Why am I not getting an interview?

[spud daddy]

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Haha, I was joking. My perception of Canada is not based on the toughness of their Dental Schools. I've never been, but heard it's quite the picturesque place. Let's be a little more light-hearted here people.

👍

Canada is awesome by the way.

 

[Tommy43087]

Canadian's 3.7 GPA does not equal to American's 3.7 GPA.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=568870

I disagree. A gpa of 3.7 AADSAS is probably 3.6 - 3.65 Canadian. There isnt much inflation when converting it to AADSAS scale (atleast that's how it was for my marks). However, I know AMCAS (for medical schools), the scale is much different and they increase the canadian marks by a lot more b/c a friend applied and she told me what her gpa came out to be. Anyways, people with a high Canadian gpa (3.8+) are less likely to apply to American schools than those with lower, so a 3.7 isn't a bad gpa at all. I would consider it pretty decent/good.

IF that scale is correct then it is completely ridiculous to assume its harder to make it in Canada. Its actually downright unfair!!

Lets say a US student got straight 85%'s in all his classes he would have a 3.0 US gpa

IF a candian had straight 85% in all courses he would have a 3.7-4.0 candadian gpa

That BS

And the fact that you canadians are here making this argument and all these comments is ridiculous.

Wow

 

[dds10]

IF that scale is correct then it is completely ridiculous to assume its harder to make it in Canada. Its actually downright unfair!!

Lets say a US student got straight 85%'s in all his classes he would have a 3.0 US gpa

IF a candian had straight 85% in all courses he would have a 3.7-4.0 candadian gpa

That BS

And the fact that you canadians are here making this argument and all these comments is ridiculous.

Wow

It wasn't an exact scale, it was just an approximation

 

[dds10]

Haha, I was joking. My perception of Canada is not based on the toughness of their Dental Schools. I've never been, but heard it's quite the picturesque place. Let's be a little more light-hearted here people.

haha I agree!😍

 

[UofT09]

IF that scale is correct then it is completely ridiculous to assume its harder to make it in Canada. Its actually downright unfair!!

Lets say a US student got straight 85%'s in all his classes he would have a 3.0 US gpa

IF a candian had straight 85% in all courses he would have a 3.7-4.0 candadian gpa

That BS

And the fact that you canadians are here making this argument and all these comments is ridiculous.

Wow

It sounds like you come from a very grade-inflated school... I have taken classes at Harvard(an American School FYI) and the University of Toronto, in neither institution does anyone ever look at percentages. Often the mark is developed in relative terms. In both schools, if you everyone got high grades, say 80%+ (yes, that's considered high, because the testsare designed to distinguished the great students from the best students! That's why it's RARE to have students ever scoring above 90[to put things in to perspective for you, even IMO medalists don't score above 80 in math courses and Chem Olympiad winners don't get 90 sometimes]), then everyone will expect an A$SRAPING test coming up. The system is set up so that the FINAL average is a C+ or B-.
Percentage is totally irrelevant!

 

[Tommy43087]

It wasn't an exact scale, it was just an approximation based on how someone's scores were converted.

and I didn't know that an 85% in the US is a 3.0. In that case, it must be very difficult to get a 3.7 in US schools.. probably 95%+?

Yes 85% is a B at my university. And even if I got straight 92%'s i would barely have a 3.7 gpa at my university. In most of my classes a 93-94% is a solid A and 90-92.9% or 93.9% is an A-

So the fact of the matter is that there is a huge inflation in Canadian grades. i am not knocking Canadian schools but half the stuff that was said in this thread by Canadian people was realy stupid given the facts....

Especially the comment that said US grades are inflated HA

 

[Tommy43087]

It sounds like you come from a very grade-inflated school... I have taken classes at Harvard(an American School FYI) and the University of Toronto, in neither institution does anyone ever look at percentages. Often the mark is developed in relative terms. In both schools, if you everyone got high grades, say 80%+ (yes, that's considered high, because the testsare designed to distinguished the great students from the best students! That's why it's RARE to have students ever scoring above 90), then everyone will expect an *****RAPING test coming up. The system is set up so that the FINAL average is a C+ or B-.
Percentage is totally irrelevant!

