Hey guys. I feel like this site is VERY helpful, but can also be VERY stressful. It can kind of take things out of perspective and make you feel like you need a 3.9, 25DAT, and a million hours of shadowing in order to get into school. Anyways, I'm here to tell you that not everyone that gets into dental school found the cure for cancer in undergrad. Here's my stats/story/helpful hints.
Stats:
Story:
I feel like what I had going for me was being in a top NCAA division one swimming program on scholarship all four years. Aside from that, nothing was really standout, so they must have liked it. I also volunteered once/twice a month at a non-profit dental clinic as an assistant my last two years of school (about 120 hours total). During one spring break, I shadowed every day since I needed the hours. I also decided to take a year in between undergrad and dental school. So far, it's been a pretty sound decision, because my brain was fried (for many reasons haha).
Basically, I feel like it is VERY important to be VERY involved in just a couple of things. Don't go around spreading yourself thin over a million different clubs, academic obligations, etc.
Helpful Hints: Take a prep course! I promise you it is what helped me the most. The only area Kaplan did not help me was the PAT and Biology (obviously), but I felt like everything else was very helpful. I even think I might've been too confident on those two sections going in, causing me to not look closely at my answers.
In your essay, milk whatever you do that is DIFFERENT. I made mine a little story about me passing out at my first oral surgery observation and getting a concussion. I'm probably one of the few people that had the cahones to admit passing out during a surgery. BE YOU. BE DIFFERENT.
I applied to 8 schools, received interviews from 4: Tennessee, Louisville, LECOM, and ASDOH. I declined an interview at ASDOH, because I realized $100,000/year was not gonna be fun.
I was accepted to Tenn, Lou, and LECOM (going to UT for instate tuition, dawg). SO YOU CAN DO IT, TOO. Don't listen to the horror stories of people not getting in. Listen to the success stories of your pretty-much-average joe getting in! Hope this helps. I'll be happy to answer any questions anyone has!
Stats:
3.71 undergrad GPA Biology major (however, I received C's in both gen chem's, B- in orgo1, B in orgo 2, and B's in both gen bio's...where I cleaned up was in my elective courses and upper level sciences)
BCP GPA: 3.53
Science GPA: 3.58
Non-Science: 3.93
DAT: 19AA, 17 Bio, 18 Gen Chem, 23 O Chem (dunno how), 19 Reading Comp, 17 Quantitive
PAT: 17 (ouch, I know)
Story:
I feel like what I had going for me was being in a top NCAA division one swimming program on scholarship all four years. Aside from that, nothing was really standout, so they must have liked it. I also volunteered once/twice a month at a non-profit dental clinic as an assistant my last two years of school (about 120 hours total). During one spring break, I shadowed every day since I needed the hours. I also decided to take a year in between undergrad and dental school. So far, it's been a pretty sound decision, because my brain was fried (for many reasons haha).
Basically, I feel like it is VERY important to be VERY involved in just a couple of things. Don't go around spreading yourself thin over a million different clubs, academic obligations, etc.
Helpful Hints: Take a prep course! I promise you it is what helped me the most. The only area Kaplan did not help me was the PAT and Biology (obviously), but I felt like everything else was very helpful. I even think I might've been too confident on those two sections going in, causing me to not look closely at my answers.
In your essay, milk whatever you do that is DIFFERENT. I made mine a little story about me passing out at my first oral surgery observation and getting a concussion. I'm probably one of the few people that had the cahones to admit passing out during a surgery. BE YOU. BE DIFFERENT.
I applied to 8 schools, received interviews from 4: Tennessee, Louisville, LECOM, and ASDOH. I declined an interview at ASDOH, because I realized $100,000/year was not gonna be fun.
I was accepted to Tenn, Lou, and LECOM (going to UT for instate tuition, dawg). SO YOU CAN DO IT, TOO. Don't listen to the horror stories of people not getting in. Listen to the success stories of your pretty-much-average joe getting in! Hope this helps. I'll be happy to answer any questions anyone has!
