WAMC and do you have any recommendations for me?21TS, 19AA, 15RC

[onestop]

Date of submission: August 2, 2023 and I'm currently in the process of finishing the supplemental applications.
Overall GPA: 3.39 | without +/-: 3.44
Science GPA: 3.35 | without +/-: 3.39
Bio-Chem-Physics GPA: 3.37 : without +/-: 3.43
I don't know if it matters that much but I have an upward trend, my senior year GPA: 3.64 | without +/-: 3.72


DAT score (include AA and all sections):

1st Attempt
PAT-19
QR- 18
RC- 15
Bio- 15
GC- 21
OC- 21
TS- 18
AA- 18

2nd Attempt
PAT- 20. (+1)
QR- 19. (+1)
RC- 15. (same)
Bio- 20. (+5)
GC- 22. (+1)
OC- 21. (same)
TS- 21. (+3)
AA- 19. (+1)


State of Residence: Florida

Undergrad Attended: University of South Florida
Major: Biomedical Science
Minor: Biomedical Physics
Minority? NO, I'M Middle Eastern American
Reapplicant? Yes, I previously applied in late 2021
Nontrad? NO

Shadowing Experience: 250+ hrs, 2 general dentists
Volunteering Experience: 500+ hrs, homeless advocacy organization.
Employment:
Cell Phone Technician, 5500+hrs, 2018-2021 (I used this for manual dexterity)
part time Member of the front office staff of a dental office, 750+hrs, 2021- current (new since my last application)
Co-founder/Manager of retail mens apparel store, 3000+hrs, 2022- current. (new since my last application)

Research: N/A
Other Extracurriculars:
Was appointed to the University of South Florida Ethics Committee, 60hrs, 2019-2020
was elected on as a Student Government Senator, 160hrs, 2019-2020
Have you volunteered/shadowed/attended events at any dental schools? NO
Relevant Honors or Awards: Dean's List for one semester and was a member executive board of a student organization that won best Cross-Cultural Collaborative event at my University.
LOR type and strength:
1 from chemistry professor
1 from organic chemistry professor (he is also head of chemistry department)
1 from dentist
1 from from the Instructor of critical health class
I believe that all four letters of recommendation are strong since I had a good relationship with all my letter writers.

Misc Info/Things not stated elsewhere/Red Flags: I am a first-generation college graduate, and during my first two years in school, I received a few D's,F's, and W's on my transcript due to no other reason than my ignorance and being completely lost in school, but I was able to repeat his classes and earn As and Bs in them. Also, during my last application, I was only able to apply to two Florida schools because I had some financial problems. But, luckily, during my gap year, I was able to improve my financial situation, and I saved up enough money to apply to as many schools as needed.

School list:

Schools that have Applied to

• Lecom
• UF Gainsville
• Nova
• A.T Still University of Arizona
• A.T Still University of Missouri
• Columbia University
• Kansas city university
• Midwestern University Arizona
• Midwestern University Illinois
• Rutgers
• Touro
• Tufts
• University of Illinois Chicago
• University of Maryland
• University of Nevada Las Vegas
• Virginia Commonwealth University
• University of the Pacific
• University of Michigan
• University of Pennsylvania
• Marquette
• western University

school and that I wanted to apply to, but did not meet their cut-offs because of my reading competition score.

• Boston University
• University of Buffalo
• Roseman
• Detroit Mercy (they recommend that perequisites should be completed within 5 years of the application date). I took general biology and chemistry in 2016.
  Are schools firm with their cut off?

I'm well aware that some schools are out of reach for me because of my 19AA and 15RC, but I made this list of schools before I took my second DAT attempt, and I was hoping to get accepted to the same school as my brother, who scored a 21 AA with every section above a 19. He is applying for the first time this cycle.

