temple = backup school?

[bbllplya]

when i went to interview, two ppl had scores of 11 on sections of the Dat!! Is this school lots of ppl's backup?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Gargamel]

I would think that for some people Temple is a backup and for others it is not. Probably for those with scores of 11 on sections of the DAT Temple is not a backup. Personally I don’t think any school is a backup until you have at least two acceptances in hand.

 

[Dr.BadVibes]

when i went to interview, two ppl had scores of 11 on sections of the Dat!! Is this school lots of ppl's backup?

I call bull....the average so far for interview invites is 19.7. I dont think any school in the United States will look at an applicant with DAT 11....isnt that only like a few right?

As far as being a backup school, yah why not! Temple isnt the cheapest school, and a lot of people here (especially from California) use Temple as their backup school until they hear from Cali. Dont really blame them.

 

[Rezdawg]

I call bull....the average so far for interview invites is 19.7. I dont think any school in the United States will look at an applicant with DAT 11....isnt that only like a few right?

I think the OP is only talking about specific sections of the DAT. For instance, an 11 on the QR section, not the academic average.

 

[Dr.BadVibes]

I think the OP is only talking about specific sections of the DAT. For instance, an 11 on the QR section, not the academic average.

oh ok....even so, how does one get an 11 and still have a competetive AA? I guess mathematically speaking you'd have to have near perfect in almost every other section.....probably not so common that someone can get near perfect in every section and then get everything wrong in another....

 

[bbllplya]

nope, no bull at all.. rez was right about individual sections being 11, but still, they were 11s..and yes, badvibes, i definitely see the inconsistency with this and the average dat score that you claim...

 

[specialK38]

unless you need a daily supply of crack, there is no reason to be in that area of philly. not even for a dental education. and why does brian tell interviewees to email him if you are truly interested in the school? unless....TEMPLE = BACKUP!!


TEMPLE SUCKS!!!

 

[bkwash]

unless you need a daily supply of crack, there is no reason to be in that area of philly. not even for a dental education. and why does brian tell interviewees to email him if you are truly interested in the school? unless....TEMPLE = BACKUP!!


TEMPLE SUCKS!!!

That is very true, out of my five or so interviews Temple was the most interesting, It was the only school, in which you have to express interest in the school after attending the school for an interview. Then I started thinking...are you supposed to email ANY school you interview at and say "hey this is my top choice school" (in addition to thank you cards?) who knows...

 

[TimR]

That is very true, out of my five or so interviews Temple was the most interesting, It was the only school, in which you have to express interest in the school after attending the school for an interview. Then I started thinking...are you supposed to email ANY school you interview at and say "hey this is my top choice school" (in addition to thank you cards?) who knows...

all this temple talk is starting to make me wonder if i should even attend my interview scheduled for mid-december.... is temple really so wierd/ghetto/i dunno

 

[SuperTrooper]

all this temple talk is starting to make me wonder if i should even attend my interview scheduled for mid-december.... is temple really so wierd/ghetto/i dunno

yeah, you probably shouldn't

 

[saycheese]

unless you need a daily supply of crack, there is no reason to be in that area of philly. not even for a dental education. and why does brian tell interviewees to email him if you are truly interested in the school? unless....TEMPLE = BACKUP!!


TEMPLE SUCKS!!!

To be honest when i interviewed at Temple, I didn't walk in thinking it was my backup school (nor was it my #1 choice- i applied to 10 schools)... but ya, i still don't understand why Brian wanted us to email him, letting him know that we really were interested in attending TU...maybe he likes receiving emails... does he even get the chance to read 'em? i'm sure he's a busy dude with all the stuff he does for the school and all.

 

[saycheese]

all this temple talk is starting to make me wonder if i should even attend my interview scheduled for mid-december.... is temple really so wierd/ghetto/i dunno

no.. go. if you're one of the "lucky" peeps who snatched an interview date, by all means, take advantage of it and go. you have nothing to lose.... :0) go and find out for yourself what the area's like (during the day/evening)... what the town's all about.. check out the facility... people.. blah blah.. and then formulate your own idea about the school.

