Any Questions about US Dental Schools?

[Dr.BadVibes]

Hello,

 

I am planning on applying to the States this summer (do applications open in May/June/July btw, I keep finding contradictory information).

 

I wrote the Canadian DAT in November and am thinking of writing the American DAT as well.

 

My first question is, can I apply in May or June and submit my Canadian DAT scores and then have my American DAT scores forwarded later, after I have submitted my application? Or can I supply no scores and have my American DAT scores fowarded as of July, even if I apply earlier?

 

My second question is that do American schools look at your most recent DAT or your best DAT? Also, does writing the American DAT automatically trump my Canadian DAT scores - regardless of most recent or best scores?

 

Thanks very much,

 

-- vert

 

 

You could do either.....what were your canadian DAT scores?

[Dr.BadVibes]

Hey Coolwater, most likely NYU. I'm still waiting to hear back from Case. Hopefully I'll get in there instead

 

what are your choices?

[Dr.BadVibes]

what does it mean when it asks for "ONE Pre-Health Advisors Committee letter"?

 

is it hard to get letters of recommendations from faculty members?

 

and do you have any tips about doing so?

 

US undergrads usually have pre-health advising committees......we dont have this in Canada....so ignore it

 

its not hard to get letters of rec, but its completely up to you and how you present yourself. Obviously the best tip is to get letters from profs that know you well, like you and you know for sure they will write a great letter on your behalf.

 

If thats not possible and you dont know any profs well, then always choose profs from classes you did well in, because they will use your grade as the basis of their letter that is already saved on their computer because they probably use the same ones over and over again and will just change your name

[Dr.BadVibes]

1) Are Canadians looked at as International Students or Out of States according to the admissions process?

 

Depends on the school.....private schools make no distinction

 

state schools consider canadian applicants as international....however some place Canadians as equal to out-of-staters, and some put them below.....some state schools will not even accept Canadian applications

[Dr.BadVibes]

In your opinion, what are the pro's and con's of attending Temple U?

 

I think Temple is an amazing school........and its only gonna get better. The Dean of the school is leaving after 27 years.....they just renamed the school after a huge grant......they are revamping the school such as the clinics and student recreation areas........its really a good time to goto Temple cause all the new changes that are about to happen (sucks it happened when im about to graduate!!!)

 

The cons? well the area around the school isnt appealing at all.......but again, i consider that a strength because it seriously gives us unlimited patients

 

also, the school is very independent based......no one holds your hand here....no one cares where you are or what you are doing.....but then again, it depends on your personality......im the type that loves to do my own thing and i hate people telling me what to do....what to wear, etc. So for me, thats a HUGE strength of Temple.......but for others its a huge weakness.....depends on you

[Dr.BadVibes]

I plan to choose one that is not too bad and not too expensive one. My accumulative gpa is 3.34 and science gpa is 3.36 and my canadian DAT score is reading comprehension=19 chem=18 and bio=21 Pat=24(should I take DAT again to improve my chance). I am currently doing my masters but not taking any courses yet. i am just wondering what are your suggestions of school to apply to? To tell you the truth, I dont really care which school as long as I get in and not too expensive will be ideal.

 

Your stats are great and you are definitely competitive.....suggestions on which schools to apply to?? well thats really a loaded question because there are so many factors to consider....

 

Your criteria is pretty much the same criteria that everyone has.....to just get in and pay the least amount......so that doesnt help narrow things down.

 

As a Canadian, apply to a lot of private schools obviously.....the Northeast has a lot of private schools that are so called "canadian friendly".....but I met a lot of canadian students at many other dental schools such as Loma Linda, Pacific, etc. depends on where you want to live.

[Dr.BadVibes]

I wanted to ask if you needed to be a permanent resident of the US to attend most of their schools because I contacted UofFlorida to ask them a question adn they told me that "I just want to point out that we do accept Canadian coursework and the Canadian DAT, however, because we are a state-funded school we can only accept US citizens or permanent residents.

 

Like i said before....many state schools will not accept canadian applications because they are state-funded.....but many do, so its best to personally ask the individual schools you are thinking of.

 

Many dental schools are private and Canadians are more than welcome there.

[Khan Lala]

Hi dr. bad vibes

 

i'm a first year dental student at BU; I was wondering how the board I and II and NERB compare to the Canadian licensing exams?

 

how are they similar and different, thanks. and congratz on UCLA!!!

[human instinct]

hey dr. vibes,

 

i see that you graduated from uoft. I also go to uoft.

Im having trouble finding a dentist for shadowing in mississauga as they either do not respond or do not want students shadowing. Since you seem to have been in the gta area, what suggestions do you have that would allow me to get this necessary experience. (i dont have a family dentist even that i could ask )

Also another unrelated question: Do US schools look at the carving score?

 

Thanks.

[Khan Lala]

hey dr. vibes,

 

i see that you graduated from uoft. I also go to uoft.

Im having trouble finding a dentist for shadowing in mississauga as they either do not respond or do not want students shadowing. Since you seem to have been in the gta area, what suggestions do you have that would allow me to get this necessary experience. (i dont have a family dentist even that i could ask )

Also another unrelated question: Do US schools look at the carving score?

 

Thanks.

 

There are many Altima locations around the GTA; you can try asking them.

 

I believe UDM looks at carving scores but generally schools don't give much importance to it.

