There are 66 dental schools in the US. How do you narrow down which schools should receive your application?
Applying to dental school is expensive! The first application that a student submits costs $245 and each subsequent application has a fee of $102. On top of that, pretty much every school requires a supplemental fee, which can range anywhere from $20 to $100. The sheer cost of applying to dental school is a huge reason why it's smart to apply wisely and make a realistic list of schools that could eventually become your alma mater. This is a daunting task, though!
It took me hours to decide on my final school list and even then, looking back, I applied to too many. I chose dental schools that had stats similar to my own and accepted students from my state, since a decent number of schools simply don't take out of state students. I also wanted to strike a balance between reach and safety schools (do safety dental schools even exist??). With this preliminary criteria in mind, I set off to make the list that would become my ~destiny~.
Step 1: Laying out All Options
I started off by making a massive list of all US schools, which I have here.
Mostly all information this PDF comes from the ADEA Official Guide to Dental Schools, which I recommend buying for its summaries about each school. The guide also includes Canadian schools, which I didn't put on my own list. For the most part, all tuitions and costs of living on my list are for out of state students (that's why Mississippi's is N/A--they don't take out of state students). Also, for the additional prerequisites column, I've included only classes that deviate from the standard requirements of:
gen chem I & II
physics I & II
biochem
organic chem I & II
biology I & II
english
Having all of this information organized in front of me helped me easily whittle down my list of schools.
Step 2: Eliminating by Cost
Four more years of school is going to be expensive no matter what, but I want to minimize these costs. Looking at the master list, I eliminated schools that have annual total costs of $100k. This alone got rid of a TON of schools--I axed almost forty.
Step 3: Looking at Pre-Requisites
I am a non-traditional applicant through and through. Not only did I take a few years off from school, but I also have a degree in an unconventional, non-science major. Because of this, I don't have tons of upper-level science classes on my transcript so, I had to make some decisions based on which schools' requirements I actually meet. Having never taken anatomy or physiology, I was forced to remove a couple of schools from my potential list.
Step 4: Determining my Priorities
Next, I looked at what I'm really looking for in a dental school. I want to live relatively close to a support network of family and/or friends, have the option to do research, and be able to jump into the school's clinic as soon as possible. I threw out a few schools based on location, but most every school boasts about their endless research opportunities and unparalleled clinical program, so these two criteria didn't help me much in getting rid of any other schools. Considering my priorities helped me understand my goals better, though, which is important for me to know about myself.
The Result: A Tailored List
After spending hours breaking down which schools mades sense for me and which schools I could see myself attending, I had a list that was more manageable and realistic both for my sanity and my wallet. Not only did whittling down my school list help me make sense of the application process, but it also gave me an opportunity to get to know the schools better and later made writing supplemental essays a bit easier since I knew each school's strengths and values. I recommend starting with my PDF and following each step until you have your own list (a list that hopefully ends up even shorter than mine did!)