should I give up?

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sophie00

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I am new here and I have a question:

I took the DAT three times. The last DAT: AA 20 Sci 20 and RC 16.

My gpa is 3.2
sci gpa is 2.9

this is my third time applying with bunch of rejections and no interviews.

I was going to start a master program in bio at Cal state in spring. I thought this would increase my chances of getting in but my advisor told me since I have a BS from a UC getting a master from a cal state won't impress the dental schools. I know that UCs require GRE and the deadline has already passed for fall 09. This means I have to waste one year! Plus it takes two years to finish the degree so I can't apply to dental school for another three yrs.

What am I going to do now?:( Should I give up dentistry and do something else? Can someone please give me some advice?
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Things can get discouraging at times during the cycle. Hang in there! I have pretty similar stats as you but this is the first time applying and I have taken the DAT once. I haven't heard back from any schools yet. I think you should be ok with your good DAT scores. Many schools have given me advice to take more upper division Bio classes. I asked one school in particular if I should take a SMP or do a masters program. He told me not to this yet...I don't exactly know why but that was his advice. I think you should call the schools that have been rejecting you and ask "What next?" Good luck and don't give up if your dream to become a dentist!!!
 
If you give up you will not get into dental school. If you do not give up you will get into dental school. You will have to be patient. With your reading comp portion of your DAT are you reading the questions and then trying to find the answers? With that part of the test you have to read the whole article and then answer the questions. You may have to guess on the last two questions due to time restraints but the ones you do answer will be 100% correct. Read the passage first then read the questions. Do not read the article too deeply, just read it quickly and that will give you a general idea as to what paragraph your answer is hiding. That is how I did it and I scored very well on the Reading comp. Good luck and do not give up. I was in almost the same pickle and refused to quit. You will get in if you keep on keeping on. If you enter a masters program, most dental schools will not allow you to attend them until your obligation with the masters school is met in good faith. So keep that in mind. Study your schools well and apply to schools that do not take reading comp as serious as others. And if that fails then re-take the DAT and do that reading comp portion like I did and I am sure it will work. It could take up to seven or eight years to get in so you must be patient and wait for what you really want. If you are not willing to do that then when the going gets tough in dental school you will want to quit and the dental schools know this. And remember, scores are not everything, are you doing community service? Being involved in your community is extremely important, I would say it is more important than scores. Dental schools want people who care about others enough to get involved, not people who are in it for money, there are many careers that one can make a good bit of money in. Dentistry is a career that will make someone miserable ( along with their staff and patients) if they are in it for the money. There are not alot of dentist out there so dental schools have to choose their students wisely and they are very good at what they do.
 
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Oralfixation said:
If you give up you will not get into dental school. If you do not give up you will get into dental school. You will have to be patient. With your reading comp portion of your DAT are you reading the questions and then trying to find the answers? With that part of the test you have to read the whole article and then answer the questions. You may have to guess on the last two questions due to time restraints but the ones you do answer will be 100% correct. Read the passage first then read the questions. Do not read the article too deeply, just read it quickly and that will give you a general idea as to what paragraph your answer is hiding. That is how I did it and I scored very well on the Reading comp. Good luck and do not give up. I was in almost the same pickle and refused to quit. You will get in if you keep on keeping on. If you enter a masters program, most dental schools will not allow you to attend them until your obligation with the masters school is met in good faith. So keep that in mind. Study your schools well and apply to schools that do not take reading comp as serious as others. And if that fails then re-take the DAT and do that reading comp portion like I did and I am sure it will work. It could take up to seven or eight years to get in so you must be patient and wait for what you really want. If you are not willing to do that then when the going gets tough in dental school you will want to quit and the dental schools know this. And remember, scores are not everything, are you doing community service? Being involved in your community is extremely important, I would say it is more important than scores. Dental schools want people who care about others enough to get involved, not people who are in it for money, there are many careers that one can make a good bit of money in. Dentistry is a career that will make someone miserable ( along with their staff and patients) if they are in it for the money. There are not alot of dentist out there so dental schools have to choose their students wisely and they are very good at what they do.
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I agree the rc score might be holding you back from getting interviews, why not try challenging Canadian DAT?
 
hang in there...its not over...u know what though i recommend if u decide to do a masters..go to UCR..they have a great 1 yr biochemistry masters program...u do well in that program and ull be set for dental school! i promise :)
 
Should you give up?
HELL NO!