 

[ramona_k]

no.. go. if you're one of the "lucky" peeps who snatched an interview date, by all means, take advantage of it and go. you have nothing to lose.... :0) go and find out for yourself what the area's like (during the day/evening)... what the town's all about.. check out the facility... people.. blah blah.. and then formulate your own idea about the school.

agreed. Go see the school for yourself, I did. Seeing is nothing compared to what you hear in this forum or any other place.

 

[donkeywhisperer]

unless you need a daily supply of crack, there is no reason to be in that area of philly. not even for a dental education. and why does brian tell interviewees to email him if you are truly interested in the school? unless....TEMPLE = BACKUP!!


TEMPLE SUCKS!!!

Great post! I think we should have more posts that are as well thought out as this one. In fact why don't we start a thread that just allows people to bag on the schools they don't like or that they have heard bad rumors about.

Seriously, though why do people tend to do this? I just don't get it. If you feel that a school is not for you that's fine, but when someone says this school sucks or that school sucks, automatically the idiot flag goes up. I mean really, does the special in specialK38 mean the same thing that the special in Special Olympics means? Cause if I were to guess from this post I would assume so.

Oh, and I think one of the reasons Brian has people email him after the interview is because some people may realize after the interview and tour of the school that it just isn't for them. I think it's a smart way to weed out people that are good candidates, but that aren't going to go there even if they are accepted.

 

[syn_apse]

brian is a used-car salesman. he does much more harm than good for temple!

 

[billermo]

Why go to Temple???? Patients!!! I've never seen any clinic as busy as Temple's. No worries about finding patients. I have been to schools where students complain about not enough patients to go around or not enough chairs available for use. I don't think this will be a problem at Temple.

 

[monstermouth]

To be honest when i interviewed at Temple, I didn't walk in thinking it was my backup school (nor was it my #1 choice- i applied to 10 schools)... but ya, i still don't understand why Brian wanted us to email him, letting him know that we really were interested in attending TU...maybe he likes receiving emails... does he even get the chance to read 'em? i'm sure he's a busy dude with all the stuff he does for the school and all.

I believe the email to Brian is critical for Temple's selection process. I think the admissions committee at Temple is smart, and they know that out of the hundreds of people that they interview, many of the "over-qualified" applicants will have Temple near the bottom of their list of schools, and I think that this is directly related to the school's unfortunate location and not their dental program. At my interview at Temple a few weeks ago, the recurring theme that I picked up on was that they didn't want people wasting their time during the interview/acceptance period. They are interested in accepting students who are sincere about attending Temple. Since they have so many applicants this year, I think they are looking to eliminate people at every turn. I think this especially includes very strong applicants who have no intention of attending Temple. Needless to say, I sent the email as soon as I got back from Philadelphia.

 

[TimR]

no.. go. if you're one of the "lucky" peeps who snatched an interview date, by all means, take advantage of it and go. you have nothing to lose.... :0) go and find out for yourself what the area's like (during the day/evening)... what the town's all about.. check out the facility... people.. blah blah.. and then formulate your own idea about the school.

nothing to lose? how 'bout 400-500 bones... can you spot me?

 

[billermo]

nothing to lose? how 'bout 400-500 bones... can you spot me?

Hey, if you already received enough interviews to secure an acceptance somewhere else, don't go....especially if it's not one of your first choices. On the other hand, why did you apply to Temple in the first place? Honestly, I didn't know what to expect before I interviewed. I only heard about their location, location, location on SDN. I was thoroughly impressed with their program, clinic, and diverse student body. Sure the location is not the best, but we all knew that going in. Personally, I think it's worth the time and money to interview....but only if you would seriously consider attending if accepted. Otherwise you are wasting your time and money...not to mention Temple's time and a possible interview seat for someone else.

