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