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[macsak]

Date of submission: August 2, 2023 and I'm currently in the process of finishing the supplemental applications.
Overall GPA: 3.39 | without +/-: 3.44
Science GPA: 3.35 | without +/-: 3.39
Bio-Chem-Physics GPA: 3.37 : without +/-: 3.43
I don't know if it matters that much but I have an upward trend, my senior year GPA: 3.64 | without +/-: 3.72


DAT score (include AA and all sections):

1st Attempt
PAT-19
QR- 18
RC- 15
Bio- 15
GC- 21
OC- 21
TS- 18
AA- 18

2nd Attempt
PAT- 20. (+1)
QR- 19. (+1)
RC- 15. (same)
Bio- 20. (+5)
GC- 22. (+1)
OC- 21. (same)
TS- 21. (+3)
AA- 19. (+1)


State of Residence: Florida

Undergrad Attended: University of South Florida
Major: Biomedical Science
Minor: Biomedical Physics
Minority? NO, I'M Middle Eastern American
Reapplicant? Yes, I previously applied in late 2021
Nontrad? NO

Shadowing Experience: 250+ hrs, 2 general dentists
Volunteering Experience: 500+ hrs, homeless advocacy organization.
Employment:
Cell Phone Technician, 5500+hrs, 2018-2021 (I used this for manual dexterity)
part time Member of the front office staff of a dental office, 750+hrs, 2021- current (new since my last application)
Co-founder/Manager of retail mens apparel store, 3000+hrs, 2022- current. (new since my last application)

Research: N/A
Other Extracurriculars:
Was appointed to the University of South Florida Ethics Committee, 60hrs, 2019-2020
was elected on as a Student Government Senator, 160hrs, 2019-2020
Have you volunteered/shadowed/attended events at any dental schools? NO
Relevant Honors or Awards: Dean's List for one semester and was a member executive board of a student organization that won best Cross-Cultural Collaborative event at my University.
LOR type and strength:
1 from chemistry professor
1 from organic chemistry professor (he is also head of chemistry department)
1 from dentist
1 from from the Instructor of critical health class
I believe that all four letters of recommendation are strong since I had a good relationship with all my letter writers.

Misc Info/Things not stated elsewhere/Red Flags: I am a first-generation college graduate, and during my first two years in school, I received a few D's,F's, and W's on my transcript due to no other reason than my ignorance and being completely lost in school, but I was able to repeat his classes and earn As and Bs in them. Also, during my last application, I was only able to apply to two Florida schools because I had some financial problems. But, luckily, during my gap year, I was able to improve my financial situation, and I saved up enough money to apply to as many schools as needed.

School list:

Schools that have Applied to

• Lecom
• UF Gainsville
• Nova
• A.T Still University of Arizona
• A.T Still University of Missouri
• Columbia University
• Kansas city university
• Midwestern University Arizona
• Midwestern University Illinois
• Rutgers
• Touro
• Tufts
• University of Illinois Chicago
• University of Maryland
• University of Nevada Las Vegas
• Virginia Commonwealth University
• University of the Pacific
• University of Michigan
• University of Pennsylvania
• Marquette
• western University

school and that I wanted to apply to, but did not meet their cut-offs because of my reading competition score.

• Boston University
• University of Buffalo
• Roseman
• Detroit Mercy (they recommend that perequisites should be completed within 5 years of the application date). I took general biology and chemistry in 2016.
  Are schools firm with their cut off?

I'm well aware that some schools are out of reach for me because of my 19AA and 15RC, but I made this list of schools before I took my second DAT attempt, and I was hoping to get accepted to the same school as my brother, who scored a 21 AA with every section above a 19. He is applying for the first time this cycle.

• University of the Pacific
• University of Michigan
• University of Pennsylvania
• Columbia University
• remove these

 

[Ryxndek]

Are schools firm with their cut off?

Generally speaking, yes, they have cutoffs for a reason. It's to ensure that those entering dental school are competent in their studies and capable of handling a dense curriculum. While the DAT isn't necessarily reflective of dental school, it still shows your commitment to studying for a long exam, for months, and staying determined and doing well.

Is English not your first language? It could explain your low RC score, did you do okay in your english courses while in college?

You applied to a lot of schools, some well out of your range, but hopefully the wide net you cast could potentially lead to some positives. Make sure you get your supplementals done. Ideally you should have them done within a week of receiving them.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Year by year GPA would help me with your upward trend.

How important is starting dental school with your brother? I feel that's what drove you to make your list rather than any specific strategy.

Honestly the 2nd DAT is pretty good other than the low RC score. Your list had too many public schools where you are OOS... your lower GPA may stop you there.

 

[onestop]

• University of the Pacific
• University of Michigan
• University of Pennsylvania
• Columbia University
• remove these

Thank you very much for taking the time out of your day to reply to my post. I have already submitted my application to these schools. Do you think this might reflect badly on my application because I applied to schools with higher average stats than mine?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Thank you very much for taking the time out of your day to reply to my post. I have already submitted my application to these schools. Do you think this might reflect badly on my application because I applied to schools with higher average stats than mine?

