Starting to think this cycle is all a crapshoot

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FlowerGirl35

FlowerGirl35

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I thought my stats were competitive, but... As each day that passes by, I am starting to have second thoughts about everything.

If anything, the experience of studying for the DAT really resolidified my foundational knowledge of the core sciences. I'm happy to have conquered general and organic chemistry after a less than favorable experience in my undergraduate career. It wasn't a waste of a couple months of preparatory time--it wasn't. I learned a lot and I think I can safely say that I have earned the right to say I'm a Biology major.

It wasn't a waste of time.
 
Yea man this cycle seems much more competitive than the previous cycle. The interview invite thread is so much thinner compared to last year's.
 
In my interviews nobody used sdn. In one of them someone brought up gpa/dat in the down time. The average was an 18-19, I had a 21 and was tied for the highest out of 16 people.

This was an early august interview.

If you're not getting invited it probably has more to do with your personality as opposed to your stats.

Also this cycle isn't really that much more competitive vs the previous ones from what I can gather.
 
BoomerSooner-ang said:
In my interviews nobody used sdn. In one of them someone brought up gpa/dat in the down time. The average was an 18-19, I had a 21 and was tied for the highest out of 16 people.

This was an early august interview.

If you're not getting invited it probably has more to do with your personality as opposed to your stats.

Also this cycle isn't really that much more competitive vs the previous ones from what I can gather.
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Nice anecdotal evidence there. Secondly, which school is this?
 
1070752 said:
Nice anecdotal evidence there. Secondly, which school is this?
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It's completely anecdotal, much like the basis of this thread.

I'm not trolling when I say applying to dental school has been extremely easy. I decided to pursue dentistry last spring, took the dat, and applied and none of it was hard. I don't understand how it can be suggested that the application process is extremely competitive or impossible.

It was a public school in the South.
 
BoomerSooner-ang said:
In my interviews nobody used sdn. In one of them someone brought up gpa/dat in the down time. The average was an 18-19, I had a 21 and was tied for the highest out of 16 people.
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Had this identical experience in one of my first interviews. Except I was definitely NOT the highest. Seriously, some extremely brilliant kids at that program.
 
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Incis0r said:
Had this identical experience in one of my first interviews. Except the average was a 22 DAT, GPA was a 3.7, and I was definitely NOT the highest. Seriously, some extremely brilliant kids at that program.
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I'm assuming you're talking about Columbia? (The school you always talk about)

The average gpa for a matriculant in dentistry is a 3.54. average DAT for matriculants is a 19.5. like, these scores aren't difficult to attain.

Now the school I was talking about isn't my number 1, though I do like it alot. Their average gpa is a 3.71 but dat is a 20, so obviously not as high as Columbia on the testing part but not bad.
 
BoomerSooner-ang said:
It's completely anecdotal, much like the basis of this thread.

I'm not trolling when I say applying to dental school has been extremely easy. I decided to pursue dentistry last spring, took the dat, and applied and none of it was hard. I don't understand how it can be suggested that the application process is extremely competitive or impossible.

It was a public school in the South.
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I'm not saying it's a hard process, but saying that no one used SDN in your interview group is a very worthless statement. Did you go around asking everyone? Do you think everyone was honest? For example, in all 3 of my interviews, almost everyone have seen/used SDN, and even the admissions committee brought it up numerous times. Lastly, the average DAT might have been 19 in your group or the people you asked, but stats for the majority of the schools indicate otherwise (20-21) meaning a lot are above 21 as well.
 
1070752 said:
I'm not saying it's a hard process, but saying that no one used SDN in your interview group is a very worthless statement. Did you go around asking everyone? Do you think everyone was honest? For example, in all 3 of my interviews, almost everyone have seen/used SDN, and even the admissions committee brought it up numerous times. Lastly, the average DAT might have been 19 in your group or the people you asked, but stats for the majority of the schools indicate otherwise (20-21) meaning a lot are above 21 as well.
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I'm agreeing with you that my statement was anecdotal!

