Those of You Freaking Out Over Large Number of Applicants:

[Farantino]

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I am working in a lab which does reseach tied to the Dental school here at Buffalo. One of the Doctors here is a graduate from University at Buffalo. We were having a chat today and he's like "what is the number of applicants this year, 8000, 9000?"
I'm like "Yeah, close to that. I'm very nervous since this number is higher than the last few years."
Then he said something that surprised me. He said that when he applied in the late 70's, there was a total of 15000 applicants! The number of Dental Schools back then was pretty much the same as it is now. So, don't freak out folks. The number of applicants this year is almost half the number that it used to be back then.

 

[syn_apse]

So, don't freak out folks. The number of applicants this year is almost half the number that it used to be back then.

something tells me most people on SDN will find little comfort in this factoid 🙄

 

[Bronco]

OMG 15,000 applicants this year!! I'll spread the word...

 

[tinman831]

OMG 15,000 applicants this year!! I'll spread the word...

what??? theres 20,000 applicants already??? 😱

 

[rajmahal1980]

LOL @ 15,000 applicants in the 70s

I've observed many dentists who went to school at that time and half of them didn't even study for the DAT. You could get a 17 and you'd get in.

One guy went to UCSF in the 80s and he told me when he took the DAT he didn't even know what "chiral" meant and guessed on most of the ochem questions.

 

[syn_apse]

i still dont know what chiral means... i guess that's why i didn't get a 26 eh? 😎

 

[Farantino]

i still dont know what chiral means... i guess that's why i didn't get a 26 eh? 😎

Then you would probably have a good chance with UCSF.









If you were applying in the 80's!

 

[sunphish]

So...lemme get this straight.

There is a man, let's call him Man A.

He works at UB and he went to dental school.

He said that there were 15,000 applicants when he applied, making that about 50% more than are applying now.

Now, if we add in the other posts mentioning that many of the students applying back in the 70's and 80's (let's call them students B) didn't even study for the DAT (ie: "didn't even know what chiral meant"), then this seems, to me at least, to be a very obvious discrepancy...

Man A and Man B don't study for DAT.

Man A and Man B don't get higher than 17s on the DAT.

Yet, somehow Man A and Man B, who don't know what chirality is, know for a fact that 15,000 applicants applied when they were in school and therefore that must equal twice as many applicants as are applying now?

Now, don't get me wrong, I want to believe this with every single smooth and striated muscle cell in my heart, but something seems like it's not adding up. Call me crazy...but I think we better bet on many more applicants, much more competition, and twice as much stress to get into dental school now than there was in the 70s and 80s...

Though I should also add...even though the statistics add up miserably, when I first read about the UB prof. saying it was easier to get into dental school now, I couldn't help but feel a little better... 😳

 

[Farantino]

So...lemme get this straight.

There is a man, let's call him Man A.

He works at UB and he went to dental school.

He said that there were 15,000 applicants when he applied, making that about 50% more than are applying now.

Now, if we add in the other posts mentioning that many of the students applying back in the 70's and 80's (let's call them students B) didn't even study for the DAT (ie: "didn't even know what chiral meant"), then this seems, to me at least, to be a very obvious discrepancy...

Man A and Man B don't study for DAT.

Man A and Man B don't get higher than 17s on the DAT.

Yet, somehow Man A and Man B, who don't know what chirality is, know for a fact that 15,000 applicants applied when they were in school and therefore that must equal twice as many applicants as are applying now?

Now, don't get me wrong, I want to believe this with every single smooth and striated muscle cell in my heart, but something seems like it's not adding up. Call me crazy...but I think we better bet on many more applicants, much more competition, and twice as much stress to get into dental school now than there was in the 70s and 80s...

Though I should also add...even though the statistics add up miserably, when I first read about the UB prof. saying it was easier to get into dental school now, I couldn't help but feel a little better... 😳

I don't know who that guy was who didn't know what chirality meant and it does seem a little bit far-fetched that he actually did get into dental school, at least to me. However, this guy that I'm talking about is a professor in Endodontics. He seems to know what he's talking about and previously he was on the board of admissions at UB.

 

[kurt10]

So...lemme get this straight.

There is a man, let's call him Man A.

