WAMC? - low gpa - any way I can improve my app?

[teeth.enamel]

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Date of submission: hopefully first week of August
Overall GPA: 3.4
Science GPA: 3.15
Bio-Chem-Physics GPA:3.15
DAT score (include AA and all sections):
PAT: 22
QR: 24
RC: 25
BIO: 21
CHEM: 24
OC: 19
SCIENCE: 21
AA: 23
State of Residence: California

Major: Biology
Minority? No
Reapplicant? No
Nontrad? No

Shadowing Experience: 100 hours, general
Volunteering Experience: 20 hours volunteering at local dental clinics (rescue missions - free dental care), 10 hours volunteering at food bank
Employment: campus job (chemistry tutor) - 6 hours a week
Research: microbiology research - 3 hours a week - campus poster presentation
Other Extracurriculars: started my own service club to connect students to local dental clinics serving underserved communities, leadership positions in calligraphy club, treasurer of a sorority, social committee of my schools pre-dental society
Have you volunteered/shadowed/attended events at any dental schools? yes, but not many
Relevant Honors or Awards: dean's honor roll, and 2 academic scholarships
LOR type and strength:
general dentist & pediatric dentist: strong
2 professors: average/strong
Misc Info/Things not stated elsewhere/Red Flags: no
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!
- USC, UCLA, UCSF, Dugoni, Western, NYU, Tufts, AT Still Arizona, UW, UNLV -- are there any other schools that you guys recommend applying to?

 

[macsak]

Date of submission: hopefully first week of August
Overall GPA: 3.4
Science GPA: 3.15
Bio-Chem-Physics GPA:3.15
DAT score (include AA and all sections):
PAT: 22
QR: 24
RC: 25
BIO: 21
CHEM: 24
OC: 19
SCIENCE: 21
AA: 23
State of Residence: California

Major: Biology
Minority? No
Reapplicant? No
Nontrad? No

Shadowing Experience: 100 hours, general
Volunteering Experience: 20 hours volunteering at local dental clinics (rescue missions - free dental care), 10 hours volunteering at food bank
Employment: campus job (chemistry tutor) - 6 hours a week
Research: microbiology research - 3 hours a week - campus poster presentation
Other Extracurriculars: started my own service club to connect students to local dental clinics serving underserved communities, leadership positions in calligraphy club, treasurer of a sorority, social committee of my schools pre-dental society
Have you volunteered/shadowed/attended events at any dental schools? yes, but not many
Relevant Honors or Awards: dean's honor roll, and 2 academic scholarships
LOR type and strength:
general dentist & pediatric dentist: strong
2 professors: average/strong
Misc Info/Things not stated elsewhere/Red Flags: no
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!
- USC, UCLA, UCSF, Dugoni, Western, NYU, Tufts, AT Still Arizona, UW, UNLV -- are there any other schools that you guys recommend applying to?

you need to at least increase your volunteering hours
and apply to more schools - UCSF UCLA and UOP are going to be pretty big reaches with your GPA

 

[Mr.Smile12]

You need more hours, period. You may barely have enough shadowing experience, so you need to complement that with more dental clinic exposure somehow. Volunteering is definitely not enough, and you could be screened out. I'm glad you started a service-oriented club to help connect students to underserved communities, but you also need to take care of yourself too. Do you really want to be a dentist? What have you shadowed? What practice type do you see yourself working in?

Couple that with a low GPA, your application needs a clearer idea of your purpose as a dentist. I don't see it based on what you provided.

 

[teeth.enamel]

You need more hours, period. You may barely have enough shadowing experience, so you need to complement that with more dental clinic exposure somehow. Volunteering is definitely not enough, and you could be screened out. I'm glad you started a service-oriented club to help connect students to underserved communities, but you also need to take care of yourself too. Do you really want to be a dentist? What have you shadowed? What practice type do you see yourself working in?
Couple that with a low GPA, your application needs a clearer idea of your purpose as a dentist. I don't see it based on what you provided.

Thank you for your input! Do you think that continuing to volunteer at the rescue mission dental clinic will show that? And do you know around how many hours these schools are looking for (is it more like 100+)?

As for giving a clearer picture of my wanting to be a dentist, do you have recommendations of other ways can I do that? I have become very interested in community dentistry and as a future dentist, want to help underserved populations who don't have much access to oral health care, and I wrote about this passion in my personal statement while highlighting specific interactions I've had with patients while volunteering.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Thank you for your input! Do you think that continuing to volunteer at the rescue mission dental clinic will show that? And do you know around how many hours these schools are looking for (is it more like 100+)?

As for giving a clearer picture of my wanting to be a dentist, do you have recommendations of other ways can I do that? I have become very interested in community dentistry and as a future dentist, want to help underserved populations who don't have much access to oral health care, and I wrote about this passion in my personal statement while highlighting specific interactions I've had with patients while volunteering.

First, have you shadowed different practices, different specialties? You have a community clinic (rescue mission) and perhaps a private clinic (solo? corp? group?).

I can't help you get a clearer picture of your purpose as a dentist. Your actions and involvement dictate this. Where is your other community service that has nothing to do with dentistry? Do you have experience with food pantries/banks? How about housing security? Rural community needs? Community dentistry is a lot more than free clinics and emergency extractions.

Are you applying to NHSC? Have you worked with IHS? Or the Naval hospital ships? Mobile clinics (not just the pop-ups like RAM)? How about getting certified in X-rays or becoming a dental assistant? Your application has more detail than this online profile, but if you don't show us you have that passion to help people in their time of need (who happen to have severe tooth pain), then a lot of what is written sounds hollow.