How to increase chances to get into dental school?

You need a 4 year college degree in pre-med with decent grades and you have to pass whatever test they have.

If you only got a 17 on your ACT, I won't say its impossible but improbable unless you really work your tail off.

I spent a lot of time with dental students. Not many flunk out because they won't let anyone in who cannot do the work. And only a 17 is not great. (I probably would have got a 17-22 too, so I'm not any smarter than you. But I struggled in business classes and science stuff is harder.

I never took the ACT but my friends said I would get around 21-22. They got 27 and 30 and both became engineers. I would guess premed students probably averaged at least 24-25.

This is not to say you can't, you'd just have to work harder than others. And dental school is very expensive. One graduate dentist who worked on me had $200k in loans.

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Wait, you meant dental hygiene school. Much easier. Much, much easier. You can do that.

Do the right subjects and get very good grades. Do volunteer work at your local dental clinic and get the dentist to give you a signed letter. This will help show your enthusiasm for dentistry

Floss.

you study harder