December 12, 2009
Columbia Update
Yesterday I got an AADSAS update saying that I am not officially waitlisted at Columbia. I really don't know how to feel about it. I looked on predents.com and none of the waitlisted people are in the accepted column, which may be a mistake. I'm going to call Dr. McManus on monday and see what the future holds for me.
December 1, 2009
December 1st is here!
Well the big day has come and went and after the dust has settled, I've been accepted to Boston University and Tufts University. Its a start, but I'm still waiting to hear from VCU, UW and Columbia. Hopefully I won't have to wait long. If you're reading this, please put me out of my misery and just accept me already! ;)
More to Come,
Bjorn
November 24, 2009
Tufts Interview
Welcome everyone to most likely the last interview post of my short career. That doesn't mean I won't keep you all updated on acceptances and other goingsabout. But, it does feel like the end of an era... the last financial aid talk, school tour, sales pitch etc.
So I wrapped up my weekend in Boston by interviewing at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine. It was pretty standard, except there was a huge emphasis on describing the course schedule, almost to a point of wordiness. I must have heard about the courses for a good 2+ hours, which was a bit exhausting. The school itself is a mix of old an new. The much-lauded upstairs facilities are about to be used. Too bad it will mainly be for the post-grad specialization students and not the DMD students, which was NOT what I wanted to hear. The original floors below that expansion were alright. Pretty standard mid-80's clinics with no natural light, but what can you do? In that regard, the faculty are old-school, in stark contrast to the green initiatives and swanky stuff they have added to the school. BU told me they would be old school and I was not surprised. If you haven't heard, Tufts sent out a HUGE packet of any info you could ever want about their school and they spent most of the "pitch" going over this monster and a couple of our own questions. Like BU, Tufts is costly, in excess of $90k a year. Its alot, but I'm finding that cost is becoming less of a priority as I go on.
I was very confused on the school's take on their involvement with medicine
1. One person told me the school was a completely seperate building from the hospital (which in some regards it is)
2. Another person told me the building is integrated by skybridges (which it is, but who cares?)
3. Tufts students take 1 class w/ Med students, gross anatomy... not that many
4. Dean Mark something said that taking their own seperate medicine classes is important to be able to converse w/ medical colleagues.
So let me ask you, Tufts... if medical integration is so important to you, then why don't your students spend more time learning WITH med school students? It seems like the best way to build bonds, but I guess discussing renal failure complications is a better solution. The conflicting views I was given by multiple people during the day leads me to believe that their medicine classes are only in place to make their graduation surveys of "comfort discussing w/ medical colleagues" a little bit better. Give your students a bunch of rotations.
That being said, I could see myself going to Tufts for a dental education, despite the cost. It is in a decent area of Chinatown, so I could definitely occupy myself with some great food. With regards to the new expansion, it was hinted that the clinical groups of 12 could be decreased to 8 with the extra space available, which is nice. Overall, I think my trip up to Boston was very enlightening, despite the cold, wet weather. I got to see two schools and my view of them completely changed in a matter of hours. It just goes to show that you can't judge a book by its' cover. You really need to visit dental schools before you judge them based on pictures and statistics. Just a little advice for you pre-dental kids out there. Its good to finally have this stage of my life behind me. Now I can work off the travel expenses I've incurred and have a relaxing Thanksgiving with my family. Hey, December 1st is next Tuesday so hopefully all that turkey will take my mind of of that.
Peace out,
Bjorn
November 20, 2009
BU Interview
Hey everybody,
I just got back to my home-for-the-weekend from my 4th and possibly next to last interview. I got up at 7, took the T downtown and walked through the driving rain to get to the BU Medical Center at 915. Overall, I thought BU was a great school. The people pride themselves on being friendly and helpful to their applicants and students. Lets debunk a few rumors:
* BU's patient scheduling system has been drastically changed. No longer do students have to get up at 4am to sit in line to nab patients. Instead they have an all-paperless system that allows them to request appointments and chairs online at home
* The Advanced Placement class is 75 students... take it however you want. I see it as a sample of the diversity of the young city.
* They really darted around the question of how they do on the boards by saying "over 90% pass." In other words, most people pass... I was just wondering if your scores are good enough on average to make waves in the specialty match process.
It was one of the few interviews that was as advertised as being "conversational." At no point did I feel like I was being grilled. In fact, we pretty much talked about how great my personal statement was (ego boost) and the differences between Harvard, Tufts and BU. The Dean was genuinely friendly and helpful.
However, I am most displeased with the price of the school. I expected the cost of living to be astronomical, which it was, but I wasn't ready for the projected total including tuition... over $92,000! WOW! I am going to really think hard about the kind of debt I want to assume coming out of school. Granted, it isn't too hard for dentists, that is still alot of money especially if I have a home loan or a family. Oh well. Now I'm staying the weekend outside of Boston for my Tufts interview on Monday then its back to Virginia to wrap up a couple of things and have Turkey Day with the family... THEN DECEMBER 1st!!!!! SO EXCITED!
I just got back to my home-for-the-weekend from my 4th and possibly next to last interview. I got up at 7, took the T downtown and walked through the driving rain to get to the BU Medical Center at 915. Overall, I thought BU was a great school. The people pride themselves on being friendly and helpful to their applicants and students. Lets debunk a few rumors:
* BU's patient scheduling system has been drastically changed. No longer do students have to get up at 4am to sit in line to nab patients. Instead they have an all-paperless system that allows them to request appointments and chairs online at home
* The Advanced Placement class is 75 students... take it however you want. I see it as a sample of the diversity of the young city.
* They really darted around the question of how they do on the boards by saying "over 90% pass." In other words, most people pass... I was just wondering if your scores are good enough on average to make waves in the specialty match process.
It was one of the few interviews that was as advertised as being "conversational." At no point did I feel like I was being grilled. In fact, we pretty much talked about how great my personal statement was (ego boost) and the differences between Harvard, Tufts and BU. The Dean was genuinely friendly and helpful.
