Help a rising senior find reach schools? Chanceme for combined 7 year BS/DMD + reverse chance.

Chance Me / Match Me!
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What’s going on, good fellows of CC? I was referred here by my man DJCURRYBEATS, he said he’s gotten accurate chanceme’s here before. Upon lurking, it seems that you all do a tremendous good for the stressed kids and parents of the world. Can I get a chanceme for my safeties and matches, and a reverse chance for reaches?

I’m the typical Asian male, 200+k combined family income. 4.15 cumulative GPA (school doesn’t report UW or rank but I don’t imagine I’d be very high up there. 34 ACT (first try, didn’t study, but rather not retake if possible), no subject tests yet but expecting mid-low 700s in molecular bio and lit. 9 APs (5’s in lang, apush, 4 in bio) by senior year at nationally competitive HS, #1 in state.

I’m expecting a 9/10 letter of rec from my AP Lang teacher, she loves me and raves about my leadership in the classroom. One generic-ish one from my math 3 teacher, typical “hard worker”. Supplementals will come from employer (orthodontist), Penn dental professor, and Harvard conference leader (see below).

Essays will be 8.5-9/10, blogging/writing is one of my hobbies, or at least I do a lot of it (on a widely followed “finsta” account, not suitable for an EC I’d think- or is it? what do y’all think), I’d think I’m decent at writing, and I’ve been grinding them out at work all summer.

EC’s: I’ll represent these a whole lot better than I am right now, haha- I won’t downplay anything like I am here. I will also find concrete hour tallies in my log. Also looking for guidance on which to include in common app- I will definitely write an essay about lifting and I’m debating writing my personal statement about it (it’ll be good).

Amateur powerlifter, have spent 1300+ hours dedicated to lifting, reading sport science, treating my own shoulder, hip, knee injuries I’ve amassed- possibly writing personal statement on. Benched 255# @ 148 bodyweight.

91 hours shadowing dentists and related dental specialties- applying to combined bs/dmd programs, a few more days in medical specialties (will not report though as this would surely piss off dental schools’ AO’s)

600+ hours working in the back of an orthodontic office- I can take impressions, take x-rays, make retainers, sterilize instruments.

Catholic youth basketball coach, underprivileged kids

Camp counselor, teaching underprivileged elementary schools CAD- 250ish hours.

Volunteer at local Ronald McDonald house, working with pediatric patients- 180ish hours.

XC/Lacrosse, riding pine, getting water for the big dawgs

Play guitar, fingerstyle folksy type things, metal riffs, pop music. I’m very passionate about metal (the music). I don’t know if I can mention it anywhere but expect something in the order of 1000+ hours doing music-related things. Or it may not be a good idea to mention it.

Quiz Bowl team contributor, 3 years, coming up on 4th, minor stuff.

Math league freshman year lol

Cooking, for family/brother when parents work late

Healthcare-related conference @ Harvard- led group presentation with attendees across America- this is small but it’s better than nothing, I guess. Honorable mention presentation. Can obtain letter of rec from head of that.

NHS, honors too I think, key club as well. No real awards to my name, besides AP scholar and things like that.

On to my schools: relative safety judged via Naviance scattergrams for my school.

My passion is in dentistry, and my dream is to be an orthodontist after I get a dmd/dds. My top choice is a combined bs/dmd program at Villanova and my supplementary essay for that will probably be related to practicing dentistry to serve underprivileged populations, and I’ve done my best to do ec’s to support that; on top of that, I’ll have a letter of rec from a professor at the dental school of that combined program.

I’m looking for good pre-dental experience, in a college or university with Greek life. Within 500 miles of greater Philadelphia area- except for Emory, I was able to sway my dad to let me apply there because we loved it. Preferably not isolated rural, with the exception of Dartmouth. Any other schools I’ve overlooked, or might be worth persuading my dad to let me apply to? Please no west coast though, UC’s, USC, etc, can’t stand it there, or schools known for being un-fun.

