r/predental

Unfortunately my only acceptance is a private school with 550k COA and the private loan rate I got is 9.06% on 15 years, I don’t have a reliable co-signer. I’ve been in a really bad mental state for over a month now. I’ve tried my best to make sense of my repayment but it’s coming out to about 5.3-5.7k a month and this is with RAP on the federal. My parents agreed to let me move back in with them after school until I find a spouse but even then I don’t think this repayment number is something I’m comfortable with.

I’m trying to switch to hygiene but just found out that I have to retake 5 science classes to be able to apply to the 2 schools in my area, adding on 1-2 year delay before I can get into the program. I’m already 25 and my family is pressuring me to get a career started soon.

I feel like the past 7 years of my life have been wasted working so hard for dental school and now it seems like it’s out of the picture because the BBB got to me. I’m just completely stuck and don’t know where to go from here. I can only see myself in the dental field. If I go through with dental school , I have a plan to increase my credit score to get a better rate for D2-D4, and plan on applying for NHSC, HPSP but I feel like it will be extremely irresponsible to go to school trying to bank on these competitive scholarships. Reapplying to a cheaper school is out of the picture bc my DAT is expired and my app would be really late this cycle, my application was also not really strong to start with. I applied to 18 schools, got 2 interviews to expensive privates and only 1 acceptance. Any advice or words of encouragement are appreciated. I am in the lowest point of my life

Edit - maybe worth mentioning my school offered me a HPSL loan to reduce my private loan need, unsure if it will be the same amount every year or decreases as the years go by.

Like the title says congratumothafreakinglations to all the current dentists in this sub telling us it’s not worth it. I WILL NOT BE PURSUING DENTISTRY. Yall have effectively scared me straight. Good thing is i haven’t done 1 prereq yet, i just got out of the military a month ago and i have my GI bill but that won’t cover 800k in student loans…yeeshhhh. I don’t want to live in bumblef*ck either so, I just wanted to say thank you! For saving me, if I regret it later though I WILL be PISSED. I going to law school now btw, hopefully tech law.

Hint, it's on page 4-6 of this document Trends in Dentists' Income, Revenue, and Hours Worked

Based on the ADA survey of dental practice, dentists used to make an inflation-adjusted $274,198 in 2010 and now $215,320 in 2025, over 20% decrease in purchasing power while housing, health insurance, and cost of living continue to climb.

Wanna know why? Dental insurance was designed back in the 70s and usually caps the yearly benefit at around $1,500. Well, that cap hasn't changed in 50 years. If it had tracked inflation, the cap would be $6,000 today. From my actual experience, this cap affects how the patient decides to choose your service. Back then $1,500 means a lot of procedures can be done.

Now, let's look at other professions like nursing. Nurses have labor unions, and hospital networks can absorb operational shock when staff demands higher pay. Dentistry and being a small business owner, there's no regulation or incentive for the insurance to reimburse more (and most insurances like Dental Dental haven't increased their reimbursements for more than 1-2 decades; if anything they have DECREASED). If Blue Cross refuses to raise reimbursement rates, the hospital threatens to pull an entire region's emergency rooms out-of-network. Dentists don't have that leverage. Oh also don't forget about the increase in staff and material costs as a dentist, which has exploded over the years (just look at page 10).

For you guys, the conclusion in all of this to me isn't to not become a dentist but to realize that dentistry is just like any other commodity or product. You need to do your INDEPENDENT research before buying, and I'm not talking about just focusing on DAT or GPA. You don't go into a BMW dealership and blindly finance a car at 8% interest just because those guys (ADCOMS) look professional, have all these official buildings/certifications and everyone (your classmates and people in this sub) is doing it so you think you must end up fine too just like the herd. Just like dealerships, investment advisors, and your career - you need to be realistic and spend more time to personally understand what you're going into. Gluck

I was curious if people who have taken the day got a good amount of heredity questions. Most of the comprehensive stuff I understand, but for some reason I trip and eat the sidewalk when it comes to pedigrees. Does anyone have any info?

Hello im choosing my courses for grade 10 and was wondering if somebody would tell me what to choose/recommend ive asked lots of other people but i didnt get any important information or what i needed.

I live in peel region in ontario canada

Hope all is well, and wishing everyone luck in this new application cycle! I know this is quite late, but I just received my acceptance letter to dental school a couple of weeks ago as a low-stat applicant!