However, I am most displeased with the price of the school. I expected the cost of living to be astronomical, which it was, but I wasn't ready for the projected total including tuition... over $92,000! WOW! I am going to really think hard about the kind of debt I want to assume coming out of school. Granted, it isn't too hard for dentists, that is still alot of money especially if I have a home loan or a family. Oh well. Now I'm staying the weekend outside of Boston for my Tufts interview on Monday then its back to Virginia to wrap up a couple of things and have Turkey Day with the family... THEN DECEMBER 1st!!!!! SO EXCITED!
November 17, 2009
Sooooo its exactly 2 weeks until Dec. 1st and the whole pre-dental world begins to find out where they got into dental school. I'm completely and utterly anxious about it. I have 2 interviews this weekend up in Boston to make things more stressful. Thankfully, I don't have any exams until Mid-December. A little advice to pre-dents : the tough thing about the applications process isn't getting into dental school, but making sure you don't fail completely in your final semester... which is why I'm taking 12 credits : 6 as a TA, 4 for my internship and 2 for independent research on biology of infectious diseases. I win at life.
November 3, 2009
VCU Interview
And the interview blitz continues. Today I had the pleasure of interviewing at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Dentistry in Richmond, VA. I got up at 5am after staying up late the previous night to finish the secondary application I had put off until way too late. The schedule:
5:00 AM : Rise and shine
7:30 AM : Introductory talk w/ Dr. Healy
8:00 AM : 1-on-1 interview w/ Dr. Masters
8:30 AM : 1-on-1 interview w/ Dr. Yeudall
9:00 AM : wrote an ethics essay
9:30 AM : Dr. Healy's tour of the Lyons building
12:30 PM : Lunch w/ D-4 students and tour of new Perkinson building
1:30 PM : The final VCU pitch talk w/ Dr. Healy
2:30 PM : DONE!
Let me start off by saying that I was very impressed by VCU today. Their faculty and students were very welcoming and enthusiastic. I felt very much welcome there. My interviews were much more casual and less stressful than other ones, which was a welcome change. Dr. Healy is a great guy. I have come to know him over the last 4 years through Pre-Dental Society here at UVA by taking multiple tours of the facility and visiting with him at his UVA visits. He is definitely there to help you, the applicant. He is genuinely concerned about finding compatible students and once you matriculate, he and the rest of the staff at VCU are utterly committed to you graduating and going onto the next step in your career. In fact, of the 35-50% of the class that looks to specialization or a residency, 95% of them get spots. This was a bit of a shock, as I had heard other opinions from certain people.
They are definitely a clinical-based school. Right now, this looks like what I want to do with dentistry, so that was encouraging. One of the most exciting things about today was finally getting to see the next Perkinson building that has just been put into use this year. It was stellar. Perhaps the best learning environment I have seen, up there with Maryland's facilities. Now, I had seen the old Lyons building many many times, so this new wing was a huge surprise for me. It has more modern decor, better lighting and less awkward organization. I have to talk with my PDS alumni friends who are now at VCU and ask them how they like the new digs there.
A couple of other notes : they are going paperless after Thanksgiving break this year, which is a huge relief to everybody. The SimLab is awesome, just like I have known. Its a great intro to mannequins in your first 4 months of dental school. They are very unique, as I have not seen them anywhere else.
I have to seriously consider my options this winter. Hopefully I will have multiple acceptances, but at the same time I am going to have to make some tough decisions. I have sooooo many people asking me "whos your number one school?" I don't know yet. It all depends on who likes me enough to accept me, the timing they use to do so and the thought process I will go through in determining which school is best for me. This is the most exciting time in my life and I am grateful to be sharing it with my friends, my girlfriend and my family. Thanks to all the people out there who are giving me all this support and encouragement!
November 1, 2009
Alright everybody, its the long-awaited and much anticipated UW interview post. This last Monday I had the distinct pleasure of visiting the University of Washington School of Dentistry campus out in Seattle WA. I took a flight out there from Dulles on Saturday and caught up on some sleep Sunday. It rained the whole time, which is soooo stereotypical of Seattle, but I'm used to it by now.
7:30 : Wake up, get all did-up and fancified
8:30 : Dying in Seattle traffic trying to get there on time
9:00 : barely made it on time to the introduction speech from the Dean
10:00 : Interviewed with Dr. Maebo and Nimitz
11:00 : Financial Aid talk
12:30 : Lunch with two 2nd years and two 4th year students
1:00 : Tour of the facilities
2:00 : Closing talk with 6 of the deans
3:15 : Home.... sleep
Overall, I thought it was a pretty good experience. The interview itself went well. I feel I presented myself well for the admissions committee. Still, I was happy with the enthusiasm shown by the staff there. As I have heard and seen for years, the Magnuson Health Sciences Center at UW has had a reputation for turning out the top professionals in pharmacy, nursing, dentistry and medicine for years, which is exciting. Great, knowledgeable staff and students. Nothing I didn't know before.
The Facilities were a bit blah though. I knew they were a little less than modern, but I was not prepared for a few of the dungeon-like hallways. That was the only con of the whole day though. Still, who cares about the looks of the place if you get a great education?
Financial Aid looks pretty good at UW. I knew it would be very cheap compared to other dental schools because I am a Washington resident. Average cost for residents is about 47k, but most needy residents get a nice little $6,000 grant. Also, there are a few disadvantaged loans and grants that I can look at there. Cost is a huge part of choosing a dental school and this is a main draw of possibly coming to UW.
Since UW is a bit slow with the admissions process, they admit only a few applicants in December. They usually wait until "January" to have half of their class filled. This is a bit alarming because if I get a December 1st acceptance from another school, I will have until January 15th to put an expensive deposit down to hold my place. Hopefully, I will be able to weigh my options in a more convenient manner this winter. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Also, VCU interview this Tuesday! I'm excited.
7:30 : Wake up, get all did-up and fancified
8:30 : Dying in Seattle traffic trying to get there on time
9:00 : barely made it on time to the introduction speech from the Dean
10:00 : Interviewed with Dr. Maebo and Nimitz
11:00 : Financial Aid talk
12:30 : Lunch with two 2nd years and two 4th year students
1:00 : Tour of the facilities
2:00 : Closing talk with 6 of the deans
3:15 : Home.... sleep
Overall, I thought it was a pretty good experience. The interview itself went well. I feel I presented myself well for the admissions committee. Still, I was happy with the enthusiasm shown by the staff there. As I have heard and seen for years, the Magnuson Health Sciences Center at UW has had a reputation for turning out the top professionals in pharmacy, nursing, dentistry and medicine for years, which is exciting. Great, knowledgeable staff and students. Nothing I didn't know before.
