Can I get into UOP Pre-dental programs? (2024)

I'm a high school senior and found out that University of the Pacific offers 5,6, and 7 year dental programs.
I was wondering if I can get into any of the programs. My profile is:

GPA: 4.06weighted, 3.76unweighted including freshmen year
(10-12) 4.13, 3.71

SAT I: (highest sub-scores) 800Math, 650CR, 660WR total: 2110; 1450(CR+Math)
SAT II: 730Math2c, 630Chemistry, 800Korean with Listening
Honors/award: 1st place in CA for john wayne airport student art contest
fairly good amount of other extracurricular and community service.

Thank you all.

the website for UOP Pre-dental program is:

http://web.pacific.edu/x17292.xml

I hate it when people with near 4.0 GPAs ask the rest of us "Am I good enough yet?" Show some confidence man. YOu make the rest of us feel like idiots. If you can't get in, who can???

PS. GOod Job, you are obviously very intelligent, and will go far....

<greenw/envy>

playa2652 said:

I am currently a senior at UOP undergrad. Although I am not in the program, I think your stats are competitive enough to get you into the program. However, in all seriousness, I think that doing undergrad for four years is better than the 2-3 years in undergrad because it makes you more of a mature applicant, and it gives you more time to shadow dentists and gain other experiences in dentistry/science (research, volunteering, leaderships in clubs, etc). I know quite a few predents who wanted more options in school selections, but only got like 1-2 acceptances from dental schools (one of them being UOP). The UOP dental school has an excellent 3-year accelerated dental program, but once you have been in undergrad for awhile, you might realize that graduating one year earlier isn't that big of a deal. This is just my perspective, but that's how I felt like after my sophom*ore year.

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I graduated a year early, but not because of some program but because I wanted to. Best decision of my life. I did that and took a year off to chill and relax and shadow and its been a blast. But because I graduated early, it was like I didn't take that year off.

Thank you allfor your responses.
I'm only aiming for the 7 year program. I don't want to stress about which dental school to apply to after four years of undergrad. Besides, it wouldn't be too bad telling others that I got into a "dental" school right out of high school.

Can you guys share your high school GPA and SAT scores? I'm very insecure about mine. My Asian parents threatened me that they'll only help me pay for the tuition if I get into UoP's program. -_-

P.s. My dad's a dentist, and they're not forcing me to become one. I want to become one myself. thankss
and I'm probably sending them an art portfolio just to increase my chances.

aznjdiddy said:

Thank you allfor your responses.
I'm only aiming for the 7 year program. I don't want to stress about which dental school to apply to after four years of undergrad. Besides, it wouldn't be too bad telling others that I got into a "dental" school right out of high school.

Can you guys share your high school GPA and SAT scores? I'm very insecure about mine. My Asian parents threatened me that they'll only help me pay for the tuition if I get into UoP's program. -_-

P.s. My dad's a dentist, and they're not forcing me to become one. I want to become one myself. thankss
and I'm probably sending them an art portfolio just to increase my chances.

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Hey aznjdiddy...I'm going to be brutally honest with you and tell you my high school gpa and SAT scores...here it goes (3.5 gpa and 1110 SAT I), which is really bad, I know. I was fortunate enough that I was still able to attend UoP as a Bioengineering major and personally, I enjoyed it more because I got to do six months of research with the American Dental Association (but I'm currently finishing up my 5th year at UOP because of that research). If you do get into UoP, and I hope you do, your going to be enrolled in two of the biggest weeder classes for science majors (Bio 51 and Chem 25). I especially hated Bio 51 because my lab TAs always gave me hell and deducted points for little things. I even hated the class, but my professor, who was the biggest weeder of all the Bio professors, Dr. Land, is one of my most favorite and respected professors I ever had in college. He gives out the hardest test questions, but he prepares you really well for any other class you might have during college by showing you that perseverance well lead to success. If you can't handle the first year's load too well, maybe being pre-dent isn't the best option for you. I personally worked hard and got around a 3.0 gpa overall my first two years, but then after finishing my research with the ADA and becoming extremely motivated, started getting 3.8, 3.7, 3.9, and recently a 3.7 (with six interviews to go to throughout the semester).

You are very fortunate to have a dad who is a dentist. Having a person to help expose you to dentistry is a good thing because it gives you more insight on various procedures as well as shadowing experience. I personally think that it sucks though that they'll only pay for your tuition if you get accepted into the program, because you can still be a Biology major (or any other major) and still get into several dental schools, as long as the pre-reqs are completed. Personally, I think the pre-dent program only helps you out mainly for getting into UoP's dental program, rather than other schools. I think for the last couple years, about 20-25/~90 people got accepted to other schools other than UoP, but it really depends also want kind of dentist you want to be. I got accepted to both UCSF and UoP, but I personally hate being rushed with studying all the time, so I chose UCSF instead.

playa2652 said:

I am currently a senior at UOP undergrad. Although I am not in the program, I think your stats are competitive enough to get you into the program. However, in all seriousness, I think that doing undergrad for four years is better than the 2-3 years in undergrad because it makes you more of a mature applicant, and it gives you more time to shadow dentists and gain other experiences in dentistry/science (research, volunteering, leaderships in clubs, etc). I know quite a few predents who wanted more options in school selections, but only got like 1-2 acceptances from dental schools (one of them being UOP). The UOP dental school has an excellent 3-year accelerated dental program, but once you have been in undergrad for awhile, you might realize that graduating one year earlier isn't that big of a deal. This is just my perspective, but that's how I felt like after my sophom*ore year.

