There is the concept of return on investment. Sure, you can apply to all 75 dental schools, but how much money is that if you wind up with 1 or 2 interviews? More importantly, even if you got 10 interviews, can you afford going to them? Then there's the tuition deposit if you get an offer... This is why we tell applicants that 10 schools is about the right number (certainly not more than 20; this isn't undergrad or med school). Most applicants usually get 1 interview and thus one shot at an offer, and the ratio of applicants to spots is roughly 2 to 1 so your chances are decent, but you have to choose the program that sets you up for success.
The game is not about racking up interviews; it's getting into and starting your career in dentistry with as little debt as possible if you want to ultimately own or be a major partner in your own practice.
Reddit is -- in the words of other SDN experts -- the cesspool of the internet. We're more like "Shark Tank."
🙂
It sounds like you don't have strong predental advising or have people helping you with the process. Did you read our resource:
A Dental School Admissions Guide Updated July 2023 Table of Contents Pre-Application The Dental Admissions Test The Application Interviews Following Up
www.studentdoctor.net
Did you check out our resource
Home | DDSapplicants.com ?
Have you connected with current dental students through ASDA or SNDA (including social media to individual school chapters)?
Dental admissions tends to favor geography, and being an Alabama resident, you should apply to UAB as your in-state option.
Check the OOS characteristics of schools around you, especially public schools like DCG, UTHSC, or UMMS. You'll see the probabilities of admitting out-of-state applicants (including which states in their most recent entering class). The challenge with Southern applicants is that you don't have many private options near you (for the moment); Lyon is a new private in Arkansas, but I'm wary of asking applicants to be guinea pigs for new dental school curricula unless you have a very strong mission fit to that school (you want to serve rural Arkansas patients).
Look at the ADEA Dental School Explorer (DSE) for the DAT ranges; I have to see if they have converted to three-digit scores now, but I suspect the Ivy+ schools on your list tend to want higher DAT scores. That doesn't mean they won't consider you, but you have to show you have a strong affinity for the education you would get at Penn, Columbia, or Harvard (including taking preclinical classes with medical students). Of course, dental schools are beginning to set aside operatories for pediatric patients, including special needs patients. Is that something you want more exposure as a dental student?
www.dental.upenn.edu
To your list, why do you want to go to
UBuffalo?
Roseman?
Midwestern Arizona?
Kentucky?
Maryland?
Michigan?
