Dental Low Masters GPA and Dental School

[Mr.Smile12]

Hey guys so I am applying this upcoming cycle for the 2020 year and was wondering if anyone has some advice. I have a 3.0 masters gpa, and a 2.7 sgpa from undergrad. I can probably bring my masters gpa up to a 3.1-3.2 by fall. I took too many classes at one time and some of them were really not taught well and they changed the curriculum at my school so I was struggling to keep up. I have a 20 on my DATs, I scored a 16 on my Bio, but everything else was above a 20 which is why my DATs AA is a 20, but I am retaking that this upcoming June. I was wondering if I manage to do better on my DATs like +24, would I have a chance to get into a dental school? I have many extracurriculars: leadership roles both in undergrad and grad school, a lot of shadowing and volunteering hours and I still continue to keep up with it, 3 years of research experience and currently doing my thesis in oral biology. I can definitely study and put in the hard work, but I was falling apart last semester and did better this semester, but I was never aware that dental schools just care about the grades and not the type of classes that were taken otherwise I would have taken the easier classes. Please let me know your thoughts and whether there is a possibility for me to get into dental school.

That's a fairly low master's GPA, and that's not a great record of performance compared to similar applicants who have completed a SMP before beginning dental school. Yes, ideally you should have 20's across the board for the DAT, and it's not clear if you took the DAT recently while in your master's program and yet still achieved a 16 or earlier. As for not being aware that "dental schools just care about grades...", well they do care about your ability to graduate and care for patients. Rigorous coursework is par for the course in dental school, and taking easier classes for the purpose of getting a higher GPA doesn't always help you. You're going to need a good talk with the program director and your thesis advisor on what you should do and any options.

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[TMP-SMX]

Dental school isn't easier classes. If you want to prove you can handle the material it's those harder classes are what prove readiness.