I don't know what your question is. If your application is denied after screening, no more time will spent judging you. We're focused on finding students who will succeed in our program and don't waste energy expressing pity for those who are rejected.

 

[onestop]

Year by year GPA would help me with your upward trend.

How important is starting dental school with your brother? I feel that's what drove you to make your list rather than any specific strategy.

Honestly the 2nd DAT is pretty good other than the low RC score. Your list had too many public schools where you are OOS... your lower GPA may stop you there.

Thank you for replying to my post. I would appreciate any additional advice that you have for me.
what do you think my chances are of getting an interview this cycle?

list of my GPA year-by-year:
Freshman GPA: 3.00 without +/-: 3.00
Sophomore GPA: 3.69 without +/-: 3.69
Junior GPA: 3.08 without +/-: 3.23
Senior GPA: 3.64 without +/-: 3.72
Post-Baccalaureate: 4.00 without +/-: 4.00 (During my gap year, I went back to my university and took 8 more credits of upper-level biology courses.)

Honestly, attending the same school as my brother is a goal of mine, but at the end of the day, our ultimate goal is to become dentists. If that is through attending the same school, then that is a privilege and an amazing bonus. As for your second question, no, I did not make my list based solely on the schools that I thought me and my brother were going to get accepted to together. I made my list about a year ago. I selected the schools that I am genuinely interested in and would love to earn my degree from.

Do you think I should consider retaking my exam? The main reason that is stopping me from doing that is that I don't want to put my application on hold until the middle of October, when I am allowed to retake the exam.

 

[onestop]

I don't know what your question is. If your application is denied after screening, no more time will spent judging you. We're focused on finding students who will succeed in our program and don't waste energy expressing pity for those who are rejected.

It makes sense; is it a good thing to apply to around 20 schools within one cycle? Should I stop at the list of schools that I have already applied to? Sorry, what I was trying to ask is, does it at one point reflect badly on my application if I applied to more than 20 schools within one cycle?

 

[onestop]

Generally speaking, yes, they have cutoffs for a reason. It's to ensure that those entering dental school are competent in their studies and capable of handling a dense curriculum. While the DAT isn't necessarily reflective of dental school, it still shows your commitment to studying for a long exam, for months, and staying determined and doing well.

Is English not your first language? It could explain your low RC score, did you do okay in your english courses while in college?

You applied to a lot of schools, some well out of your range, but hopefully the wide net you cast could potentially lead to some positives. Make sure you get your supplementals done. Ideally you should have them done within a week of receiving them.

on my application. I selected English as my second language and Arabic as my native language. I grew up overseas in a house where both languages were used interchangeably. I don't know if I messed up on my application; should I just select English as my native language? I attended all of high school and my undergrad in the States, and I had no difficulty with any of my courses because of my English. In all of my English courses at university, I earned an A in all of them.

For my first DAT score, I deserve the score that I earned because I did not prepare in a smart way for the exam. On my second attempt, when I was taking the exam, the prometric computers were lagging a lot when switching between questions, and it threw off my strategy for RC. I'm not using it as an excuse, but I thought I would score between 17 and 20 in RC. In general, I'm bad at exams that are like RC. It can be in Arabic or English. It's not my strong point, but I'm working on improving it before I start dental school.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

It makes sense; is it a good thing to apply to around 20 schools within one cycle? Should I stop at the list of schools that I have already applied to? Sorry, what I was trying to ask is, does it at one point reflect badly on my application if I applied to more than 20 schools within one cycle?

For dental applications, 20 schools is 1/3 of all schools. Someone else pointed out (though likely in premed) that over half of the available seats are reserved for respective in-state applicants. A geographically focused strategy is more cost effective than a shotgun approach. Those will always give you the best chance at interview. Unless you are on FAP or from California, anything above 15 is really too many IMO.

Your GPA trend may not be enough for some schools, but the working word is "some." Once you get beyond screening, many schools will look at your performance in the upper level biomedical courses though it may not always override any academic concerns. For example I usually prefer a 3.7 GPA in your most recent courses beyond Intro Bio, and I look at how well you do in classes like microbio, physiology, histology, and biochemistry. Others might look at other aspects of your application like your non-science courses and try to reconcile with your low RC and non-native English upbringing. There's a reason why we asked the questions earlier in this thread.

