What are my chances/what tips do you have? :)

[Tydomoo]

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[DSchoolorBust202X]

Hey guys, time left until application is closing in and I am just wondering if you have any last minute tips for me! Here are my details below:

Feb 10th, 2019
Overall GPA: 3.79
Science GPA: 3.58
BCP GPA: 3.58 (one semester I was going through some personal stuff and is the only reason this dropped from a 3.7... Not pretty on the application and wish I could go back and do it over :' ( but what's done is done I suppose)
DAT score: Taking it June, but have been getting 20+ on practices
State of Residence: Utah

Major: Neuroscience
Minority? No
Reapplicant? No

Shadowing Experience: 100+ with 2 general dentists, 1 orthodontist, and 1 pediatric dentist
Volunteering Experience: 450+ in hospital radiology department, teaching english/spanish, and humanitarian service in Mexico
Employment: 20 hrs/week all of undergrad teaching Spanish
Research: 1 semester in a genetics lab researching plant productivity to help malnourished children
Other Extracurriculars: University's eSports Presidency- Community Service Coordinator
Misc Info/Things not stated elsewhere: Married
School list: I have been eyeballing in-state University of Utah. Others I have considered are Roseman, any of the 2 Arizona schools, Nova Southeastern, and Louisville.

Thanks in advance to all who comment. Love this community for the wonderful people like you who form a part of it!!!

Your GPAs are great, and it looks like all your ECs are good as well.

Your list is pretty private-school-heavy, so I'd maybe look into some state schools where you could potentially claim IS residency after 1 year. Not every program allows that, though, so make absolutely sure you're talking with admissions offices or finding that info on their website.

Also, UNLV and Colorado are relatively OOS-friendly from what I can tell and would be closer to home for you. I had luck at UK and Indiana as OOS, so maybe research that more if location doesn't matter.

I'd shoot for applying to ~10 schools, but you could likely get away with apply to less since your GPAs are solid (hard to tell without DAT, though). Good luck!

 

[Cthuluhoop]

Your GPA, and ECs are awesome. Any reason you are applying to Louisville? They are pretty expensive OOS so I wouldn't recommend applying there. I also wouldn't apply to NOVA with your stats. Pitt and Penn both can give you sizable scholarships so I'd add those two to your list. Without a DAT score it's difficult for us to give you a true opinion.
Like @DSchoolorBust202X said, I'd aim for 9-10 schools total if you do get a good DAT score. Make sure you're taking cost of attendance into consideration and calculating true cost of attendance with interest and tuition hikes. Luckily, you're married so that helps cover a lot of expenses if your spouse can support you both while you're in school.

My only issue is that you said you are getting 20+ on practice tests and you're waiting until June to take the DAT. That's 5 months, and not a good idea in my opinion. You're going to forget a lot of information, you should take the test relatively soon

 

[Tydomoo]

Your GPA, and ECs are awesome. Any reason you are applying to Louisville? They are pretty expensive OOS so I wouldn't recommend applying there. I also wouldn't apply to NOVA with your stats. Pitt and Penn both can give you sizable scholarships so I'd add those two to your list. Without a DAT score it's difficult for us to give you a true opinion.
Like @DSchoolorBust202X said, I'd aim for 9-10 schools total if you do get a good DAT score. Make sure you're taking cost of attendance into consideration and calculating true cost of attendance with interest and tuition hikes. Luckily, you're married so that helps cover a lot of expenses if your spouse can support you both while you're in school.

My only issue is that you said you are getting 20+ on practice tests and you're waiting until June to take the DAT. That's 5 months, and not a good idea in my opinion. You're going to forget a lot of information, you should take the test relatively soon

Thanks for the feedback! Just out of curiosity, why would you exclude Nova? Louisville is super expensive, but our prehealth advisor was just mentioning that they are really supportive of their students and understanding of their situations, which is definitely a priority for me. I might look at bumping my test date up a little bit and will look into penn and Pitt for sure!

 

[Tydomoo]

Your GPAs are great, and it looks like all your ECs are good as well.

Your list is pretty private-school-heavy, so I'd maybe look into some state schools where you could potentially claim IS residency after 1 year. Not every program allows that, though, so make absolutely sure you're talking with admissions offices or finding that info on their website.

Also, UNLV and Colorado are relatively OOS-friendly from what I can tell and would be closer to home for you. I had luck at UK and Indiana as OOS, so maybe research that more if location doesn't matter.

I'd shoot for applying to ~10 schools, but you could likely get away with apply to less since your GPAs are solid (hard to tell without DAT, though). Good luck!

Thank you so much for the feedback! I will look into those schools for sure!

 

[zToothinator]

Thanks for the feedback! Just out of curiosity, why would you exclude Nova? Louisville is super expensive, but our prehealth advisor was just mentioning that they are really supportive of their students and understanding of their situations, which is definitely a priority for me. I might look at bumping my test date up a little bit and will look into penn and Pitt for sure!

Not sure why Cthuluhoop excluded Nova, but Nova has been having a lot of difficulty recently:
Post 1
Post 2

For Louisville, I called the school last spring when I was getting ready to apply and didn't like the school as much because of the large class size (120) and because students have been struggling to fulfill all of their clinical requirements due to limited patients. The lady I spoke with did say that the administration is starting to take action to increase the number of patients in clinic though. Just things to consider.