He works at UB and he went to dental school.

He said that there were 15,000 applicants when he applied, making that about 50% more than are applying now.

Now, if we add in the other posts mentioning that many of the students applying back in the 70's and 80's (let's call them students B) didn't even study for the DAT (ie: "didn't even know what chiral meant"), then this seems, to me at least, to be a very obvious discrepancy...

Man A and Man B don't study for DAT.

Man A and Man B don't get higher than 17s on the DAT.

Yet, somehow Man A and Man B, who don't know what chirality is, know for a fact that 15,000 applicants applied when they were in school and therefore that must equal twice as many applicants as are applying now?

Now, don't get me wrong, I want to believe this with every single smooth and striated muscle cell in my heart, but something seems like it's not adding up. Call me crazy...but I think we better bet on many more applicants, much more competition, and twice as much stress to get into dental school now than there was in the 70s and 80s...

Though I should also add...even though the statistics add up miserably, when I first read about the UB prof. saying it was easier to get into dental school now, I couldn't help but feel a little better... 😳

Wow so what this all boils down to is that the dentists we grew up with um....are not as smart as we always thought

 

[Bronco]

what??? theres 20,000 applicants already??? 😱

Did you just say that there are 30,000 applicants this year!!

 

[dat_student]

Did you just say that there are 30,000 applicants this year!!

I know the exact number: 36,782 applicants [This number may increase in the next few months]. I think it can go as high as 45,000 [+/- std]

 

[Dental Mom]

Wow so what this all boils down to is that the dentists we grew up with um....are not as smart as we always thought

Good one!

 

[Dental Mom]

I am working in a lab which does reseach tied to the Dental school here at Buffalo. One of the Doctors here is a graduate from University at Buffalo. We were having a chat today and he's like "what is the number of applicants this year, 8000, 9000?"
I'm like "Yeah, close to that. I'm very nervous since this number is higher than the last few years."
Then he said something that surprised me. He said that when he applied in the late 70's, there was a total of 15000 applicants! The number of Dental Schools back then was pretty much the same as it is now. So, don't freak out folks. The number of applicants this year is almost half the number that it used to be back then.

Page 7 of this doc has a history of the DAT and how many students applied/were enrolled in 1945! http://www.ada.org/prof/ed/testing/dat/dat_usermanual.pdf

 

[issa]

Page 7 of this doc has a history of the DAT and how many students applied/were enrolled in 1945! http://www.ada.org/prof/ed/testing/dat/dat_usermanual.pdf

this report is the best. i still can't believe males had a lot better scores than females in 2004. look at the perceptual ability test averages in 2004. most males got 18, but most females got 15 loooool.

 

[donkeywhisperer]

this report is the best. i still can't believe males had a lot better scores than females in 2004. look at the perceptual ability test averages in 2004. most males got 18, but most females got 15 loooool.

How did you do?

 

[Dental Mom]

this report is the best. i still can't believe males had a lot better scores than females in 2004. look at the perceptual ability test averages in 2004. most males got 18, but most females got 15 loooool.

That's OK....we women are better in other areas too 😀 My SIL got a 29 on the DAT....she scored high on the MCAT too---she's almost done with med school--will graduate with honors, is on top of her class and weights 98 lbs!

 

[ramona_k]

Page 7 of this doc has a history of the DAT and how many students applied/were enrolled in 1945! http://www.ada.org/prof/ed/testing/dat/dat_usermanual.pdf

heyy! I'm happy you're safe. Thanks for the link. Just noting the total DAT takers in 2004 that scored 21 and higher in AA (1,084) and TS (1,002) 😱 that's a lot of people! Does anyone know if there's simmilar info on DAT stats from different states?

 

[dat_student]

heyy! I'm happy you're safe. Thanks for the link. Just noting the total DAT takers in 2004 that scored 21 and higher in AA (1,084) and TS (1,002) 😱 that's a lot of people! Does anyone know if there's simmilar info on DAT stats from different states?