You have a 16 in RC but still have a 20AA, I'm impressed. Work on that section, retake the DAT and you should have a 21+. Your PAT score isn't listed, if that is also low that could be a problem. As far as that masters at the Cal State, why wouldn't that impress dental schools? I think your advisor is wrong. Is he an advisor from a UC? because it sounds like it...

My advice... try to get into a masters program and retake the DAT. If you do really well on the DAT, which I anticipate you will, reapply this next cycle. Keep taking those classes for the masters and when interviews come, make sure they know just how much you have put into this. Good luck!
 
I don't know if you should give up or not, but my stats are running fairly similar to yours. I have a 2.99/2.93 and 21AA 21TS on my DATs. I hope I will be getting in somewhere this year, currently I'm waitlisted at one school and just waiting to hear. I've also gotten like 10 rejections.
 
i feel for you b/c i also struggle with time-pressured long-winded reading passages (especially when they are boring and written like technical style). i think its because i freak out and am like "oh no my whole life depends on this and i couldn't even study for the RC section"

when i took the DAT, i remember i read the entire first passage, then went back to the questions. i quickly figured out that this method wasn't working at all and i spent like half of my time on the first passage. for the next passages, i SKIPPED reading the passage and just read the questions first. after i read the question, i just go search for the paragraph that had the answer in it.

in my DAT, i didn't really have a lot of tone questions. also the last two passages i got were over subjects that i was familiar with, so sometimes i didn't even have to look for the answer in the passage because i already knew the answer.

i think the hardest passage on my DAT was the first one. looking back now, i would have skipped it and gone to the last two. perhaps it was like a time trap built into the test (just a little speculation)

so next time, if you dont get a lot of tone questions, just read the question and search for the answer in the passage. it is much more efficient than trying to digest the entire long-winded passage.
 
sophie00 said:
I took the DAT three times. The last DAT: AA 20 Sci 20 and RC 16.

My gpa is 3.2
sci gpa is 2.9
this is my third time applying with bunch of rejections and no interviews.

I was going to start a master program in bio at Cal state in spring. I thought this would increase my chances of getting in but my advisor told me since I have a BS from a UC getting a master from a cal state won't impress the dental schools. I know that UCs require GRE and the deadline has already passed for fall 09. This means I have to waste one year! Plus it takes two years to finish the degree so I can't apply to dental school for another three yrs.
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The gpa is certainly holding you back. A ms from any school is better than none. You may have applied 3 times but if each time you presented identical credentials it is little wonder that the results were predictable. If you are worried about 3 years of your life than maybe it is time to reconsider your choice of a career.
 
Thanks guys for the replies.

The first time I took the DAT my RC was 18 ! The RC on the last two DATs were mostly tone questions...I am not sure if I re-take the DAT for the 4th time I can get a better RC score.

Should I re-take the DAT or focus on raising the GPA by doing a MS? or both?
 
DentalRocks09 said:
hang in there...its not over...u know what though i recommend if u decide to do a masters..go to UCR..they have a great 1 yr biochemistry masters program...u do well in that program and ull be set for dental school! i promise :)
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Thank you DentalRocks...I will look into that :)
 
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sophie00 said:
I am new here and I have a question:

I took the DAT three times. The last DAT: AA 20 Sci 20 and RC 16.

My gpa is 3.2
sci gpa is 2.9

this is my third time applying with bunch of rejections and no interviews.

I was going to start a master program in bio at Cal state in spring. I thought this would increase my chances of getting in but my advisor told me since I have a BS from a UC getting a master from a cal state won't impress the dental schools. I know that UCs require GRE and the deadline has already passed for fall 09. This means I have to waste one year! Plus it takes two years to finish the degree so I can't apply to dental school for another three yrs.

What am I going to do now?:( Should I give up dentistry and do something else? Can someone please give me some advice?
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I'm of the opinion that dental schools will mostly ignore the whole UC/Cal state thing... especially the private ones. The only schools that might really pay attention are the UC dental schools.

I spent a year taking post-bac-type classes at a no-name-university in Hawaii after graduating from Univ. of Washington with a BS in Biology. This didn't seem to hurt me. I advise that you go where you can get a 4.0 so that you raise that GPA.

As for the DAT, with your current GPA, 20AA probably won't cut it. You need to get a 21+ I think. Also, the RC should be at least 18, though 20+ is preferable. There no other way around the DAT... you just need to sit down and go over the material. Take lots of RC practice tests. Time yourself. Use the Kaplan RC strategy, it works.
 
cybermech said:
I'm of the opinion that dental schools will mostly ignore the whole UC/Cal state thing... especially the private ones. The only schools that might really pay attention are the UC dental schools.

