WAMC - avg DAT & GPA

[FyoJ]

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Date of submission: July 8th, 2025
Overall GPA: 3.45
Science GPA: 3.22
Bio-Chem-Physics GPA: 3.10
DAT score (include AA and all sections):
AA - 20
TS - 20
PAT - 19
BIO - 21
CHEM - 19
ORGO - 21
QR - 18
RC - 20

State of Residence: NY

Undergrad Attended: CUNY
Major: Human Biology
Minor: N/A
Minority? NO
Reapplicant? NO
Nontrad? NO

Shadowing Experience: 204 hrs shadowing general dentist
Volunteering Experience: 39 hrs chem TA; 58 hrs from club activity related things (I have more hours as a tutor that I received academic credit for, but I'm not sure how many hours to calculate for it 🙁 )
Employment: 2563 hrs customer service/barista job; 1463 hrs dental assisting
Research: First Author publication, abstract publication (from hs)
Other Extracurriculars: Secretary of photography club, outreach coordinator for club promoting friendships among disabled students
Have you volunteered/shadowed/attended events at any dental schools? No
Relevant Honors or Awards: Deans list, 2 time awardee for scholarship
LOR type and strength:
Letter from doctor I shadowed + assisted (Strong)
Letter from doctor I assisted (Strong)
Letter from general chem professor (Medium)
Letter from organic chemistry professor (Medium)

Misc Info/Things not stated elsewhere/Red Flags:
Poor grades for bio (B-, C)
Poor grade in my first sem of physics 1 (C+)
"downward" trend that began in first semester of junior year but then rose again the second semester of junior year that also correspond to my poor grades listed above (Personal life struggles and such)

School list:
NYU
Touro
Buffalo
Tufts
Boston
Temple
WesternU
Pitts
Rutgers
Uconn

Please let me know! I'm getting discouraged by how painfully average my stats are and i'm getting worried that i won't get into any schools.

 

[macsak]

not trying to bring you down, but you do need to add more schools (a bunch of privates)
your overall gpa is around the applicant average, but your science gpa and especially your bcp gpa are lower than applicant average
when you look at matriculant average, they are further from them (3.6 gpa 21 dat)
your assisting hours and first author publication will help some, but 10 schools is not enough with your stats, especially with 4 publics included
it's not that you don't have a chance to get an acceptance, but you need to cast a wider net to get interviews and acceptances...

Date of submission: July 8th, 2025
Overall GPA: 3.45
Science GPA: 3.22
Bio-Chem-Physics GPA: 3.10
DAT score (include AA and all sections):
AA - 20
TS - 20
PAT - 19
BIO - 21
CHEM - 19
ORGO - 21
QR - 18
RC - 20

State of Residence: NY

Undergrad Attended: CUNY
Major: Human Biology
Minor: N/A
Minority? NO
Reapplicant? NO
Nontrad? NO

Shadowing Experience: 204 hrs shadowing general dentist
Volunteering Experience: 39 hrs chem TA; 58 hrs from club activity related things (I have more hours as a tutor that I received academic credit for, but I'm not sure how many hours to calculate for it 🙁 )
Employment: 2563 hrs customer service/barista job; 1463 hrs dental assisting
Research: First Author publication, abstract publication (from hs)
Other Extracurriculars: Secretary of photography club, outreach coordinator for club promoting friendships among disabled students
Have you volunteered/shadowed/attended events at any dental schools? No
Relevant Honors or Awards: Deans list, 2 time awardee for scholarship
LOR type and strength:
Letter from doctor I shadowed + assisted (Strong)
Letter from doctor I assisted (Strong)
Letter from general chem professor (Medium)
Letter from organic chemistry professor (Medium)

Misc Info/Things not stated elsewhere/Red Flags:
Poor grades for bio (B-, C)
Poor grade in my first sem of physics 1 (C+)
"downward" trend that began in first semester of junior year but then rose again the second semester of junior year that also correspond to my poor grades listed above (Personal life struggles and such)

School list:
NYU
Touro
Buffalo
Tufts
Boston
Temple
WesternU
Pitts
Rutgers
Uconn

Please let me know! I'm getting discouraged by how painfully average my stats are and i'm getting worried that i won't get into any schools.

