Hi everyone, I’ve been preparing to apply this summer but I am worried about when to take the DAT and still apply early.

I am aware my GPA’s are below average. I have about 387 hours of experience working in a dental office, about 100 hours of shadowing, and a little over 100 hours of volunteering. I’m in a few clubs at my university, but do not have any leadership roles.

I’ve tried to study a bit for the DAT throughout this past month and a half, but because of my school classes I wasn’t able to get a lot done. I’m all the way through general chemistry videos but haven’t really started biology or organic chemistry.

Due to my stats, I know applying early is best. But I have also read threads on here of people saying to not take your DAT until you are really ready.

I would greatly appreciate any advice on when to take my DAT and submit my application. Originally, I was going to take my DAT mid-end of June but I simply don’t think that’s enough time. Is it a smart decision to take the DAT in July (given my stats)?

Thank you so much for reading through this. Any advice is appreciated!

For context I'm pre dental right now and planning on taking the DAT in a year from now but my major is Business Management so I have just been doing the pre requisite for dental schools on the side of my Major and I recently met with the dental advisor at my University and he wanted me to take a few extra classes that aren't pre requisite for most schools such as genetics, cellular biology and microbiology to help prepare for the DAT but adding these classes will make me alter my class schedule for the next year and make it a harder class load than i am currently registered for. Would taking some of these classes help enough to make it worth it or would it just be better to take a course such as dat bootcamp before taking the DAT? any advice and thoughts would be appreciated thanks!

Finally got in my second cycle

3.0 undergrad in marketing 3.62 masters biomedical science BCP gpa 3.52 DAT 19 AA/ 19TS/ 15 PAT Around 300 shadowing Lot of ec’s

Hi Everyone:

I'm writing this post on behalf of my girlfriend who's not the most Internet savvy. We're in a bit of a time crunch and could really use some advice. She's been fortunate enough to receive acceptance offers from both UPenn and USC. Now, she needs to make a decision in just one week, and she's feeling the pressure.

Our (very) limited research suggests UPenn may be a better option if she plan to pursue a specialty or an academic career. It is clearly better ranked. However, USC is attractive to us because she has a lot of family and friends in LA. Our challenge is that we're not quite sure what to look at when making this decision and what resources or information can help this decision-making.

We're wondering if you have any information to share that could help us. Additionally, we'd like to know what you would do to reach decision in such a short timeframe? How would you best use your time? If you have any advice on how to make this decision under a tight timeframe, we would greatly appreciate it. Are there any key factors we should be considering that maybe aren't immediately obvious? Any resources or tools that could help us compare the two programs more effectively?

TL;DR: Accepted to UPenn and USC Dental Schools, need to decide in one week. Seeking advice from current or former students on curriculum, clinical opportunities, faculty support, and any other factors to consider. Appreciate any help or insights you can offer!

Option 1: I hav 3.3 GPA planning to study for DAT May-July and take it 2nd week of Aug. then apply that same week. Do you think my gpa is too low and I shouldn't risk applying this late?

Option 2 (Gap year): Or I'm thinking if I should apply next cycle and instead study for DAT from May-Aug. (4 months instead of 3) and take DAT in Sept. and apply next cycle.

I'm finishing junior year of college rn. I hav about 40-50 hours of shadowing (general dentist/specialist) and some volunteer experience in a leadership role for community youth events. Other volunteering at food pantries, fundraisers etc.

Hey guys, does anyone have any information regarding ohio's dentpath program? Is anyone here in it? How hard is it to get accepted?

Hello,

I am a Texas resident applying this cycle and wanted to ask for any school suggestions.

Quick background: rly low income family (<20k a year), received free braces and wisdom teeth removal, family moved to a different country during college, etc

Stats are: 23AA/ 22TS/ 24 PAT 3.2 bcpm/3.36 science gpa/ 3.47cgpa

Cs in both Ochem 1 and 2, but 24 on dat Ochem. I understand it very strongly now.