Also the average score for test takers in general in the DAT is a 17, that hasn't changed. Average for matriculants is still 19-20. Those are statistics you can find online. There are definitely people who score highly, but at the same time there are others on the spectrum who score very low and get into school.

I'm just saying stats don't guarantee interviews or acceptances!
 
Stats definitely don't guarantee interviews, the personal statement and what you write in your EC's seem to matter significantly.

It is a combination of your stats plus what you write when you apply whether it is in supps or your PS that tell adcoms if you're the kind of a student that they want.

That being said, I'd really only start considering reapplying once January rolls around and you still have no interview invites. Pre-december invites aren't everything.
 
Hi Im Dent said:
Stats definitely don't guarantee interviews, the personal statement and what you write in your EC's seem to matter significantly.

It is a combination of your stats plus what you write when you apply whether it is in supps or your PS that tell adcoms if you're the kind of a student that they want.

That being said, I'd really only start considering reapplying once January rolls around and you still have no interview invites. Pre-december invites aren't everything.
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Hang in there buddy, you'll get to where you need to go with determination and a positive attitude 🙂
 
I'm feeling down I don't have more interviews but I only have myself to blame for my crappy GPA lol.
 
Maybe there's something else wrong with your app or with the schools you applied to. My GPA is lower than yours but I gotten a lot of interview invites but I also applied to a lot of schools though.
 
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Just remember that post-Dec interviews are a thing too 🙂 I had okay stats and 3 of my 5 interview offers were post-December.
 
BoomerSooner-ang said:
In my interviews nobody used sdn. In one of them someone brought up gpa/dat in the down time. The average was an 18-19, I had a 21 and was tied for the highest out of 16 people.

This was an early august interview.

If you're not getting invited it probably has more to do with your personality as opposed to your stats.

Also this cycle isn't really that much more competitive vs the previous ones from what I can gather.
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The only thing in an app that roughly conveys "personality" is the personal statement... you get interview invites because of your stats (and to a lesser degree ECs, etc). You go to an interview so they can see your personality... so personality has little to do with interview invites but a lot to do with acceptances.
 
Screwtape said:
The only thing in an app that roughly conveys "personality" is the personal statement... you get interview invites because of your stats (and to a lesser degree ECs, etc). You go to an interview so they can see your personality... so personality has little to do with interview invites but a lot to do with acceptances.
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Hmm .. I kind of disagree with this. Yes, to a relatively significant extent your metrics (GPA and DAT) have a big role in getting you invites. However, don't you think there are TONS of applicants with similar stats and similar experiences (hundreds of hours of volunteering, shadowing, assisting, research, etc) It would be impossible based on just facts to extend invites when so many people are of similar caliber +/-.

However, the kinds of EC's one is driven to engage in or particularly commits to (my entire EC's were with oral cancer, public health, service learning, missions of mercy) and the person statement really set them apart from someone of equal caliber. It's through the personal statements and unique experiences the school can decide if one applicant is a better fit for the school than the other when stuck between which applicant of the two should get the invite (which I'm sure happens a lot for them).

I agree with what you said about metrics being the initial point of comparison and a large point of comparison, but really there's too many applicants with similar metrics nowadays. I also agree with the whole profile coming into play during acceptances, but I had to disagree with the interview part.
 
RS2224 said:
Hmm .. I kind of disagree with this. Yes, to a relatively significant extent your metrics (GPA and DAT) have a big role in getting you invites. However, don't you think there are TONS of applicants with similar stats and similar experiences (hundreds of hours of volunteering, shadowing, assisting, research, etc) It would be impossible based on just facts to extend invites when so many people are of similar caliber +/-.

However, the kinds of EC's one is driven to engage in or particularly commits to (my entire EC's were with oral cancer, public health, service learning, missions of mercy) and the person statement really set them apart from someone of equal caliber. It's through the personal statements and unique experiences the school can decide if one applicant is a better fit for the school than the other when stuck between which applicant of the two should get the invite (which I'm sure happens a lot for them).