I think LECOM has the most seats among the schools on your list (second to NYU I think), so your chances are statistically better there and your in-states provided you have stood out in your application. You may want to wait a year and see if your brother gets into a school first and hopefully kills D1.

 

[kashyranz]

Date of submission: August 2, 2023 and I'm currently in the process of finishing the supplemental applications.
Overall GPA: 3.39 | without +/-: 3.44
Science GPA: 3.35 | without +/-: 3.39
Bio-Chem-Physics GPA: 3.37 : without +/-: 3.43
I don't know if it matters that much but I have an upward trend, my senior year GPA: 3.64 | without +/-: 3.72


DAT score (include AA and all sections):

1st Attempt
PAT-19
QR- 18
RC- 15
Bio- 15
GC- 21
OC- 21
TS- 18
AA- 18

2nd Attempt
PAT- 20. (+1)
QR- 19. (+1)
RC- 15. (same)
Bio- 20. (+5)
GC- 22. (+1)
OC- 21. (same)
TS- 21. (+3)
AA- 19. (+1)


State of Residence: Florida

Undergrad Attended: University of South Florida
Major: Biomedical Science
Minor: Biomedical Physics
Minority? NO, I'M Middle Eastern American
Reapplicant? Yes, I previously applied in late 2021
Nontrad? NO

Shadowing Experience: 250+ hrs, 2 general dentists
Volunteering Experience: 500+ hrs, homeless advocacy organization.
Employment:
Cell Phone Technician, 5500+hrs, 2018-2021 (I used this for manual dexterity)
part time Member of the front office staff of a dental office, 750+hrs, 2021- current (new since my last application)
Co-founder/Manager of retail mens apparel store, 3000+hrs, 2022- current. (new since my last application)

Research: N/A
Other Extracurriculars:
Was appointed to the University of South Florida Ethics Committee, 60hrs, 2019-2020
was elected on as a Student Government Senator, 160hrs, 2019-2020
Have you volunteered/shadowed/attended events at any dental schools? NO
Relevant Honors or Awards: Dean's List for one semester and was a member executive board of a student organization that won best Cross-Cultural Collaborative event at my University.
LOR type and strength:
1 from chemistry professor
1 from organic chemistry professor (he is also head of chemistry department)
1 from dentist
1 from from the Instructor of critical health class
I believe that all four letters of recommendation are strong since I had a good relationship with all my letter writers.

Misc Info/Things not stated elsewhere/Red Flags: I am a first-generation college graduate, and during my first two years in school, I received a few D's,F's, and W's on my transcript due to no other reason than my ignorance and being completely lost in school, but I was able to repeat his classes and earn As and Bs in them. Also, during my last application, I was only able to apply to two Florida schools because I had some financial problems. But, luckily, during my gap year, I was able to improve my financial situation, and I saved up enough money to apply to as many schools as needed.

School list:

Schools that have Applied to

• Lecom
• UF Gainsville
• Nova
• A.T Still University of Arizona
• A.T Still University of Missouri
• Columbia University
• Kansas city university
• Midwestern University Arizona
• Midwestern University Illinois
• Rutgers
• Touro
• Tufts
• University of Illinois Chicago
• University of Maryland
• University of Nevada Las Vegas
• Virginia Commonwealth University
• University of the Pacific
• University of Michigan
• University of Pennsylvania
• Marquette
• western University

school and that I wanted to apply to, but did not meet their cut-offs because of my reading competition score.

• Boston University
• University of Buffalo
• Roseman
• Detroit Mercy (they recommend that perequisites should be completed within 5 years of the application date). I took general biology and chemistry in 2016.
  Are schools firm with their cut off?

I'm well aware that some schools are out of reach for me because of my 19AA and 15RC, but I made this list of schools before I took my second DAT attempt, and I was hoping to get accepted to the same school as my brother, who scored a 21 AA with every section above a 19. He is applying for the first time this cycle.

I would consider a retake of the DAT friend. with your GPA you want to be around at least a 20 or 21 AA to have a good chance. Sign up for masters just in case for next year. You always want to have a backup plan. I had to do a masters and it was the best decision of my life and got me 5 acceptances the following year. RC is a big section on the DAT and its used to tell if a student can take in a lot of information and understand it all quickly, a lot of what you will be doing in dental school so it is a big red flag. fingers crossed! start sending out letters of intent mid-late October. I have a great template thats helped a lot of predents get responses back from adcoms, reach out anytime!