Where should I apply? California resident 22AA/3.6 sGPA

[ginach]

(Do let me know if there would be a better place to post this for more responses, lol)
Hi,
I'm a non traditional student planning to apply to this upcoming cycle. I graduated 4 years ago with a bachelors degree in psychology. I decided immediately after graduation that I wanted to pivot to dentistry and with my degree I never really needed to take any of the necessary predental science prerequisites so I began an informal post bacc. I wanted to save money so i took all of my classes at my local community college. I took biochemistry at UCLA extension and plan to take physiology at a 4 year institution as well. I dont exceed the maximum cc credits with my post bacc classes for the most part but there are definitely some schools where I do. I'm open minded, would prefer to stay in state but also want to keep costs down. I'm aware some of my picks aren't cost effective and/or dream schools rather than reach schools but I thought itd be worth a try since they are in state even if I dont end up going there. Truly do want to go to the cheapest school that accepts me but like anyone want to be in a location that I'd be okay with living in for four years. I dont know if I plan to apply to all of the schools i've listed but these are the ones where I meet all of the prerequisite requirements. I'm not too familiar with which of these schools prefer in state students, please let me know.

undergrad GPA: 3.74
'post bacc' GPA: 3.61 (might be slightly higher or lower with my A in biochem and my yet to be taken physiology class)
shadowing hours: 160+ (general dentist and orthodontist)
volunteering hours: 150+ (tutored north korean refugees in english while studying abroad, volunteered with local non-profit health organization (3 years))
experience?/volunteering?: university psych stats tutor, student teacher for sustainability (geared toward elementary students)
research: focus on students who were balancing school and parenting, presented at symposium
DAT: 22 AA/ 21 TS / 24 RC/ 23 Bio/ 22 GC/ 20 OC/ 20 PAT / 19 QR

tentative picks: California ( UCSF, UCLA, UoP (expensive so not sure), Western, USC (expensive and it would ultimately not be my choice over most schools, similar to UoP)) , Pennsylvania (Temple), Nevada (UNLV), Oregon (OHSU), Wisconsin (Marquette), New York (Touro), Arizona (ASDOH), New Jersey (Rutgers), Virginia (VCU), Florida (LECOM), Ohio (Case Western)

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[1942]

have you purchased the ADEA explorer? If not I would definitely recommend it. It helps you quickly find information on each school and allows you to look at select data from the entering class. It will help tremendously when creating your school list.

other than that, on paper your chances look solid. It’s just a matter of optimizing your school list.

I would remove Temple (maximum CC units is 6), Oregon (if you exceed 32 CC units), Rutgers (prefers IS), VCU (prefers IS)

Consider removing Marquette (prefers pre-reqs to be taken at a 4-year), Case Western (same as Marquette).

for some schools I believe the CC limit operates as a soft cap but that’s based on anecdotal evidence. However, it’s probably best to avoid those schools entirely and replace them with other schools if money/time is limited

 

[ginach]

have you purchased the ADEA explorer? If not I would definitely recommend it. It helps you quickly find information on each school and allows you to look at select data from the entering class. It will help tremendously when creating your school list.

other than that, on paper your chances look solid. It’s just a matter of optimizing your school list.

I would remove Temple (maximum CC units is 6), Oregon (if you exceed 32 CC units), Rutgers (prefers IS), VCU (prefers IS)

Consider removing Marquette (prefers pre-reqs to be taken at a 4-year), Case Western (same as Marquette).

for some schools I believe the CC limit operates as a soft cap but that’s based on anecdotal evidence. However, it’s probably best to avoid those schools entirely and replace them with other schools if money/time is limited

I paired down to 10 schools after taking into account your suggestions, do you think I should consider adding a couple more schools? I know my stats are solid but not exceptional but im not sure if 10 schools with some of them being a little above my reach, is considered applying broadly. I feel like my initial list included the schools i was eligible for and interested in but after cutting some and looking through admissions information for the dental schools, i'm not sure what else to add. btw, I have 55 cc credits total