Shepard, this is for you about U. of MN S.O.D.

Shepard,

U of MN's Early Admissions Program (EAP) is a great way to insure you a seat in the admitting class if you have what the dental school wants! You can get a much thorough description/information about EAP on the dental school's website. I'll brief you a little:

Roughly 40% (~35 spots) out of 86-87 spots per class are EAP participants each year at U of MN. And this program is getting more popular each year, which sucks for regular applicants who rather complete their bachelor's degree or who doesn't know about it! EAP participants are required to have at least 90 semester credits with all required courses and some other upper division sciences completed by the time of matriculation. You also must have a 3.20 overall cumulative GPA, maintain at least a 3.0 throughout the program once you're officially accepted into the EAP, and obtain minimal national's average on your DAT (17s or higher). The advantages are obvious, you won't need to complete your Bachelor's degree prior to matriculation into dental school and you are guaranteed a seat if all requirements are met.

As far as competitiveness goes, U of MN SOD is pretty straight forward, if you are an in-state or in-region of contract applicant that have above a cumulative 3.0 GPA and minimal DAT scores (17s or higher), you're pretty much considered competitive! Last year, the school only had 700s applicants and out of that 700s applicants, only like 500s are complete applications! The odds are very good if you like U of MN SOD.

U of MN SOD, just started to conduct personal interviews last year so they are fairly new at the interview process.

Laura Boland and Gale Shea are both extremely helpful and sincere admissions coordinator and director respectively. One thing that they do stress is YOUR INTEREST in the school, so call them, email them, or even request a school tour to express your interest if you haven't already done so. They love that motivation stuff in their applicants!

Any more Qs, feel free to ask! I know that school as if I'm a current dental student!! I know which dental frat is better to join, where the dental students study, hangout, drink/party, cool profs. and much more!!!

 

Shepard,

You know what's funny? I have had a lot of friends who are current students and were participating in the EAP program and they were ALL nervous about the "last obstacle", the DAT, but at the end they all seem to be fine! I know exactly what you are feeling!

As far as showing interest to the school, call Laura directly!! Call the dental school and don't waste your time with the Minnesota Dental Association, the admissions office will be more than glad to set you up with a current student or even show you around themselves! Talk to Laura (admissions coordinator), show interests, talk about EAP, and expose your face and name to her so you are not just a EAP participant! This is just what I would do. If you have any more Qs, feel free to ask!