Chance me for combined dental programs, Cornell, and more t20s! [NJ resident, 3.91 GPA, 1550 SAT]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Personal Info: Indian female, NJ, first-gen, from a public school which sent 10+ kids to UPenn this year and 8+ to Cornell

SAT: 1550 (750 EBRW, 800 Math), will retake to see if ebrw can go up anymore

UW/W GPA and Rank: UW is 3.91/4, W is 6.88/7, rank about 20 something (because we have 17 valedictorians :unamused:)

coursework:

  • done so far: AP Seminar, APUSH, AP Bio, AP Psych, APES, AP Lang, AP Research
  • next yr: AP Chem, AP Lit, AP Calc BC (my school doesn’t have AB), AP Stats, AP Macro + Micro, Human Anatomy Honors

ecs

  • Co-founder + director of a youth organization focusing on a niche health topic for which i’ve been to Capitol Hill and met with legislators to update pertinent bills
  • Extern at a dental practice nearby - suction and such during procedures ranging from basic prophys to complex extractions or root canals - about 300 hours
  • Research intern at Rowan SOM, project on ALL growth using mice models - wont be published by the time I apply but very important research
  • Candidate for Leukemia Lymphoma Society’s SVOY competition, raised over 39K in a 7 week period to go towards cancer research
  • Committee Member of LLS’ Teen Board, setting up and planning philanthropic events throughout the South Jersey region
  • Wrote a review paper on cervical cancer and how it affects South Asian women specifically - in one of the final reviewing processes by The Lancet!
  • Set up a dental supplies drive over the summer which collected over 2000 dental hygiene supplies to go towards those who need
  • President of my school’s Indian Cultural Society
  • Founder + President of my school’s Operation Smile Club
  • Coach, Pronouncer, and Judge of a local Spelling Bee after having won it multiple years in a row - also helped w promo and increased contestant show up almost threefold

Schools I’m Applying To:

ED: UPenn 7 Year Bio-Dental Program
EA: Case Western Dental PPSP (7 Year) and Rutgers

RD: Cornell, Barnard, Harvard, UMich, UNC Chapel Hill, Carnegie Mellon, Duke, NYU (7 Year), Tufts, Boston U, Johns Hopkins, Rowan

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Do you qualify for need based financial aid?
What is your budget?

I suggest you apply to all the public schools in the EA round. There’s no good reason to leave any of them for RD.

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Great student. Don’t need to bother with another test.

It’s hard to chance for med combined but you have a chance at any school and yes, apply to the publics in the early rounds if they have.

I don’t think you need Rowan - and would you choose regular any schools over Rutgers - because if you wouldn’t (UNC, Michigan, etc) then no need to apply.

You might determine your budget - and go from there because if you have, say a $50K budget but U Mich is $80K, why apply? Your list is great but is it great for your circumstances?

Great student - best of luck.

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I would not retake this for the purpose of university admissions. This is a really good score. The only reason that I could possibly see to retake this would be if you just want to do it to find out whether you can get closer to 1600 just for your own curiosity.

I understand that the majority of university students change their major at some point. However, you should nonetheless budget to make sure that you would be okay if you stick with your current intention of being a dentist. You should avoid or minimize debt as much as you reasonably can for the entire path (dentists make a reasonable salary, but even then debt can get out of hand). Given this I wonder why you would attend U.Michigan out of state rather than Rutgers in-state. I have known quite a few people who graduated from Rutgers and they have consistently impressed me. The school must be doing something right.

It is hard to chance you for top schools and dental programs, but I think that you are doing very well.

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Thank you so much for the advice! SAT wise, I’m just curious because I haven’t taken the digital test yet and want to see what it’s like. As for UMich, it has always been a school I’ve had on my list because I’ve visited and loved it, and they’re also the #1 dental school at the time so I think it’d have a great pre-dental track and amazing advice + connections in that regard. Of course, Rutgers is also great, in-state, and very near to me, but dentistry-wise it’s a bit more sparse.

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Thank you so much! As for my budget, I’m very lucky that my parents are willing to split cost 50/50 with me (and cover fully for UPenn because it’s been my dream for so long) so I’d be okay paying 40-45K and them covering the other half. The public schools I have on my list (UNC and Mich) are there because they’re the top 2 dental schools so I assume they’d have amazing advice and connections for pre-dental students - if I got into them with a bit of aid, I’d rather go there than Rutgers.

