What's the general procedure if you are rejected

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

Jim224

New Member
10+ Year Member
Joined
May 6, 2010
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
I assume most pre-dents apply to their prospective schools during their junior year of undergrad?

Well that would mean if they got rejected and reapplied as a senior, and were accepted, they would have a year after graduating undergrad before they actually went to the school.

Do most rejected people reapply for the following year? And for the people that DO, what do they do with themselves during that year off?

I am asking because I am sort of behind, as a future junior with a 3.2 avg, and a bunch of prereqs to still take. Along with getting shadowing hours.

Members don't see this ad.
 
I assume most pre-dents apply to their prospective schools during their junior year of undergrad?

Well that would mean if they got rejected and reapplied as a senior, and were accepted, they would have a year after graduating undergrad before they actually went to the school.

Do most rejected people reapply for the following year? And for the people that DO, what do they do with themselves during that year off?

I am asking because I am sort of behind, as a future junior with a 3.2 avg, and a bunch of prereqs to still take. Along with getting shadowing hours.

when you get rejected by every school, first you need to find out why. You contact each school (phone is best) and get an idea what they would like to see you improve on.

Majority of the time, its a DAT+GPA issue. If its GPA, you need to do something to either bring it up (post-bacc) or masters (to show upward tred). If its DAT, its pretty obvious, you retake.

Fixing a GPA issue is very costly and time consuming, and under many circumstances, 1 year won't be enough. So if you get rejected for this reason, its perhaps best to not apply right away the following year, but to take some time off from applying and start fixing the GPA so you can apply for the year after (basically 2 years after the rejection year)..... Obviously Im speculating alot here, but your question was very general so....
 
when you get rejected by every school, first you need to find out why. You contact each school (phone is best) and get an idea what they would like to see you improve on.

Majority of the time, its a DAT+GPA issue. If its GPA, you need to do something to either bring it up (post-bacc) or masters (to show upward tred). If its DAT, its pretty obvious, you retake.

Fixing a GPA issue is very costly and time consuming, and under many circumstances, 1 year won't be enough. So if you get rejected for this reason, its perhaps best to not apply right away the following year, but to take some time off from applying and start fixing the GPA so you can apply for the year after (basically 2 years after the rejection year)..... Obviously Im speculating alot here, but your question was very general so....

Thanks. I suppose if the GPA issue isn't extremely bad though (like mine), it is possible senior year of undergrad could be sufficient time to fix it right?
 
Members don't see this ad :)
Traditionally speaking, students would apply in the fall semester during senior year in undergrad and hopefully matriculate into dental school the falling fall semester (there would be no one year gap period). If you do not get in your first time, I'd contact the dental schools you're interested in and see if you can set up an appointment (either by phone or in person) with a member of the admissions committee and see what advice they can give you. Your GPA is on the low side now, but you still have time to raise it up over the next year so that by the time you apply you'll be more competitive.
 
You don't have to apply during your junior year. A huge percentage of the applicant pool is made up of fourth year students - some planning on taking a year off, some planning on completing their undergraduate degree in 5 years.

If you haven't taken the pre-requisites, it's not in your best interest to apply to dental school as a junior because your chances of landing an interview are slim to none.

A 3.2 GPA is okay at best, but you can raise that to a 3.4 (respectable) before you graduate.

In addition, if you haven't taken the pre-requisites yet, make sure you perform well so that your BCP (biology, chemistry, physics) GPA is high (think 3.7).

Goodluck.
 
Thanks. I suppose if the GPA issue isn't extremely bad though (like mine), it is possible senior year of undergrad could be sufficient time to fix it right?

yes, but you'll have to pull mostly 4.0s
 
I assume most pre-dents apply to their prospective schools during their junior year of undergrad?

Well that would mean if they got rejected and reapplied as a senior, and were accepted, they would have a year after graduating undergrad before they actually went to the school.

Do most rejected people reapply for the following year? And for the people that DO, what do they do with themselves during that year off?

I am asking because I am sort of behind, as a future junior with a 3.2 avg, and a bunch of prereqs to still take. Along with getting shadowing hours.

Do keep in mind that many applicants are also not applying right out of college. The average age will show you that most people are being accepted have already graduated.

Given what you've shared, I wager your best use of resources would be to continue to ace college, take a year off to work in something interesting and relevant to your application, use that gap time to study for the DAT to get your scores 20+ if you didn't get there when you took it as an undergraduate. Dental schools are interested in smart, mature, and experienced dental students. A ~3.5 GPA undergraduate will need some very compelling reasons to be admitted so young.

There are many different options for what to do in your gap year. You'll see the standard options on SDN all the time (postbac/masters if your GPA needs work is what most people will tell you if your undergraduate GPA is below 3.5). You can volunteer in clinics. I, for example, work in a dental clinic full time as a patient service rep (ie receptionist). You'll want to use that time to get a lot of shadowing hours if you can. Paid positions are often hard to come by, so you'll just have to do your best to lock down some sort of paying job that you can tie into your dental school application. View it as an opportunity to do something that helps you not only get into dental school but also expands your knowledge as a soon-to-be dentist.
 
Top