Friday, June 12, 2015

How Many Schools Should I Apply To? And some other application related stuff

How Many Schools Should I Apply To?
A LOT.

Yes it is expensive but the only regrets I had were the schools I didn't apply to.
I applied to schools I really thought I wanted to go to and schools that matched my stats. I say schools I "thought" I wanted to go to because once you visit the school, your opinion may change dramatically. Some schools ended up being so much better than I expected and others were much worse.

To reiterate, yes it is very expensive to apply and interview at many schools but you are getting ready to spend between $100,000 and $400,000 on your education so it is a very good idea to sample a wide range of places. I visited a few schools that people on student doctor blogs said were pretty good but the professors and students ended up being huge tools. I'm not saying what school it was but I will say it was one of the $400,000 schools. The flights and everything will cost a few hundred per school but I believe it is worth it in the end. Also, you don't want to have just applied to just a few schools and deal with only being accepted to the school you hated the most and having to make the tough decision of attending that school or waiting another year to apply.

Picking the Schools
The ADEA's Official Guide to Dental Schools is a pretty good resource
It breaks down the average GPA for each school, the low and high GPAs, DAT scores, score ranges, the range of the age of students, ethnicities of students etc... for each school. I knew that a couple schools would not offer me an interview based on the fact that their average GPA was hovering around 4.0 and their lowest GPA 3.85 (I applied anyway because you never truly know). I would also suggest keeping the cost of attending the school on mind as you choose your school. Being hit with the knowledge that you have over $500,000 in loans as you finish school can be incredibly eye opening.
http://www.adea.org/publications/Pages/OfficialGuide.aspx

If I were to do it again...
I would apply to more schools. I finished the application for nine schools and went to five interviews (six invited me). I wished I had also applied to schools with really good reputations and to schools in cities that I knew I would enjoy. I might also apply to all the schools that have lower tuition costs.

Do Your Research
I couldn't finish my TUFTs application because it requires that the Dentist that wrote your LOR has you with at least 50 hours of shadowing at HIS/HER practice alone. I had just thirty at my dentist's practice, 20 from another, 10 from another etc... and my application was marked incomplete. Know the requirements for each application and stuff like that will NOT be listed under the AADSAS requirements tab. Some of the requirements were only on the official website for the school itself.

Do You Want to Specialize
Some schools are pass/fail and have a BIG emphasis on providing just general care (LECOM and Midwestern in Downer's Grove are among those, I think). LECOM really made it sound as though they would not help you at all if you wanted to specialize, that they are all about general dentistry. They are also pass/fail meaning you have no GPA to apply to a specialty with. This could also be a good a thing if you are sure you do not want to specialize. A lot of students at Midwestern described how they see a wider variety of cases since none of the unique cases are passed along to the students in specialty (since they don't have it).

Other Resources:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/what-schools-should-i-apply-to-what-are-my-chances-read-if-this-is-you.635046/

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