 

[SuperTrooper]

I believe the email to Brian is critical for Temple's selection process. I think the admissions committee at Temple is smart, and they know that out of the hundreds of people that they interview, many of the "over-qualified" applicants will have Temple near the bottom of their list of schools, and I think that this is directly related to the school's unfortunate location and not their dental program. At my interview at Temple a few weeks ago, the recurring theme that I picked up on was that they didn't want people wasting their time during the interview/acceptance period. They are interested in accepting students who are sincere about attending Temple. Since they have so many applicants this year, I think they are looking to eliminate people at every turn. I think this especially includes very strong applicants who have no intention of attending Temple. Needless to say, I sent the email as soon as I got back from Philadelphia.

No, the temple admissions committee is NOT smart. If they were smart, they would give proper interviews and actually look at applicant profiles, devise some sort of score/ranking and offer acceptances based on these rankings. And then, HEAVEN FORBID, if somebody chooses to not accept, they just print up another freakin acceptance letter and send it to the next person on the rankings list. I know that my proposed way of doing things is totally ******ed , but get this, by doing it this way they will actually get the MOST QUALIFIED people into their class.

You are seriously mistaken if you believe temple's method is to prevent applicants from wasting their time during the acceptance period. It's more like temple just doesn't care about the quality of their class, and they can't be bothered with all the administrative work that entails properly selecting the best people.

Temple's interview process is really an insult to the profession.

 

[EyeAmCommi]

oh ok....even so, how does one get an 11 and still have a competetive AA? I guess mathematically speaking you'd have to have near perfect in almost every other section.....probably not so common that someone can get near perfect in every section and then get everything wrong in another....

The 11 was probably something the interviewees were bragging about. "Look guys, I got an 11 in a section and am still interviewing at dental schools!"

 

[monstermouth]

No, the temple admissions committee is NOT smart. If they were smart, they would give proper interviews and actually look at applicant profiles, devise some sort of score/ranking and offer acceptances based on these rankings. And then, HEAVEN FORBID, if somebody chooses to not accept, they just print up another freakin acceptance letter and send it to the next person on the rankings list. I know that my proposed way of doing things is totally ******ed , but get this, by doing it this way they will actually get the MOST QUALIFIED people into their class.

You are seriously mistaken if you believe temple's method is to prevent applicants from wasting their time during the acceptance period. It's more like temple just doesn't care about the quality of their class, and they can't be bothered with all the administrative work that entails properly selecting the best people.

Temple's interview process is really an insult to the profession.

You can insult Temple's admissions process as much as you want, but if you actually stopped and thought for more than 5 seconds about the school's unique situation before criticizing the way they handle things, you would realize that they are doing what they feel is best for their school. The fact of the matter is that Temple is fully aware that due to the school's location, they are probably not the top choice dental school of a significant percentage of applicants despite the fact that they are receiving something like 3,000 applications this cycle.

Put yourself in Temple's shoes. First of all, they extend interview invitations only to applicants who they already feel are academically qualified to be competitive dental students. (There goes your "MOST QUALIFIED" argument.) So what next? They've got a bunch of interviewees who are academically solid, have good social skills, and are serious about dentistry. The only question left is whether or not the applicants ACTUALLY want to go to Temple after seeing what the school is like.

Can you blame them for trying to eliminate the applicants that have no intention of going there? No. So "get this," it is in Temple's best interest to figure out early on which qualified applicants are serious about attending their school, and which ones are just fishing for a fallback acceptance if they don't get into their top 10 choices. Now, please elaborate on how I am "seriously mistaken" about how Temple is trying to avoid applicants from wasting their time by requesting a simple post-interview email.

Kudos to Temple for being straightforward with prospective students.

 

[SuperTrooper]

You can insult Temple's admissions process as much as you want, but if you actually stopped and thought for more than 5 seconds about the school's unique situation before criticizing the way they handle things, you would realize that they are doing what they feel is best for their school. The fact of the matter is that Temple is fully aware that due to the school's location, they are probably not the top choice dental school of a significant percentage of applicants despite the fact that they are receiving something like 3,000 applications this cycle.