I can’t ED, or REA, because I need to apply EA to the combined program at Villanova. I will have my things together to EA to schools, though.

Safe:
U. of Pittsburgh (also applying to DMD early assurance, although it’s very competitive). Applying right as rolling deadline opens. Fell in love w the school here when I visited, oddly enough.
U. of Delaware (in state safety, kids from my school straight up don’t get denied)

Match:
George Washington University
American University (I will choose one over the other upon visiting. I like the sound of GW better but we have a connection at American.)
Case Western Reserve University (applying to 6 year combined BS/DMD)
Villanova University (my top choice is their 7 year combined BS/DMD w Penn Dental. I believe undergrad apps are a match for me and the Penn dental LoR should help a bit with admission)

Reach:
Can I get a reverse chance me? I have no idea what’s feasible at all. My parents want me to apply to around 15 schools, to maximize their chances of me getting in somewhere with their much-vaunted prestige. Schools I’ve liked (researched all, visited all but UVA, Dartmouth, which’ll be detours on our upcoming vacations) include:

Duke Univ.
Harvard Univ.
Yale Univ.
U. of Pennsylvania
Dartmouth College
U. of North Carolina
U. of Virginia
Emory Univ.

I’m aware at the astronomically low chance I have at all of these, due to their acceptance rates and my noncompetitive profile (particularly in the RD pool), besides maybe, and I mean maybe, Emory. My parents have been informed and don’t care; they’re fine with dropping the $$$ and I’m fine with writing the essays.

Sorry for wonky formatting, I’m mostly a lurker. Thanks for doing this- I love y’all and all everyone here does for us high school kids. I’ll do my best to chanceme for anyone who does mine.

TL;DR: Below average Ivy applicant looks to find more realistic reach schools. Some specific yet overall common EC’s 4.15, 34.

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I would focus on your ECs. You seem to have decent qualifications in terms of what you’ve done on a specific dental pathway; the working in an orthodontic office and the shadowing along with the volunteering look good. However, you seem to have little to none outside of that, specifically national level awards for competitions or things of that sort. You’ve got a below average GPA for most of the reach schools you mentioned, and being familiar with the school, you’ll be like top 30-40%, which can be a dagger when it comes to competitive top universities like Duke, Dartmouth, etc. I think personally you should be listing Pitt as a match, but based on the fact that you’ll apply right as the application comes out, that should aid your chances a little. Scores figure to be decent, ideally get the ACT up to 35+, but 34 is fine. If you can do well on your essays, which based on your 5 in Lang you seem to be a good writer, you could help out your chances a little. I would highly recommend not listing powerlifting as your top activity on the Common App, especially if you haven’t used it in any other capacity (helping out others, training others, attending competitions). It would be something interesting to list later on, and something worth talking about in a supplemental essay maybe. Wake Forest, Carnegie Mellon, NYU, BC, BU and Northeastern are all colleges worth checking out for students with your stats and high level aspirations. I wouldn’t consider you a competitive applicant for HYPSM, Ivys and other top-tier schools, but maybe for that second level of schools below that, you may be able to find something. GL!

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I responded to another question regarding the 7 year program and will echo those sentiments here. As someone who is going on 20 years of practicing dentistry, your primary objective should be to minimize your overall cost.
Don’t sacrifice a quality education but the cost of a private vs public isn’t justified here. No one cares if you went to UConn or Penn for dental school or where you did your ortho residency. You can attain this goal without the added cost.
I attended UVa undergrad and then UNC for dental school and came away debt free because I got residency in North Carolina before attending. The majority of my colleagues didn’t attend schools as prestigious as I did and are viewed no differently in private practice. Now I will admit UVa undergrad was a benefit in acceptance at UNC and helped me get one of the highest DAT scores in the class but I have plenty of classmates that went to NC State, UNCW, UNCA, etc that have gone on to very successful careers and are excellent dentists.
To me dentistry is more of a trade or vocation, the difference in success comes down to being able to relate to people and having some business acumen.