Your Scores vs This Forum

[MrJingles]

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Hello fellow SDNers!

I'm here to reassure those worried about their DAT scores compared to the insane DAT scores reported in this forum! If you're one of those students that thinks they HAVE to go to Columbia, UPenn, or Harvard then you aren't worried about your scores anyway so this thread may not be for you.. In no way, shape or form am I bashing or saying those aren't good schools and people are wrong for aiming high, they are some of the most prestigious schools in the country. My case and point are that, you do not need to attend one of those schools to become a good dentist and every dental school in the country has to meet certain minimum standards and requirements set forth by the Commision of Dental Accreditation and ADA.

Do good scores help land interviews? Absolutely. Do you need to score 25+ in all the sections of the DAT and have straight 4.0 to be granted an interview? Absolutely not. I believe the key is to have a great OVER ALL application, not just fantastic numbers. Do your research and determine which schools interview/admit similar applicants to yourself and apply EARLY. (There is an overwhelming amount of information available in this forum posted by some very helpful people.) I was so worried about my scores compared to the great scores posted by SDNers and I have been fortunate enough to be granted 5 interviews already and have over half of my schools to hear from yet. Take a look at my PreDents profile and know, there is hope!

 

[jwnichols21]

Hello fellow SDNers!

I'm here to reassure those worried about their DAT scores compared to the insane DAT scores reported in this forum! If you're one of those students that thinks they HAVE to go to Columbia, UPenn, or Harvard then you aren't worried about your scores anyway so this thread may not be for you.. In no way, shape or form am I bashing or saying those aren't good schools and people are wrong for aiming high, they are some of the most prestigious schools in the country. My case and point are that, you do not need to attend one of those schools to become a good dentist and every dental school in the country has to meet certain minimum standards and requirements set forth by the Commision of Dental Accreditation and ADA.

Do good scores help land interviews? Absolutely. Do you need to score 25+ in all the sections of the DAT and have straight 4.0 to be granted an interview? Absolutely not. I believe the key is to have a great OVER ALL application, not just fantastic numbers. Do your research and determine which schools interview/admit similar applicants to yourself and apply EARLY. (There is an overwhelming amount of information available in this forum posted by some very helpful people.) I was so worried about my scores compared to the great scores posted by SDNers and I have been fortunate enough to be granted 5 interviews already and have over half of my schools to hear from yet. Take a look at my PreDents profile and know, there is hope!

Link us to your PreDents profile!

 

[MrJingles]

Link us to your PreDents profile!

Its below my avatar..

 

[FROGGBUSTER]

Good job on getting the interviews, but they don't equate to acceptances.

 

[jwnichols21]

Good job on getting the interviews, but they don't equate to acceptances.

Ouch 👎

 

[FROGGBUSTER]

Ouch 👎

👍

 

[rah08e]

Good job on getting the interviews, but they don't equate to acceptances.

Get a life buddy... I wish they would ban you from this site already... I think you spend more time on this site than interacting with people.

MrJingles- congrats on your interviews

 

[FROGGBUSTER]

Get a life buddy... I wish they would ban you from this site already... I think you spend more time on this site than interacting with people.

MrJingles- congrats on your interviews

What did I do?

 

[FROGGBUSTER]

I've been misunderstood.

 

[DrRoyal Pains]

Hello fellow SDNers!

I'm here to reassure those worried about their DAT scores compared to the insane DAT scores reported in this forum! If you're one of those students that thinks they HAVE to go to Columbia, UPenn, or Harvard then you aren't worried about your scores anyway so this thread may not be for you.. In no way, shape or form am I bashing or saying those aren't good schools and people are wrong for aiming high, they are some of the most prestigious schools in the country. My case and point are that, you do not need to attend one of those schools to become a good dentist and every dental school in the country has to meet certain minimum standards and requirements set forth by the Commision of Dental Accreditation and ADA.

Do good scores help land interviews? Absolutely. Do you need to score 25+ in all the sections of the DAT and have straight 4.0 to be granted an interview? Absolutely not. I believe the key is to have a great OVER ALL application, not just fantastic numbers. Do your research and determine which schools interview/admit similar applicants to yourself and apply EARLY. (There is an overwhelming amount of information available in this forum posted by some very helpful people.) I was so worried about my scores compared to the great scores posted by SDNers and I have been fortunate enough to be granted 5 interviews already and have over half of my schools to hear from yet. Take a look at my PreDents profile and know, there is hope!

Damn dude, kudos for the interviews. Hopefully those of us applying next cycle will be in your shoes at this time.

 

[rah08e]

What did I do?

You are pretentious and you comment on this site way too much... give it a rest. I don't want to sift through all 700 of your posts but commenting on weather a students' scores are adequate and now dissing this applicant who is happy to share his application status is unacceptable.

 

[DrRoyal Pains]

Dude, relax. He's entitled to say what he wants. As are you. Lets not hijack this kids thread.

 

[FROGGBUSTER]

You are pretentious and you comment on this site way too much... give it a rest. I don't want to sift through all 700 of your posts but commenting on weather a students' scores are adequate and now dissing this applicant who is happy to share his application status is unacceptable.

