WAMC? Early applicant but not much movement this cycle

[fxshdntl]

Hi everyone, I made an SDN account to post a WAMC since I've seen people get great feedback from it and I have been a little anxious this cycle. I applied to 14 schools and have been interviewed at UNLV which I am very happy about, but I have received little to no communication from any other school. I noticed many schools on my list have started interviewing already and some are multiple waves in, so I am curious to know if there is any major reason why; I was confident about my stats, but the weak points I see are that my personal statement was not very exciting and my extracurriculars could have been stronger.

Date of submission: 6/4/24
Overall GPA: 3.96
Science GPA: 3.94
Bio-Chem-Physics GPA: 3.92
DAT score: 24AA (22 PAT, 24 QR, 23 RC, 26 BIO, 23 GC, 22 OC, 23 TS)
State of Residence: California

Major: Biology
Minor: Pre-health
Minority? No
Reapplicant? No
Nontrad? No

Shadowing Experience: 230 hours total, 30 of that is virtual
Volunteering Experience: ~150 hours of volunteering, about 70 of that is volunteering for campus event, the rest are among two food banks and dental volunteering days
Employment: 80 hours as a laboratory assistant, still working. Professor I lab assist for wrote one of my LORs
Research: No research
Other Extracurriculars: Hold high leadership positions in two campus clubs not related to dentistry, recently founded one service club (so low involvement hours), part of college’s campus events committee
Relevant Honors or Awards: no significant honors/awards
LOR type and strength: 4 letters of rec; two from dentists, one from physics professor, one from anatomy professor. I am confident that all four letters are strong as I have worked closely with all four and have had extensive talks with each of them about dental school and writing my recommendation letter.
Misc Info/Things not stated elsewhere/Red Flags: not sure if this is extremely relevant, but I believe I am on the younger side of applicants (20 yrs) and I am choosing to graduate in three years instead of four
School list:
Colorado, MWU-IL, Oregon, Tufts, UCLA, UCSF, UMich, UNC, UNLV, UoP, USC, UWash, VCU, WesternU
*Note: I understand my school list is all over the place, and I regret some of my choices. My choices on where to apply were based off of having friends or family in the area, or cities I've been to before and enjoyed

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[Mr.Smile12]

You already have been interviewed at UNLV?

My comment: UW is going to be tough but with your metrics it is worth the shot.

Without a sense of your mission fit, it's hard to know why you haven't gotten more interviews, but it's early.

 

[macsak]

Hi everyone, I made an SDN account to post a WAMC since I've seen people get great feedback from it and I have been a little anxious this cycle. I applied to 14 schools and have been interviewed at UNLV which I am very happy about, but I have received little to no communication from any other school. I noticed many schools on my list have started interviewing already and some are multiple waves in, so I am curious to know if there is any major reason why; I was confident about my stats, but the weak points I see are that my personal statement was not very exciting and my extracurriculars could have been stronger.

Date of submission: 6/4/24
Overall GPA: 3.96
Science GPA: 3.94
Bio-Chem-Physics GPA: 3.92
DAT score: 24AA (22 PAT, 24 QR, 23 RC, 26 BIO, 23 GC, 22 OC, 23 TS)
State of Residence: California

Major: Biology
Minor: Pre-health
Minority? No
Reapplicant? No
Nontrad? No

Shadowing Experience: 230 hours total, 30 of that is virtual
Volunteering Experience: ~150 hours of volunteering, about 70 of that is volunteering for campus event, the rest are among two food banks and dental volunteering days
Employment: 80 hours as a laboratory assistant, still working. Professor I lab assist for wrote one of my LORs
Research: No research
Other Extracurriculars: Hold high leadership positions in two campus clubs not related to dentistry, recently founded one service club (so low involvement hours), part of college’s campus events committee
Relevant Honors or Awards: no significant honors/awards
LOR type and strength: 4 letters of rec; two from dentists, one from physics professor, one from anatomy professor. I am confident that all four letters are strong as I have worked closely with all four and have had extensive talks with each of them about dental school and writing my recommendation letter.
Misc Info/Things not stated elsewhere/Red Flags: not sure if this is extremely relevant, but I believe I am on the younger side of applicants (20 yrs) and I am choosing to graduate in three years instead of four
School list:
Colorado, MWU-IL, Oregon, Tufts, UCLA, UCSF, UMich, UNC, UNLV, UoP, USC, UWash, VCU, WesternU
*Note: I understand my school list is all over the place, and I regret some of my choices. My choices on where to apply were based off of having friends or family in the area, or cities I've been to before and enjoyed

MWU-IL, Tufts, USC, WesternU - yield management
UCLA, UCSF, UMich, UNC, UoP - all in the top 10 most difficult schools to get into in the US (and ucla/ucsf have not sent out invites yet, not sure of unc and umich, uop sent out first round of invites just over a week a go)
UW- sent out kira to the first group yesterday
Colorado, Oregon, UNLV - good choices, you left off the next most obvious choice of Utah
VCU- doesn't make sense geographically

you just need to relax and trust the process
your stats are awesome, but i can see a little hesitation may come from the fact that you are only 20, but it's still really early to be nervous...

 

[fxshdntl]

You already have been interviewed at UNLV?

View attachment 392042

My comment: UW is going to be tough but with your metrics it is worth the shot.

Without a sense of your mission fit, it's hard to know why you haven't gotten more interviews, but it's early.

Yes! They said their only form of interview was the Kira, and then I have a scheduled on-campus tour coming up. As for mission fit, I wrote heavily about working with the underserved in free clinics, and how I hope to attend a school that gives ample opportunity to continue doing that... my PS and supplementals may have been a bit basic though

 

[fxshdntl]

MWU-IL, Tufts, USC, WesternU - yield management
UCLA, UCSF, UMich, UNC, UoP - all in the top 10 most difficult schools to get into in the US (and ucla/ucsf have not sent out invites yet, not sure of unc and umich, uop sent out first round of invites just over a week a go)
UW- sent out kira to the first group yesterday
Colorado, Oregon, UNLV - good choices, you left off the next most obvious choice of Utah
VCU- doesn't make sense geographically

you just need to relax and trust the process
your stats are awesome, but i can see a little hesitation may come from the fact that you are only 20, but it's still really early to be nervous...

Thank you, this was very helpful VCU was one of my random choices I regretted applying to, and I just couldn't see myself in Utah 😔

 

[macsak]

Thank you, this was very helpful VCU was one of my random choices I regretted applying to, and I just couldn't see myself in Utah 😔

utah has a really nice building, and SLC is a great place to live
but yeah, not for everyone...