Put yourself in Temple's shoes. First of all, they extend interview invitations only to applicants who they already feel are academically qualified to be competitive dental students. (There goes your "MOST QUALIFIED" argument.) So what next? They've got a bunch of interviewees who are academically solid, have good social skills, and are serious about dentistry. The only question left is whether or not the applicants ACTUALLY want to go to Temple after seeing what the school is like.

Can you blame them for trying to eliminate the applicants that have no intention of going there? No. So "get this," it is in Temple's best interest to figure out early on which qualified applicants are serious about attending their school, and which ones are just fishing for a fallback acceptance if they don't get into their top 10 choices. Now, please elaborate on how I am "seriously mistaken" about how Temple is trying to avoid applicants from wasting their time by requesting a simple post-interview email.

Kudos to Temple for being straightforward with prospective students.

oh no...

Ok, get this , your entire argument is based on the idea few people want to go to Temple because of its location. That's a huge cop-out. Dude, Johns Hopkins is one of the best two medical schools in the US, and it is seriously located in the ghetto of Baltimore. I wouldn't hesitate to say that it's worse than Temple's neighbourhood. If temple put more effort into making the dental school more student friendly, and put more effort into creating a more quality class (not that it's bad now, just it could be better), they would slowly start to gain a better reputation.

I don't understand your "most qualitied" counter-argument. I think the way they do it they are not accepting what they deem the best, whatever that may be. And that's not cool. Admission shouldn't be based on whether the school thinks you want to go there or not.

 

[superchris147]

:Admission shouldn't be based on whether the school thinks you want to go there or not.

i agree with you that temple's admission process is bunk: give interviews to everybody who gets aa 18+ and pat 18+ and then see who expresses interest.

because no offense if i pay for a f'ing flight and hotel then i AM expressing interest. i find it offensive that i have to email their recruiter and tell them how much i would love to go to their school. just showing up should be enough

but for your quote, its unfortunate, but every single school that you interview at that is out-of-state for you will grill you on why you would want to go to their school and it definately will factor into the admissions process

 

[monstermouth]

oh no...

Ok, get this , your entire argument is based on the idea few people want to go to Temple because of its location. That's a huge cop-out. Dude, Johns Hopkins is one of the best two medical schools in the US, and it is seriously located in the ghetto of Baltimore. I wouldn't hesitate to say that it's worse than Temple's neighbourhood. If temple put more effort into making the dental school more student friendly, and put more effort into creating a more quality class (not that it's bad now, just it could be better), they would slowly start to gain a better reputation.

I don't understand your "most qualitied" counter-argument. I think the way they do it they are not accepting what they deem the best, whatever that may be. And that's not cool. Admission shouldn't be based on whether the school thinks you want to go there or not.

Wrong again, "dude." That is not the basis of my entire argument. Many medical and dental schools are located in the inner city and aren't in the best areas. I never said it was just the location, but Temple recognizes that it is a factor, and I think this is one of the reasons why they request the email post interview.

The Johns Hopkins comparison makes no sense, because as you said yourself, it is supposedly one of the top two med schools in the nation, whereas the title of this thread is "temple = backup school?" Johns Hopkins is not 10th on anyone's medical school list, so I have no clue how this compares to the situation with TUSOD. Clearly, there are some notions on this board that Temple doesn't get the top pre-dental students. I thought that the issue of school reputation was already implied in the title of this thread, and I was pointing out that in addition to this, Temple needs to deal with the school's unfortunate location, and for this reason, they feel that the post interview e-mail is necessary in their selection process.

Explain how it is "uncool" for Temple to try to eliminate students that are just jerking them around. Why should they waste their time with some hot shot with 26's across the board who couldn't be bothered to send a simple e-mail expressing his/her interest in the school after checking it out? It's not whether or not they think you want to go there, it's whether or not you tell them you want to go there after you've seen it. It's pretty straightforward. Like I said, all of the people who interview are academically competitive or else they wouldn't be there. I never claimed that an e-mail is an automatic acceptance either, but like I said, it's just one more piece to the puzzle when you have 3,000 applications to review.