I spent a year taking post-bac-type classes at a no-name-university in Hawaii after graduating from Univ. of Washington with a BS in Biology. This didn't seem to hurt me. I advise that you go where you can get a 4.0 so that you raise that GPA.
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I have to agree here. I went to a small school where I got my MPH after getting my BS in Biology at Loyola Marymount University. My GPA was similar to yours and I did really well in my Masters Program and so far I have two acceptances. I would say to take a breather from the DAT for a while, your RC is not so great but take some time to boost up other aspects of your application. Do well in a graduate program, maybe get some research in, or community service, and work hard to get some really great recommendations in the meanwhile. YOU CAN DO THIS IF YOU DON'T GIVE UP!:thumbup: This is the route that I took and it helped me to learn, grow, make valuable connections, and really figure out what is important to me.

It might sound like waiting until after getting a Masters is too long but just think - you might be kicking yourself when you're 50 and in a career that you hate, for not just taking an extra couple of years to do things right. GOOD LUCK!!
 
Just be patient! I am sure from next week many of schools start sending their second or third wave! Majority of schools slowed down because of holidays and I am sure they resume their process next week! I remember USC was interviewing people till May last year. There are students who get accepted and submit their deposit, but later on they get accepted to other schools and withdraw their application! This is a long torturing process and you never know what is going to happen next! Good luck!:thumbup:
 
I can't really offer you any advice but I would like to assure you that you are not alone!!!

I am applying for my second time currently and have had 0 interviews, just 6 rejections and still waiting on still 9 schools. My stats are on predents.com, and very similar to yours, so we'll see what happens within the next month or so ... but I'm losing hope for this round.

ALSO....I'm having complete second thoughts on dentistry as a whole!! Thinking that maybe I should change my whole career direction! It's driving me crazy, so know that if you're having a hard time, other people are too.

I did apply however to Rosalind Franklins Special Masters Program in North Chicago, IL in Biomedical Sciences (http://www.rosalindfranklin.edu/dnn/chp/home/CHP/IHS/Biomed/tabid/1469/Default.aspx)
but I just sent in my application today, so who knows if I'll even get into that! Moving from cali to chicago is something I'm willing and capable to do, I know not everyone is.

Hope this helps someone! These are tough times for some of us!! :cool:
 
Dont give up!

Do the masters program, whoever told you that they look down on that (coming from a CSU) is ignorant.

Petition and retake the DAT after your 1st year in the masters program. This should help you out in the RC, and overall confidence of being in a masters program.

Then re-apply after your 1st year, lots of schools love those with masters.
 
I wouldnt re-take the DAT and gamble a 20 juss so you can possibly score a 21! 20 in AA and TS is hard to get in the first place so juss keep it. Focus on GPA more and you never mentioned how your EC are. People are getting in with your stats but they got a lot of EC to back it up. How many hours have you shadowed? What kind of leadership positions have you held? Work on those GPA by doin a post-bacc or a masters, get a lot more shadowing experience, and be involved in many clubs and try to get a leadership position. Doing this, I can really say you will get in :D
 
lafuturedent82 said:
I have to agree here. I went to a small school where I got my MPH after getting my BS in Biology at Loyola Marymount University. My GPA was similar to yours and I did really well in my Masters Program and so far I have two acceptances. I would say to take a breather from the DAT for a while, your RC is not so great but take some time to boost up other aspects of your application. Do well in a graduate program, maybe get some research in, or community service, and work hard to get some really great recommendations in the meanwhile. YOU CAN DO THIS IF YOU DON'T GIVE UP!:thumbup: This is the route that I took and it helped me to learn, grow, make valuable connections, and really figure out what is important to me.

It might sound like waiting until after getting a Masters is too long but just think - you might be kicking yourself when you're 50 and in a career that you hate, for not just taking an extra couple of years to do things right. GOOD LUCK!!
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Congrats! I'm really happy for you. Thank you for giving me hope
 
DuffMan01 said:
I wouldnt re-take the DAT and gamble a 20 juss so you can possibly score a 21! 20 in AA and TS is hard to get in the first place so juss keep it. Focus on GPA more and you never mentioned how your EC are. People are getting in with your stats but they got a lot of EC to back it up. How many hours have you shadowed? What kind of leadership positions have you held? Work on those GPA by doin a post-bacc or a masters, get a lot more shadowing experience, and be involved in many clubs and try to get a leadership position. Doing this, I can really say you will get in :D
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I guess my EC is not that great...I have about 150 hrs of volunteer work. I was a member of the pre-dent club when I was in school. I have about 5 yrs experience working as a dental assistant.

