I know it is good to apply early, but I am taking the DAT on Sept 19th and plan to fax in my scores. Do any of you know if that is considered too late? The only reason that I am taking the DAT so late is that I have not taking ochem yet and plan to teach myself for the purposes of the DAT. I hear that most of the schools do not send out decisions before Dec anyway, so I figure that Sept would not be all the late.
applying september for
texas dental schools is going to be considered late in my opinion (their deadlines are oct 1)
the reason is, you are taking your DAT on sep 19th. it will take 2 weeks for ADA to process your DAT scores and send it out.
Schools do not consider you and invite you for an interview until they receive an official score from. Baylor does begin looking at your application via fax but they will not extend interview until they receive the official score.
TMDSAS would take few weeks to process application which can delay your process even further if you do not submit it ahead.
Many schools will begin interview beginning August and also ALL dental schools are required to send out their first acceptances in December 1st by ADA guideline but that does not mean that they wait until around November to make decisions of who will be getting in or not. They will actually start filling their seats through their interviews in Aug, Sep, etc. and they will just announce those in December 1st.
For example, Baylor fills up almost their entire seats with pre-December 1st interviews and i think last year, they were filled almost 100% from pre-december apps. (which means their class is almost full with people getting interviews from Aug-Nov, many of them submitted and was reviewed before August)
Dental school is rolling admission (higher chance in early applicants when they are not compared to as many applicants) so by the time they receive your application around October, they will be slower to go through applicants because during this time they will be busy with interviewing people and making decisions.
But again, if you have really outstanding GPA for texas schools (3.8+) and end up having decent DAT, you could still have a good shot no matter when you are submitting applications but if you are lacking any areas (esp. considering that you haven't taken ochem yet), it will definitely hurt your chances.
The only thing i can suggest to you is to submit rest part of TMDSAS ASAP (and I hope you have good GPA which will attract ADCOMS) and seal the deal with a great DAT score.
and also, DAT Ochem is very basic and easy and I think if you are ready for all other sections, you could take your DAT earlier than that.
good luck and feel free to ask any questions