Accelerated Dental Program Chances?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I’m a high school junior, I still have a half a year to build up what I need, but I really need an opinion (or two, or five) as to what my chances are for these accelerated dental programs.

UPenn Dental School:
Muhlenberg College
Lehigh Uni
Villanova Uni
College of Arts and Sciences (Upenn undergrad) <— prob not going to get in.

Boston Uni (Their own dental school)

Temple Dental School (Kornberg):
USciences (goal)

Rutgers Dental School:
NJIT (dad went there, does that give me an edge?)

Here’s my schedule (I’m only counting classes that they’d be interested in, so my arts and histories are excluded. Senior year classes are included):
Honors Lab Bio I
Hrs. Lab Bio II
Hrs. Lab Chem
Hrs. Earth Science (Environmental)
Hrs. Lab Physics
AP Chem
AP Bio
Hrs. Algebra II (Alg I was taken in 8th grade)
Hrs. Geometry
Hrs. PreCalc
AP Calc AB
AP Stat
Thinking about taking Calc BC next year…
Hrs. Humanities I (English + History course)
Hrs. Humanities II
Hrs. English III
Hrs. English IV
Bio Tech and Forensics
Entrepreneurship
Economics
Lab Technician for my Anatomy and Physiology Teacher, and hopefully my Bio II teacher next year

Outside of school, I have done science fair projects every year and plan to do one next year as well. I have won 1st place twice, 3rd once, and moved on to the regional level, but not winning anything there.
I have shadowed my dentist for about 15 hours, and will do a lot more shadowing over the summer. Minimum of 30 hours.
Lockheed Martin Minorities in Engineering - basically built a Lego Mindstorm robot and programmed it to traverse an obstacle course. I was the software engineer.

Women in Politics Event - basically, learned how to organise a campaign, run for offices, etc.
Piano lessons, 3 recitals. Have been playing for 2 years, will continue next year.

School Clubs/Activities:
Science League (3 year member as of today) - no offices offered
Literary Club (2 year member as of today) - Co-Editor for 2 years (basically president)
Key Club (2 year member as of today) - no offices held
Anime Club (3 year member as of today) - Founder, President for 3 years as of today
Robotics Team (1 year member as of today, just started in our school) - Safety Captain (made sure everyone was wearing goggles, handled paperwork for robot inspections, etc)
Marching Band (3 year member as of today) - Color Guard, hopeful captain/drum major next year
Prism Club (LGBQT) (2 year member as of today) - no offices offered
NHS (1 year member as of today, only offered to juniors and seniors) - hopeful officer next year
Spirit Night Crew (2 year member as of today) - Definite Crew Captain next year

Volunteer:
I have clocked a total of about 120 hrs from the following places:
Senior Nursing Home
Library
Hospital
Helping at School Events (gave me some hours)

Exams:
Haven’t taken AP Bio or AP Stat yet, but most people say it’s the easier tests, or we just have good teachers.
AP Chem I’m anticipating a 2 or 3 b/c our teacher taught us nothing.
AP Calc, probably a 4. That’s what I’ve been getting on practice exams.
SAT: 1260 for Math and Crit Read. with no classes. I’m taking a class this month and retaking it, definitely improving my score.

Class rank - 10/400

2

Take some SAT subject tests in biology and chemistry. Focus on improving your SAT score if possible. Make sure that with all of the AP classes that you are taking, your GPA won’t significantly drop. For your AP chem exam, see if you can find something online to help you study for your exam. College admission official won’t like to hear that you failed that exam because your “teacher taught us nothing”. In fact, one of your college essays could be about how you overcame an insufficient AP chem teacher and scored a 5 on your exam. That shows that you took initiative outside of class to improve your studies. That’s just my suggestion. Good luck!

3

Hello, I am currently in the Lehigh/Penn Bio-Dental Consortial Program. Looking over your stats, it seems that you are a decent candidate. I definitely agree with gertrude2017, improve that SAT score. You want to get above 2250 to be a competitive applicant for these programs. Of course, some programs would be better matches for your stats–you probably have a better shot at Temple/Penn State or NJIT. If you’re shooting for the Penn dental programs, try to bring your SAT up to around 2300, and/or score 750+ on some subject tests. The GPA isn’t thaaaat important if your SAT score is high. Also, one of the main things these programs look for is commitment to dentistry. Try to do more shadowing/dental-related activities. You could volunteer in a dental clinic or do dental-related research. Especially now that you have the summer, make use of it and add to your resume. If you want more advice or have any specific questions, PM me! :slight_smile: