Thoughts/opinions/ suggestions!

[I-hate-alginate]

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Hello everyone!

Since June 1st is almost here, I know 4 schools that I will definitely apply to. 3 schools in my state (IL) and WesternU because my sibling goes there. What other schools would you apply to and why.... if you were in my shoes.

Overall GPA: 3.96 (at the end of this semester, hopefully)
Science GPA: 4.0
For the DAT (took it few days ago)
Bio: 24
Gen Chem: 24
Ochem: 30
Reading Comp: 20
QR: 18 🙁
TS: 25
AA: 23

Started shadowing at the age of 16 (I'm 19 now), worked for 6 months as a dental assistant last year. Will definitely work more in the summer.

 

[drsoni]

With that GPA and DAT, you're definitely in for UIC. Personally I'm thinking of UCLA, Marquette, and case Western

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[SmileItsLife]

Hello everyone!

Since June 1st is almost here, I know 4 schools that I will definitely apply to. 3 schools in my state (IL) and WesternU because my sibling goes there. What other schools would you apply to and why.... if you were in my shoes.

Overall GPA: 3.96 (at the end of this semester, hopefully)
Science GPA: 4.0
For the DAT (took it few days ago)
Bio: 24
Gen Chem: 24
Ochem: 30
Reading Comp: 20
QR: 18 🙁
TS: 25
AA: 23

Started shadowing at the age of 16 (I'm 19 now), worked for 6 months as a dental assistant last year. Will definitely work more in the summer.

Are you a junior even though you are 19?

 

[I-hate-alginate]

Are you a junior even though you are 19?

Yes... I also took fall 2016 off. "To study for the dat" but it was a vacation instead lol.

 

[I-hate-alginate]

If you think you may be interested in a speciality, I'd add the Ivy League and UC institutions.

I never shadowed a specialist... so I'm not very sure about specializing, but I think that doing a GPR after dental school is necessary since it makes the resume look better.

 

[Cali20002]

Fellow IL res here! I'd apply to UIC and SIU for sure since they're cheap. With your stats, you can bank on getting into some cheap schools. I'd recommend applying to Pitt, Creighton, Marquette, Louisville, Penn, Uconn, and all the Texas schools since your stats are great. If there are any other schools which offer in-state tuition after the first year, definitely give those a shot.

 

[EmmaPreDent]

I would definitely apply to UCLA and UCSF and with those stats I can kind of guarantee you'll get into both if you don't apply too late! Best of luck!

 

[TLV-TUS]

Since you're pretty young and have great stats you might wish to look into UOP. You could graduate at 23-24 and then have plenty of time to figure out specialties if you wish.

 

[redhotchiligochu]

@I-hate-alginate. I hate doing alginate impressions too lmao

If money's no object, Ivy League dental schools are the way to go. If you're actually 19 and still a junior and wanna pursue general dentistry, I'd recommend against any 3-year program. Hear me out but a lot of patients will be skeptical of being treated by a 23/24 year old general dentist because of perceived maturity issues--patients seeing younger age as equating to lack of life experience--fair or not fair, that's how it tends to be.

However, if you choose to pursue a long hard specialty e.g. 6 year OMFS program, your youth will put you at an advantage. You'll be out by the time you're 29, whereas for someone like me in my late 20s, I'll be 31/32 by the time I finish dental school and if I were to pursue a 6 year OMFS program, I'll be almost 40 and close to 7 figures in debt. Not to mention if I were in REPAYE, I would be tax-bombed at age 65!!!

My advice? Study hard and shoot for the stars, but also enjoy your youth! You'll only be 19-21 once and I definitely long for the days when I was young and "allowed" to be irresponsible.



(not sure if I adequately answered your question regarding school choice, lol)

 

[gangazi]

I was in high school when I was 19...


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[I-hate-alginate]

Fellow IL res here! I'd apply to UIC and SIU for sure since they're cheap. With your stats, you can bank on getting into some cheap schools. I'd recommend applying to Pitt, Creighton, Marquette, Louisville, Penn, Uconn, and all the Texas schools since your stats are great. If there are any other schools which offer in-state tuition after the first year, definitely give those a shot.

Yes yes, I will try to apply to every place that is near to IL, btw, SIU has a dental implants residency, what do you think of it?

 

[I-hate-alginate]

I would definitely apply to UCLA and UCSF and with those stats I can kind of guarantee you'll get into both if you don't apply too late! Best of luck!

Thank you. I will try to have all my letters of recommendation by June 1st, same with my personal statement. So hopefully I'll be applying really early. And I'm not very familiar with the schools on cali except for WesternU, but I hear a lot about ucla, ucsf... why are they so hyped, what's special about them that makes them stand out?

 

[I-hate-alginate]

Since you're pretty young and have great stats you might wish to look into UOP. You could graduate at 23-24 and then have plenty of time to figure out specialties if you wish.

