3.0 and under club, your opinion

[Guest TheDDSDude]

Now at another student forum, I have read about a "club" having members that have a GPA of 3.0 or less with some getting into dental school in the United States because they had high DAT scores.

 

Now having said this, and by comparing dentistry in relative competitiveness with other professional schools, and with those in Canada (dental schools), what is your opinion of all this?

 

Should dental school admissions focus more on academic performance in school or on the DAT? This does provide hope for predental students who aren't as academically strong but may have other redeeming qualities to make them a better dentist. This may however, make it more difficult to be accepted to dental school because even students with excellent marks are not guaranteed a better chance of admission.

[Guest Saint Seiya]

Dental schools should accept well-rounded people, just like med schools. Not just GPA, not just DAT, not just personal attributes. Should consider total package....everything! Accept fewer students....and we shall be rich.... :b

 

Or....on the opposite spectrum, ignore everything. Rules, laws, selection criteria, etc only create more disorder rather than peace in society. If above 3.0 is good, then below 3.0 is bad. If extra-curricular activities is good, then no extra-curricular is bad??? If leadership is good, then is mere participation without leadership involvement be bad? Without participants, whom do you think you'll lead and how do you think you'll learn? How do you define good and bad anyway? And why do you think your definition is better than mine or others? If I remember correctly, someone posted in the forum that students hide library books, tear pages off journals, etc to prevent other students from getting high marks. Why do students do these to other students? Isn't this a consequence of those stupid admissions criteria set out by the schools? Who's to blame for this disorder? The students or the committees?

 

No system is perfect, so you just have to play along with other people or with whatever rule is given to you, I guess. If they accept students with GPA 3.0 or less, then be it.

[Guest Kicoati]

I have read the same thread.

 

By the sound of it, I didn't feel that DDSDude is biased towards either of the systems. He simply put that up to gather interesting opinions from different people (and to give us something to think about while waiting).

 

I do believe dental schools should accept well-rounded people. It is nice that many US schools will consider people with lower GPA but can demonstrate excellent personality traits. They are able to do so while we can't because they have far more spots in dental school then we do. Here in Canada with so limited number of places, the school would have to draw the line somewhere and most of them use stats as the determinant. That unfortunately results in rejection of many applicants who have personalities just as good as those accepted, without even giving a chance of interview (That said some Canadian schools do look into personal profile).

 

Everyone would agree that no system is perfect.

[Guest TheDDSDude]

thank you Kicoati, I wasn't trying to create bias, I just wanted to see how people felt and to let people know that this does exist so one can assess using one's own values to determine what they feel about the system since i find it rather interesting. I find it interesting because Dentistry is one of the few professions that focus a lot of grades for some schools but other schools do not. Whereas Medicine, Law, and MBA programs all require a high level of academic merit and experience as well as high proficiency in standardized test. HOwever, Dentistry as a profession is not that much different than medicine so I was wondering what you folks felt about the disparity in the competitiveness of the schools.

[Guest yukontim]

I think Canadian schools focus too much in GPA. Then again, my GPA leaves something to be desired.

 

US schools have found that performance on the licensing exams is correlated to performance on the DATs. I suppose its because getting a high GPA can be extremely difficult in some schools, while not so tough in others.

 

I also have a comment about the interview process in Canada, since it is related to the selection process. I find that the US school interviews let my true character come through, since they were more conversational and less like a job interview. My interviews in the US were done by one person, and they didn't stare blankly at me until I stopped talking like they do in Canada. What do you guys think?

[Guest Dentist]

I strongly agree with your comment.

 

I don't see why Canadian schools have such high standards. It seems it's even worse than med school since most schools don't even look at your extracurricular.

 

For those who apply to Canadian schools only, good luck.

 

If you have 3.x GPA and decent DAT, why not try US?

financial problem? I think paying more money is better than being rejected for years and waiting in Canada.

at least, you become a dentist after 4 yrs.

[Guest bchgirl]

I started university with great grades, but it is slowly, steadily decreasing. I wonder if I still got chances for Dental. Do people with relatively low (around 3 ish) still got chances for dental? or any other grad program?

 

My hopeful plan is to do a Master's program for 2 years and then try dental/ med again. Is that a good backup plan?

 

Also, do you guys know if DAT is much different from MCAT? Would would be get carving practice other than kaplan/ princetown classes??

 

Yea, people who had hopeful futures but screwed over by a hard program (Biochem) and get low GPA shouldn't really be punished. I thought I was ready for the challenge! I hope my other extracirriculars will make up for this down fall ><

[Guest toothy jr]

bchgirl,

 

well first of all you will not like dents if it's just a med backup. Because it can be very grueling if you are not enthusiastic. As for master's degree, I don't think dental schools put much emphasis on it. UWO is one of the more accommodating places but even they use grad degrees as just a "bonus" to improve chances of admission. They only take the best two years so if you managed to string together an 85% avg you will have a decent shot at it.

 

I'm not sure they will accept the "tough major" reason... no matter how difficult the program was, there was probably a bunch of people who regularly got 3.5+ gpa, and if you were pragmatic you would have realized the program did not fit you and switched out.

[Guest Saint Seiya]

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[Guest Saint Seiya]

I think Canadian dental interview is tough but a valuable tool. It allows assessment of many attributes of a person. I think the interview is a wonder opportunity to present your true character to people. It allows you to talk about any aspect of your biography, be it extracurricular activities, hobbies, volunteer work, etc. It all depends on how you present it and whether you have such an ability to incorporate it in the interview while staying on topics. Plus, many interview questions are related to situations that can happen in a dental clinic. So, you don't think the questions are fair??? It gives plenty of opportunities to talk about your life experiences that you learned from extracurricular activities and how you can apply your experiences to those situations. Also what's wrong with interviewers staring at candidates? Perhaps your story is too boring??? I heard med school interviewers even pose a skeptical look and pretend they don't believe every word candidates have said. So, then, is it important for the interviewers to react? Or, perhaps the interviewers don't intend to appear to be like that, and it's just your perception or optical illusion? In short, it depends on......................your brain.

 

I don't believe DAT is an accurate prediction, either. People can score high in carving and do poorly in a simple filling at dental school. Same things hold for other sections.

[Guest yukontim]

The interviews are definitely valuable. But with the public speaking style interviews, are they selecting the best dentists, or the best public speakers?

Saint Seiya, I disagree with your condescending comment that I may not have anything interesting to say, or that I misinterpreted the interviewers. I'll state my point again for clarity: It is not a normal social situation when you have to speak without feedback. I know many people who are confident public speakers but would not have the attributes that make a good dentist.

As for the DAT being a predictor - its what the US schools have found to be a better than GPA of performance on their licensing exams. Statistically. Not anecdotally. There are obviously differences in the difficulty of various programs and universities.

 

In the future, please watch your tone, Saint Seiya

[Guest Saint Seiya]

It depends on how you read my previous message and you may perhaps get a feeling either that my comment may offend certain people, or that I wrote it with a puzzled, confused face but no other intensions, or that I basically have a skeptic personality, or.....

 

I don't have any feedbacks. I have no control whatsoever over how a admissions committe should do or look for. So, I posted with my comments only.