No Interviews this Cycle - Should I pursue a SMP or Post-Bacc?

[Zymogenetics]

Hello all,

I applied this cycle to 18 schools and have received 4 rejections and nothing else from the other 14 schools. I am about to graduate this term with a Biology major and a GPA of 3.3 overall and 3.1 science from a 4-year undergrad university along with a DAT of 23/23/24/21/none. I have about 110 hours of shadowing, 400 hours of volunteering, 300 hours of research and 100 hours of working as a DA. I believe my personal statement is pretty good but reference letters are mediocre. My complete mail out date was 7/25.

I am preparing for the worst case scenario now that this cycle is coming to an end. I believe that my low GPA and the fact that I mostly applied to OOS un-friendly schools led to rejections and silence from schools. My question is should I be applying to special master's programs or post-bacc programs? (EDIT: I have heard that SMP's are recommended for science majors who have completed all the science pre-requisite classes, which seems like my situation) I would prefer a one-year program that is relatively cheap and in or near California. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should do or any specific programs you would recommend?

The schools I applied to (residency in CA):

Boston University
Columbia
Harvard
Indiana University
NYU
Rutgers
Temple
Buffalo
UCLA
U Maryland
U Michigan
U Oklahoma
U Pennsylvania
U Pittsburgh
USC
UOP
U Washington
Western U in CA

Thank you for your time!

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[Dental2000]

I would say do the post-bacc program and take as many upper science courses as you can. Masters programs tend to be expensive and they do not add anything to your Undergraduate GPA. From what I know, schools take your undergrad GPA into account regardless of how well you did in your Masters.

Get your sGPA upto a 3.3 and you should be golden. Hopefully your DAT scores do not expire by the time you apply next (most schools have a 2 year limit on DAT scores).

Second, write to to the schools you got rejections from and ask them what specifically were they looking for in your app. Always good to get advice straight from the horses mouth.

Third, you most def need to redo your school list. get the ADEA dental school guide and use it when applying to D-schools. I can already pick out some schools that you wasted your time and money applying too.

Harvard, Rutgers,Washington and Oklahoma were shots in the dark in my opinion.
Even though Rutgers take OOS students, most of them are from NY.
Oklahoma (according to the 2012 guide) took in only 11 OOS students. Their GPA standards are pretty high as well (3.6 )
Washington has 62 Total students out of which 8 were OOS.

Here are some schools I would have applied to, if I was in your shoes: Detroit mercy, MWU-IL and AZ, Louisville, creighton. This schools have more OOS students than in-staters (besides detroit).

That being said, I think your GPA must be holding you back. So work on that and you will most def get pre-dec interviews next time around.

Good luck

 

[GinaS2K]

how about WesternU's MSMS program?

http://prospective.westernu.edu/medical-sciences/apply-4/

Deadline is Feb 1.