 

[monstermouth]

i agree with you that temple's admission process is bunk: give interviews to everybody who gets aa 18+ and pat 18+ and then see who expresses interest.

because no offense if i pay for a f'ing flight and hotel then i AM expressing interest. i find it offensive that i have to email their recruiter and tell them how much i would love to go to their school. just showing up should be enough

but for your quote, its unfortunate, but every single school that you interview at that is out-of-state for you will grill you on why you would want to go to their school and it definately will factor into the admissions process

Just because you showed up doesn't mean you liked what you saw or were impressed by the faculty or facilities once you got there. Why should they give you an acceptance just for showing up and paying for a hotel? So what if you expressed interest initially and then left with the idea that you're never coming back? Temple is just trying to figure out who wants to go there and who is going through the motions, and I really can't blame them for this.

 

[Audio]

Just because you showed up doesn't mean you liked what you saw or were impressed by the faculty or facilities once you got there. Why should they give you an acceptance just for showing up and paying for a hotel? So what if you expressed interest initially and then left with the idea that you're never coming back? Temple is just trying to figure out who wants to go there and who is going through the motions, and I really can't blame them for this.

Yeah but, what does it say about them when they are the only school that does this? Can you imagine UPENN, which isn't exactly in the Hamptons asking interested students to email them! I agree that the way Temple is set up is to make things easy for them. Just look at the group interview style. I guess they need to interview A LOT of people to fill a class.

 

[syn_apse]

I guess they need to interview A LOT of people to fill a class.

...which creates a cycle. interviewing just about everybody gives the impression that they are not highly selective. admission standards that are not very competitive induce a lot of 'back-up' applicants. this spike in applications forces temple to invite a lot of people for 'group-interviews' and 'email us if you like us' strategies in order to fill their class

ps: a temple adcom would surely laugh at how little i understand about their process... but as an applicant this is the impression they give...

 

[Dr.BadVibes]

First of all, you guys make it seem that emailing Brian afterwards is a necessity....which is not the case. Like one person said its just one additional piece of your application that the committee MIGHT see. However, people still get accepted without writing the email.

Second, whats so wrong with writing the director an email after visiting the school? When I interviewed at schools 2 years ago, I made sure to write the director at every school an email right after the interview expressing my gratitude for the interview invitation and my thoughts on the school. Even if they didnt ask me to do it, I still thought it was the right thing to do. I was in constant contact with directors of all the schools I applied to even before the interview to express my interest. Is that a faux pas?

Like a previous poster said, the adcom is doing its best to get the most qualified students who actually wanna go here....there is nothing worse than having students at a school that are miserable and always complain....as an actual student here, Im glad they try and weed them out. It makes the student body here more student-friendly and close knit. (a reason why they also do group interviews)

Anyways, why do people care how an admissions committe is run? It has nothing to do with the dental teachings of the school. Its just one of several administrative departments that you will NEVER see again after your acceptence.

IF you are gonna hate on a school, at least bash it on something relevant to dentistry (the only reason why you will actually be here) and not on the fact that the director asks interviewers for an email...geez

 

[Audio]

I think it's a shame because temple seems like a decent school. It seems like they provide you with a great clinical experience.

 

[jeanniebluebird]

.

 

[superchris147]

Just because you showed up doesn't mean you liked what you saw or were impressed by the faculty or facilities once you got there. Why should they give you an acceptance just for showing up and paying for a hotel? So what if you expressed interest initially and then left with the idea that you're never coming back? Temple is just trying to figure out who wants to go there and who is going through the motions, and I really can't blame them for this.

i didn't mean that if you show up you should get an acceptance. I just mean that if you show up to the interview then that should prove to the school that you are showing interest and that should be the end of it. For example, last year when i interviewed i had already been accepted at other schools but i still paid ~700 dollars to interview and see what temple had to offer. its just i think that its offensive that i have to kiss some @$$ to really be considered "interested". If you want to weed out the kids that are using temple as a backup then use an expensive deposit. that way if kids already have an acceptance somewhere else then they won't want to pay that deposit.

i'm not hating on the school, everyone knows that you can get a good clinical education at temple. i'm just saying that i thought their admissions process is really wierd (like having a recruiter that is an expanded functions dental assistant that tells everybody that he can do fillings better than most of the students) and personally it turned me off to the school

 

[flat4]

As far as being a backup school, yah why not! Temple isnt the cheapest school, and a lot of people here (especially from Canada) use Temple as their backup school until they hear from the Canucks. Dont really blame them.

