What it takes to get into Dental School

My only qualification for this posting is that I am in Dental School, not that I figured out the secret of getting into Dental School.  My first year applying, 2008, I applied for 8 dental schools, got 2 interview invites and no acceptances.  The second year I applied for 8 schools, got 3 interview invites and 2 acceptances.  I did absolutely nothing different between the 1st and second years of applying.  I've talked to other students about the process and here are my takeaways.

It's a numbers game.  ASDOH, one of the larger private dental schools, receives over 5000 applications for their 100 spots.  They interview approximately 400.  There is less than a 10% chance if you apply, you'll get interviewed, and after that, there is only a 30% chance you'll be accepted.  There are 12,000 applicants/year for 4,000 dental school spots throughout the country.  Every single fellow applicant I met at interviews was a very personable, friendly, probably intellectually gifted person with a unique story.  All of this boils down to numbers, there is no way admissions committees pick the best 100 students out of an application pool of 5000 for their school.  Your DAT, GPA, extracurricular, and interview score will get you an acceptance into a school if they are high enough.

Here is what I currently think the minimum for getting into Dental School.

In state residents:
3.3 GPA Science
3.3 GPA Total
19 DAT
Extracurricular activities and dental shadowing

Out of state residents:
3.5 GPA Science
3.5 GPA Total
20 DAT
Extracurricular activities and dental shadowing and a compelling story

A person with these stats should be able to get into a dental school if they apply to 8 schools or more.

1st year 2nd Semester

Another full work load.  Here are the classes we'll be taking

Physiology
Oral Radiology
Neuroanatomy
Community Dentistry
Case Studies
Oral Histology
Fixed Restorations
Occlusion
Integrated Dental Practice

All of the 2nd year students say this semester is easier, but it's looking to be more of the same or maybe even a little harder.  The entire week is filled with classes, except for a half a day off, which seems like more than last semester.  We'll be in class 30.5 hours the first block then 33.5 hours the second block.  I do get the feeling that we're transitioning more to actual dentistry instead of the core sciences.

Typical 1st Semester 1st year day

There are actually 2 types of days during the 1st semester, a test week day, and a non test week day. Since there is a test once every other week, there are about as many of each type of day. 

Non test week day:
Wake up at 6:45 to get ready to go to school and be there by 8 am class.  4 out of 5 days I'd be wearing scrubs because I'd either be in the Gross Lab or the Pre Clinic lab doing wax ups.  Usually there's classes in the morning, Gross, Gross Lab, Histo, Histo Lab, Dental Anatomy, or Dental Anatomy Lab.  The afternoons would be filled up with Gross Lab, Dental Lab, or some type of smaller class like Biochem, Bio Materials or Case Studies.  Each class was mostly a powerpoint presentation with a ton of information read to you that was also found in the packet given at the beginning of the semester.  Each day was 6 hours of class or lab and I'd usually study about 3 hours in addition to that.  1/2 day a week was time off, so I'd use that to study. I would usually put in 40-50 hours on this type of week.  Usually to school by 8 am or 9 am and home by 5 pm or 6 pm.

Test week day:
Our schedule was pretty well coordinated between classes, so we rarely had multiple tests on any single week or day.  When we did have tests, I would usually do the absolute minimum in the other classes and shift all of my studying to the class with the test.  I usually studied maybe an hour more per day than on a non test week.  I would usually put in 50-65 hours on this type of week.  Usually to school by 8 am and home by 6 pm or 7 pm.  I've been to so much school in my life, that I really wasn't stressed out about any test or class during the semester.  I would say  my stress level was quite a bit less than what it was during undergrad, because in undergrad you needed to get the top scores in order to be competitive to get into dental school.  Dental School affords you the real opportunity to really learn what you'll use the rest of your life, so it's more of wanting to learn the material for life, rather than for the upcoming test.  This I felt was the reason I felt less stress before tests than during undergrad.

1st Semester Finished

I finished my first semester. Here are my takeaways.
1. Gross Anatomy wasn't as bad as I had feared. By the end of the semester, I could easily eat food in the gross lab.
2. Dental school is probably 20% harder than an undergrad semester. There is just a lot of information to absorb. One nice thing is there is no homework or papers, just tests. I was pleasantly surprised that there was only one comprehensive final out of the 7 or so classes I took.
3. I had never skipped classes in undergrad, but had always wanted them to video record the classes. Dental school gave me that chance to skip school as all of the classes were video or audio recorded. This was invaluable as I was able to watch class during my most convenient time.
4. Rumor has it next semester is better than this one and that every year gets better. I'm still enjoying Dental School.

Starting 2nd block exams of 1st semester

I've started the 2nd block of exams for the first semester. I've mostly done individual studying this time instead of group study, just because I think at times it's faster. I also believe it's hard to find someone with your exact same style given the plethora of information you can absorb. For example, histology would give you a book full of information. Within that book, some of the people who are trying to get straight A's in school will try to memorize all the information. Others are just trying to get by with the time they are willing to commit to school. Other's don't care to get A's, and are just concentrated on learning what they feel is important. So within all of these types of people, it's hard even from class to class to find someone with your exact interests on what they want out of the class. My experience has been that the people who do really well in their area, aren't usually the highest grade people, they are mostly people that have an intense curiosity about a subject that drives them to continue on after others have lost interest. I'm mostly trying to study the most with what time I have and try to concentrate on what I feel is important to my career.

1st Rounds of test over

I completed my first round of tests which included Dental Anatomy, Biochem, Histo, and Gross Anatomy. I felt like I studied pretty hard, about the time you'd put in for a final at undergrad and received an 88 in Dental Anatomy, 88 in Biochem, 76 in Histo, and 75 in Gross Anatomy. I felt that was not too bad given my lack of knowledge in any of these courses coming into Dental School. Looking forward, our schedule gets a lot busier, so less time to study. I'm hoping this first round of tests will allow me to be able to breath a little easier on some of the finals. I would say I've been spending ~50-60 hours at school going to class/studying. I was somewhat bumbed at my Histo grade, but then I thought to myself, it's not the end of the world that I don't know the difference between a monocyte and a lymphocyte.

Gross Anatomy

1st day of the highly anticipated Gross Anatomy. More scare talk of how hard it's going to be. I was not as nervous as I thought I'd be after initially seeing the cadaver, although the face and hands are not exposed yet, and we only worked on the back. I would have to say it is quite weird, somewhat interesting, not too bad as far as smell. I think it's quite an opportunity to see something not many get to see. I'll probably be glad when it's over, but will be better for the experience of doing it.

In general the classes are fast paced, a little more high level than what I've done in the past. We'll see how detailed they expect us to be on the actual exams. Overall I think it'll be fast paced and overwhelming at times with quantity of work expected out of us.