The Facilities were a bit blah though. I knew they were a little less than modern, but I was not prepared for a few of the dungeon-like hallways. That was the only con of the whole day though. Still, who cares about the looks of the place if you get a great education?
Financial Aid looks pretty good at UW. I knew it would be very cheap compared to other dental schools because I am a Washington resident. Average cost for residents is about 47k, but most needy residents get a nice little $6,000 grant. Also, there are a few disadvantaged loans and grants that I can look at there. Cost is a huge part of choosing a dental school and this is a main draw of possibly coming to UW.
Since UW is a bit slow with the admissions process, they admit only a few applicants in December. They usually wait until "January" to have half of their class filled. This is a bit alarming because if I get a December 1st acceptance from another school, I will have until January 15th to put an expensive deposit down to hold my place. Hopefully, I will be able to weigh my options in a more convenient manner this winter. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Also, VCU interview this Tuesday! I'm excited.
October 21, 2009
October 6, 2009
October 5, 2009
Hey everybody,
So this past weekend, I was up in New York interviewing at Columbia University School of Dental Medicine. I was pretty nervous seeing how it was my first dental school interview. We started off with a quick talk about the school. I was pleased to see that they are very medically-oriented and produce a very high rate of specialization (about 50% of grads get matched to a spot). They have a great reputation for turning out excellent clinicians and researchers there. Lots of good history and a great reputation. They train dentists much in the way that they do with their med students. They attend alot of the same classes, which in the brand new curriculum, are more concentrated into the first 1.5 years in order to complete them before some much needed clinical focus after that. I was happy to hear that they are actively working on giving their students more clinical experience, which I heard was a minor problem. However, Dr. McManus mentioned that they actually have a higher than average clinical experience for their students. Rumor dispelled. I also got a little more comfortable with the idea of taking class with med school students because I've found a liking for the medical aspects of dentistry due to my internship and because we are not graded with them. On that note, the class is Pass/Fail/Honors, which means no GPA, no class rank and pretty much specialty programs say "well he went to columbia.... he must be awesome."
Then I sat down for a 1-on-1 interview with a faculty member. Most people thought their sessions were pretty casual and more of a conversation, but I felt like I was being grilled a bit. Still, I felt that I answered the questions pretty well and presented myself in the best possible light. On another note, I was surprised to see that Columbia has been gradually stepping down the number of interview invites from 360 in 2007 to 250 in 2008 to this year, which they claimed was only 150 invites. WOW that is awesome! Considering that they will likely mail out more than 75-80 of the spots for the class, since not everybody accepts an offer to attend... my odds are fantastic now!
Overall, I thought the faculty were very kind and inviting. They made it clear that if I didn't want to specialize, I should not come there. Good advice. The facilities were okay, a little old in places but still okay. The library was pretty strange looking. Really minimalistic and lots of white walls. Washington Heights isn't the best area in the world, but I think I could stand living there for 4 years because its cheap. I wouldn't like living there if I was a female though. Yikes. Overall, I was very impressed by Columbia. They will be making a serious bid for my attendance this winter if they decide to accept me. I am seriously considering attending their great school.
September 28, 2009
September 6, 2009
September 1, 2009
Welcome UVA Pre-Dental Society members and visitors!!!
This is my own special little blog that I have compiled from my experiences taking the DAT and applying this fall. Please feel free to comment and ask questions because I am very responsive. I'm sure if you read through this, you will find something very useful to you in the next few years! Go Hoos!!!
This is my own special little blog that I have compiled from my experiences taking the DAT and applying this fall. Please feel free to comment and ask questions because I am very responsive. I'm sure if you read through this, you will find something very useful to you in the next few years! Go Hoos!!!
August 28, 2009
August 27, 2009
This past week I have begun my year-long intership with the University of Virginia Hospital Dental Department. I was fortunate enough to have been given a spot through the University Internships Program, which I highly reccomend to any UVA undergrad that is interested in dentistry. In addition to the 2 interns here, there are another 2 at the Charlottesville free clinic on the other side of town.
Thus far, I have been very pleased with the breadth of patients that I have been able to observe. Working at the hospital entails a lot of work with a huge spectrum of people with an even wider range of medical conditions. It seems as though there are a lot of cancer-compromised patients that lose salivary gland function and succomb to massive and widespread tooth decay, leading to extractions here in the department. If anything, this will build up my stomach for blood and guts over the next 8 months. More info to come, stay tuned folks!
Thus far, I have been very pleased with the breadth of patients that I have been able to observe. Working at the hospital entails a lot of work with a huge spectrum of people with an even wider range of medical conditions. It seems as though there are a lot of cancer-compromised patients that lose salivary gland function and succomb to massive and widespread tooth decay, leading to extractions here in the department. If anything, this will build up my stomach for blood and guts over the next 8 months. More info to come, stay tuned folks!
August 26, 2009
August 19, 2009
Woo! things are getting really exciting! I finally got my request for a supplimental from UW, Columbia and Maryland cashed my checks too.
NYU - check sent 7/20
BU - paid online
Tufts - check sent 7/20
Temple - check sent 7/20
Maryland - check cashed, app complete
Columbia - check cashed, app complete
VCU - check not cashed yet
UW - working on supplimental
NYU - check sent 7/20
BU - paid online
Tufts - check sent 7/20
Temple - check sent 7/20
Maryland - check cashed, app complete
Columbia - check cashed, app complete
VCU - check not cashed yet
UW - working on supplimental
August 11, 2009
August 10, 2009
Woo! After getting my Temple Secondary, here are my school updates thus far :
BU : emailed, paying fee tomorrow
Tufts : emailed, money sent
NYU : emailed, money sent
Columbia : emailed, money sent
Temple : emailed, money not sent
UMD : emailed, money sent
VCU : emailed, money not sent
UW : emailed, no request for secondary fee yet
USC : contacted via snail mail
BU : emailed, paying fee tomorrow
Tufts : emailed, money sent
NYU : emailed, money sent
Columbia : emailed, money sent
Temple : emailed, money not sent
UMD : emailed, money sent
VCU : emailed, money not sent
UW : emailed, no request for secondary fee yet
USC : contacted via snail mail
August 6, 2009
School Update
For those of you that haven't heard from me yet, here is my summer thus far.
