WAMC? 2024-2025

[toothfairy_333]

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Date of submission: First week of June
Overall GPA: 3.60
Science GPA: 3.66
DAT score (include AA and all sections): 21AA, 20 TS, 24 PAT, 23 QR, 24 RC, 20 Bio, 21 GC, 19 OC.
State of Residence: Illinois

Undergrad Attended: University of California, Irvine
Major: Biological Sciences
Minor: N/A
Minority? No (Asian)
Reapplicant? No
Nontrad? No

Shadowing Experience: ~290 hours, 2 general dentists (one in california, one in illinois)
Volunteering Experience: ~1000 hours, free health clinics, natural disaster relief, food banks, beach/street cleanup, nursing home/homeless shelter visits, tutoring for elementary students in low income communities.
Employment: ~385 hours, dental assistant, hours are added from 2 diff clinics I've worked at (both clinics in California, I also added a couple hours where I worked in Taiwan as a dental assistant but I didn't star that experience on aadsas)
Research: 32 hours, just joined this school year, idk if it counts as real research but I help transcribe interviews/file data for potential research candidates and also participate in efforts to increase public awareness of Alzheimer's Disease.
Other Extracurriculars: VP of community service club that I've been in since freshman year, volunteer coordinator of Pre-dental fraternity that I've been in since sophomore year.
Have you volunteered/shadowed/attended events at any dental schools? toured USC
Relevant Honors or Awards: Deans list
LOR type and strength: 2 letters from dentists i've worked at and shadowed, one I know is very strong,1 from physics professor and 1 from research advisor both are probably just average.
School list:
University of Illinois Chicago, Midwestern-IL, USC, UCLA, Western, UoP, ASDOH, BostonU, Tufts, CWRU, Touro, Columbia, UPenn.

I know I have a couple reach schools so mostly I'm looking for advice on where else I should apply to as more attainable options hahhaha. Let me know if there is anything else I could do to strengthen my application. Any and all advice is appreciated 🙂) Thanks all!

 

[toothfairy_333]

@macsak could you give me some advice? I've seen some of your replies to other threads and you seemed super helpful!! Ty :')

 

[macsak]

@macsak could you give me some advice? I've seen some of your replies to other threads and you seemed super helpful!! Ty :')

tf333, you need to add more schools
how did you come up with this list?
you have stats pretty close to the matriculant average (20.5 dat 3.55 gpa) and 9 schools with 3 reaches is not likely to be in your best interest
i understand the 4 california schools since you did UG there, but you prob should apply to some schools closer to IL than boston and tufts
how come you have not interacted more with the socal d schools, by yourself or with the predental club?

 

[toothfairy_333]

tf333, you need to add more schools
how did you come up with this list?
you have stats pretty close to the matriculant average (20.5 dat 3.55 gpa) and 9 schools with 3 reaches is not likely to be in your best interest
i understand the 4 california schools since you did UG there, but you prob should apply to some schools closer to IL than boston and tufts
how come you have not interacted more with the socal d schools, by yourself or with the predental club?

thanks for your reply!! the list is mostly just schools i've heard of the most/know more about, so I've been trying to do more research on other target schools that are attainable with my stats. Do you have any recommendations on schools closer to IL? also I honestly thought I had more than 3 reach schools hahaha which schools did you think were reach? I have joined more meetings with admission committees that came to speak at my pre-dental frat but I didn't make much of an impression to them so I didn't think of adding it in my post.

 

[macsak]

thanks for your reply!! the list is mostly just schools i've heard of the most/know more about, so I've been trying to do more research on other target schools that are attainable with my stats. Do you have any recommendations on schools closer to IL? also I honestly thought I had more than 3 reach schools hahaha which schools did you think were reach? I have joined more meetings with admission committees that came to speak at my pre-dental frat but I didn't make much of an impression to them so I didn't think of adding it in my post.

d schools usually ask for the names and contact info of people who attend and will have a contact file...