I had a 3.3 cGPA, 3.2 sGPA, 19 DAT, 20 TS, and 22 PAT. I took a gap year following graduation to work and got rejected from all 10 schools I applied to during that year (2023-2024 cycle). I decided to pursue a 2 master's program with a thesis through one of the dental schools I applied to.

I have to say it was one of the best decisions I made. I ended with a 3.8 GPA, am currently pursuing my first publication, met many future colleagues, and am now admitted to the same school I pursued the master's through! Additionally, I'm a non-traditional student, starting at the age of 25, turning 26 towards the end of this year.

I know it is a very stressful time, and it can be very hard not to compare ourselves to others who may be doing much better in terms of stats and extracurriculars. Trust me, I frequented this Reddit a lot when I was applying. I just wanted to give all the low-stat applicants some hope that there are many avenues to get into dental school!

Hey I am applying this cycle and am a bit worried about my chances. I am applying to 6 schools and here are my stats and extracurriculars.

Overall GPA: 3.71 sGPA: 3.53
DAT: 420

2 clubs: 1 is an honor society and I’m an officer in the other
115 shadowing hours
A lot of volunteer hours, well over 200 I would say (not sure the total) many of which are in non profit clinics or health screening events as well as tutoring.
I’ve had multiple part time jobs during undergrad including working at my university to working in restaurants.

How long should I study for this and what do I study? Do i just have Ai ask me questions?

Hi guys, I have to take my kira for nyu tomorrow. I’ve barely prepped. How should I prep and should I be worried

What are some good extracurriculars?
I am in school clubs,
Gonna join Greek life
Gonna do research next summer
I am also gonna try to be eventually a Teacher assistant and try to get a dental assistant job it’s just been so hard!

I may try to get an internship if that helps. I am still doing shadowing hours and need to do volunteering.

i’ve just been thinking recently how I’m so excited to see where I get in, where I don’t get in. I never really cared about where I got into undergrad, but for dental school it’s something different. I made the decision to become a dentist at three years old so I’m just so excited to see what doors will open after 21 years of dreaming for this moment. I’m just excited to see who’s gonna like me and who’s not gonna like me. i’m excited to go to interviews so they can see my love for Dentistry in person. I’m just excited for it all.

I have received a bunch of PM’s based off my question on these newer schools and I just don’t understand… why do people want these predatory schools like CNU, Pike, Yeshiva, High Point, LMU, PNWU, etc to stay opened up? Do we just want to let anyone into the profession of dentistry? Can we not see the bigger picture? It’s so much more than just getting in, it’s about the profession as a whole. When the standards are lowered… an over saturation of dentists come in, the salaries are lowered, the student debt is still high, patients already hate going to the dentist so it doesn’t help you graduated from a diploma mill, and so much more. People often say, “Well we need more dentists in rural areas”… be honest, do you really think these pre-dental students who post on social media about these schools are going to move to somewhere like Sioux Falls, SD or something like that? The answer is no. I really would encourage people to stop applying to these schools, even if it means waiting a year or two. Good things take time anyway. Saying this as someone who is in an SMP rn reinventing myself academically to an extent.

Hey guys, hope ur all good! Im going to be shadowing my first dentist on Monday and this might sound stupid but what do i wear 😭 he hasn’t specifically mentioned in his email on what to wear y i don’t want to sound like an idiot and ask him what to wear. Appreciate it!

Feeling great

Genuinely curious, are there any school you got accepted to even though you were below their class cohort stats. Like below 3.5 C/science GPA or DAT below 480 stuff. If so and feel comfortable what schools. I feel like I’m stressing and need straight As and like 510+ DAT to even get into my local dental school.

I’m a fairly strong applicant and I do want to apply this cycle. I however did take the dat once and bombed it 💀 ( ik I shouldn’t have taken it). But for my retake I’m between taking it in ~25 days or taking it mid august. Would that be too late in the cycle cause I want to hear back by decision day? My issue is atm I’ve only been studying for a month and I still feel not too secure in my testing (have yet to take a practice test). I’m heavily conflicted on what to do, any advice would be appreciated thanks :)

I finally submitted my application yesterday and out of curiosity I just decided to put it in 2 different Ai detectors and both flagged my PS for Ai. I don’t know if it’s cause I use examples of 3 (i’ve always done that even in high school) or if my paper is too polished. I’ve used this style of writing throughout undergrad and never had problems. The stories are entirely my own, my partner did try to polish it a little too and we both thought it sounded human. Now i’m panicking that I won’t receive interviews because it ”sounds Ai”.