After finishing the dreaded physics in the spring, I set right out to studying for my DAT on May 11th. After taking the test on June 11th, I have been working part time at the UVA environmental science department and doing construction as a second job. I've been busy to say the least. I'm finishing up these last few weeks of work before school. Starting August 25th, I will begin classes again for my 4th year at UVA.
Also I will be beginning the coveted internship with the UVA hospital dental dept for the academic year. I interviewed for this last February and was accepted into it this March. So far, it seems like a great opportunity not only to get tons of experience in a very wide array of procedures, but also a good chance to gain a little perspective from a number of talented dentists at the hospital. I'm very excited to see some of the more complex, medically-challenged cases out there. Plus, its only a 10-minute walk from my place and lets be honest, wearing the scrubs to classes is going to make my pre-med friends jealous haha. Another great part about this internship is that you receive 4 credits in psychology for each semester, since you take part in a once-a-week seminar and write a couple of papers. I have heard that this part of the class is pretty easy. This is a great option for you pre-dental students at UVA so when February comes around, sign up for UIP and ask for either the hospital spot or the one at the free clinic. Its a great opportunity to get around the iron-fisted sanctions of Madison House at the hospital. Plus, don't forget the scrubs lol.
Also, I am taking the graduate-level Biochemistry course through the bio department, BIOL501. That should be pretty tough, but a great prep for dental schools like VCU, who don't even teach it and rely on self-learning for the NBDE's. In addition, I'm taking Anatomy, Tennis and Multicultural Education. I'm pretty excited about this fall, even though I'm going to be stressing the whole time about getting into dental school.
I have applied to these schools :
VCU
UW
BU
Tufts
Temple
Columbia
NYU
USC
Maryland
I am possibly thinking of withdrawing from USC and adding UoP and NOVA. I'll keep you all updated on the admissions process
After finishing the dreaded physics in the spring, I set right out to studying for my DAT on May 11th. After taking the test on June 11th, I have been working part time at the UVA environmental science department and doing construction as a second job. I've been busy to say the least. I'm finishing up these last few weeks of work before school. Starting August 25th, I will begin classes again for my 4th year at UVA.
Also I will be beginning the coveted internship with the UVA hospital dental dept for the academic year. I interviewed for this last February and was accepted into it this March. So far, it seems like a great opportunity not only to get tons of experience in a very wide array of procedures, but also a good chance to gain a little perspective from a number of talented dentists at the hospital. I'm very excited to see some of the more complex, medically-challenged cases out there. Plus, its only a 10-minute walk from my place and lets be honest, wearing the scrubs to classes is going to make my pre-med friends jealous haha. Another great part about this internship is that you receive 4 credits in psychology for each semester, since you take part in a once-a-week seminar and write a couple of papers. I have heard that this part of the class is pretty easy. This is a great option for you pre-dental students at UVA so when February comes around, sign up for UIP and ask for either the hospital spot or the one at the free clinic. Its a great opportunity to get around the iron-fisted sanctions of Madison House at the hospital. Plus, don't forget the scrubs lol.
Also, I am taking the graduate-level Biochemistry course through the bio department, BIOL501. That should be pretty tough, but a great prep for dental schools like VCU, who don't even teach it and rely on self-learning for the NBDE's. In addition, I'm taking Anatomy, Tennis and Multicultural Education. I'm pretty excited about this fall, even though I'm going to be stressing the whole time about getting into dental school.
I have applied to these schools :
VCU
UW
BU
Tufts
Temple
Columbia
NYU
USC
Maryland
I am possibly thinking of withdrawing from USC and adding UoP and NOVA. I'll keep you all updated on the admissions process
July 31, 2009
Required Reading
Hey everybody, I've done a fair amount of searching around for information on everything from DAT prep to dental school reviews. Here are a number of required sites for every pre-dent.
1. Student Doctor Network forums
check out the pre-dental section to see what people are saying about schools, ask what your chances are, seek advice on anything you can imagine. These boards are very active and you can almost always get a good answer to your question within an hour. Mangifique!
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/forumdisplay.php?f=17
Or, you can look at the DAT boards for lots of breakdowns of everyone's experiences. More study strategies, links and tons of other suggestions out there. This site was crucial in my month of studying for the DAT
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/forumdisplay.php?f=70
Next, there is a great little page in the "Dental" section of the boards that asks a standardized set of questions of students from schools all over the country. Pretty useful when you are deciding what schools to apply to and attend.
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=401980
DocToothache has also put together a number of makeshift ranking posts that will help you understand the various GPA and DAT trends for each school as well as using a little unofficial formula to compute your chances of getting into that school. NOTE : this formula isn't surefire, but more of a fun little tool to toy around with
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=602109
Finally, when you do get serious about schools, check out the interview feedback section. Here, interviewees post their thoughts on their individual interviews, questions they were asked and impressions of the school. Its a handy little tool when you want to be extra prepared
http://more.studentdoctor.net/schoollist.php?type=3
2. Predents
This site is EPIC. Hands-down one of the best research tools on the web. Create a profile, enter your stats and search around other schools to see who they have accepted, interviewed, rejected in the past and compare their stats to your own. Granted, it doesn't come close to representing the whole applicant pool, it gives you a good estimate of what you are up against. NOTE : most of the users here are the overachieving type, so the trend is to see higher scores than reality.
http://www.predents.com
3. Mike's Guide
A good story from a University of Pacific Dental grad. Lots of good information on admissions as well. Some older rankings are included.
http://softballteam.tripod.com/dental.html
4. Top Ten Nation
TONS of rankings and more great advice on DAT studying. Includes rankings of easy schools to get into, costs, best schools, etc. Inspired me to put together my own version, albeit a more personal one
http://toptennation.blogspot.com/2007/01/top10-ways-to-get-into-medical-or.html
July 30, 2009
The DAT : Taking the Test
Went into the test with a lot of confidence the day before but by the time I got to the testing center I was shaking. The science portion was calm, cool and collected for me, but the 2nd half was nasty. Here are my scores:
Bio - 23
GC - 22
OC - 21
TS - 22
RC - 21
QR - 16
AA - 21
PA - 19
vs. TopScore a few days before :
Bio - 19
GC - 18
OC - 19
TS - 19
RC - 22
PA - 23
~Breakdown~
Biology - Kaplan BB, CliffsNotes AP Bio, old bio notes from Freeman text - Wow. I was mentally not prepared to look at my report and see a 23 there. I was constantly getting 18s and 19s on both TopScore and Kaplan. The questions were so out there, too. It really covered a broad range of topics and was much harder than practice tests. Still, it had WAY less classification questions than in TopScore. It would give a specific feature that was pretty obscure and expect you to know the exact family of organisms it belonged to. This was not as prevalent as I thought it would be. Overall, I was pretty satisfied with how this section turned out.
General Chemistry - Overall, I was pretty happy with how this went for me. Believe it or not, this was my worst subject a week ago before I went on a study blitz with MCAT ExamKrackers, which is an AMAZING study tool as previously mentioned.
Organic Chemistry - Thought I might even do better than this in orgo, since I felt most confident with this subject. I read through my old Carey textbook, MCAT ExamKrackers section and flashcards of all the reactions I made a year ago. The questions were very straightforward.
Reading Comprehension - one really tough passage and two easy ones that were near and dear to my heart. LOTS of search and destroy. Thankfully not too many tone problems IMO. By this point in the exam I was starting to feel nausious from all the tension and sweating. Weird I know, but I've never been this nervous about a test in my life.
Quantitative Reasoning - Not very proud about this one. By this point in the exam, I felt terrible and I couldn't think straight. Not to say that I was going to get any higher than an 18 here anyways. Besides, it didnt bring my AA down too much. All I can say is be ready for word problems and to work at breakneck speed. Practice lots!
PAT - So I was cruising along and I got to cube counting. BOTH my dry erase pens decide to stop working, so I spend 17 minutes on cubes crying as I had to scratch in tally marks for cubes, lol. Other than that, it was pretty fair overall. Angle ranking on the real thing is SO much harded than Kaplan and TopScore led me to believe. Seriously, these things were like a 1 degree difference in all of them. Beware, Crack the DAT PAT is almost required to get that 20+ score here and I really wish I went out an bought it.
Study materials used :
- old textbooks
- Cliffsnotes AP Biology
- Kaplan DAT Blue Book
- TopScore Pro
- Endless flashcards
- MCAT ExamKrackers audio osmosis tapes
- MCAT ExamKrackers books
Bio - 23
GC - 22
OC - 21
TS - 22
RC - 21
QR - 16
AA - 21
PA - 19
vs. TopScore a few days before :
Bio - 19
GC - 18
OC - 19
TS - 19
RC - 22
PA - 23
~Breakdown~
Biology - Kaplan BB, CliffsNotes AP Bio, old bio notes from Freeman text - Wow. I was mentally not prepared to look at my report and see a 23 there. I was constantly getting 18s and 19s on both TopScore and Kaplan. The questions were so out there, too. It really covered a broad range of topics and was much harder than practice tests. Still, it had WAY less classification questions than in TopScore. It would give a specific feature that was pretty obscure and expect you to know the exact family of organisms it belonged to. This was not as prevalent as I thought it would be. Overall, I was pretty satisfied with how this section turned out.
General Chemistry - Overall, I was pretty happy with how this went for me. Believe it or not, this was my worst subject a week ago before I went on a study blitz with MCAT ExamKrackers, which is an AMAZING study tool as previously mentioned.
Organic Chemistry - Thought I might even do better than this in orgo, since I felt most confident with this subject. I read through my old Carey textbook, MCAT ExamKrackers section and flashcards of all the reactions I made a year ago. The questions were very straightforward.
Reading Comprehension - one really tough passage and two easy ones that were near and dear to my heart. LOTS of search and destroy. Thankfully not too many tone problems IMO. By this point in the exam I was starting to feel nausious from all the tension and sweating. Weird I know, but I've never been this nervous about a test in my life.
Quantitative Reasoning - Not very proud about this one. By this point in the exam, I felt terrible and I couldn't think straight. Not to say that I was going to get any higher than an 18 here anyways. Besides, it didnt bring my AA down too much. All I can say is be ready for word problems and to work at breakneck speed. Practice lots!
PAT - So I was cruising along and I got to cube counting. BOTH my dry erase pens decide to stop working, so I spend 17 minutes on cubes crying as I had to scratch in tally marks for cubes, lol. Other than that, it was pretty fair overall. Angle ranking on the real thing is SO much harded than Kaplan and TopScore led me to believe. Seriously, these things were like a 1 degree difference in all of them. Beware, Crack the DAT PAT is almost required to get that 20+ score here and I really wish I went out an bought it.
Study materials used :
- old textbooks
- Cliffsnotes AP Biology
- Kaplan DAT Blue Book
- TopScore Pro
- Endless flashcards
- MCAT ExamKrackers audio osmosis tapes
- MCAT ExamKrackers books
July 29, 2009
The DAT : Preparation
First off, plan to spend at least a month studying for this bad boy. There is a daunting amount of material that is covered. Its tough for a reason. You are expected to remember around 2 years of material from several classes, as well as learn several new skills like the PAT and navigating Reading Comprehension. Personally, I spent exactly one month, studying an average of 6 hours a day every day.
Biology :
It seems like these days the ADEA has really stepped up their game on this section. The consensus on Student Doctor Network is that is quite random. Although it sticks to the main subjects, it tends to ask (from my experience) off-kilter questions that were never really asked during my time in intro bio. There is even a picture problem for crying out loud. Anyway I'm getting ahead of myself. The first thing I did before even launching into this subject was buy the Kaplan Blue Book. This is a pretty good piece of study material, albeit not the best for some sections, it does decent overall. Go buy it. I highlighted any passage or fact that I was not completely certain of before, such as the Krebs Cycle, etc. Going through this section in the blue book takes about 2 days. I read through my highlights and gave it a chance to soak in. Its a lot of material, so it may be a wise idea to just let it marinate in your melon for a little while. It helps you remember it better and keeps you from going insane. Later, I purchased the CliffsNotes AP Biology (yellow) book off of amazon and all I can say is WOW. That thing was so random and difficult. I thought I knew all about bio until I read that. The readings are not that tough, but the sample questions at the end of each section are a godsend. They have the most random questions, but man did they help prepare me for the real DAT. Buy this book. Embrace it. Highlight the heck out of it.