[microserf]

Hey Dr. Badvibes, I got into Case, so I'll be heading out to Cleveland in July! So happy :D from what I heard, Case has a really good program as well, fairly clinically strong

[coolwater]

Case is nice! Good school, good program. Get your own chair, which is a big, big plus. Congratulations!

 

Now lets hope for my Tufts acceptance! :D

[hysteric_blue]

Hey Dr.BadVibes

 

I was wondering if the US school look highly or give extra point for masters students? I am doing that right now and was able to publish a couple of papers in undergrad. I am also going to start volunteering in a dental research lab.

 

My stats are:

around 3.3 cgpa in undergrad

DAT all around 19 and 20.

 

Thanks

[Guest vert]

You could do either.....what were your canadian DAT scores?

 

My Canadian DAT scores were:

 

Carving - 12

Chem - 17

Bio - 18

PAT - 19

RC - 26

 

Science average - 18

AA - 20

[microserf]

Case is nice! Good school, good program. Get your own chair, which is a big, big plus. Congratulations!

 

Now lets hope for my Tufts acceptance! :D

Thanks coolwater. I hope you get in to Tufts it sounds like a pretty good school as well. But isn't the class size only marginally smaller than NYU?

[microserf]

My Canadian DAT scores were:

 

Carving - 12

Chem - 17

Bio - 18

PAT - 19

RC - 26

 

Science average - 18

AA - 20

I would suggest rewriting and trying to bump your scores up too to above 20 across the board. From the discussions on SDN, it is rumoured that most schools are looking at above 20 for the past cycle which just closed. But overall, your DAT scores don't look too bad and it is still possible to get in with low DAT scores if you have a very well rounded application

[coolwater]

Thanks coolwater. I hope you get in to Tufts it sounds like a pretty good school as well. But isn't the class size only marginally smaller than NYU?

 

True, but I like Boston a lot more. Anyhow, choosing between Tufts and NYU is tough.

[ssb6]

Hi Dr.Badvibes,

 

I have a general question for you. Most US Dental Schools are asking for a "Pre-Health Advisors Committee Letter". What is this???

 

Example: On the NYU website is it stated...

 

"Letters of recommendation (required)

 

ONE Pre-Health Advisors Committee letter (preferred).

or

 

Three letters from faculty (two must be from the sciences)."

 

Thanks for the clarification in advance.

[microserf]

I can answer that, the Pre-Health Advisor's Committee Letter is exactly that, a composite letter that is written by the Pre-health advisory committee or a composite of Letters of Recommendation (LOR) which you submit to the committee. However, that being said, Canadian Universities do NOT have Pre-Health Advisory committees, so you do not have to submit that. In its place you can submit 3 LORs instead and the school usually has its own guidelines as to who they want these letters from (i.e. 2 science and one other, 1 dentist and 2 other etc). In previous years, you could submit any number of LORs to AADSAS, but starting this year, they only accepted 4 max. So you should submit the 4 letters which covers the most number of school's requirements and if there are some schools that require a different source, then ask that referee to send the letter directly to the school.

 

Hope that's clear and good luck!

[microserf]

True, but I like Boston a lot more. Anyhow, choosing between Tufts and NYU is tough.

 

Personally I would go with the one that's cheaper to finance. In the end most people don't care where you graduated from. That's why I dumped NYU for Case

[ivory145]

Hello everyone.

can someone give me some advice? i'm not too sure what i should do right now...

 

here are some of my stats:

-overall gpa is 3.35 if summer courses are included , 3.42 if summer is not counted.

-science gpa is 3.36

-expecting a publication soon from a summer research project at my prof's lab

-work experience at a pharmaceutical company

 

i plan on writing the canadian dat this november but i want to also apply to american schools.

 

i know they have rolling admission over there so i was wondering if it's even worth it to apply this year?

 

***i haven't written my dat yet so can i even apply in july or do i have to wait till november?

 

***Also, is shadowing really important for american schools? i heard that there isn't much to do at a dentist's office so what is the point of this exercise?

any advice would be greatly appreciated

thank you!

[dackmonkey]

you can still apply now but your application won't be complete until they get your DAT scores. that being said however, having schools obtain you scores in december is going to really hurt your chances seeing as how first round acceptances will have already gone out by december 1st. if you can take the american DAT before then i'd encourage you to do so.

 

as for shadowing, it's pretty important for american schools what from i gather. adcoms wanna see that you have SOME understanding of what dentistry is about, which is something most students obtain by shadowing. if you have the chance to shadow, do it, regardless of how many hours you can get in. some hours are better than none.

[widedentist]

Hello- Just wondering where you guys get information regarding the quaility of American Dental schools? None of the university websites post specific information - is there some kind of rating system somwhere? For example how would you know which schools have a strong clinical basis and which do not? This second hand information seems somewhat hard to come by.... Also I have been told that the reason US schools are easier to get into is because of the poorer quaility of education - is this true or are most of the schools ( ex NYU ) comparable to Canadian schools ? Also does anyone know the stats on how hard it is to get into harvard dentistry and the cost - it doesnt say on there website ?

[Neil45]

"Also I have been told that the reason US schools are easier to get into is because of the poorer quaility of education"

 

WTF?! Where did you hear that from?

[widedentist]

"Also I have been told that the reason US schools are easier to get into is because of the poorer quaility of education"

 

WTF?! Where did you hear that from?

 

I guees its not true then haha. My dad said it I think hes trying to talk me out of applying though because he knows how expensive the cost of living will be and tuition ect .