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I went to UOP undergrad after being accepted to their 5-year program. I stayed an extra year and picked up a double major while applying to dental school.

I received 9 acceptances from schools other than UOP. It just depends on what you do to be unique. If you follow what the rest of the other UOP kids are doing, you'll get in UOP and maybe two other schools.

thank you all, any more inputs are greatly appreciated.
I eally really need to get in or my life is like totally over. ahhhh it's so weird. I send them emails but they don't reply back anymore. And i don't really wanna call them or anything.

p.s. when do they start the admission process, like looking at people's profiles? because I recently sent them my sat scores and I'm planning to send them a CD of my art portfolio like very soon.

aznjdiddy said:

I'm only aiming for the 7 year program which means that I would b doing four years undergrad. I just want to get accepted to the program so that I don't need to worry about which dental school to apply to, not that I will slack off during my undergrad years, b/c i know i need to maintain a certain gpaEven if I get into all three programs, i prolly won't take the 5 year one, maybe 6 but most likely 7. Honestly, looking at the requirements for the programs, it seems like I SHOULD be able to get into at least 7year one, most likely 6, and maybe 5. But hey "requirements" may be quite different from what profiles of the people who actually got accepted, right??

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Gotcha. That makes sense because you could relax more during undergrad. However, you may not want to do UoP for undergrad and dental. Often times people grow during undergrad and start to desire a change of scenery. I think if you keep up your work ethic you could get into dental school no matter what. I only have second hand knowledge of UoP (which is good fyi), however you may regret locking yourself into one school.

joonkimdds said:

I have about 3.7 GPA and people like u make me want to give up now

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r u talking to me? i only have 3.7 gpa too...

tjdent said:

Gotcha. That makes sense because you could relax more during undergrad. However, you may not want to do UoP for undergrad and dental. Often times people grow during undergrad and start to desire a change of scenery. I think if you keep up your work ethic you could get into dental school no matter what. I only have second hand knowledge of UoP (which is good fyi), however you may regret locking yourself into one school.

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thank you for ur concerns. But i've been thinking about going to UoP for years. I know a lot of ppl change their minds and all, but i'm 99 percent sure that I want to be a dentist. Oh and I'm definitely not doing undergrad in UoP if i'm not in the program. I'm just planning to do it if i DO get into the 7 year program. I believe that they're quite different, because unfortunately UoP itself isnt THAT good of a school( judging from the profiles of its students), but that it just has a lot of good PROGRAMS.
hahaha anways thanks a lot, i gratefully appreciate it.

aznjdiddy said:

thank you for ur concerns. But i've been thinking about going to UoP for years. I know a lot of ppl change their minds and all, but i'm 99 percent sure that I want to be a dentist. Oh and I'm definitely not doing undergrad in UoP if i'm not in the program. I'm just planning to do it if i DO get into the 7 year program. I believe that they're quite different, because unfortunately UoP itself isnt THAT good of a school( judging from the profiles of its students), but that it just has a lot of good PROGRAMS.
hahaha anways thanks a lot, i gratefully appreciate it.

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Hey aznjdiddy...I think UoP as well as any other school has its pros and cons. The program for pre-dentistry as well as any other bio-like majors help prepare students for dental school. I don't know what you mean by profiles, but if you are ranking the school based off US News Top 100 Schools, the only reason why we are at that ranking is because its a small, liberal arts school. All the bio professors really prepare you well for dental school. I personally think that enjoying undergrad is essential, because you have more time to enjoy yourself before going to dental school and hopefully you'll become more mature as well. One main reason why I chose this school over any other school was because almost all my professors knew me by my first name and you really get to develop good relationships with your professors, which is essential for writing letters of recommendation when applying to dental school.

aznjdiddy said:

I'm only aiming for the 7 year program which means that I would b doing four years undergrad. I just want to get accepted to the program so that I don't need to worry about which dental school to apply to, not that I will slack off during my undergrad years, b/c i know i need to maintain a certain gpaEven if I get into all three programs, i prolly won't take the 5 year one, maybe 6 but most likely 7. Honestly, looking at the requirements for the programs, it seems like I SHOULD be able to get into at least 7year one, most likely 6, and maybe 5. But hey "requirements" may be quite different from what profiles of the people who actually got accepted, right??

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Acceptance to UOP dental is not guaranteed. Only your interview at UOP dental is guaranteed if you meet the minimum GPA requirements.

aznjdiddy said:

thank you for ur concerns. But i've been thinking about going to UoP for years. I know a lot of ppl change their minds and all, but i'm 99 percent sure that I want to be a dentist. Oh and I'm definitely not doing undergrad in UoP if i'm not in the program. I'm just planning to do it if i DO get into the 7 year program. I believe that they're quite different, because unfortunately UoP itself isnt THAT good of a school( judging from the profiles of its students), but that it just has a lot of good PROGRAMS.
hahaha anways thanks a lot, i gratefully appreciate it.

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UOP is a great program if your aim is to go out into the real world and practice clinical dentistry.

ziptree said:

Acceptance to UOP dental is not guaranteed. Only your interview at UOP dental is guaranteed if you meet the minimum GPA requirements.

Can you explain that please? Are you talking about GPA in UOP while i'm enrolling for the program? because I was talking about the High school GPA to get into the program. Thanks!

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