AA is not everything. One school (UCSF) uses the following formula:

GPA........................................................30% (or 30 points)
AA..........................................................30% (or 30 points)
PAT.........................................................5% (or 5 points)
Extracurricular activities/
Research/
Community service/
working in under-served areas/
background...............................................20% (or 20 points)
Interview..................................................15% (or 15 points)
-------------------------------------------------
...............................................................100% (or 100 points)

Applicants are ranked based on the above formula. Applicants with the highest rankings are invited 1st. I think 80/100 is considered an excellent score. I think they also have a cut-off for each section of the DAT.

So, there may be 1000 with AA = 21 but much less with AA = 21, PAT = 21, GPA > 3.75 (i.e. an A- GPA) and research experience, community service etc.

For many schools GPA is much more important than AA.

 

[EyeAmCommi]

AA is not everything. One school (UCSF) uses the following formula:

GPA........................................................30% (or 30 points)
AA..........................................................30% (or 30 points)
PAT.........................................................5% (or 5 points)
Extracurricular activities/
Research/
Community service/
working in under-served areas/
background...............................................20% (or 20 points)
Interview..................................................15% (or 15 points)
-------------------------------------------------
...............................................................100% (or 100 points)

Applicants are ranked based on the above formula. Applicants with the highest rankings are invited 1st. I think 80/100 is considered an excellent score. I think they also have a cut-off for each section of the DAT.

So, there may be 1000 with AA = 21 but much less with AA = 21, PAT = 21, GPA > 3.75 (i.e. an A- GPA) and research experience, community service etc.

For many schools GPA is much more important than AA.

Wow you know a lot about UCSF. I am willing to believe you too because I know UCSF does like to tote around its numbers. But damn, they focus their attention on the PAT that much? Yay! 👍

 

[dat_student]

...they focus their attention on the PAT that much? Yay! 👍

Not too much. During my interview, I was told after a certain PAT score everybody gets 5/5. GPA is very important. The majority of students have a GPA between 3.5 and 4.0 (last yr 8 students had a 4.0 GPA).

 

[Dental Mom]

heyy! I'm happy you're safe. Thanks for the link. Just noting the total DAT takers in 2004 that scored 21 and higher in AA (1,084) and TS (1,002) 😱 that's a lot of people! Does anyone know if there's simmilar info on DAT stats from different states?

Hi! Don't make Wilma change your mind about Ft Lauderdale, OK? Like you said, it's a paradise here! 😍

 

[burton117]

AA is not everything. One school (UCSF) uses the following formula:

GPA........................................................30% (or 30 points)
AA..........................................................30% (or 30 points)
PAT.........................................................5% (or 5 points)
Extracurricular activities/
Research/
Community service/
working in under-served areas/
background...............................................20% (or 20 points)
Interview..................................................15% (or 15 points)
-------------------------------------------------
...............................................................100% (or 100 points)

Applicants are ranked based on the above formula. Applicants with the highest rankings are invited 1st. I think 80/100 is considered an excellent score. I think they also have a cut-off for each section of the DAT.

So, there may be 1000 with AA = 21 but much less with AA = 21, PAT = 21, GPA > 3.75 (i.e. an A- GPA) and research experience, community service etc.

For many schools GPA is much more important than AA.

Very interesting.. I am curious what other types of formulas like this are used in the admissions process...

 

[JUSTINDENT]

AA is not everything. One school (UCSF) uses the following formula:

GPA........................................................30% (or 30 points)
AA..........................................................30% (or 30 points)
PAT.........................................................5% (or 5 points)
Extracurricular activities/
Research/
Community service/
working in under-served areas/
background...............................................20% (or 20 points)
Interview..................................................15% (or 15 points)
-------------------------------------------------
...............................................................100% (or 100 points)

Applicants are ranked based on the above formula. Applicants with the highest rankings are invited 1st. I think 80/100 is considered an excellent score. I think they also have a cut-off for each section of the DAT.

So, there may be 1000 with AA = 21 but much less with AA = 21, PAT = 21, GPA > 3.75 (i.e. an A- GPA) and research experience, community service etc.

For many schools GPA is much more important than AA.

If thats how it is done, does anyone get a % for interview since they havent been interviewed before being invited?

Bogus post.

 

[PDizzle]

If thats how it is done, does anyone get a % for interview since they havent been interviewed before being invited?

Bogus post.

I believe he/she meant that the formula was used to invite for ADMISSION, not for an interview.