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No, I don’t qualify for aid. All of the schools on my list are currently within my budget because my parents have luckily offered to split cost with me. EA wise, I am definitely considering that. Still on the fence about whether I truly want to apply to UNC, but yes, Mich will most likely be an EA as well. Thank you for the advice!

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@ilovepizza27 - it doesn’t sound lucky that your parents are willing to cover half. Because Michigan is $320K - so where will you get $160K?

Thank god, you can only borrow $27K. They can borrow more - but do you want to have a $2K a month loan to pay back when you graduate? And that’s just undergrad - that’s criminal.

Sorry - there are no dream schools - all schools have bad roomies, profs, food - there just aren’t.

But - if your parents are willing to pay almost $400K for Penn, then why not others? But that’s a different question.

You need to find a school you can afford.

Unless you’ve earned big money and have a six figure savings, you cannot afford Michigan.

And I’m not sure what a top dental school is.

My long time CA dentist went to a Cal State and U of Pacific - and he was one of the top “well known” in San Diego. My current dentist in Nashville - who is fantabulous - went to Arkansas, both undergrad and grad.

I’m not sure I’d worry about pedigree - but I would worry about loans - you can read story after story after story of doctors who regret pursuing the field based on the financial aspects.

So Michigan isn’t reality for you - unless your parents are willing to pay or forgive your loans.

It’s time to learn that you need to live within your means before it’s too late and I’d suggest starting now.

You have a very expensive path ahead that you, on your own, even at 50%, can’t afford - unless you’re somehow wealthy.

So you need to venture forward slowly.

Michigan is a fine school - but so is Rutgers, U Del, SUNY B, Alabama, Ms State, Kansas etc. etc. - and at far less than half the price.

They all will get you to the same place!!!

Good luck.

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Do your parents know what colleges currently cost? Back in the day, there were people who were able to work pay their way through college by working part-time during the year, during the summer and breaks, and all of that money combined was enough to pay for their tuition (perhaps with some additional scholarship money). Nearly all the schools on your list are $85k/year or more. It is extraordinarily unrealistic to think you would be able to earn $42,500 a year (i.e. your half) and most of the colleges on your list do not offer merit aid.

Additionally, I just made an assumption that your family is willing to pay half of the sticker price and that you would need to cover the rest via work, scholarships, and/or loans. Is that correct, or would they only pay half after any scholarships are applied? That is something you want tremendous clarity on.

As @tsbna44 mentioned earlier, you are limited in the amount of loans you can take out. I believe the limits are $5500 your first year, $6500 your second year, and then $7500 your third and fourth years.

The quality of a graduate program is no reflection on the strength of the undergraduate program. Additionally, for dentists, like doctors, it doesn’t make a big difference which college you went to. If you went to a school with a 90% acceptance rate or a 9% acceptance rate, you’ll still get paid the same in whatever specialty you go into. And the dentists (or doctors) who go to Johns Hopkins for med school will be paid the same amount as the dentists/doctors who went to CUNY. Once you’re called dentist, the pay is the same; nobody is looking at where you got your degrees.

Additionally, what kind of advising and connections do you think schools will be offering, and why the top dental schools will have been offerings in that area than schools that don’t have dental programs or that don’t have a program ranked in the top 5? (And ranked by whom?)

I suspect that dentistry is a lot like pre-med. There are certain courses you will need to take, they will want lots of hours in the field, and experiences working with people from a variety of backgrounds. You can get that at almost any accredited 4-year school in the country.

All of which brings us back to the budget. Is there a baseline whereby your parents would pay for all of your tuition, room & board? For instance at Rutgers or Rowan? Then at least you could be looking for colleges where it’d be possible to get sufficient scholarships to bring the school within the affordable range.

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This has confused me also. There are currently a handful of universities that cost about $95,000 per year, and quite a few more that are not all that far behind. Prices keep going up every year. By the time that you finish your bachelor’s degree, you could very easily spend a total of $400,000 for a bachelor’s degree. A student cannot borrow half of this. I do not understand where this is going to come from.

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Neither of your parents has a college degree?

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As a UNC dental grad from eons ago (1998) place your emphasis on cost not prestige. Nobody asks where you went to dental school nor do they care. And with the increase in DSOs the landscape of practicing dentistry is changing
.the ability to pay that debt off would be crippling for many years.

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