ECs: 900 hours working as an oral surgery assistant

1800 hours working as a restaurant server

150 hours homeless food distribution where I cook and serve food with others

250 hours of online tutoring for underserved children

100 hours psychiatry lab research assistant

100 hours camp counselor

100 hours Leadership at church

50 hours predental org

Shadowing: 110 hours general 8 hours general 12 hours perio 30 hours general

Rec letters: 1 biochem/ microbio prof, 2 nutrition professors (non science), oral surgeon rec letter

School list: Columbia Asdoh All 4 texas dental schools

So I’ve been working as a DA at this office for a few months now and I asked the Dr for a recommendation letter and she told me to write it myself and that she’ll sign it. Idk how I feel about this….like I don’t even know how it’s supposed to be written or anything…. Any ideas/help would be appreciated

Hi all, haven't found much information on this, but has anyone applied with their old dat score while retaking the dat? My current score is relatively okay to apply to US, but bc im canadian I need it to be a couple points higher to even have a chance here. I understand that I'd have to resend this new score to all the schools I've applied to but will me retaking hinder my application in anyway? Can they still give me an offer based on my old score, or would they wait till I send in my new score? If anyone has done this before please let me know how your app cycle went, I'd greatly appreciate it! TIA

Hi! I’m a freshman predental student and I am just wondering how many hours do you think it’s good to have before i enter into my sophomore year. Any advice is helpful. Thanks.

Hi everyone! I've been seeing a lot of negative discussions revolving around CNU but most of the time, the complaints are about how they are very expensive and a for-profit school and don't have their accreditation yet. Ive also seen some people say that they're on track to accreditation so I was wondering if (other than the expense) there are any other issues with the school? I know they have some professors that also taught at UCSF and from what I've seen, there are some appealing things about the school but I wanted to know if there are other specific reasons not to attend besides the cost.

Also, if there are current students who would be willing to share their experiences that would be great!

Hi all! I’m just frustrated/sad and looking for advice on what I should change this time around. Here are my stats: GPA: 3.8 about SGPA: 3.6 about DAT: 20 everything, 22 Ochem Lots of volunteering/shadowing/extracurricular/work experience -not enough leadership experience

I think my Personal statement needs a lot of improvement and I think my letters of rec were decent? (I haven’t seen them) I also think I need to be more confident during interviews as I am shy.

I am currently on two waitlist and doubt I will get off. Is the issue that I got my DAT done very late? I had to retake it and literally had everything in by end of December even though I submitted apps in June. I didn’t think through having to retake the exam and I regret applying. I applied because I’m in a gap year and was hoping I could avoid a second one, but it looks like I will be in a second gap year.

What should I add to my application or do differently? Should I do a masters? Dental assisting? Please let me know as advice will be greatly appreciated! I am planning on taking a few upper division science courses but feel I need to do something different as well. Thank you!!

I’m a Texas resident and I really don’t want to pay out of state tuition. How hard are Texas dental school to get into? Compared to out of state? Just out of curiosity.

Hey everyone. I’m currently in high school and I was originally thinking about going into nursing (mainly because my whole family works in the medical field/nurses and they want me to become a nurse) but I looked into dentistry and turns out dentistry fits the lifestyle I want. I’m in Toronto and I’m not sure what steps to take from this point. What undergrad is best? I’ve looked at the requirements but realistically how do I get into dental school and how do you prepare? Do I need to do shadowing? How do you balance work&life? What’s your current GPA and where do you plan on applying? Any tips? I was originally gonna take BA Kinesiology and Health Science but I’m not sure anymore.

IT'S URGENT.

Pls and thank you.

I'm just not sure due to the "behavioral" component of the course name.

When applying, is there a max amount of planned courses for the pre-reqs you can put or as long as you have a plan to finish them before starting dental school is it okay?

Title^^ just curious

I am currently in the process of scheduling my DAT exam for this summer. However, I am in a predicament. My family and I leave for Mexico on June 6th. It's our yearly vacation, and I will not be back until June 28th. The application cycle opens June 4th. Should I take the DAT on May 31st having only a month to study? Or should I take the DAT in July? I just want to know when is the best time to take the DAT, and how important applying early is.

I used DAT Booster and some chads prep to help with gen chem sections. The test seemed far harder than the practice tests that I took and was freaking out mid exam but somehow pulled this score. I was getting 21’s and 22’s on my practice tests but reading and PAT usually carried me. Bio didn’t go in depth at all, only one question on the human body and it was an embryo question. If you have any questions feel free to ask!

Hey guys. So during my first semester of college, I plagiarized a lab report and was reported for it. Fortunately, I didn't face expulsion; instead, I received a zero for the assignment and had to do a few extra things like watch videos on why plagiarism is wrong and etc. I am obviously very disappointed in myself and wish i can go back in time and take back what i did. I was honestly just being stupid and didn't think plagiarizing was a big deal. I thought I did well with rewording what i copied and thought I would some how get away with it. I am now very concerned about whether dental schools can discover this incident and if it will affect my chances of admission. Additionally, I want to mention that there is no record of academic misconduct on my transcript or anywhere else.