What I meant in my original post in this thread:

"Congrats on the interviews, but be aware they don't necessarily equate to acceptances. People with lower stats have to do better in their interviews than people with higher stats, so prepare well."

Should have posted that instead of what I originally did, I could see how that could have come across. Didn't mean to put him down or anything, srsly. I didn't comment on whether his scores were adequate (his AA is 19, that's perfectly fine), that's how you warped my post in your head.

Don't tell me I comment on this site way too much though, that's my business and not yours. Implying that you have a social life while I do not makes you as bad as you think I am.

 

[FROGGBUSTER]

You are pretentious and you comment on this site way too much... give it a rest. I don't want to sift through all 700 of your posts but commenting on weather a students' scores are adequate and now dissing this applicant who is happy to share his application status is unacceptable.

BTW, what a terrible breakdown you gave:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=11495487#post11495487

You've spent all this time on this forum using it as a great resource and you can't be bothered to give any tips at all in your final breakdown. You spend half the breakdown just complaining about how terrible your Prometric experience is too.

Great job.

 

[jmukid]

ANYWAYS back to the topic of this thread, mrjingles congrats on the interviews, if you do well in them then im sure youll get accepted into somewhere. I was wondering can you maybe share your extracurricular activities like shadowing, volunteering, if you played any sports, etc?

 

[rah08e]

BTW, what a terrible breakdown you gave:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=11495487#post11495487

You've spent all this time on this forum using it as a great resource and you can't be bothered to give any tips at all in your final breakdown. You spend half the breakdown just complaining about how terrible your Prometric experience is too.

Great job.

Yes, I could have said Chad/Destroyer/Kaplan/Barrons AP Bio, but it gets pretty repetitive because everyone pretty much uses the same materials

 

[AlbinoPolarBear]

Anyways.

People forget that each school has different mission statements.

If you wanna get into Harvard, you goddamn well need to have at least 3.7GPA coupled with 21DAT along with at least 1000 hours of research with some publications. The school is research based and want scholars that can advanced the science of dentistry.

If you wanna get into ASDOH, you goddamn well need to have at least 500 hours of community service. They don't care if you have 20 pubs if you don't haven't volunteered a day in your life. They are more lenient with the GPA and DAT, as long as you show that you have are committed in helping others. You can have a 3.3 GPA and 19 DAT and get in.

Some schools take like Case accepts 90% of their interviewees, while other schools accepts less than 30%.

People should just chill, and we're on this forum to help, not put down people for their achievements.

 

[MrJingles]

My point of this thread was not to boast about my interviews.. The point was that I remember just a few month ago studying for my DAT and feeling like I had no shot with the scores other SDNers were posting. I was hoping to give a positive reinforcement to those that are feeling uneasy about their DAT studying & their scores.

Frogg, clearly interviews do not mean acceptances. I never eluded to the thought but you have to be granted interviews before you have a chance which is what any predent is hoping for..

Albino you're absolutely right! Every school is looking for a slightly different kind of applicant which is why I made the point, look for schools that are interviewing/accepting similar applicants to yourself. And my point of this thread was to help give people hope, so thank you.

Rah, I have over 2000 working hours with an OMFS, 50+ General shadowing, Special olympics fundraising, 2 research abstract pubs, international biology society poster presentation, baseball, golf, woodworking, and working on cars as hobbies.

Good luck to you all in this application cycle and the next!

 

[PreDent321]

👍

👍

 

[amg09]

👍

👎

 

[PreDent321]

To the OP, overconfidence has a way of biting one in the ass. 5 interviews are impressive, but as Frogg stated, it doesn't guarantee anything, especially if they are schools that "interview to evaluate" instead of "interview to accept" which means they will review your scores again among the high DAT interviewees at which point they may change their mind about your candidacy. Good luck on your interviews!

 

[Golfguy]

OP, good job. You will be in dental school. Don't listen to the naysayers.

 

[UCSD1984]

Yeesh, this thread turned sour pretty fast didn't it? OP, congrats on your interviews. Wish you the best.

 

[MrJingles]

To the OP, overconfidence has a way of biting one in the ass. 5 interviews are impressive, but as Frogg stated, it doesn't guarantee anything, especially if they are schools that "interview to evaluate" instead of "interview to accept" which means they will review your scores again among the high DAT interviewees at which point they may change their mind about your candidacy. Good luck on your interviews!

I am not ignorant enough to believe that because I have 5 interviews Ill be receiving an acceptance to dental school.. Once again, that was not the point of this thread. I am in no way overconfident. I am anxiously awaiting Dec. 1st like everyone else. Do I have confidence? Of course, if you don't have confidence in yourself then why are you going through this process in the first place?

My whole point of this thread was to give hope to those that are feeling inadequate about their scores compared to the rest of this forum when trying to secure INTERVIEWS, no mention was made about acceptances.

 

[MrJingles]

👎

OP, good job. You will be in dental school. Don't listen to the naysayers.

Yeesh, this thread turned sour pretty fast didn't it? OP, congrats on your interviews. Wish you the best.

UCSD it def turned sour. I should have known that people were going to take it there.

Thanks for the kind thoughts though everyone. Good luck to everyone in this cycle and the next. Don't let other people drag you down!

 

[buckey]

very encouraging post. thank your for that! Good luck with the interviews!