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- Jun 8, 2011
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Hi Predents 🙂 I remember when I joined the forum as an eager applicant, I had tons of helpful insight and reassurance and I just wanted to pass along some words of encouragement and suggestions!
I am a Canadian citizen attending a private dental school in the USA with a Canadian bank line of credit.
I applied just once in the 2012 cycle and had 3 interviews, 2 acceptances (I did not apply to any Canadian schools). I only wrote the Canadian DAT once (21/21/21) and had a 4-year Bachelor of science with a 3-year Masters of science.
I recall I had my application in on opening day June 1 of AADSAS and I was still anxious about how my application looked. My GPA was subpar because I lacked direction throughout undergrad - but I totally lucked out and the GPA conversion for my school converted any score 80%+ as a 4.0 (ended up as ~3.5). My other extracurriculars weren't too great either because I decided to apply very last minute.
Some things I have learned:
-Earlier is better, but don't forget your application isn't complete until your LORS are. This means find reliable professors, and don't be afraid to place emphasis to them about timing.
- With the above being said, there are some schools who will interview you even with an incomplete application. This happened to me even when my LORS were not submitted and I haven't even payed the school. In such situation it helps to hear that some schools are really looking to fill their seats just as much as you want to fill them. (often the more expensive schools)
-Prepare for your interviews but do not OVERPREPARE. There is such a thing as being too overzealous and you don't need to try and impress every school with how much you know their history or taking notes on how an inferior alveolar nerve local injection is administered during your tour.
-Admissions staff are real people with lives and aren't that different from us. At my school, they are super friendly, but I can't imagine they enjoy when you pester them constantly about your application. On that note, don't be offended if you send Thank you notes/emails and don't get a reply. I'm lucky if some of my professors even open my emails.
-don't be discouraged! I was told I didn't have a chance at interviews because I messed up my college years being a slacker. Once I had the drive, I did it, and you can too.
-Don't go too crazy checking emails/messages/updates. I know it's easier said than done, but try to relax and enjoy the time you have now.
-Cost should be an important factor but it shouldn't be the deciding factor. I am an international student so every school was costly, but all of us DS grads (unless you have rich nice parents) will be broke af when we get out and everyone I know ends up fine. Don't worry so much, you don't have to be too frugal.
Life in dental school:
-Is not as difficult as they say. I adjusted to DS1 pretty well. The courses and information were not difficult, there was just a LOT. I think our first round of exams we had 11 exams in 5 days! Most DS1s will try to be super keen and our average scores would always end up in the 80s or 90s. In time every one will burn out and now I'm just happy if I can afford 3 hours studying an entire course the night before an exam. I'm not looking to specialize so I barely get any work done and still am in good standing. Overall, you can have a life and basically everyone is your friend and we all have a good time.
-The most annoying thing about school is waiting. Sim lab and especially in clinic, I am always hunting down faculty to have a check. And it's not just one check, its several checks along the way of ANY procedure. We have to get in a queue and sometimes an entire appointment is just waiting. I don't mind waiting but I feel awful having my patients (who commute a long way sometimes) sitting and twiddling their thumbs for an entire appointment.
-I go to a commuter school and some students drive 30-60min + rush hour traffic to get to school. Our hours are awful too most days we are in class 7:30am and have clinic until 6:30-7pm. Some days I don't even get a lunch break or barely even a break to go to the bathroom. Once a week I get a short day and can go home early. Either way, I refuse to commute and I will live close to the school even if it means I live in ghetto downtown Detroit, because I love sleep.
-Be organized! Because I am not. This not only helps in your note-taking and classes, but you will hate yourself when you lose any of your patients' paperwork (and there is a LOT of it).
- Even on busy, exhausting, frustrating, wanna pull my hair out days, I still love dental school. Even though you can't always meet your patients' expectations, most days are rewarding and fulfilling. You get to build real rapport with patients and they even bring me gifts during the holidays!
