Props to the OP for creating this thread, btw, it's a great idea.
Things I would do differently:
1.
Made sure all of my LOR writers got their letters in before September. It didn't seem late, but by the time AADSAS sent them out, it turned out to be quite late and held up my application at a few schools.
2.
Put more thought into the schools I applied to. I will say I did screen pretty heavily and cut down from a bajillion schools to 15 initially. I applied to Creighton and Western and later decided that they are schools I would not want to attend (For Creighton, location is the issue, for Western, I don't want to be an inaugural class.) That was money that I could have saved to spend elsewhere in the application process, i.e. interview expenses. Also, I later decided to add Stony Brook - hadn't added it initially because I thought there was no way I'd get in the school let alone an interview, what do you know, I got an interview, so I'm praying for an acceptance tomorrow. Although the fees weren't any different, I still should have added it in my initial applications because sooner is always better
... moral of the story is don't hold off applying to a school you're really interested solely because
you think you have no shot, because you really don't know ... but don't apply to EVERY school 'just because.' Think long and hard about if you'd REALLY go there if it was the only school you got in.
3.
Spent a little more money and got a better quality suit.I'm funding my whole dental school application process myself and thought I'd save a bit by going for an $80 suit ... well, two of the 3 buttons on the suit jacket are hanging by a thread so I have to resew them, and the fly disappeared at the dry cleaners (I noticed this the morning of my NYU interview, in NYC, ... thank god for duct tape). I think I should have shelled out an extra 40-50 bucks for a nicer suit.
4.
Not dated a loser who tried to hold me back from going to d-school.Yeah. Thank god I wised up. Seriously, you need to prioritize, and I realized too late in last year's cycle that getting into dental school was more important than spending time with a crappy boyfriend in a crappy relationship when I should have been studying for the DAT.
5.
Get straight A's EVERY semester. Okay, so this one probably wasn't entirely possible because I had a few classes where I tried my damndest and received A minuses, but still, it would have been nice
