RDH: How much of an advantage will I have when applying to dental school?

[khRDH]

Hi everyone,

I am a registered dental hygienist currently working towards a bachelors in biomedical sciences. If I get almost straight A's for the rest of my curriculum, I can raise my oGPA to a 3.4-3.5, which I know is not the greatest. I am aiming high for the DAT and hoping to get a 25AA and 26-27TS. I have a lot of dental related community service hours from my hygiene program and, obviously, a lot of dental experience. My dream school is UF. How much of an advantage do you all think being an RDH gives me and what are my chances with those numbers for any dental school, but UF in particular?

Thanks everyone!

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[BluntForceTrauma]

Hi everyone,

I am a registered dental hygienist currently working towards a bachelors in biomedical sciences. If I get almost straight A's for the rest of my curriculum, I can raise my oGPA to a 3.4-3.5, which I know is not the greatest. I am aiming high for the DAT and hoping to get a 25AA and 26-27TS. I have a lot of dental related community service hours from my hygiene program and, obviously, a lot of dental experience. My dream school is UF. How much of an advantage do you all think being an RDH gives me and what are my chances with those numbers for any dental school, but UF in particular?

Thanks everyone!

Come back after actually having taken the DAT. Everyone shoots for crazy scores, only a small number achieve them.

 

[Cthuluhoop]

25 AA and a 26-27 TS are absolutely insane scores. It's great to aim for, but nearly unobtainable. You should be pretty competitive with a solid DAT score. UF is very difficult to get accepted to if you don't go to UF or have any affiliation with UF

 

[deleted678432]

You can’t really aim for a 26. There’s a point in studying where you’ve reached a threshold that you can’t retain any further information or score higher consistently. At that point, the difference between a 23 and a 26 is a couple easier questions/lucky guesses.

 

[PhansterZ]

You shouldn't have any trouble getting into a dental school with a 25 AA and a 26-27 TS. Good luck.

 

[956139]

??? What's going on in this thread? Don't listen to any of the people above me. If you want a 25 AA, go for it. Hell, shoot for a 30. It wouldn't be a possible score if no one has got it. I know someone who got a 29. Aim for a 30. Don't settle for mediocrity like the above posters suggest, you can do it.

 

[Cthuluhoop]

??? What's going on in this thread? Don't listen to any of the people above me. If you want a 25 AA, go for it. Hell, shoot for a 30. It wouldn't be a possible score if no one has got it. I know someone who got a 29. Aim for a 30. Don't settle for mediocrity like the above posters suggest, you can do it.

First person I've ever heard that said 95+ percentile is mediocrity. No-one above has said that you can't get that score, we just said that it's very hard to get, to the degree that a handful of people get that each year taking the DAT. We all know someone who did something greater than average, that's the beauty of bellcurves

 

[956139]

First person I've ever heard that said 95+ percentile is mediocrity. No-one above has said that you can't get that score, we just said that it's very hard to get, to the degree that a handful of people get that each year taking the DAT. We all now someone who did something greater than average, that's the beauty of bellcurves

No, you misunderstand me. "You can’t really aim for a 26. There’s a point in studying where you’ve reached a threshold that you can’t retain any further information or score higher consistently. At that point, the difference between a 23 and a 26 is a couple easier questions/lucky guesses." This is terrible advice and completely wrong. If you got a 23, you could have gotten a 26 if you studied harder. It's that simple. It seems like the above posters make it seem like the dat is a slot machine and you just roll the dice to see what you get. OP, study like you're getting a 30 and you won't be disappointed in your score. You'll get the score you shoot for.

 

[deleted678432]

No, you misunderstand me. "You can’t really aim for a 26. There’s a point in studying where you’ve reached a threshold that you can’t retain any further information or score higher consistently. At that point, the difference between a 23 and a 26 is a couple easier questions/lucky guesses." This is terrible advice and completely wrong. If you got a 23, you could have gotten a 26 if you studied harder. It's that simple. It seems like the above posters make it seem like the dat is a slot machine and you just roll the dice to see what you get. OP, study like you're getting a 30 and you won't be disappointed in your score. You'll get the score you shoot for.

You may have misconstrued my point a bit. I completely agree with you that hard work pays off in this test, and that if you study like you’re aiming for a 30, you will not be disappointed with your score. I did not mean at all to discourage shooting for a high score. What I meant was to bring up the fact that the DAT is so randomized and out of your hands that it makes it difficult mathematically to consistently score a 26 to the point where you’d be banking on it.

P.S., scoring a 23 is not mediocracy... it’s a near guaranteed admission.

 

[ysrebob]

Well we can all agree at least that to counter a lower GPA you want to make as high a score on the DAT as is personally possible, whatever that is. Unless you're a freshman, increasing your DAT score is much more practical than raising your GPA.

I don't think you can count on any admissions advantage from being an RDH. It's a strange old world... Hygiene and Dentistry are closely intertwined professions but there is some quiet, longstanding friction between them in some quarters; e.g. at schools offering both kinds of training the DDS/DMD program administration doesn't always see eye-to-eye with the Hygiene program admins. So coming from hygiene may not be the reliable inside track you might think. Your RDH background will if nothing else at least be a good, unique point of discussion in interviews. But I think you need to be able to depend on the numbers (GPA, DAT) to GET you to an interview.

If you can crush the DAT, your GPA will suffice - especially with a strong upward trend in Jr/Sr years. If not, you could consider doing a post bac program as a fallback plan -- these programs are very effective when an otherwise good-to-great application is undermined by GPA.

 

[956139]

You may have misconstrued my point a bit. I completely agree with you that hard work pays off in this test, and that if you study like you’re aiming for a 30, you will not be disappointed with your score. I did not mean at all to discourage shooting for a high score. What I meant was to bring up the fact that the DAT is so randomized and out of your hands that it makes it difficult mathematically to consistently score a 26 to the point where you’d be banking on it.

P.S., scoring a 23 is not mediocracy... it’s a near guaranteed admission.

Text messages are always misconstrued, my apologies. I agree. And yes, of course a 23 is, that wasn't my initial point, but that's what text messages do. GG.

 

[AppalachianDentalBoy]

First person I've ever heard that said 95+ percentile is mediocrity. No-one above has said that you can't get that score, we just said that it's very hard to get, to the degree that a handful of people get that each year taking the DAT. We all now someone who did something greater than average, that's the beauty of bellcurves

Getting a 25 is pretty easy nowadays, dare I say they have started handing out 24s? Its gotten to the point where my dental school, Yale College of Dental Medicine (DMD>>>DDS), doesn't even look at your application unless you got AT LEAST a 26. Even then good luck brother. My friend with a 28AA and 4.0 was told to consider nursing school in his rejection letter.

 

[Beckwith Wiedemann]

Never seen someone with 25 AA and 27 TS.

@impactedcanine has those stats.

 

[weaselodeath]

Getting a 25 is pretty easy nowadays, dare I say they have started handing out 24s? Its gotten to the point where my dental school, Yale College of Dental Medicine (DMD>>>DDS), doesn't even look at your application unless you got AT LEAST a 26. Even then good luck brother. My friend with a 28AA and 4.0 was told to consider nursing school in his rejection letter.

Well they can afford to be selective. After they struck the third largest worldwide natural gas deposit while building their new sim clinic things have been pretty good financially.

 

[956139]

That wasn't my point but okay guys