First off are you talking about Harvard extension? There is a difference, I took a course at UCLA extension im not gunna say it was at UCLA. Anyway it depends on the teacher yes some do bell curves and some dont curve so there are alot of fails given out. And i have had some moderate tests, but in some of my classes (Biochem, Ochem) I cant see how my test couldve been harder (and the 40% avg showed it) unless you were learning a different subject than i was.

 

[Tommy43087]

It sounds like you come from a very grade-inflated school... I have taken classes at Harvard(an American School FYI) and the University of Toronto, in neither institution does anyone ever look at percentages. Often the mark is developed in relative terms. In both schools, if you everyone got high grades, say 80%+ (yes, that's considered high, because the testsare designed to distinguished the great students from the best students! That's why it's RARE to have students ever scoring above 90[to put things in to perspective for you, even IMO medalists don't score above 80 in math courses and Chem Olympiad winners don't get 90 sometimes]), then everyone will expect an A$SRAPING test coming up. The system is set up so that the FINAL average is a C+ or B-.
Percentage is totally irrelevant!

Only one of my science courses EVER had a B- average, ever. A couple C+, the rest much less

 

[wantVCUdental]

.

 

[Tommy43087]

That is an assumption! i didn't take course through their extension school, i took its undergrad course with regular undergrads there.

Its an assumption because i think i remember him/her talkign about harvard extension in some previous post! Now i may be wrong but its just what i recollected.

And was i saying it to you?? No!

 

[wantVCUdental]

.

 

[Tommy43087]

So that means your 93% isn't a solid 93%, it comes from belling... so instead of belling to something that high, our school bells to a C+ average, which is 67%... so i don't think you can say we are inflated... and i can't say yours is inflated... what we CAN compare is an A is an A 😀

Like i stated some professors dont curve, for example my ochem 2 course we had a F average(50%) no curve! Grades you got were what you got...

And i dont get what you mean by that(bolded)

Also like i said MOST of my classes did not have a C+ average...and only one with a B- avg....

Either way, only reason i even joined this conversation is because of some of the stupid comments made by some of the canadians on this thread(canadians do better on the american DAT, US GPA is inflated!, etc)

 

[wantVCUdental]

.

 

[Tommy43087]

Sorry, when you asked "First off are you talking about Harvard extension?" I thought you were asking me, because you said "ARE YOU". Naturally since we are the ones fighting, i thought the "YOU" meant... me... maybe you were addressing a random crowd of spectators 😀

Im sorry i didnt realize you changed you screen name from UofT to WantVCUdental ......

And im not fighting, matter of fact im done going back and forth about something so little....

 

[wantVCUdental]

It's a pointless argument, i concede

 

[spud daddy]

My point exactly.

 

[BoxerRumble]

How many schools did you actually apply to? Case, Boston and NYU only? And I'm not sure if it's different for Canadians, but I know international students need much higher stats to get an interview because every school only has like maybe 2-3 , maybe less spots for them. I could be wrong but I knew a person who applied from S. Korea and saw that very few international students get in. It could be different for Canadians. Anyways, if you only applied to 3 schools, it doesn't matter if you have a 4.0, 25 DAT and living in the US. This whole process is not just about grades, sure it plays a big role, but all of us knows that the admissions committee looks at the whole package. If you only have your stats to offer, then chances aren't great they will pick somenoe who lives in a cave and studies all day. I feel that sometimes a person can be invited for an interview based on something an admissions person LIKES about them. Since this whole process is done by humans and not computers, and they are looking for people who will most likely become good dentists, you need to offer them something else besides your GPA and DAT scores. How is the rest of your application? I must say the DAT scores are pretty average because many schools post what they want, and I see 20's a lot. How was your personal statment, research, letter of recs, or volunteer experience? The fact that you only applied to so little schools diminishes your chance of getting an interview offer because who knows, maybe some admissions person at another school likes something about you and want to give you a chance.

 

[Emmie]

IF that scale is correct then it is completely ridiculous to assume its harder to make it in Canada. Its actually downright unfair!!