How do I get a leadership position? Does anyone have any idea?
 
or what you could do is find a decent job so you have something to do and then study your ass off for another retake of the DAT. study hardcore for an entire year and then destroy the DAT
 
323oc323 said:
I can't really offer you any advice but I would like to assure you that you are not alone!!!

I am applying for my second time currently and have had 0 interviews, just 6 rejections and still waiting on still 9 schools. My stats are on predents.com, and very similar to yours, so we'll see what happens within the next month or so ... but I'm losing hope for this round.

ALSO....I'm having complete second thoughts on dentistry as a whole!! Thinking that maybe I should change my whole career direction! It's driving me crazy, so know that if you're having a hard time, other people are too.

I did apply however to Rosalind Franklins Special Masters Program in North Chicago, IL in Biomedical Sciences (http://www.rosalindfranklin.edu/dnn/chp/home/CHP/IHS/Biomed/tabid/1469/Default.aspx)
but I just sent in my application today, so who knows if I'll even get into that! Moving from cali to chicago is something I'm willing and capable to do, I know not everyone is.

Hope this helps someone! These are tough times for some of us!! :cool:
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Hey there

Your stats are pretty similar to mine, I checked your predents and it seems that the schools that rejected you are really similar to the schools that rejected me.
 
323oc323 said:
I can't really offer you any advice but I would like to assure you that you are not alone!!!

I am applying for my second time currently and have had 0 interviews, just 6 rejections and still waiting on still 9 schools. My stats are on predents.com, and very similar to yours, so we'll see what happens within the next month or so ... but I'm losing hope for this round.

ALSO....I'm having complete second thoughts on dentistry as a whole!! Thinking that maybe I should change my whole career direction! It's driving me crazy, so know that if you're having a hard time, other people are too.

I did apply however to Rosalind Franklins Special Masters Program in North Chicago, IL in Biomedical Sciences (http://www.rosalindfranklin.edu/dnn/chp/home/CHP/IHS/Biomed/tabid/1469/Default.aspx)
but I just sent in my application today, so who knows if I'll even get into that! Moving from cali to chicago is something I'm willing and capable to do, I know not everyone is.

Hope this helps someone! These are tough times for some of us!! :cool:
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Thank you for sharing. Your stats are very similar to mine...applying to the SMP program sounds like a good plan. Good luck :)
 
sophie00 said:
Thank you for sharing. Your stats are very similar to mine...applying to the SMP program sounds like a good plan. Good luck :)
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Hey sophie00, my biggest advice to you is definitely don't give up...I know it may be hard to believe me, but I used to have grades like yours. It wasn't until my internship with the American Dental Association that I realized that I really wanted to do dentistry. With that goal in mind, I studied whenever I had free time and still managed to party once in awhile. I haven't gotten anything lower than a 3.7 gpa since I changed my mindset. Anything is possible, as long as you believe in yourself and if you are willing to put in all your efforts to achieve your goal. As for your RC score, this website really helped me, not as much for the tone questions, but I consistently scored 21-22 on RC for my practice tests with this method (used for the detail questions, which were still a majority of the test).

http://acedat.wordpress.com/

(this person scored really well on all his sections on the DAT and offers advice on every section). The fact that you got a 20AA with a RC score of 16 means you had to have done stellar in every other section, though i'm not to sure how you did on your PAT. Also, for tone questions, use MCAT RC questions as practice for you to get use to those questions. I think I used the Examkrackers series (if you get at least a 19 on reading, i'm sure you will get interviews from some great schools). Wish you the best of luck and if you have any questions, please PM me because I always try to help fellow pre-dental students.

P.S: Keep your head up and be optimistic. That's probly what helped me get thru the application cycle and the DATs.
 
While you shouldn't give up if you desperately want to be a dentist... it might be worth looking into other fields just to see what's out there. I'm not sure what will happen with my application this year (2nd time applicant and no interviews, 1 rejection), but in order to not become overly depressed about this whole thing, I have looked into other fields and have come to realize being a dentist is not the ONLY career that will make me happy. Obviously everyone is different, but I felt like for the past 4 years I really thought dentistry was the ONLY option, when in fact, there are millions of fulfilling careers out there. I have no doubt you'll eventually get into d-school if you keep trying, but it might help lower your anxiety if you check out some other programs and areas of interest.

