Opinions on an interview response

[SugarNaCl]

I fear that in my interview(s?) I may be questioned as to why my GPA leading up to my Junior year was a 3.4 and in my Junior year, it dropped. The true answer is... I wanted to differentiate myself from other applicants so I started a medical/dental fraternity. The darn thing took up so much of my time and energy and so many people wanted to get so much out of it...that I felt I would be letting them down if I didn't work on it like crazy to get them some benefit. On top of that, I rather foolishly thought that if the organization was successful and well-known that I would get in for sure! As result, the organization, not GPA became a priority (as I already knew I wanted to go to graduate school before dental.) I did go to graduate school and I received a 3.6 GPA... of course I have a better understanding of the whole system now and have learned...but I'm afraid this will come back haunt me at interview time. Any ideas?

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[Notoriousjae]

I fear that in my interview(s?) I may be questioned as to why my GPA leading up to my Junior year was a 3.4 and in my Junior year, it dropped. The true answer is... I wanted to differentiate myself from other applicants so I started a medical/dental fraternity. The darn thing took up so much of my time and energy and so many people wanted to get so much out of it...that I felt I would be letting them down if I didn't work on it like crazy to get them some benefit. On top of that, I rather foolishly thought that if the organization was successful and well-known that I would get in for sure! As result, the organization, not GPA became a priority (as I already knew I wanted to go to graduate school before dental.) I did go to graduate school and I received a 3.6 GPA... of course I have a better understanding of the whole system now and have learned...but I'm afraid this will come back haunt me at interview time. Any ideas?

why grad school before dental? i dont get it... why not undergrad and then straight to dental

 

[djeffreyt]

I think the truth is fine. You reprioritized your life because other people were counting on you. Instead of being selfish and letting the whole fraternity fail, you sacrificed of yourself so that it would help and be beneficial to others. I don't think that is a bad thing, so what if your grades slipped a little.

 

[SugarNaCl]

Jeff...thanks... and Jae, I wanted to get into research a little bit. I think my ultimate goal would be dentistry with some clinical studies on the side. It's not easy to do that if you have no clue of the research aspect, so I went for my masters and have been working in cancer research as a research technologist for 1.5 years now.

 

[Notoriousjae]

Jeff...thanks... and Jae, I wanted to get into research a little bit. I think my ultimate goal would be dentistry with some clinical studies on the side. It's not easy to do that if you have no clue of the research aspect, so I went for my masters and have been working in cancer research as a research technologist for 1.5 years now.

cancer research eh... pretty kool. thats gonna loook really nice on your resume. good luck

 

[lifeisgood]

I fear that in my interview(s?) I may be questioned as to why my GPA leading up to my Junior year was a 3.4 and in my Junior year, it dropped. The true answer is... I wanted to differentiate myself from other applicants so I started a medical/dental fraternity. The darn thing took up so much of my time and energy and so many people wanted to get so much out of it...that I felt I would be letting them down if I didn't work on it like crazy to get them some benefit. On top of that, I rather foolishly thought that if the organization was successful and well-known that I would get in for sure! As result, the organization, not GPA became a priority (as I already knew I wanted to go to graduate school before dental.) I did go to graduate school and I received a 3.6 GPA... of course I have a better understanding of the whole system now and have learned...but I'm afraid this will come back haunt me at interview time. Any ideas?

I think you should print this out and if they ask you, pull it out and read it to them. I feel you pretty much answered your own question.