All it takes is one! - breakdown and advice
stats: 3.78 cgpa, 3.9 sgpa, 20 AA/TS, 23 in PAT and RC, 500 general dentistry hours, about 3000 hours in oral surgery (summer job over 5-6 years), decent lor.
weakness within application: although i have a 20AA/TS, ochem was 16 and brought up by my higher biology/gchem scores. i would also say my lor's from my professors are rather weak. starting college during covid, it was incredibly hard to make relationships with professors for core science classes over zoom with 100 kids in office hours. all my core science classes were this way until senior year. i explained this problem to my in-person physics 1 and 2 professors senior year and they wrote me letters more because they felt bad for me rather than how well they knew me.
i struggle with standarized tests and this was my second dat attempt. i decided to apply with a low ochem score vs taking the DAT again. i am on my second gap year as life/family stuff came up after undergrad which delayed my application process but it happens.
it was pretty demoralizing to get 10 straight rejections over the next 6 months. my understanding is that a good number of schools screen you out if you fail to meet at least 17 in all your DAT sections, i was just hoping for a school to take a chance on me and give me the opportunity to win them over in the interview.
i heard nothing until i was chosen for, kid you not, the very last interview date at said school, i was invited in late january for an end of february interview. after my interview, i was put on a waitlist, and after two months, i was finally admitted.
everyone is going to have a different path to dental school but i thought i'd share mine. i believe that this is where i'm meant to be and it worked out like this for a reason. i would love to answer any pm's from any predents looking for advice and i wish you all the best in the upcoming cycles