Getting into dental school in Canada is becoming more and more competitive every year. We sometimes hear people not getting accepted into the program who had a 3.99 GPA, an almost perfect DAT score and an impressive CV that we dare not to compare ours with. And this may get some people and discourage them from even applying in the first place, helplessly searching for other programs to apply to with uncertainty. Trust me, I’ve been there myself, and the single proudest thing I’ve done during those uncertain times was to plug my ears from all the noise and just apply anyway. Remember that you can’t fail unless you quit.
1. JUST DO IT (APPLY!)
I've seen too many people not apply to the dental program because they’ve heard from somewhere that someone with a perfect GPA didn’t get in or someone with a perfect DAT score didn’t make it and what not. Here is the catch though, either the rumour has been overly exaggerated and is not really true, or someone who has said it to you wants to weed you out of the competition because he or she wants to get in or it may actually be true but it’s only a rare unlucky case. So, don’t let these rumours get in your head and discourage you from applying. JUST APPLY if you meet the eligibility criteria for the dental programs you are applying to!
“If you quit, you 100% fail. But if you try, there is some chance at success. Even if you fail, you learn something through the process which you can use to your advantage for future applications.”
2. GPA
GPA is by far the single most important factor for your application because it is what makes you move on to the next stage of the application. Now, some people may argue that each applicant is evaluated holistically and GPA, DAT, and CASper (for University of Toronto at least) are all calculated together. And that is probably true, but my point is that your GPA should at least be or above the minimum admitted GPA (NOT the minimum GPA to apply) which the university publishes every year. Even better would be if your GPA is at or above the previous average GPA. Now let’s look at what minimum GPA, minimum admitted GPA, and previous average GPA all are.
a. Minimum GPA is the absolute minimum GPA you need in order to be eligible to apply. If you have a GPA that is below this (3.0), I’d advise you postpone applying and getting your grades up first.
b. Admitted minimum GPA (3.85 for University of Toronto) is the absolute minimum GPA from all the applicants who received an interview for the program. If your GPA is higher than this, that is good. If it is below, you may still give it a try. If it is significantly lower than this, I’d advise postponing your application and getting your grades up.
c. Finally, the previous average GPA is the average GPA of all the applicants (usually 600-700 applicants) who received an interview for the program. And this is what demonstrates how competitive the dental program is with a whopping 3.96 for the year of 2023 as published by University of Toronto Dentistry. If you want to maximize your chances of getting into the program, your GPA should ideally be around this average GPA. But even if it is lower, it is not the end of the world as you can make it up with a good DAT and CASPer score.
3. DAT
As you may already know, DAT is the standardized exam for all prospective students of the dental program. The test consists for 4 sections including Survey of Natural Sciences (chem, bio, organic chem which you probably did in your undergrad), Perceptual Ability Test (PAT), Reading Comprehension, and a Manual Dexterity Test. University of Toronto specifically requires the first three to have been completed.
Now, DAT is scored from 1-30, and I’d say anything that is 19-20 makes you pretty competitive. The optimal score would be anything above 21. Kaplan provides useful information on what scores you should aim for, and I would like to share some of their info from their website.
Each section of the test will be scored from 1-30. Like I mentioned earlier, the optimal score you should aim for is above 21 for the most part.
These scores show you not the optimal scores, but competitive enough scores which you could aim for as well. They are usually 19-20, so if you have 19 or 20, you may still have a good chance at getting into the program.
I get questions on what resources I personally used to study for the DAT. Here are the 3 resources I used that helped me get into the dental program at University of Toronto:
a. KAPLAN book – you can easily purchase it on Amazon, and sometimes they have it in the library if you are unwilling or unable to spend the money. The KAPLAN book covers the content you need to know to do well on the DAT.
b. DAT Bootcamp – I didn’t know about this until I talked to other colleagues who were also preparing for the DAT. This course is good because they provide you with lots of practice questions which you would expect to see on the actual DAT.
c. CrackDAT – This is another online course that provides you with the study material for the DAT and lots of practice questions. I did not sign up for the full course because I was already taking the DAT Bootcamp, but I did sign up for the extra Perceptual Ability Test (PAT) questions. This course would be good for the PAT section of the DAT.
4. CASper
You must be wondering by now, 'why is there so much to do to get into the dental program?’ And I don’t blame you because they do ask you a lot, but I guess they are all necessary for them to ensure good dentists come out of their program. But, don’t fret for this section about CASper. In fact, I want you to think about it as a more of a relaxing part of the application package. CASper is simply a “what would you do in this situation and why?” type of test. It isn’t something you necessarily need to prep for months like you’d do for the DAT, but I do recommend doing some sample questions beforehand to just get an idea of what to expect. If you are good at thinking on your feet and solving challenging problems, you might actually enjoy CASper because they give you a time limit for every question.
Below is a sample question from acuityinsights.app
This is the video-based scenario where you will watch the video and answer the questions based on the scenario. There is also a word-based scenario, and one example is:
“What would be your strategy when you are faced with a conflict that cannot be resolved?”
Your response can include a personal story, or it could just be a list of general strategies you might think about using in situations like these.
At the end of the day, CASper aims to test your problem-solving abilities, non-cognitive skills and whether your behavioural tendencies would be compatible with some of the challenging situations you may encounter in various professional schools (medical schools also use CASper as part of their application). My overall recommendation is to get some practice off many available online resources and simply enjoy taking CASper!
5. INTERVIEW
If the school sees that you have performed well in all these areas (GPA, DAT, CASper) and sees you fit for the program, they will give you invitation for interview in February of the following year. This is the final hurdle you need overcome to successfully get you into the program. As someone who has gotten interviews to all the dental schools I applied to, I can give you tips on how to prepare for the interview (send me a message). But one key tip is to practice with as many people as you can and ask for their constructive feedback. Most people that successfully passed the interview and got into the program had pretty much a similar strategy. They compiled a list of potential interview questions, assigned 3-4 of them to each of the people they wanted feedback from. Friends are helpful because they often can be more transparent with their feedback, but I also recommend reaching out to teachers, professors, dentist you are shadowing, or other people that may not know you as well. This is because they are less prone to bias and can sometimes evaluate you more objectively and give you more objective perspectives than friends. Through practicing with a variety of people, you will come to realize your strengths and weaknesses, and I recommend dedicating 2 weeks to a month preparing for the interview and working on improving your weaknesses.
Another key tip I like to give my students while prepping for interviews is, “Don’t overdo your answers” I’ve seen many applicants trying too hard to give creative answers in efforts to stand out. I applaud the effort, but sometimes it could come off as ‘unnatural’, ‘exaggerative’ or even ‘dishonest’ to the interviewers. So, my recommendation is to keep the answer simple but put a bit of spin on it with your personal story. Again, don’t overdo your personal story to force sympathy and awe out of the interviewers, but simply share your story as is.
I plan to make a separate blog post just on interviews, so stay tuned.
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