Is this your year to apply?

You're a junior. You know that "most people" apply to dental, medical, optometry, or veterinary school at the end of their junior year. But your goal is not "to be like most people." Most of the people who apply to medical school are rejected. The same goes for dental and veterinary school. You want to succeed. That is why you are asking this question: "Should I apply at the end of my junior year?"

To do full justice to this question we should sit down together and talk about it as we look at a copy of your transcript and a list of your health related experience. But, here are a few rough and ready guidelines that might jump start your thinking on this important decision:

• If your GPA is below a 3.00 you might decide to hold off applying. If your GPA is a 3.00 or above you might decide to give it a whirl if . . .

• You have decent health-related and/or research experience and
• You can look back on about four semesters in a row of solid academic work (not counting summers!)

If you have the things we mentioned above-- the grades and the experience--that means that two important questions that schools will ask about you might have the answer you want.

1. Question one: "Could this student survive at our medical school?"The answer you desire: "I think that he or she might be up for it. Students at our medical school have two years in the classroom before doing clinicals, and this student here has two solid years at Stony Brook."
2. Question two: "Would we want this person at our medical school?" The answer you desire: "This student has great health-related experience and has done some interesting research work (or extracurricular activities). I think we want to interview a student like this." See how it works? Your transcript and list of activities are more than pieces of paper: they are large, detailed answers to questions about you.

At this point, some might be thinking: Why not just apply anyway even if you feel that your grades or health related experiences are weak? Isn't applying to med or dental school like buying a lottery ticket?

Well, applications are an expensive lottery ticket! If you want to risk a fairly large sum of money and valuable time on a gamble go ahead, but then the question would arise:

"Doesn't this student have anything better to do than gamble away time and money on applications to a whole bunch of schools--and with grades and activities like that?"

And the answer, of course, is "Yes, this student has something better to do: earn stronger grades and get better health related experience in order to be a stronger applicant later on."--But it can be hard to do those things when you are applying to a big bunch of medical or dental schools. This is why students might wait another year before applying: so that their applications are more like investments and less like gambles.

The question of whether or not to apply could be quite a dilemma, couldn't it? We hope that the decision is straightforward and easy for you, but make sure to think through all the ramifications of your choice and stop by to talk to an advisor about it.