Lets say a US student got straight 85%'s in all his classes he would have a 3.0 US gpa

IF a candian had straight 85% in all courses he would have a 3.7-4.0 candadian gpa

That BS

And the fact that you canadians are here making this argument and all these comments is ridiculous.

Wow

Bingo!

Sounds to me that the Canadian's ego has been attacked, should prob leave them alone, lol, j/k!

 

[dentss]

thanks for the insight...no i dont sit in a cave all day lol...apart from shadowing, had been doing research for 2-3 yrs, volunteered at a local hospital, was part of the emergency response team on campus, have also volunteered with an NGO and worked at a regional commercialization centre...so yeah lots there as well..the only thing i can think of at this point is my dat scores and late application, perhaps the personal statement but im not so sure since i reedited it this time and spent alot of time in it. my personal references cant be bad as ive gotten admissions to a number of competitive masters programs based on them.
I guess im just getting a hit for the lack of schools i applied to, applying late and DAt scores...hopefully i can change these for the better if this yr doesnt work out...🙁

 

[Emmie]

It wasn't an exact scale, it was just an approximation based on how someone's scores were converted.

and I didn't know that an 85% in the US is a 3.0. In that case, it must be very difficult to get a 3.7 in US schools.. probably 95%+?

depends on the course, the professor and the difficulty of the exams, but yes, 3.7 is difficult to get.

 

[dmd87]

Like i stated some professors dont curve, for example my ochem 2 course we had a F average(50%) no curve! Grades you got were what you got...

And i dont get what you mean by that(bolded)

Also like i said MOST of my classes did not have a C+ average...and only one with a B- avg....

Either way, only reason i even joined this conversation is because of some of the stupid comments made by some of the canadians on this thread(canadians do better on the american DAT, US GPA is inflated!, etc)

I didn't mean to say outright that US GPA's are inflated. It was someone else that commented on CDN GPA's, so I think those who did a CDN Ugrad had to stand up for themselves. I don't know about UofT09, but most averages at my school were C's, but there was no bell curving at my undergrad, so sometimes id be higher, sometimes lower. Either way, the way I look at it is that it is all relative. An 85 at your school may be a B, but it may be easier to achieve that 85 than achieving an 85 at my undergrad school (where 85 is an A, not to knock to knock you Tommy, just an example). I've spoken to people who've done undergrads at both my CDN Undergrad and later switched to undergrad in the US. From what they said, getting that 85 was basically the same as achieving a 75 at the school they first went to. Essentially its all relative, but what I found really odd was that they had stuff for bonus credits, and they'd get bumped a full letter grade for attending all classes in some courses. To me things like that sound ridiculous. If either GPA's were inflated or not at the respective schools, there will always be standardized tests to be the equalizer. To sum up, one person may be able to achieve an 85 and get a B, but at another institution an 85 maybe an A, and getting that 85 may be much more difficult (maybe thats why each school has a grade legend on the back of their transcripts).

 

[dmd87]

depends on the course, the professor and the difficulty of the exams, but yes, 3.7 is difficult to get.

That being said, 3.7 is difficult to get everywhere.

 

[dmd87]

Haha, I was joking. My perception of Canada is not based on the toughness of their Dental Schools. I've never been, but heard it's quite the picturesque place. Let's be a little more light-hearted here people.

Fair enough, sorry for bein a bit harsh, but unobjective people drive me nuts! (didn't know you were jokin...I've run into too many ignorant americans maybe?)

 

[FutureDent020]

Fair enough, sorry for bein a bit harsh, but unobjective people drive me nuts! (didn't know you were jokin...I've run into too many ignorant americans maybe?)

No worries, I try to be a fairly neutral party. But yea, there are a lot of unnecessary remarks made towards Canadians. I guess it arises from the competitive nature of the forum. Whether we realize it or not, we are all competing with each other.

 

[dentss]

how long does it take for NYU to get back to us after the application complete email is received (in October) at around this time of the application? Would it be wise to contact and ask them about my status even though it appears on AADSAS...I know the above sounds trivial but im desperate in knowing the outcome...

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