I thought I was numb to the idea of debt, my sister goes to WesternU and she's paying tons.... when I heard I could be 600k in debt at uop, I knew I wasn't that numb, needs more septocain.

 

[EmmaPreDent]

Thank you. I will try to have all my letters of recommendation by June 1st, same with my personal statement. So hopefully I'll be applying really early. And I'm not very familiar with the schools on cali except for WesternU, but I hear a lot about ucla, ucsf... why are they so hyped, what's special about them that makes them stand out?

I think the reputations they have as schools with good networks and amazing research opportunities, the lower tuition once you become in-state, and the fact that you're guaranteed a residency program if you have either name on your resume. Even if you're at the bottom 10% the speciality programs see UCLA's name and snap! It's done! both are highly competitive, but I think UCLA is a bit more competitive. You won't have hard time doing well in either one though. Good job again on those stats! You'll be more than fine this year!

 

[I-hate-alginate]

@I-hate-alginate. I hate doing alginate impressions too lmao

If money's no object, Ivy League dental schools are the way to go. If you're actually 19 and still a junior and wanna pursue general dentistry, I'd recommend against any 3-year program. Hear me out but a lot of patients will be skeptical of being treated by a 23/24 year old general dentist because of perceived maturity issues--patients seeing younger age as equating to lack of life experience--fair or not fair, that's how it tends to be.

However, if you choose to pursue a long hard specialty e.g. 6 year OMFS program, your youth will put you at an advantage. You'll be out by the time you're 29, whereas for someone like me in my late 20s, I'll be 31/32 by the time I finish dental school and if I were to pursue a 6 year OMFS program, I'll be almost 40 and close to 7 figures in debt. Not to mention if I were in REPAYE, I would be tax-bombed at age 65!!!

My advice? Study hard and shoot for the stars, but also enjoy your youth! You'll only be 19-21 once and I definitely long for the days when I was young and "allowed" to be irresponsible.



(not sure if I adequately answered your question regarding school choice, lol)

Lol some people actually enjoy doing alginate impressions... smh
Thank you. And tbh, that only reason I'm a junior at 19 is because I want to finish asap, doing oral surg. (That's 6 more years of school) a big nooo. I never shadowed an oral surgeon, but I will definitely shadow one at dental school, I can never rule any plan out because you know... life. But my plan is to do dental school, a gpr program; and dental implant residency after, based on what I see at work, knowing how to do implants separates you from every other dentist.

 

[I-hate-alginate]

I think the reputations they have as schools with good networks and amazing research opportunities, the lower tuition once you become in-state, and the fact that you're guaranteed a residency program if you have either name on your resume. Even if you're at the bottom 10% the speciality programs see UCLA's name and snap! It's done! both are highly competitive, but I think UCLA is a bit more competitive. You won't have hard time doing well in either one though. Good job again on those stats! You'll be more than fine this year!

Thank you again. And are those the ivy league schools I keep hearing about on this website? Lol. So if you were at IL, you don't have an idea if you want to specialize or not, but you get accepted at UIC and UCSF/UCLA... which one would you choose?

 

[EmmaPreDent]

Thank you again. And are those the ivy league schools I keep hearing about on this website? Lol. So if you were at IL, you don't have an idea if you want to specialize or not, but you get accepted at UIC and UCSF/UCLA... which one would you choose?

No the Ivy are U Penn, Harvard,... but UCLA and UCSF are honestly as good, if not better. If UIC means lower cost of attendance(not familiar with the school tuition-wise) I would choose it over the other two, unless you're looking for some adventure... then UCSF...

 

[I-hate-alginate]

No the Ivy are U Penn, Harvard,... but UCLA and UCSF are honestly as good, if not better. If UIC means lower cost of attendance(not familiar with the school tuition-wise) I would choose it over the other two, unless you're looking for some adventure... then UCSF...

Thank you again, will definitely look into those schools.

 

[SmileItsLife]

You're honestly #goals to me. I think you know what you are doing.

Some Advice: I would, if I where you, apply to a few mid to lower-tier schools and see if you can get a partial dental scholarship to shake out. You could end up owing less... be sure though, that you would go to that school still paying full price.

 

[I-hate-alginate]

You're honestly #goals to me. I think you know what you are doing.

Some Advice: I would, if I where you, apply to a few mid to lower-tier schools and see if you can get a partial dental scholarship to shake out. You could end up owing less... be sure though, that you would go to that school still paying full price.

Thank you for the advice, will look into it for sure.

 

[Stanelz]

I hate alginate as well. In fact I had a patient vomit on me yesterday from an upper alginate.

Youre looking good for this cycle!

 

[Cali20002]

Yes yes, I will try to apply to every place that is near to IL, btw, SIU has a dental implants residency, what do you think of it?

Unfortunately, I don't know much about it. Have you ever considered Periodontics? They know arguably the most on implants.

 

[BoomerSooner-ang]

Come to Texas.