 

[matthewbernard9]

Have you thought about adding Louisville or Nova Southeastern? Both are decent schools that may consider those stats. Also what are you doing to prep for interviews bc youre gonna need to crush them. I am a D1 at Chapel Hill, DM me on here if you want me to give you any advice on interviews since I just went through it!

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I prefer seeing more community service, i.e., service to those off-campus. I'm okay but probably not sufficient to count your involvement with other disabled students.

 

[FyoJ]

I prefer seeing more community service, i.e., service to those off-campus. I'm okay but probably not sufficient to count your involvement with other disabled students.

The reason I have so little off-campus related service is because I've been having to work part time to pay for my tuition and other living expenses myself. I don't receive any aid, nor do my parents really have any interest in supporting me financially for anything so it's been a little rough getting volunteer/community service hours that aren't directly on campus already and don't really require me to take time off or something like that 🙁

 

[bkthmusic]

Hi! I think we went to the same CUNY based on your major 😆 I agree with others your list needs to expand. I would take off UConn and Rutgers (not that oos friendly and they take high stats for oos), you can add LECOM (good clinical and oos friendly with average stats closer to yours), look into UNE (same as LECOM)
If you need more help you can dm me 😊

 

[FyoJ]

Hi! I think we went to the same CUNY based on your major 😆 I agree with others your list needs to expand. I would take off UConn and Rutgers (not that oos friendly and they take high stats for oos), you can add LECOM (good clinical and oos friendly with average stats closer to yours), look into UNE (same as LECOM)
If you need more help you can dm me 😊

Thank you for your advice! Didn't realize Rutgers and Uconn weren't as OOS friendly.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

The reason I have so little off-campus related service is because I've been having to work part time to pay for my tuition and other living expenses myself. I don't receive any aid, nor do my parents really have any interest in supporting me financially for anything so it's been a little rough getting volunteer/community service hours that aren't directly on campus already and don't really require me to take time off or something like that 🙁

I understand that challenge, but we admit many students similar to you who have had to work for a living. Yet they still find 100 hours to spare for community service. That's just 2-3 hours every week for a year. At some point, you must accept your decisions and manage your time effectively.

You have many in-state options. I won't say it's "easier" for you to get a spot since there are a good number of NY applicants, but you should be able to spare time to network with schools to meet other students or go to/volunteer at the Greater NY dental conference. You need to see your future and how hard you have to work to be competent in dentistry, and you need to gain more credibility as someone willing to work with all types of patients in pain or who don't want to meet you.

 

[FyoJ]

I understand that challenge, but we admit many students similar to you who have had to work for a living. Yet they still find 100 hours to spare for community service. That's just 2-3 hours every week for a year. At some point, you must accept your decisions and manage your time effectively.

You have many in-state options. I won't say it's "easier" for you to get a spot since there are a good number of NY applicants, but you should be able to spare time to network with schools to meet other students or go to/volunteer at the Greater NY dental conference. You need to see your future and how hard you have to work to be competent in dentistry, and you need to gain more credibility as someone willing to work with all types of patients in pain or who don't want to meet you.

That's completely fair. I know my situation isn't really unique which is why I didn't bother mentioning it in detail in my post the first time.

Would you say it's still worth trying over the rest of this summer and through the next semester to get more volunteer hours for any possible academic updates? Or is it kind of a lost cause already?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

That's completely fair. I know my situation isn't really unique which is why I didn't bother mentioning it in detail in my post the first time.

Would you say it's still worth trying over the rest of this summer and through the next semester to get more volunteer hours for any possible academic updates? Or is it kind of a lost cause already?

You don't need to wait to get community service. I don't have your application to get a better idea of how desirable your real profile is. I'm just saying, don't make excuses. Get it done.