Non Traditional Applicant - Need Advice

[shnsk39]

Hello everyone...I have some questions regarding my dental school application.

I am a dental hygienist with over 5+ years of experience, have a degree in public health, and am now planing on pursuing dentistry. I have worked for the UN, various NGO's as well as worked as a hygienist abroad in atleast 2 diff countries. I also have extensive experience assisting during surgeries especially cleft lip and cleft palate repair.

My concern lie with my grades. While I was in undergrad, I studied abroad in Europe & took a couple of science courses that were part of my major. My university did accept these classes, however they were never calculated as part of my gpa. So when I graduated, my gpa was 3.48 but my science gpa unfortunately was below a 3.0.
When I was in dental hygiene school, I failed my first semester due to a personal tragedy. It took me a really long time to overcome that and finally went back to finish my degree. I worked hard, managed to do well in my classes, joined student council, did research and manged to finish of my last semester with a 3.6. I have all the prerequisites for dental school however, when I was calculating my gpa for both schools, my overall science gpa still came out to be below a 3.0.

I don't know what to do. I really want to pursue dentistry, I have the passion and the experience for it however my grades are a major setback . I was thinking of doing a post bac, but don't know if I could take off a whole year from work to take classes. (Also, isn't it expensive?). Then I thought maybe I could take a couple of classes as a non-matriculate student in hopes of raising my gpa but again not sure. My application should be send out by end of this month and I'm planning on taking the DAT at the end of July and hopefully can get at least a 21/22.

Is it even worth applying this cycle?
I am really concerned about my application so any advice would be extremely helpful.

Thank you

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[customx]

I would contact some schools that you're interested in applying to and ask their opinion. You can do an informal postbac and take a few classes as a non-matriculating student. Try to take upper division bio courses to not only raise your GPA but to also show the adcoms that you can succeed academically in rigorous courses.
The other issue may be the length of time it has been since you last took your prereqs. Some schools want to see them taken in the last three years, so be sure to ask about that as well. I'm sure with a 21 or 22 on the DAT, your dental experience and your passion for dentistry you will be able to get some interviews. Best of luck!

 

[doc toothache]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/dental-hygiene-to-ds.952937/
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/posts/16623928/

 

[w4nt2baDDS]

If you can score 22+ on the DAT then you know becoming a dentist is starting to look like a possibility. If you work hard and earn that strong DAT score then you need to bite the bullet and retake a years worth of science courses. If you kick butt in the sciences classes your GPA will be higher and you can further prove to them you're no longer the same student and can handle dental school.

You have a lot of life experience which I think is a plus but everyone faces hardships (some more than others) and the bottom line often comes down to GPA. You need to calculate what your oGPA can become if you were to ace a years worth of science courses. I think if your oGPA can get to 3.2-3.4 if you ace the classes then retaking the classes will be well worth it! If your oGPA is still under 3.0... you're going to struggle getting interviews.

It's an uphill battle but you I think you should definitely go for it.. You'd have to apply next year.

Also, I'm not sure if retaking classes or entering a masters program is better but if I were you I'd probably retake the science classes. If you don't score 22+ on the DAT your chances are even slimmer but you can do it!