Edited

 

[1992Corolla]

I don't see anything wrong with it. I emailed after my interview and expressed interest. I think it may help a little in the interview process. Like someone mentioned before: 3000 people to sift through. What makes a guy on paper with an 18-20 and a 3.5 different from 1500 other people exactly like them? Grant an interview, rate the interview, then go from there.

Two guys with an 18, 3.2gpa, and a good interview score, but only one guy e-mails and expresses interest? Go with the squeeky wheel. It gets the grease. If the squeeky wheels says no, then go with the guy who didn't reply.

About Brian answering all the e-mails, he does and he does a great job. Only two schools in MY experiance have replied with speed to my e-mails. Brian Hahn replies within 1-48 hours. How many emails does he get each day? Probably hundreds. That says dedication to me. Dr. Kasberg from Indiana is the other one. Think about the schools perspective. They get 3000-5000 applications. They deny all those with 16's and below. They invite the 20's and above to interviews and then they have this huge pool of 2500 people all with 18-19's and they try to distinguish them all based on other factors. I think it would be a hard job. Then add the fact that 1800 of these app's are die hard about emailing about their status (cause AADSAS has issues), this is one reason secretaries are frazzled when you call. Temple is my 1st choice. I have limited options though. I still think if I had my pick over ALOT of schools Temple would still be high. It's just a personal opinion though. If my email worked and they accept me thats fine by me.

30-45 minutes outside of Philly is beautiful country. Clinical at Temple will never be something to worry about. Plus you get an education in street smarts

 

[SuperTrooper]

Think about the schools perspective. They get 3000-5000 applications. They deny all those with 16's and below. They invite the 20's and above to interviews and then they have this huge pool of 2500 people all with 18-19's and they try to distinguish them all based on other factors. I think it would be a hard job.

I think you're giving Temple admissions too much credit here. They don't receive these 3000-5000 applications all at once. It's over like a seven month period. Also, they have full-time staff for this. Yeah, it's a hard job, but how come every other school can do seem to do it?

I'm not trying to bash temple here. I know it's a good school. Quite frankly, I felt bad for temple when I interviewed there because I got such a negative impression knowing that it probably wasn't the case.

 

[cbarry]

Just for the record -- Temple has always done group interviews. I think its easier to weed out applicants - you're sitting with four other students who are all equally qualified. Its so much easier to say I like these three out of the five. I agree that Brian is smart for asking for the email. Let's say you interview there and you just "forget" to email him. Obviously you aren't interested in the school b/c you weren't evening thinking about emailing him. That was the first thing I did when I got home. He's trying to weed out those who may chose it as a back-up school and there's nothing wrong with that. They have double the applicants than they usually have -- this email allows them to just cut those who don't email. Also, a bad area is where you're going to get the patients and having no patients can be a HUGE problem in dental school. And 11's I just can't believe that, no matter how many people say it I just can't. We're all entitled to our own opinions but sometimes it gets out of control.

 

[Rezdawg]

And 11's I just can't believe that, no matter how many people say it I just can't. We're all entitled to our own opinions but sometimes it gets out of control.

I think its quite possible for some applicants to get interviews with an 11. Think about it, some people are not good with math or reading comp. You can get an 11 on one of these sections and average a 19 on the other sections, you still end up with an 18 AA. nd if the dude has a 3.6 gpa, then 1 section of the DAT can easily be an abberation. Interview granted.

 

[cbarry]

Yeah..I guess it is possible.....