how to make your dental school list

1. Decide what your budget is for applications

   1. For the primary application through AADSAS, the first school you apply to is $251 & each school after is $108.

   2. Don't forget secondaries (basically each school charges around $50-100) & cost to fly for interviews :/

2. Figure out how many schools you want to apply to

   1. Most people aim for around 10-20!

   2. If you have at least 100 shadowing hours, 2 science LORs, 1 dentist, and 1 other LOR, have taken anatomy at UCD, you don’t have to be as stressed when deciding on what schools to apply to.

3. A couple of things to look out for when choosing schools:

   1. Out of state friendly

      1. Some schools interview/accept in-state students. Make sure to check if schools are out of state friendly so that you don't waste money on schools that prefer in-state students

      2. I used this link on SDN & the ADEA Dental School Explorer to verify

   2. Pre-reqs (especially anatomy)

   3. Cost of attendance

   4. Location/surrounding area (safety)

      1. Is this a place you’d see yourself living in long term? Do you plan on practicing in this area?

   5. Average GPA/DAT

      1. Is it in your range?

4. Other things to look out for:

   1. Secondaries

      1. Some schools ask you to respond to secondary essay questions!

   2. Letters of recommendations

      1. Some schools want specific LORs! For example, Loma Linda asks for a LOR from a spiritual leader

   3. Shadowing hours requirements

   4. Casper

      1. Casper is an ethics/scenario test

      2. It's optional or required by certain schools

   5. Accredited?

   6. Good clinical or better for specializing?

      1. Some schools are P/NP, some are graded

      2. Some schools are great for preparing you with strong clinical skills, other schools have a didactic focus and more research opportunities

   7. How easy is it to fail out? Are there resources if you aren’t doing well in classes?