Inorganic Chemistry
I was never all that good an general chemistry first year of college. It was, of course, boring and a terrible weed-out class. First thing I did was read through the Kaplan BB. It dusted off some of the old stuff from 2 years ago, but I really didn't gain a lot from it. By the time I was done with this, I had purchased TopScore Pro, a software program that mimics DAT testing conditions and gives you pretty good practice tests. More on that later. TopScore informed me that I in fact, sucked at Gen Chem haha. So, I decided enough was enough and procured a copy of MCAT ExamKrackers Complete Study Guide. I was able to use this for bio, GC and OC. It was most helpful in the GC section. Not only is it short and to the point, it gives you very clear and precise instructions on calculations. Note that on the DAT, you will not have a calculator, so you need to be good at estimating values. There are a number of tricks those pre-med kids have for blasting through their stuff that works just as well for the DAT.
Organic Chemistry
First off, you better hope you had excellent orgo professors. There is not a lot of time in the Science section to think deeply about most of these problems. Either you know your structure, nomenclature, rules etc or you don't. The better you know them, the faster you can get out of the Orgo section and reread over your previous answers for Bio and GC. Fortunately for me, I had great teachers and some pretty competitive pre-meds in my class to keep me motivated so this was a bit of a breeze for me. I looked over my old orgo book at all my highlights (thank you younger Bjorn!). I read the whole thing from cover to cover. I also dusted off the handy dandy flashcards I made for each important reaction. There were about 100 total. These were a great study tool and I can't reccommend making them enough. Don't know what else to say here because I didn't go out and buy a lot of study materials for this anyway.
PAT
Whew this is it. This is the section that gets its very own score. Its just you, 90 questions, a computer and a whiteboard. Just to learn the basics, I looked through the Kaplan BB. It gives some pretty good advice as to how you should spend your time. It DOES depend on how good you get at each section. For example, Kaplan says to spend 5 minutes on the angle ranking section. This is what I tried to on the real DAT, whose angles were much tougher than any practice problems Kaplan gave me. More on this later. The sections are : appeture-passing, top-front-end, angle ranking, hole punching, cube counting and pattern folding. A couple of tricks : on angle ranking, find out from the test proctor if you can touch the computer screen. If you can, use your fingers to cover extra length on sides of angles when comparing two very similar ones. This sounds a bit weird, but the ADEA wants to confuse you into picking the wrong answer. For example, two angles can be very similar, but a tester can think the one with longer sides is a smaller angle. Just trust me on this one. Also with hole punching, take a look at the four possible answer choices and make sure they have symmetry about the first fold. If the first fold is vertical down the middle, then all holes on the left side of each answer must be mirrored on the right with corresponding holes. This helps by eliminating 2-3 of the answers 80% of the time. Also, on cube counting, you HAVE to do a table on your whiteboard, putting the number of sides on the left and a blank spot for tally marks on the right as you go. What I have found is helpful to keep track of which cubes you count is to work from the left front of a diagram back, making sure to get every cube in a stack before moving back. Finally as a side note, I would like to take this opportunity to suggest buying Crack the DAT PAT. I did not purchase it and I feel it may have helped me a bunch. I’ve heard nothing but good reviews of it on Student Doctor Network. This thing works apparently. I’ve seen the demos and they certainly have better explainations than Kaplan or TopScore.
Reading Comprehension
Oh so much fun on this. People always ask how to prepare for this. Really, there is no real sure-fire method for acing this. It really does test your ability to remember the basic structure of a passage. My strategy for this was to just do practice tests for this. You can go ahead and read in-depth scientific articles, but you may just be wasting your time. A lot of this depends on the luck of the draw of which passage you get on the DAT. I think TopScore’s practice tests are a good indicator of the level of difficulty in the real thing. However, be ready to answer a few tone questions too.
Quantitative Reasoning
Oh boy, its your old friend, math. This section is so tough. I’ve rarely seen somebody score over a 20 on this section. Why is it so hard, you ask? Time is not on your side here. Sure all the problems are high school math caliber and everyone could do them if they had the time. However, you have 45 minutes to answer 40 questions. Some of them are word problems too. There is a lot of tedious calculations, long division, fractions, you name it. Anything you think would be annoying without a calculator is included here. I made the mistake of thinking I knew all my high school math and that would be enough to ace this baby. Truth is I did remember it, I was just not used to the time stress you’re put under when you do this section. Not only do you have to make many precise calculations, but you have to stay cool under pressure when it’s the last section of the test. Trust me, your brain will be fried by then, having logged 3.5 hours of testing. I’m not the best source of study knowledge here, so I will defer to the SDN boards for advice.
Note : there are a lot of very useful materials out there that I didn’t mention. You have to decide for yourself what kind of money you want to spend. For example, I would not recommend taking the Kaplan course, because if you have the motivation to get into dental school, you don’t need someone telling you the DAT is important, pushing you through the study exercises. Plus, you will definitely need that money when applying to dental schools. So far, I’ve racked up over $1100 in fees for applying to just 9 schools! Check out this link and research if you like anything. Some very popular materials are DAT achiever and DAT destroyer as well. http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=241835
As a final note, in the 3-4 days prior to your exam, I would recommend easing your foot off the gas. By then, if you haven’t learned it, its best to just let it go. There are very few things that will stick in your head in these last few days, such as random bio facts. Seriously, just cut back the study hours a bit, maybe watch a movie, get some extra sleep. On the day of the test, make SURE to eat a really hearty breakfast. Carbs, milk, orange juice, cereal, etc. You will definitely need it. If you know how the software works like using the “back” and “mark” buttons, you can use the tutorial time to calm your nerves and write important equations on your whiteboard and make cube-counting grids. After you are all done, its time to party (hopefully)!
