Trying to finalize my school list...

[goldcrown17]

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Hey SDNers!

With AADSAS opening next week, I'm trying to put together a final school list. I thought I had a solid list of eight schools down. But after talking to a few of my friends in dental school, other options keep coming up. I really just want to apply to like 15 schools. For financial reasons though, I really need to limit my list... Below I'll include what I want in a school, who I am, my original list, and a few additional schools I'm considering. Hopefully you can help me out!

What I want in a school:
- medical-school based curriculum (ie strong basic sciences)
- small class size
- a pass/fail curriculum
- a dual degree in education
- high placement rate into choice residencies
- opportunity for research

Who am I:
Residency: Virginia
GPA: >3.95
DAT (AA/TS/Bio/OChem/GChem/PAT/RC/QR): 22/22/22/23/22/25/19/22
Lots of community service, extracurricular, and leadership
No research experience yet but will be starting in the fall!


Original List:
1. VCU (in-state, duh and a good clinical program)
2. Maryland (brand new facilities)
3. UConn (Really like their medical-based curriculum, small class size, and pass/fail)
4. UPenn (Love their dual degree in education and facilities)
5. Columbia (Good in research, pass/fail, medical curriculum, and a MA in education)
6. Temple (Excellent clinic)
7. Harvard (Obvious choice for pass/fail, medical curriculum, small class size, etc)
8. Colorado (I like their strong focus on community health)

Other schools I am considering:
1. UCLA- I don't have psyc though so I would have to take this in the fall
2. UCSF- Pass/fail. Honestly I don't know a lot about the program but people keep telling me to apply
3. Michigan
4. ASDOH

Should I be considering any other programs?

 

[Likkriue]

I think 15 with your grades is a bit much. 10 should be fine lol.

 

[nonociceptors]

So your stats are good and I can all but guarantee you'll get an acceptance somewhere. I'd suggest removing some of the expensive privates like Penn and Temple and instead putting Michigan, LA and SF on your list. Sure it's harder to get into those schools as an OOS, but I'm pretty confident you'll get into the school I'd attend if I were you (VCU) at the very least. They have relatively small class sizes (Temple = 140, NYU = 1 bazillion), P/F curriculum, high placement rates, excellent research opportunities, and both offer in-state tuition after 1 year. If you don't mind spending an extra couple hundred for the apps then just apply to all the schools you listed and see what happens. Barring you being a total weirdo unable to hold a conversation without stammering drool onto your lap, you shouldn't worry too much!

Edit - skipped over the part you wrote about not wanting to apply to 15 schools for financial reasons. Yeah, don't worry. Apply to 8-10 and you'll be set. Trust me, I applied to 12 and now I'm wondering why I bothered applying to 6 of them.

 

[Incis0r]

Apply to 8-10 and you'll be set. Trust me, I applied to 12 and now I'm wondering why I bothered applying to 6 of them.

Hindsight is 20/20.

 

[nonociceptors]

Hindsight is 20/20.

Yeah, I was about to add "Nobody could have convinced me otherwise while I was submitting my app" lol. As long as OP is at least capable of acting normal for a 30 minute interview, he/she should be fine with 6 carefully selected schools.

 

[changtw]

Rutgers.

I think their class size is around 80. I believe you share the same course schedule as the med students the first 2 years. IS tuition after a year. Focus on community outreach, strong clinic.

 

[ncide]

Medical school based curriculum? Interested in OMFS?

 

[goldcrown17]

Medical school based curriculum? Interested in OMFS?

Not set on OMFS or specializing for sure. I just want to make sure I'm in a good position in case I decide to go that route.

 

[tyjacobs]

whoever wrote the post about rutgers is wrong. rutgers dental curriculum is separate from the medical curriculum.

your list is good, everyone else made good posts about what schools you want to consider adding.

Based on everything you say, here are your top choices. anything in parentheses indicates what each school lacks in relation to the qualities you want in a dental school:
- ucsf (i think they don't have a dual degree in education, not sure if you are taking med school courses like at columbia, harvard, and uconn)
- columbia (offers everything you want)
- penn (penn has separate basic science staff for dental school and medical school, class size is 120, not pass fail)
- harvard (i think it doesnt have masters in education dual degree)
- uconn ( both my interviewees told me on my interview day that if i wanted to do meaningful research, i should get a dds-phd. they said this is because the curriculum is so demanding, students have little time do to research. so take those words as you want. uconn also lacks masters in education dual degree i believe)

every other school not listed as much lower specialization rates, which made me not include them.

