU. He is a great applicant for his number 1, but for NYU, he wasn't what they were looking for).

 

[Dooey23]

all of my "safety" schools haven't responded to me... all my top 5 have....

so no i don't think there are safety schools

 

[Snahster]

Hello my friends,

So, I'm trying to get together a list of dental schools that I want to apply to.
If I could, i swear i would apply to every single school, but obviously... well that's crazy.

how many schools are you guys applying to?

and also, is there such a thing as safety schools when it comes to dental schools -- i feel like there isn't, but i'm just trying to strategize. i got a book from the adea, i'm starting to read it -- i was just wondering what you guys think.

THANKS!

Howard

 

[Zanderale6]

Hey miamifeet, did you steal my avatar???

If you do a quick search for the user "jhuplaw," you'll find another user who's been using the homer x-ray avatar ...

 

[Speeddater]

Hello my friends,

So, I'm trying to get together a list of dental schools that I want to apply to.
If I could, i swear i would apply to every single school, but obviously... well that's crazy.

how many schools are you guys applying to?

and also, is there such a thing as safety schools when it comes to dental schools -- i feel like there isn't, but i'm just trying to strategize. i got a book from the adea, i'm starting to read it -- i was just wondering what you guys think.

THANKS!

What IS a safety school??

Well as we've all come to realize or have already notice, there is a lot more to the picture than just DAT scores & GPA's. Sometimes it can be the subtle things that applicants generally overlook given the tight competition that the schools use in making their decision.

 

[UJ007]

If you do a quick search for the user "jhuplaw," you'll find another user who's been using the homer x-ray avatar ...

Ya I figured there would be more Homer's x-rays out there, I was joking