applying for dentistry

1

How cooked am I? Because I genuinely feel like my stats aren't the greatest so please feel free to be brutally honest. My GCSES are 8877777666 with an 8 in maths, 8 in english language, 7s in chemistry and biology (the 6s were in computing, german and physics). I literally have no work exp or volunteering atm (IM TRYING BUT IM GETTING AIRED) but I am a maths mentor to the younger years in school, I have a first aid qualification. Ive tried emailing care homes, childrens centres and dentists for volunteering/ work exp but ive js been rejected. I guess i did work experience in a primary school once a week for around 3 months (it was an elective in my school). I really want to get into a london uni for dentistry but ik kings care a lot abt GCSES so thats kinda off the table. My predicted are ABB (hoping to get this up to A*AA by june). Im yet to sit the UCAT which i will be doing after my mocks. but yeah thats pretty much it. advice wld be appreciated - tell me if my goal of going to QMUL is too unrealistic but i rlly js need to stay in london for uni js because its easier for my family financially.

Reply 1

nicewow

3

If your predicted goes up to A*AA and your UCAT is great, you may be able to, because from what I'm aware, they ratio your GCSE's with like UCAT so your UCAT needs to be amazing. Is dentistry the only sort of career path you wanna take? Also, good luck with mocks and I'm sure everything will work out in the end!

Reply 2

yellowPanther21

1

Original post

by wufhsadfjd

How cooked am I? Because I genuinely feel like my stats aren't the greatest so please feel free to be brutally honest. My GCSES are 8877777666 with an 8 in maths, 8 in english language, 7s in chemistry and biology (the 6s were in computing, german and physics). I literally have no work exp or volunteering atm (IM TRYING BUT IM GETTING AIRED) but I am a maths mentor to the younger years in school, I have a first aid qualification. Ive tried emailing care homes, childrens centres and dentists for volunteering/ work exp but ive js been rejected. I guess i did work experience in a primary school once a week for around 3 months (it was an elective in my school). I really want to get into a london uni for dentistry but ik kings care a lot abt GCSES so thats kinda off the table. My predicted are ABB (hoping to get this up to A*AA by june). Im yet to sit the UCAT which i will be doing after my mocks. but yeah thats pretty much it. advice wld be appreciated - tell me if my goal of going to QMUL is too unrealistic but i rlly js need to stay in london for uni js because its easier for my family financially.

For many dental schools, as long as you meet the minimum, you're good, unless it's like kings where they score gcses when shortlisting for interview. QMUL do not score past the minimum so you'll be fine, however they are one of the only dental schools that score your predicted so try your best to get it up to 3A* even if you think you can't achieve that you only need A*AA on results day. Also you might not need work experience but you really do need some form of volunteering or job where you interact with people daily and can reflect on using teamwork skills + communication skills (not only that but you will also naturally develop confidence that will help in interviews) try going in person to care homes to see if you can volunteer.

Now for the most important part, the UCAT. all your effort will be for nothing if you don't score well in the ucat. for QMUL you needed 2210 this year, which was 89th percentile (top 11%) which is very difficult to achieve. this will likely rise next year so please don't take the ucat lightly and try your best in summer to score as high as you can.

Because dentistry is so competitive to get into (much more than medicine due to a lack of dental schools) you really can't pick and choose where you apply, you have to apply to unis that will accept your ucat, gcses, and predicted grades and not really where you simply want to go.

Unis that don't weigh gcses past the minimum off the top of my head are: QMUL, Plymouth, Newcastle, Sheffield and Bristol. there are probably more and you can check the myucat strategic applications guide on their website to look at the selection process for each uni but really what's most important is your UCAT, for example the lowest ucat cutoffs out of these was Newcastle and Plymouth and Sheffield this year at 2120 which is top 18% meaning you have to beat 82% of medical and dental applicants to even get an interview.

Good luck!!

(edited 1 month ago)

applying for dentistry

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