I agree with what you said about metrics being the initial point of comparison and a large point of comparison, but really there's too many applicants with similar metrics nowadays. I also agree with the whole profile coming into play during acceptances, but I had to disagree with the interview part.
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I feel like you are splitting hairs here. Everything in the app is there for a reason, however some things matter more than others. I did not say ECs don't matter... All I was getting at was its pretty tough to discern a person's personality from an app. Much easier to do that in an interview. Your app gets you an interview invite, who you are as person gets you the acceptance.
 
Screwtape said:
I feel like you are splitting hairs here. Everything in the app is there for a reason, however some things matter more than others. I did not say ECs don't matter... All I was getting at was its pretty tough to discern a person's personality from an app. Much easier to do that in an interview. Your app gets you an interview invite, who you are as person gets you the acceptance.
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No I didn't say that you said EC's don't matter but the fact is that many people, more than you'd think, have somewhat identical numbers and many people have unique extracurriculurs on their app and adcoms can really get a feel for what the applicant does and promotes through those EC's and whether it would even be a good idea to invite them to interviews in the first place cause I really think the adcoms form some sort of impression of you from the unique experiences you've partaken in .. and they probably consider whether you're even a fit in the first place through those things. Many high stats people haven't gotten interviews and those with average stats have several so I'm not saying you are saying metrics is the only thing but I do think you're downplaying other factors a little
 
Faux said:
I've definitely seen more negative threads regarding lack of interviews during this cycle, than last one or my cycle.
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All that tells me is there's a disproportionate number of crybaby downers on here this time around. If anyone wants to tell me this cycle is way more competitive than last year's or the year before, let me be the first to laugh in your face.
 
nonociceptors said:
All that tells me is there's a disproportionate number of crybaby downers on here this time around. If anyone wants to tell me this cycle is way more competitive than last year's or the year before, let me be the first to laugh in your face.
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No way is it more competitive. It's the same thing, just more worried people who are writing off post decs like they are meaningless.
 
Faux said:
I've definitely seen more negative threads regarding lack of interviews during this cycle, than last one or my cycle.
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that is speculative unless you manually went back and counted all the threads and for the sake of your sanity I hope you did not
 
Likkriue said:
Having high stats more often than not will get more interviews. That is the simple truth. I think ECs help applicants with lower stats more than those with high stats. Mr Hotshot 4.0 28 Dat will get interviews left and right.
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Mr Hotshot gets all the ladies too.
 
workofshart said:
Maybe they read all your SDN posts and decided to pass?
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Reported. And I wish you the very worst as well in all your current and future endeavors. 🙂

And for every like that has, remember that karma has its role in this process (;
 
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Likkriue said:
No way is it more competitive. It's the same thing, just more worried people who are writing off post decs like they are meaningless.
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I agree. One of my good friends got into their dream school off a post Dec interview. Just because you have a post Dec doesn't mean you won't get in and doesn't mean you're a worthless applicant.
 
blablabla1 said:
Karma doesn't apply until your next life. That term gets misused too much
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Not necessarily. And it won't save those from this cycle or the next :nod:

I already know that I'll get in somewhere--it's merely a matter of when for me, in all honesty. For others with tentative stats, it's a different story.
 
BluntForceTrauma said:
I agree. One of my good friends got into their dream school off a post Dec interview. Just because you have a post Dec doesn't mean you won't get in and doesn't mean you're a worthless applicant.
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Definitely. The game doesn't end until it does.
 
FlowerGirl35 said:
for every like that has, remember that karma has its role in this process (;
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But several of them are in dental school already...

FlowerGirl35 said:
I wish you the very worst as well in all your current and future endeavors. 🙂
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Wouldn't Karma apply to your statement above as well? So by the Law of Conservation of Karma, the Karma cancels each other out??
 
Incis0r said:
But several of them are in dental school already...
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As if the game stops there. My father's a well-established dentist; he tells me all the time it doesn't stop from there. And I saw your posts on HPSP. How's that going for ya?
 
Incis0r said:
But several of them are in dental school already...



Wouldn't Karma apply to your statement above as well? So by the Law of Conservation of Karma, the Karma cancels each other out??
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Yeah, it applies to me as well. Like how my Dad's a dentist, has all the networking connections for me and things like that. You know, just infinitely better than your situation. Gotta love karma
 
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