Biology :
It seems like these days the ADEA has really stepped up their game on this section. The consensus on Student Doctor Network is that is quite random. Although it sticks to the main subjects, it tends to ask (from my experience) off-kilter questions that were never really asked during my time in intro bio. There is even a picture problem for crying out loud. Anyway I'm getting ahead of myself. The first thing I did before even launching into this subject was buy the Kaplan Blue Book. This is a pretty good piece of study material, albeit not the best for some sections, it does decent overall. Go buy it. I highlighted any passage or fact that I was not completely certain of before, such as the Krebs Cycle, etc. Going through this section in the blue book takes about 2 days. I read through my highlights and gave it a chance to soak in. Its a lot of material, so it may be a wise idea to just let it marinate in your melon for a little while. It helps you remember it better and keeps you from going insane. Later, I purchased the CliffsNotes AP Biology (yellow) book off of amazon and all I can say is WOW. That thing was so random and difficult. I thought I knew all about bio until I read that. The readings are not that tough, but the sample questions at the end of each section are a godsend. They have the most random questions, but man did they help prepare me for the real DAT. Buy this book. Embrace it. Highlight the heck out of it.
Inorganic Chemistry
I was never all that good an general chemistry first year of college. It was, of course, boring and a terrible weed-out class. First thing I did was read through the Kaplan BB. It dusted off some of the old stuff from 2 years ago, but I really didn't gain a lot from it. By the time I was done with this, I had purchased TopScore Pro, a software program that mimics DAT testing conditions and gives you pretty good practice tests. More on that later. TopScore informed me that I in fact, sucked at Gen Chem haha. So, I decided enough was enough and procured a copy of MCAT ExamKrackers Complete Study Guide. I was able to use this for bio, GC and OC. It was most helpful in the GC section. Not only is it short and to the point, it gives you very clear and precise instructions on calculations. Note that on the DAT, you will not have a calculator, so you need to be good at estimating values. There are a number of tricks those pre-med kids have for blasting through their stuff that works just as well for the DAT.
Organic Chemistry
First off, you better hope you had excellent orgo professors. There is not a lot of time in the Science section to think deeply about most of these problems. Either you know your structure, nomenclature, rules etc or you don't. The better you know them, the faster you can get out of the Orgo section and reread over your previous answers for Bio and GC. Fortunately for me, I had great teachers and some pretty competitive pre-meds in my class to keep me motivated so this was a bit of a breeze for me. I looked over my old orgo book at all my highlights (thank you younger Bjorn!). I read the whole thing from cover to cover. I also dusted off the handy dandy flashcards I made for each important reaction. There were about 100 total. These were a great study tool and I can't reccommend making them enough. Don't know what else to say here because I didn't go out and buy a lot of study materials for this anyway.
PAT
Whew this is it. This is the section that gets its very own score. Its just you, 90 questions, a computer and a whiteboard. Just to learn the basics, I looked through the Kaplan BB. It gives some pretty good advice as to how you should spend your time. It DOES depend on how good you get at each section. For example, Kaplan says to spend 5 minutes on the angle ranking section. This is what I tried to on the real DAT, whose angles were much tougher than any practice problems Kaplan gave me. More on this later. The sections are : appeture-passing, top-front-end, angle ranking, hole punching, cube counting and pattern folding. A couple of tricks : on angle ranking, find out from the test proctor if you can touch the computer screen. If you can, use your fingers to cover extra length on sides of angles when comparing two very similar ones. This sounds a bit weird, but the ADEA wants to confuse you into picking the wrong answer. For example, two angles can be very similar, but a tester can think the one with longer sides is a smaller angle. Just trust me on this one. Also with hole punching, take a look at the four possible answer choices and make sure they have symmetry about the first fold. If the first fold is vertical down the middle, then all holes on the left side of each answer must be mirrored on the right with corresponding holes. This helps by eliminating 2-3 of the answers 80% of the time. Also, on cube counting, you HAVE to do a table on your whiteboard, putting the number of sides on the left and a blank spot for tally marks on the right as you go. What I have found is helpful to keep track of which cubes you count is to work from the left front of a diagram back, making sure to get every cube in a stack before moving back. Finally as a side note, I would like to take this opportunity to suggest buying Crack the DAT PAT. I did not purchase it and I feel it may have helped me a bunch. I’ve heard nothing but good reviews of it on Student Doctor Network. This thing works apparently. I’ve seen the demos and they certainly have better explainations than Kaplan or TopScore.
Reading Comprehension
Oh so much fun on this. People always ask how to prepare for this. Really, there is no real sure-fire method for acing this. It really does test your ability to remember the basic structure of a passage. My strategy for this was to just do practice tests for this. You can go ahead and read in-depth scientific articles, but you may just be wasting your time. A lot of this depends on the luck of the draw of which passage you get on the DAT. I think TopScore’s practice tests are a good indicator of the level of difficulty in the real thing. However, be ready to answer a few tone questions too.
Quantitative Reasoning
Oh boy, its your old friend, math. This section is so tough. I’ve rarely seen somebody score over a 20 on this section. Why is it so hard, you ask? Time is not on your side here. Sure all the problems are high school math caliber and everyone could do them if they had the time. However, you have 45 minutes to answer 40 questions. Some of them are word problems too. There is a lot of tedious calculations, long division, fractions, you name it. Anything you think would be annoying without a calculator is included here. I made the mistake of thinking I knew all my high school math and that would be enough to ace this baby. Truth is I did remember it, I was just not used to the time stress you’re put under when you do this section. Not only do you have to make many precise calculations, but you have to stay cool under pressure when it’s the last section of the test. Trust me, your brain will be fried by then, having logged 3.5 hours of testing. I’m not the best source of study knowledge here, so I will defer to the SDN boards for advice.
