When do dental school applications open

We recommend that the DAT be taken no later than Sept. Applications without DAT scores received by the deadline will be regarded as incomplete and will not be reviewed.

Test scores are valid for only two years, scores accepted for the admission cycle must be dated no earlier than Jan. We require the following:.

You may have one composite letter sent from a pre-professional health advisory committee in lieu of the three required letters. Please visit our online payment system to submit it electronically. Fee waivers were awarded on a first come, first-serve basis. If you submitted a fee waiver application you will receive an e-mail in regards to the status. Aim to take the test in late spring or early summer. If the summer is needed for preparation, take the test by early August.

Complete secondary applications. Some schools begin inviting applicants for interviews in late July or August. October—December Continue to interview at dental schools.

Dental schools may begin offering admission to applicants on December 1. Consider how your student budget, spending habits and use of credit cards impact your student loan debt. You may also want to look into scholarship and fellowship options.

How can you balance a demanding academic schedule, work, and a comfortable, yet frugal, student lifestyle? This program is a free full tuition, housing and meals six-week summer medical and dental school preparatory program that offers eligible students intensive and personalized medical and dental school preparation. Work or volunteer in a health care environment.

Ideally, work in a dental office or clinic. Your goal is to gain exposure to the health care environment in general and to learn more about the work of dental professionals. Talk to practicing dentists, learn about the delivery of dental care, and find out about the issues impacting the profession. Remember, you do not have to be a science major to attend dental school, but you do need to complete specific science courses.

Work with your advisor to identify special opportunities for the upcoming summer. Many universities and dental schools offer summer workshops to enhance study skills, to expose undergraduates to the profession, prepare for the Dental Admission Test DAT , and expose students to various fields of dental research.

Check application deadlines. Become actively involved in your predental club. Sign up for committee work, help organize events and participate in activities. Get a job! Keep that student loan debt as low as possible during your undergraduate years.

Start putting together a financial plan for applying to dental school. Review the dental school application process and create a timeline for the submission of your application materials. Look over the application and begin formulating your application information. Note that the letter itself is usually authored by the pre-health advisor, but the committee letter or packet counts as 3 letters and so counts as 3 of your 4 total letters.

Again, this letter type requires the input of the pre-health advising committee. It differs, however, in that multiple people on the committee write letters, and your pre-health advisor then reviews these and writes a cover letter which is included in the submission.

And like a committee letter, a composite letter counts as 3 letters. For example, if your school only uses individual letters then you need to begin your relationship-building as soon as possible — especially with your professors.

You can start this process by being active and attentive in class, and visiting office hours to discuss course materials, ask questions, and get advice. For each entry, you will have to provide the name and address of the organization where the experience took place, name and contact information of your supervisor, the dates of the experience, the title you held, your average weekly hours, and key responsibilities during your time in that position. As such, it is important that you keep track of such information in a list or spreadsheet throughout your time in undergrad.

If you did not have a specific title in a given role, simply enter the type of activity you performed e. If you had an experience with no supervisor, you may list a member of the organization who can verify your participation. The categories in the application are standardized and rather general, so you should allow the nature of your experience to determine the category you choose for that experience. The categories are:.

Academic programs within, or sponsored by, universities, colleges, or non-profit organizations, intended to provide learning opportunities outside your standard coursework. This can also include paid work or volunteering in a dental field, or in the healthcare field, more broadly. Student research positions and research done above and beyond coursework are applicable here.

For each entry, you will need to fill out a description of your key responsibilities in this role. You will have characters including spaces to craft a concise sketch of your position so that the admissions committee has a fuller idea of your duties, as well as the ways in which this experience contributed to your growth and development as an aspiring healthcare provider. These should be experiences that were particularly formative in your development. Note that only completed, current, and in-progress experiences can be included.

You will not be able to edit or update experiences that have already been entered into the application form though. In this section, you will have the opportunity to categorize and list highlights from your academic and professional life, in the form of awards and achievements.

As well, if there are any special circumstances around the achievement, or if you received the same award multiple times, you can note this here. As with experiences, achievements cannot be edited or removed after your application has been submitted. However, new achievements that take place after application submission can be added, if applicable.

If you have completed any certification courses or gained any professional licensure, you can enter these here. Again, as with experiences and achievements, you cannot edit or remove licenses or certifications after submitting your application, but you can add new ones if necessary.

As with all professional applications that require one, the personal statement is the heart of your application. You will write one personal statement that will be sent to all schools to which you are applying, so this should be a general statement, not one tailored to specific schools as some schools may have secondary applications, and you will likely be able to do such tailoring there.

Your AADSAS dental school personal statement should be no more than 4, characters including spaces , so just over 1 single-spaced page of text. Shell has given me the opportunity to familiarize myself with the day-to-day duties of a dentist, learn how to enter important patient information into a database, and understand that doctor-patient interactions are the key to ensuring that the patient feels safe. Observing Dr. You should reflect on the core mission and values of the dental profession and highlight the ways in which you have lived this mission and embodied these values.

Through each difficult procedure which included numerous full-mouth extractions with complicating infections , I could better see how the work was its own meaning and reward, that I was becoming better able to treat each patient with dignity, respect, and compassion because my actions were never really about me or my developing skills, but about helping them live a better life in whatever way I could.

As a result of these difficulties in my environment at an early age, I learned that the most meaningful way for me to contribute something positive to the world was to use the pain I saw around me to keep me focused on becoming an antidote to the kind of suffering I witnessed. Who do you want to be as a dental professional? What are your priorities? Are you interested in research? What does it mean to you to be a practitioner and someone responsible for patient care? Reflecting on such questions in advance will help you craft a document that does much more than merely reiterating your CV or academic history, it will help the admissions committee see who you are at your core, what you value, and what kind of professional you hope to become.

You should type up your personal statement to ensure it is within the expected length prior to pasting it into the submission box.

If your statement is longer than 4, characters including spaces, returns, and punctuation , you will not be able to save it. You will also want to avoid any formatting like bold or italicized text, as this will not carry over into the text box.