 

[changtw]

whoever wrote the post about rutgers is wrong. rutgers dental curriculum is separate from the medical curriculum.

your list is good, everyone else made good posts about what schools you want to consider adding.

Based on everything you say, here are your top choices. anything in parentheses indicates what each school lacks in relation to the qualities you want in a dental school:
- ucsf (i think they don't have a dual degree in education, not sure if you are taking med school courses like at columbia, harvard, and uconn)
- columbia (offers everything you want)
- penn (penn has separate basic science staff for dental school and medical school, class size is 120, not pass fail)
- harvard (i think it doesnt have masters in education dual degree)
- uconn ( both my interviewees told me on my interview day that if i wanted to do meaningful research, i should get a dds-phd. they said this is because the curriculum is so demanding, students have little time do to research. so take those words as you want. uconn also lacks masters in education dual degree i believe)

every other school not listed as much lower specialization rates, which made me not include them.

Dr. Chaviano emphasized that the majority of the basic sciences shared overlap with the medical course schedule the first couple years, something OP was looking for. She mentioned the schedule is heavy, and the biggest difference was that at the conclusion of the lecture day, medical students were done whereas dental students needed to continue with lab and clinic.

 

[nonociceptors]

Based on everything you say, here are your top choices. anything in parentheses indicates what each school lacks in relation to the qualities you want in a dental school:
- ucsf (i think they don't have a dual degree in education, not sure if you are taking med school courses like at columbia, harvard, and uconn)
- columbia (offers everything you want)
- penn (penn has separate basic science staff for dental school and medical school, class size is 120, not pass fail)
- harvard (i think it doesnt have masters in education dual degree)
- uconn ( both my interviewees told me on my interview day that if i wanted to do meaningful research, i should get a dds-phd. they said this is because the curriculum is so demanding, students have little time do to research. so take those words as you want. uconn also lacks masters in education dual degree i believe)

every other school not listed as much lower specialization rates, which made me not include them.

No offense but OP would be pretty stupid to apply to Penn over LA with his/her stats. If you add one of the two CA schools in SF, then you probably would also be a good fit at the other in LA. Both offer IS tuition after a year and are way less expensive than Penn. LA accepted 88 this year I think and is P/F unlike Penn. The only thing they're missing is a dual degree in education. They only have DDS/PhD or DDS/MBA I believe.

From the latest that I could access in <2 mins on their websites

SF/LA/Columbia
30/29/33 AEGD/GPR
4/12/15 OMS
0/6/0 OMFS Internship w/e that is
11/12/6 Ortho Ortho
8/8/9 Peds
2/2/2 Perio
1/0/1 Prosth
3/5 Other



But anyway OP none of this should really matter to you. Apply to your cheap state schools and basically any others you've already considered that you would *actually want to attend.* You will get in somewhere, and that somewhere will equip you with what you need to specialize if that's really what you want. Anyone who says otherwise is flat out wrong. Yes some schools have higher match rates, but you have to consider that they are going to attract students who are dead-set on specializing more than other places. It's sort of a self-fulfilling cycle that results in people overstating the impact any individual school has on one's ability to specialize.

 

[tyjacobs]

the problem with ucla is that

No offense but OP would be pretty stupid to apply to Penn over LA with his/her stats. If you add one of the two CA schools in SF, then you probably would also be a good fit at the other in LA. Both offer IS tuition after a year and are way less expensive than Penn. LA accepted 88 this year I think and is P/F unlike Penn. The only thing they're missing is a dual degree in education. They only have DDS/PhD or DDS/MBA I believe.

From the latest that I could access in <2 mins on their websites

SF/LA/Columbia
30/29/33 AEGD/GPR
4/12/15 OMS
0/6/0 OMFS Internship w/e that is
11/12/6 Ortho Ortho
8/8/9 Peds
2/2/2 Perio
1/0/1 Prosth
3/5 Other



But anyway OP none of this should really matter to you. Apply to your cheap state schools and basically any others you've already considered that you would *actually want to attend.* You will get in somewhere, and that somewhere will equip you with what you need to specialize if that's really what you want. Anyone who says otherwise is flat out wrong. Yes some schools have higher match rates, but you have to consider that they are going to attract students who are dead-set on specializing more than other places. It's sort of a self-fulfilling cycle that results in people overstating the impact any individual school has on one's ability to specialize.

ucla is very very very very tough on OOS students that why I didn't include it

 

[dannyZ]

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