UPDATE Took DAT** WAMC 2023-2024 cycle CA resident

[dentalmicrobio]

Date of submission: Mid-June
Overall GPA: 3.8 (2 C's, both in Physics; 3 Bs, Gen Bio, Gen Chem, and Plant Biochem)
Science GPA: 3.73
Bio-Chem-Physics GPA: 3.52
DAT score (including AA and all sections):

UPDATE: 23 PAT, 22QR, 24RC, 23Bio, 24GC, 30OC [24TS, 25AA]

State of Residence: California

Undergrad Attended: UC
Major: Integrative Biology
Minor: Conservation and Resource Studies
Minority? Yes
Reapplicant? No
Nontrad? No

Shadowing Experience: around 120 general practice, period, and ortho.

Volunteering Experience: 300 hours red-cross biomedical services volunteer, food pantry, bread making, oral hygiene teach-ins at elementary school, oral-hygiene pamphlets translations.

Employment: Dental assistant since summer after high school, about 800 hours. Ochem 2 tutor for one semester. Gardening and landscaping the summer before college.

Research: Started last fall, 6-8 hours a week doing plant biology research, no publications.

Other Extracurriculars: officer-->VP-->President of a pre-dental club, President of plant club, Environmental Justice Club active membership, Environmental Justice-centered study abroad program, secretary of lgbtq+ prehealth club

Relevant Honors or Awards: Some scholarships, and a speech contest during high school (relates to my why dentistry)

LOR type and strength: One from a study abroad professor (strong), One from upper div bio (Strong), One from an Ochem professor (weak), One from a general dentist (Very strong), One from Red-Cross Coordinator (Very Strong)

Misc Info/Things not stated elsewhere/Red Flags: I'm currently an 18-year-old sophomore, I plan on graduating early and going into dental school right away, but I don't know if that'll hurt my chances. I worked 16 hours a week every semester (FGLI). I participated in SHPEP at UCLA, and know a lot about the school. I have 70 transfer credits from dual enrollment while in high school, I completed Gen Chem and Gen Bio in high school.

School list:
UCLA
UCSF
USC
UOP
Western
Columbia
UPenn
Harvard
(If I don't get into this cycle I don't mind waiting another year, don't wanna end up at a school I don't like, would really consider this if I don't get into UCLA or UCSF (so much cheaper))

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[Ryxndek]

Personally, I wouldn’t apply to any school you don’t see yourself attending. Because reapplicants are held to higher standards and if you turn down acceptances from schools to reapply, you’re pretty much blacklisted from them when reapplying.

If you’re worried about costs, get rid of Harvard, UPenn, Columbia Western, USC - some of the highest in the country. Apply to schools you can receive in state tuition after a year, UB does and some others do. You’ll need to do more research to find out. With grad schools you can’t really pick and choose unless you know you can get in somewhere else the following year, and there’s no guarantees.

Also you can only have 4 letters on AADSAS, you’ll have to have the 5th personally email the schools their letter. So I could remove the weakest one if you can.

 

[dentalmicrobio]

Personally, I wouldn’t apply to any school you don’t see yourself attending. Because reapplicants are held to higher standards and if you turn down acceptances from schools to reapply, you’re pretty much blacklisted from them when reapplying.

If you’re worried about costs, get rid of Harvard, UPenn, Columbia Western, USC - some of the highest in the country. Apply to schools you can receive in state tuition after a year, UB does and some others do. You’ll need to do more research to find out. With grad schools you can’t really pick and choose unless you know you can get in somewhere else the following year, and there’s no guarantees.

Also you can only have 4 letters on AADSAS, you’ll have to have the 5th personally email the schools their letter. So I could remove the weakest one if you can.

Thanks, I didn't know that about the letter of recs, I was hoping to send different groups to different schools, the weak one was for schools that require three science professors. Also, I will work on my school list!

 

[Ryxndek]

Thanks, I didn't know that about the letter of recs, I was hoping to send different groups to different schools, the weak one was for schools that require three science professors. Also, I will work on my school list!

Yeah, you can't really pick and choose the letter writers and where they go with the AADSAS app. I would pick the ones that cover your bases. Usually 2 sci-profs and then either your PI or supervisor of volunteer work. Most schools don't require dentists' letters so you could possibly exclude that or have them send it to the schools of interest!

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Right... AADSAS doesn't work like AMCAS where you could designate letters to schools. It makes things a bit easier. Work with your SHPEP contacts, but try spreading out your list, maybe including the other SHPEP sites who will know what support you have received.

While it might be nice to go into dental school at 21, don't feel like you have to. Really think carefully about how you would pay for dental school because being 25 with over 600K in debt is not something I would rush into without a lot of thought.

Extra credit assignment: why should dentists care about your environmental advocacy?