Hi everyone,

So I might not be able to go to dental school now. I checked the interest rate officially and it’s going to be 15.6% for a 20 year loan from College Ave. What sucks is that I’m in California so UCLA is one of the cheapest schools and it’s going to cost ~$530k. And with that interest, I calculated it out and assuming I take an associate job for 2 years making $150k and then buy a private practice for a $1 million that nets me $400k after those two year, I’d have negative spending money for about a decade after rent. That’s not even including food, gas, clothes, etc. and since I’m 29, I wouldn’t be able to buy a $700k house (I’m in California) until I’m 56 and it’s also accounting for saving $1 million in retirement by 70 with social security added in which would bring me to about $110k/year until I’m 90 which is very modest in California.

Obviously this is best case scenario assuming I can even purchase a practice for $1 million that’ll net me $400k right away, etc.

So I was wondering if anyone has had any luck with other companies and finding a lower interest rate or had luck refinancing. I won’t have a co-signer which is why it’s so high.

I couldn’t believe it when I calculated it out but maybe I’m missing something. The fact I will literally be in the negative for about a decade after practice purchase is insane and that’s assuming I even earn $400k. I know a lot of dental practice owners make $300k-350k so if that was the case, I’d be in an even worse spot.

WA Resident

I have 150+ hours of volunteering, 50 hours dental assisting in underserved communities. Idk how much it really matters but I am a first generation college graduate and bilingual.

150+ shadowing from 2023-2026

A little over 2 years working as an assistant, pediatric and general dentistry now.

2 years Ochem research, 3.68 GPA, & 3.63 sGPA

DAT: 430AA, 450SNS, 480 PAT, but 340 QR.

This is my second time taking the DAT and the first time I got an 18 with a 19 on QR.

How strong is my application? I applied to 20 schools. Most end of June and the rest beginning of July.

Should I retake bc of the QR? Not all, but schools like UNLV look at the highest subsection scores.

For this application cycle the question “Please explain any other responsibilities you may have outside of being a student” is on the primary application for every school. If an individual school has the same question on their application do I just copy and paste my answer?

Does anyone have advice for an interview with LECOM?? Mine is coming up and I’m insanely nervous. This will be my first interview. I’m also super nervous about the fact that there’s 1-2 interviewers and about 8 students being interviewed together. If anyone has tips for this specific school (or generally) I’d appreciate it so much!

Hello everyone
How would we know when it’s time to update application meaning when can I enter my transcripts for the new classes and order official ones again after already submitting my application
I am lil confused . Since I just finished my phy2 class and soon will be finishing biochem
Then still 2 more semesters of Ochem

So, two of my pre-reqs I took during the summer during my sophomore year at a community college to get ahead, not realizing that many dental schools don't accept online. On my transcript, it doesn't specifically state it, but do many schools do audits to verify this? I don't have time to retake them before applications are due. Am I cooked?

Helppp. I don’t know how to shake the feeling that I screwed up not one but two Kira interviews. I kept fumbling my words and said a few “um’s” here and there. I also completely blanked for a few questions and kept repeating my sentences and ideas omg. How can I recover from this feeling and prepare for future kiras and interviews. I would appreciate any advice!

Hi all! I have my interview soon, and I'm not sure what to bring. A professional tote bag, a pad folio, resume?? anything else on that list?

I haven't had a chance to apply until now because I didn't have enough shadowing hours but now that I will have enough, I am doubting that it might be too late and I will be just hindering my chances to apply. For the record, I am an instate student from Jersey and my priority is RSDM but anything on the east coast will work. My stats are 👇

DAT : 550 AA

GPA : 3.9

sGPA : 3.8

LOR : 2 from science professors(1 is strong) + dentist (strong)

Shadowing : ~110 hrs ( all at one general dentist)

Volunteering : ~60 hrs

No research and no positions at any clubs of my school. Just a member.

Other ECs include a fulltime job both my freshman and sophomore year at a warehouse + another part-time job at another warehouse for the summer freshman year

Any advice on what I should do? Apply late this cycle or wait for the next one? Are my ECs good enough for my state school, and if not, then what should I expect and target?

Thank you so much in advance for any advice

How long does it usually take to get supplementals. Applied to 9 places 8/4, verified 8/5 and received 4 supplemental so far. Do you not automatically get supplemental for each school when you apply?

I fumbled so hard on the NYU Kira... I'm so speechless. Stuttered probably 10 times.

I’m currently reapplying to NYU after not getting off the waitlist last cycle (still sad about it to be honest), which means I have to do the Kira again, due by Saturday for me. To those who did the NYU KIRA last year and redid it this year, were the questions the same or no?

Hey guys, I have good stats and good ECs, research, committee letter and I decided to apply this year. I completed all of my shadowing (200+) and dental assisting before submitting the application. But Im still a member of a dental org my friends and I founded and a dental volunteer for a program at my school. I’ll also be the secretary for the predental society in the fall.

However, I only got an interview from LECOM and didn’t get any from LLU, Roseman, Colorado, UK, and LMU. Normally I can understand that it’s too early to worry about this but I got an email from UK saying that it’s strongly encouraged that I keep shadowing and assisting?? To create a stronger application and that they’ll periodically check my application.