Note : there are a lot of very useful materials out there that I didn’t mention. You have to decide for yourself what kind of money you want to spend. For example, I would not recommend taking the Kaplan course, because if you have the motivation to get into dental school, you don’t need someone telling you the DAT is important, pushing you through the study exercises. Plus, you will definitely need that money when applying to dental schools. So far, I’ve racked up over $1100 in fees for applying to just 9 schools! Check out this link and research if you like anything. Some very popular materials are DAT achiever and DAT destroyer as well. http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=241835
As a final note, in the 3-4 days prior to your exam, I would recommend easing your foot off the gas. By then, if you haven’t learned it, its best to just let it go. There are very few things that will stick in your head in these last few days, such as random bio facts. Seriously, just cut back the study hours a bit, maybe watch a movie, get some extra sleep. On the day of the test, make SURE to eat a really hearty breakfast. Carbs, milk, orange juice, cereal, etc. You will definitely need it. If you know how the software works like using the “back” and “mark” buttons, you can use the tutorial time to calm your nerves and write important equations on your whiteboard and make cube-counting grids. After you are all done, its time to party (hopefully)!
July 27, 2009
Prerequisites
Okay everybody here we go. I started off at UVA knowing exactly what career I wanted and have been lucky enough not to have a major change like most people do in college. There is alot of advice going around on what major a predent should choose. The majority (just over 51%) of accepted students are Biology majors, like myself. Of course, this isn't the only way to get into dental school. In reality, as long as you have the required prerequisites and a few upper-level sciences peppered into your schedule (more on this later) you will be fine. I shadowed a dentist who was a Psychology major at UVA and matriculated to VCU School of Dentistry.
From my point of view, I am very happy to have chosen biology. Not only was I well on my way to completing a major after finishing my prerequisites, but I also had a number of rewarding upper-level classes that helped me on my DAT. To be perfectly honest, I may have had a higher GPA in another major, but gaining that extra knowledge from tough upper-level science courses was well worth it.
General Prerequisites:
2 semesters of Intro Biology w/ lab
2 semesters of Inorganic Chem w/ lab
2 semesters of Organic Chem w/ lab
2 semesters of Physics w/ lab
These care of and still leave time to finish a completely unrelated major. However, if you have extra time, these courses are reccommended and sometimes required at certain dental schools. Biochemistry, Microbiology, Anatomy and/or Phisiology, Infectious Diseases, Cell Biology, Genetics, Histology and Statistics are a few.
Of these, I think my infectious disease class was the most interresting and helpful with preparing for the DAT. If you are at UVA, I highly reccommend it. Overall, these tough science classes will test you to your limits and are a great indicator for how you do in dental school. Adcomms love to see good grades in these courses.
During your first couple of years, you really need to start working on those extracurriculars early. Join the Pre-Dental club, volunteer in the community, try going out for intramural sports, find a passion and probably most importantly, shadow a dentist. Generally, there is no set number of hours that you need to spend. However, it is my experience that some schools like Tufts require documentation of 30 hours. This is a very small number though. I would say anything between 80-200 hours of shadowing a general dentist is pretty much standard. Anything after 200 is gravy. This should be the meat of your shadowing experience. Get to know a couple of dentists and really spend some long hours at their practice. You want to be absolutely sure that this is what you want to do. In that time there, ask the dentist tons of questions about the job, the work and the environment, etc. This is a learning experience for you. In addition to a general dentist, it is also a good idea to shadow a specialist from one of the major fields such as orthodontics, prosthodontics, oral surgery, etc. I shadowed a local dentist for over 100 hours and it was a great experience. I am also going to be an intern at the hospital dental dept for the academic year starting this August. More to come...
From my point of view, I am very happy to have chosen biology. Not only was I well on my way to completing a major after finishing my prerequisites, but I also had a number of rewarding upper-level classes that helped me on my DAT. To be perfectly honest, I may have had a higher GPA in another major, but gaining that extra knowledge from tough upper-level science courses was well worth it.
General Prerequisites:
2 semesters of Intro Biology w/ lab
2 semesters of Inorganic Chem w/ lab
2 semesters of Organic Chem w/ lab
2 semesters of Physics w/ lab
These care of and still leave time to finish a completely unrelated major. However, if you have extra time, these courses are reccommended and sometimes required at certain dental schools. Biochemistry, Microbiology, Anatomy and/or Phisiology, Infectious Diseases, Cell Biology, Genetics, Histology and Statistics are a few.
Of these, I think my infectious disease class was the most interresting and helpful with preparing for the DAT. If you are at UVA, I highly reccommend it. Overall, these tough science classes will test you to your limits and are a great indicator for how you do in dental school. Adcomms love to see good grades in these courses.
During your first couple of years, you really need to start working on those extracurriculars early. Join the Pre-Dental club, volunteer in the community, try going out for intramural sports, find a passion and probably most importantly, shadow a dentist. Generally, there is no set number of hours that you need to spend. However, it is my experience that some schools like Tufts require documentation of 30 hours. This is a very small number though. I would say anything between 80-200 hours of shadowing a general dentist is pretty much standard. Anything after 200 is gravy. This should be the meat of your shadowing experience. Get to know a couple of dentists and really spend some long hours at their practice. You want to be absolutely sure that this is what you want to do. In that time there, ask the dentist tons of questions about the job, the work and the environment, etc. This is a learning experience for you. In addition to a general dentist, it is also a good idea to shadow a specialist from one of the major fields such as orthodontics, prosthodontics, oral surgery, etc. I shadowed a local dentist for over 100 hours and it was a great experience. I am also going to be an intern at the hospital dental dept for the academic year starting this August. More to come...
Intro
Hey everybody. I'm a pre-dental student from UVA out in Charlottesville, VA. I've been interested in dentistry since I was in high school and I'm on the verge of finally becoming a dental student and eventually a dentist. It's been my dream to work in this field. Getting to where I have hasn't been easy, given a number of family circumstances and difficult academics at the University of Virginia. However, I am blessed to have the knoledge I have today. Part of the reason why I am starting this blog is to share my story and give advice to all the predents out there that are searching for answers. This summer, I've had very little to do but work, study for the DAT and research dental schools. In that time, I have gained alot of knowledge about the difficulty of getting into dental school and a few tips and tricks for going about it. It is an honor for me to help out the members of our Pre-Dental Society as their VP and I'm proud to present whatever help I can to the people out there reading my blog. Over the coming weeks I will tell my story, shortcomings and triumphs. All the while, I will keep you posted on my application process this fall. Stay tuned.
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