As May approaches, pre-dental hopefuls everywhere are getting ready to create a stellar application to send off to their dream schools. But which schools should you apply to? To avoid paying unnecessary application fees or keep yourself to turning to strangers on the internet, here are some tips on how to choose a dental school for you.
The first thing is, don't be intimated by students sharing their impressive stats on the internet. Stop yourself from going down the rabbit hole of Facebook Group posts and discussion forums. The average dental student has a pretty good chance of getting an interview. The reality is, many students end up picking a school based on location or tuition.
When looking at potential schools and locations, it's important that you could see yourself living in that city for the next four years. Once you have a general idea of where you'd like to go, start a spreadsheet with information and statistics like science GPA, acceptance rate, and average DAT score. The ADEA Guide to schools has a very condensed version of this that can save you a lot of time and research. Start early and update often.
See if you can get in contact with current students and alumni to ask them questions. Some good ones would be:
- Could you start a practice in this area?
- Do the faculty readily offer help?
- Are you able to hang out with your classmates outside of school?
- What are your clinical requirements for graduation? And do students have trouble meeting the requirements? (Higher requirements can tell you how busy the students are in clinic.)
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