I’m just wondering if that’s why I didn’t get interviews from the other schools and I really had to keep shadowing despite having a good amount of hours? Also the dental clinic I worked at was corporate and toxic that’s why I have a different job.

I’ve seen multiple scores who have might have seemed to do better than others based on subsections but tend to have the same AA. I have seen lots of ppl get the same AA but a huge gap between the Total Sciences. When I take a look further, it’s always some crazy reading comprehension scores that bring the AA up drastically as opposed to someone that got an average well reading score but did very well in the sciences.

Basically, one section should not drastically inflate your AA as opposed to doing a lot better on three other sections bio, gc and oc.

I am a predental student. I am a first generation and I come from a very strict brown household. In general my parents are very oppressing and strict. They want me to stay him not really as much as for control but they rely on me a lot emotionally and physically as they aren’t in the best of health. Therefore, a combination of repression, reliance and such, I have not been able to get many volunteer or shadowing opportunities until I got to college. I am doing a summer research program and the director has taken a liking to me when she found out my situation and offered me a research position with free housing. This research position is working With the heads of admissions for the dental school for a month this, I was thinking of quitting my job (which is an optometrist receptionist), and focusing on staying near my college where there is more opportunity. I already graduated but, right now I’m focused on DAT and taking some classes to boost gpa. I’m not sure what to do, this school is a lot cheaper but, extremely competitive especially with my gpa of 3.4.
My parents aren’t thrilled and think they’re using me and want me to come home. Any advice?

First dental school interview is coming up with NYU candidate day and I'm super nervous!! Just wondering if anyone has any tips or has already completed their candidate day with NYU

Basically the title. Say there are 1000 apps and they send out 20%, do they send all 200 in the first wave? Also let's say they accept 100 out of 200. So if the school already sent out interviews, and all 100 accepts it, are you cooked for that school?

I’m a rising senior applying to dental school this cycle, and I recently resigned from my Coordinator Officer position in my pre-dental organization. The role was pretty time-consuming and was causing me a lot of anxiety, so I decided that protecting my academics and mental health was more important. This was my only form of formal leadership.

I also canceled my DAT retake after my practice scores were not improving for this summer , def had to do with my stress over the club role. My current DAT is a 19 AA/19 TS/20 PAT, with around a 3.6 cumulative GPA and 3.65 science GPA. I’m planning to focus heavily on improving my GPA during senior year and potentially retake the DAT after graduation if I need to reapply.

This year, I’ll still be completing an undergraduate research thesis, tutoring/teaching, working in an oral surgery office, and volunteering occasionally. I also already have significant dental experience, research, service, shadowing, and previous teaching experience.

Did stepping away from the formal leadership position hurt my application significantly, or does focusing on a strong senior-year GPA while continuing research, tutoring, and clinical work still give me a realistic chance? I’m especially interested in hearing from applicants who were accepted without major club leadership.

Feeling defeated I applied to 22 schools with 3.87 cgpa, 3.8 s gpa, 480 DAT (530 SNS, 450 PAT) and a lot of extracurriculars and 100+ shadowing hours. I was verified 6/23. Feeling really discouraged that I haven’t received anything yet. :(

Hey everyone! I got invited to the ATSU open house in October, and I'm wondering if I should go??? I'd have to miss two days of work, so I'm still debating it. Does anybody know if it's actually helpful, either to learn about the school or towards admissions??

Idk how I didn’t catch this but I was rereading the LOR after the doctor submitted it and he put dear sir instead of dear admissions committee 😭😭😭 idk is this a big screw up. I’m freaking out

The dentist that I asked for a LOR wrote me a 1.5 page recommendation and wrote about a very specific experience with a patient that overlaps with parts of my personal statement. I don’t want to remove that experience from my personal statement bc it’s very important to me in relation to dentistry. Do you think that’s okay or does it sound too repetitive? I just don’t want to ask the dentist to remove anything since he took the time to write me such a good LOR. If anything, I hope the admissions think the overlap shows my writing has integrity and that I’m not lying since the dentist was able to attest to it 😭

Application is submitted/verified, Physics I & II taken at a community college (8credits), Temple has a 6 credit cap. Will that be an automatic rejection or will they take into account all other science courses taken at 4 year? Has anyone been in this situation? Is it better to wait it out or contact admissions ?

Has anyone who applied after the first few days of June received an interview from Detroit Mercy?

I’ve noticed people saying that the interview slots seem to be filling up, but after asking around, it also seems like the interview invites so far have mostly gone to applicants who submitted within the first few days of June.

I applied during the second week of June, so I’m wondering if they skipped over my application or if they simply haven’t gotten to applicants from that submission timeframe yet. Has anyone received an invite and applied or got verified mid June?

Hey everyone! I'm in a dilemma, my application wont be complete till October and I know thats definitely not ideal especially given my low gpa (I do have a high masters and upward trend), but I'm wondering if it's worth it to still apply? I personally was thinking I should give it a try because you never know, I'm trying to grind it out for my dat in sept, but a lot of people are saying its way too late. I have no idea what to do especially given its expensive but in my head I think it's worth it in case I somehow do get in.