And I still have time to go out, watch all of Friends on Netflix in a month, go home to my family once a month, see my boyfriend, and make fancy meals whenever I want 🙂
Any other questions you might have about applying or attending dental school, let me know! I'm off this week and can answer any of your concerns
I am a Canadian citizen attending a private dental school in the USA with a Canadian bank line of credit.
I applied just once in the 2012 cycle and had 3 interviews, 2 acceptances (I did not apply to any Canadian schools). I only wrote the Canadian DAT once (21/21/21) and had a 4-year Bachelor of science with a 3-year Masters of science.
I recall I had my application in on opening day June 1 of AADSAS and I was still anxious about how my application looked. My GPA was subpar because I lacked direction throughout undergrad - but I totally lucked out and the GPA conversion for my school converted any score 80%+ as a 4.0 (ended up as ~3.5). My other extracurriculars weren't too great either because I decided to apply very last minute.
Some things I have learned:
-Earlier is better, but don't forget your application isn't complete until your LORS are. This means find reliable professors, and don't be afraid to place emphasis to them about timing.
- With the above being said, there are some schools who will interview you even with an incomplete application. This happened to me even when my LORS were not submitted and I haven't even payed the school. In such situation it helps to hear that some schools are really looking to fill their seats just as much as you want to fill them. (often the more expensive schools)
-Prepare for your interviews but do not OVERPREPARE. There is such a thing as being too overzealous and you don't need to try and impress every school with how much you know their history or taking notes on how an inferior alveolar nerve local injection is administered during your tour.
-Admissions staff are real people with lives and aren't that different from us. At my school, they are super friendly, but I can't imagine they enjoy when you pester them constantly about your application. On that note, don't be offended if you send Thank you notes/emails and don't get a reply. I'm lucky if some of my professors even open my emails.
-don't be discouraged! I was told I didn't have a chance at interviews because I messed up my college years being a slacker. Once I had the drive, I did it, and you can too.
-Don't go too crazy checking emails/messages/updates. I know it's easier said than done, but try to relax and enjoy the time you have now.
-Cost should be an important factor but it shouldn't be the deciding factor. I am an international student so every school was costly, but all of us DS grads (unless you have rich nice parents) will be broke af when we get out and everyone I know ends up fine. Don't worry so much, you don't have to be too frugal.
Life in dental school:
-Is not as difficult as they say. I adjusted to DS1 pretty well. The courses and information were not difficult, there was just a LOT. I think our first round of exams we had 11 exams in 5 days! Most DS1s will try to be super keen and our average scores would always end up in the 80s or 90s. In time every one will burn out and now I'm just happy if I can afford 3 hours studying an entire course the night before an exam. I'm not looking to specialize so I barely get any work done and still am in good standing. Overall, you can have a life and basically everyone is your friend and we all have a good time.
-The most annoying thing about school is waiting. Sim lab and especially in clinic, I am always hunting down faculty to have a check. And it's not just one check, its several checks along the way of ANY procedure. We have to get in a queue and sometimes an entire appointment is just waiting. I don't mind waiting but I feel awful having my patients (who commute a long way sometimes) sitting and twiddling their thumbs for an entire appointment.
-I go to a commuter school and some students drive 30-60min + rush hour traffic to get to school. Our hours are awful too most days we are in class 7:30am and have clinic until 6:30-7pm. Some days I don't even get a lunch break or barely even a break to go to the bathroom. Once a week I get a short day and can go home early. Either way, I refuse to commute and I will live close to the school even if it means I live in ghetto downtown Detroit, because I love sleep.
-Be organized! Because I am not. This not only helps in your note-taking and classes, but you will hate yourself when you lose any of your patients' paperwork (and there is a LOT of it).
- Even on busy, exhausting, frustrating, wanna pull my hair out days, I still love dental school. Even though you can't always meet your patients' expectations, most days are rewarding and fulfilling. You get to build real rapport with patients and they even bring me gifts during the holidays!
And I still have time to go out, watch all of Friends on Netflix in a month, go home to my family once a month, see my boyfriend, and make fancy meals whenever I want 🙂
Any other questions you might have about applying or attending dental school, let me know! I'm off this week and can answer any of your concerns
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