Will dental schools accept me if I have taken organic chemistry 3 times? I just finished Orgo Chem 1 and I have a D in the class, I needed a C to get into orgo 2 but I talked to my professor and did everything I could I still have a C will dental schools frown upon this?

this is so random, but i recently went into a dental office to ask if they would let me shadow them and they automatically assumed it was for dental assistant school when i told them it was for dental school.

i corrected them and it was fine, but i was thinking back to previous shadowing experiences where many people in the office would often assume i was wanting to be a dental assistant or in dental assistant school when i said i was pre-dental. i would have to explain that i wanted to go to school to be a dentist and i feel like that’s when it would click.

is this a common occurrence or do you guys think they’re assuming that because i’m a girl? or maybe pre-dental translates to pre-dental assistant sometimes too and i’m just overthinking it?

also i’ve shadowed several offices over the last two years and i’ve only seen 3 female dentists compared to like 10 male dentists so maybe the area i live in is just conditioned to associate men with dentist and woman with assistant?

idk i just wanted to share to see if anyone has also experienced this.

I have a 3.9cgpa but my DAT Score is really bad I got a 17 chem 19 bio 22 pat and 22 RC. Does anyone know if people got into UMelbourne with similar stats as a canadian applciant? I am rewriting the DAT again as well

Hi,

I’m a 16-year-old who feels lost on deciding on a career. To give some background, ever since I was in kindergarten, I wanted to be surgeon (either a neurosurgeon or orthopedic surgeon). Fast forward to about 12, I changed my mind and settled on being a lawyer. Not long after, I decided that pursuing an engineering degree would be a better option for me since I have an interest in aerospace. As of now, however, I’m having some doubts on this plan. After talking to my father, he suggested that I pursue dentistry since my aunt is an oral surgeon who runs her own practice. He told me that she would be more than happy to provide me with the opportunity to shadow her. In addition, he said she would likely provide me with the opportunity to work for her once I finish dental school. This honestly sounds a bit too good to be true considering the fact that I don’t live with him, and I’ve met him only a handful of times in my life. When the question of debt came up (which, for dental school in particular, I’m aware it can be upwards of $300k), he said that it won’t be an issue since her practice is in an underserved community (debt is forgiven apparently). At this point, I’m not sure what to do. Dentistry does seem like a promising career choice that can directly impact people’s lives, while engineering seems to be more “interesting” and “cutting edge”. I know money isn’t everything and isn’t my primary motivator by any means, but, from what I’ve researched, dentists seem to make significantly more than engineers. Any advice would be appreciated.

My science gpa is really low. What dat score would I need to make up for that?

Hello everyone, I’ve had a rough undergrad so far. I’ve just been taking pre reqs for dental school at my local Cc and realized I can get my associates degree. Do you believe if I get my associates degree this would help & then do better at a 4 year when i get my bachelors? will i possibly have a better chance of getting in? (keep in mind I have multiple W’s like at least 12/13 off my head & One F and One C)

Thank you in advance!

My school is making us go on work experience for only 2 days! Which i believe is quite a short amount of time as I would like to immerse myself in the dental environment, so i will be asking for work experience during the summer holidays instead as I know that it is hard to get work experience and I do not want it for only 2 days. Because of this, I am not sure what work experience I should do in those 2 days that my school has given me (ending of June). What are some good places to do work experience for a short amount of time?

I’m currently in year 12 (UK) and I noticed that I actually qualify for contextual offers (i meet 2-3 requirements depending on the university). I was wondering if universities have very limited/competitive places for contextual offers when it comes to dentistry (I am aware that dentistry is already extremely competitive, but i would like to know if applying contextually will reduce my chances further), if so, are there any universities that should be avoided because of this? Thanks!

Please select the score you earned if applicable!

Fortunately, I got into dental school with my score. Always wondered if I could’ve performed better with the other prep course 🤔

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Hi im a freshman in college and I’m getting progressively more and more worried about my lack of involvement in clubs…As of right now I actively volunteer and shadow on the weekends and work at the front desk of a dental clinic. The reason I haven’t joined any clubs so far is because I work every day after class and all the clubs on my campus meet during lunch hours.( I felt before that I would not get anything out of joining )

TL;DR is it bad to apply to dental schools with no involvement in college clubs?