 

[macsak]

thanks for your reply!! the list is mostly just schools i've heard of the most/know more about, so I've been trying to do more research on other target schools that are attainable with my stats. Do you have any recommendations on schools closer to IL? also I honestly thought I had more than 3 reach schools hahaha which schools did you think were reach? I have joined more meetings with admission committees that came to speak at my pre-dental frat but I didn't make much of an impression to them so I didn't think of adding it in my post.

your reaches are ucla uop and columbia

 

[macsak]

thanks for your reply!! the list is mostly just schools i've heard of the most/know more about, so I've been trying to do more research on other target schools that are attainable with my stats. Do you have any recommendations on schools closer to IL? also I honestly thought I had more than 3 reach schools hahaha which schools did you think were reach? I have joined more meetings with admission committees that came to speak at my pre-dental frat but I didn't make much of an impression to them so I didn't think of adding it in my post.

it's up to you to research your list, sorry
School list:
Please include a list of schools you are interested in applying to! It is much easier for users to help you when you have taken the time to construct your own school list first!

but the one that stands out to me is no SIU

start at the schools closest to IL and spread out from there and choose a few more and get back to us

 

[Mr.Smile12]

My questions:
1) Where/which states were the dentists' practices located where you shadowed/worked? California or Illinois?
2) Could you itemize your volunteering experience? 1000 hours stands out, and I want to confirm 900 wasn't tutoring.
3) Research is light, but then again, it's not the most important thing on a dental school application. Keep going with it.
4) I presume you are not from Southern Illinois, so SIU is not on your list (they prefer rural Illinois applicants). You should add your regional privates (choose at least 2): Marquette, Creighton, CWRU, Detroit-Mercy, maybe Louisville, replacing Columbia and Pacific.

 

[toothfairy_333]

My questions:
1) Where/which states were the dentists' practices located where you shadowed/worked? California or Illinois?
2) Could you itemize your volunteering experience? 1000 hours stands out, and I want to confirm 900 wasn't tutoring.
3) Research is light, but then again, it's not the most important thing on a dental school application. Keep going with it.
4) I presume you are not from Southern Illinois, so SIU is not on your list (they prefer rural Illinois applicants). You should add your regional privates (choose at least 2): Marquette, Creighton, CWRU, Detroit-Mercy, maybe Louisville, replacing Columbia and Pacific.

1.) One dentist I shadowed was in Illinois, he was my dentist since I was 6 and I shadowed him since highschool for a total of 150 hours, and the other one is the at the clinic I'm now working at part time in California, for a total of 140 hours.
2.) I put 1000 because all the volunteering I did was with one organization, but we did many different events. Should I input my volunteer work separately in the experience tab even though they are all with the same org? Or should I just put the average I did for each different event in the description box?
- But also its that high because I have volunteered with that org since 2017 for around 2 hours each week. I didn't want to exclude the time I did prior to college because I just wanted to show that I've been dedicated to this org for a very long time. Also when I joined college there was a collegiate branch of this org and I joined too becoming VP in my 3rd and 4th year so I included those hours into the volunteering as well.
4.) Ya I'm pretty close to the city hence no SIU. Thanks for the input Mr.Smile!!!

 

[toothfairy_333]

@macsak @Mr.Smile12 If I have a lot of different volunteering experiences with one org, would you recommend putting each event separately on the experience tab or just specifying the hours for each in one description? For example I've done free health clinics, natural disaster relief, food banks, beach/street cleanup, nursing home/homeless shelter visits, tutoring for elementary students in low income communities but all through the same non-profit organization.

 

[macsak]

@macsak @Mr.Smile12 If I have a lot of different volunteering experiences with one org, would you recommend putting each event separately on the experience tab or just specifying the hours for each in one description? For example I've done free health clinics, natural disaster relief, food banks, beach/street cleanup, nursing home/homeless shelter visits, tutoring for elementary students in low income communities but all through the same non-profit organization.

separate

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I agree, I'd start with listing separately. What is the breakdown of hours that way?