Just my 2 cents... good luck to the both of us :)
 
I think your DAT is good enough to get in alot of schools, its your GPA thats too low.
 
Nothing new here, but since there are thousands of aps at each school, they have to weed them out. They do this by numbers so no matter what your EC's are, they won't see it.

Bottom line, raise your GPA--shoot for 3.3+ sci! IMO, thats what's keep'n you down. Also, have no score on the DAT below an 18 (Except maybe QR...who give's a rat's butt about that??:) With a GPA below 3.5, you're gonna want straight 20+ on the DAT, which you are most of the way there!

Dental schools want 100% graduation rates! (they don't get them, but try hard to make that a reality) A bubble in a class costs them quite a bit of $$

Getting in get's harder every year but if you don't give up, you will get in. I mean, you got 20's in AA and TS, so you are capable.

Good luck
 
Just a word of encouragement, keep at it! don't give up, even if you keep failing, just like Mark Twain Stated "Success is going from failure to failure with great enthusiasm". Think positive and things will turn up for you! See yourself passing as a dentist, have faith and BELIEVE!:)
 
My advice, for what is worth (and I haven't gotten in either), would be to keep fighting! NEVER give up, just revise your current plan.

For example, originally my plan was to get in this year. When I didn't get in to the three pre-dec interviews I had, I was very depressed and even thought about giving up. Yet, after a few weeks I decided that even if I don't get in this year that it isn't the end of the world. There is always next year or the year after! If I don't get into the post-dec interview that I had than I have a plan set in place that will both strengthen my application and provide me with an income and some amount of joy. Thus, NEVER give up and instead rework your current plan to something that both excites you and strengthens your application!!:thumbup::thumbup: I hope this helps you and wish you the best of luck in the future with whatever you decide to do!!
 
You should cut your losses. The usual chain of events is that someone applies to medical school and gets rejected. Then they try pharma, and if that fails they go to dentistry. The next step in this logical progression is nursing. Go for it! Nursing is a very respectable profession too, and you help people and not only that, there is a huge shortage of nurses - so you would be doing society a big help in going into it.

Also, think of it this way; would you be comfortable having a dentist who got rejected from dental school twice operating in your mouth?
 
MDtobe888 said:
Also, think of it this way; would you be comfortable having a dentist who got rejected from dental school twice operating in your mouth?
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Well, if they're a practicing dentist then that means that they had to pass the same test that everyone else had to pass who got in the first time, so I would say yes.
 
MDtobe888 said:
You should cut your losses. The usual chain of events is that someone applies to medical school and gets rejected. Then they try pharma, and if that fails they go to dentistry. The next step in this logical progression is nursing. Go for it! Nursing is a very respectable profession too, and you help people and not only that, there is a huge shortage of nurses - so you would be doing society a big help in going into it.

Also, think of it this way; would you be comfortable having a dentist who got rejected from dental school twice operating in your mouth?
Click to expand...


just so you know- not everyone who applies to dental school tried med or pharm first. some people actually want to be dentists from the start.
 
sophie00 said:
I am new here and I have a question:

I took the DAT three times. The last DAT: AA 20 Sci 20 and RC 16.

My gpa is 3.2
sci gpa is 2.9

this is my third time applying with bunch of rejections and no interviews.

I was going to start a master program in bio at Cal state in spring. I thought this would increase my chances of getting in but my advisor told me since I have a BS from a UC getting a master from a cal state won't impress the dental schools. I know that UCs require GRE and the deadline has already passed for fall 09. This means I have to waste one year! Plus it takes two years to finish the degree so I can't apply to dental school for another three yrs.

What am I going to do now?:( Should I give up dentistry and do something else? Can someone please give me some advice?
Click to expand...


My opinion:

For the year that you will "waste", see if there are any research assistant positions that are willing to accept you. Some office positions in hospitals also take in people with bio degrees. That and maybe some extra volunteering at a dental clinic.

Wherever you do your MS, make sure you choose the option where you get graded based on exams, not thesis and research. If you want it bad enough, you would get like a 3.7 - 4.0 in your MS program.

And find out early on if your DAT scores will still be valid after a few years. If not, make sure you continually refresh your DAT skills.

If you still don't get in, I don't know what else to tell you. I'm not talking about this in regards to yourself but dentistry isn't all that it's believed to be and there really is more to life.
 
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