Where should I apply?

Coming from a family that has zero dental experience this was one of the more unknown aspects of the entire application process. When I applied I believe that there were 63 dental schools in the United States and I had no idea which ones I wanted to apply to. I broke this process down into a problem solving exercise and it served me well.

BLUF: I wanted to get into the best dental school, that requires the fewest amount of prerequisite classes and generally stay out of debt.

This may sound like a simple process but below are the essential steps that I took when figuring out where to apply. Ultimately I ended up applying to 12 schools, getting 3 interviews, attended 2 interviews and gaining acceptance at both schools. Don’t get hung up on rankings, be committed to getting into a school. Just to get a general idea, students generally apply to around 10-12 schools, the fewest I have heard in our class is 3 school and the most was around 20 school. It all depends on the time and money you are willing do commit to applications.

“The best dental school is the one that you get into”

1) BUY THE “ADEA OFFICIAL GUIDE TO DENTAL SCHOOLS” I cannot emphasize this enough, this book will be your bible for the next year as you work your way through the application process. This book lists every dental school in the US and Canada along with their admissions contact info, average accepted GPA, DAT scores, class size and profile, required prerequisite classes, overall school profile and more. I would highly recommend the hard copy, take page markers for every potential school, compare and contrast to assist in your decision. I used this book religiously as a compiled resource that has ALL the info I needed to contact the school, see required classes and ultimately apply to my desired schools.

2) Who have you networked with and where did they go: I mention this because honestly I based a lot of where I applied on who I knew and who they could introduce me to. I was very realistic about applying to school, I knew that I had to overcome my average undergraduate GPA and one way to mitigate that was to have a direct contact at at school that you can apply to. I had many conversations during the application process with current dental students that I had reached out to that ended with “sounds good, I’ll shoot “Nancy” an email, she’s our director of admissions, you can set up phone call with her and she will answer any more questions you may have.” This was invaluable, and goes back to my networking strategy. Now you are a known person to the admissions committee because a current student recommended you, this taught me to never underestimate the value of dental student’s influence when applying to schools.

Bottom Line: I applied to about 5 schools recommended from my developed network and was accepted at 2 of them. I did not get any interviews at schools where I did not personally make contact with admissions committee.

3) Prerequisite courses required: Once you have purchased the ADEA Guide to Dental School (pictured above), or visited the school’s websites you need to determine what prerequisite classes are needed for admission. I was an engineering undergrad so I needed to take a handful of science classes to be qualified to apply.

Being a non traditional/older applicant I aimed to minimize the amount of time until I could apply. I took the 20 or so schools I was considering and cross-referenced their required prerequisite courses to determine the courses that maximized my application opportunity. I had two semesters of templated school before my application was submitted so if there was a school that was the ONLY school that required a course, I eliminated that school based on the fact that I would be taking the course for only one additional application. To me the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze, there were plenty of schools that met my criteria with the maximum effective prerequisite courses.

EDIT: I want to make it very clear that you DO NOT have to have all prerequisite courses complete before your application is submitted. You are able to and encouraged to continuously update your application regarding prerequisites once it is submitted.

Prerequisite courses I took: Gent Bio 1 & 2, O Chem 1 & 2, Biochemistry 1, Microbiology 1 & 2. These 6 courses in conjunction with my undergrad science, math and english courses qualified me for 15 or so desirable schools.

4) Location: Location was not a factor in my application, I was not confident enough that I would actually have a choice of multiple dental schools, much less the ability to choose a school based on location. Don’t be hung up on location, this is a means to an end, an investment in your future, 4 years goes by fast and then you will have the financial freedom to life your best life.

4A) State of Legal Residence: This is a caveat to location. If you are NOT a Texas resident….Do not apply to Texas Schools. This goes for other states as well, in the “ADEA Official Guide to Dental School” it shows you the applications stats based on “in state” and “out of state". This is extremely important for two reasons 1) in state residents generally have a better chance of acceptance at public schools (Example: University of Colorado, University of Washington). Do not waste your hard earned Iraq deployment money on applications to state schools that will not accept out of state applicants. However, private schools (Example: Midwestern University, Meharry, U of P) generally show less favoritism to in state students and will accept a higher percentage of out of state applicants. The lesson here is to do your research, know that you are applying to a school that has the statistics to validate your application.

**NOTE: I will mention this later but some state schools do offer IN STATE Considerations for application and tuition to students receiving VA benefits. I had to fill out a form during application but ultimately may have helped my application slide into the “in state” pile. Please ask your admission advisor about this. This also has a massive positive impact on tuition if you are using the Post 9-11 GI bill or footing the school bill yourself.

“Does your school offer any in state benefits for veterans?”

5) Where do you think you will get in: At the end of the day there is an analysis that goes like…”Ok, I have X amount of time, and money, taking everting into consideration what are the 10 schools that I have the best chance to get into? “ The school I ended up at wasn’t on my original list, but I had a close friend introduce me to a key faculty member who encouraged me to apply. I felt it was worth the extra few hundred dollars and ended up working out. Did I want to go to Harvard? ehh not really, I didn’t know shit about research and they let like 25 applicants in every year, my chances were zero. Don’t waste time and money on low percentage schools, at the end of the day you will have a DMD or DDS, just like everybody else.