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deleted1224386
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So, you're applying next year? I don't see your DAT score. When you say you have 2 academic years left, are you graduating after a fifth year?
You have a solid prehealth team at VCU especially if you're part of their certificate program. So what advice has they given you? You need to be realistic; your prerequisite GPA doesn't look great. While you don't have to retake C's, taking overload semesters could put you at greater risk of keeping your GPA lower than optimal.
You have been in school for two years. I understand you come from a low-income background, and VCU has plenty of resources that help other low-income students do well in their science courses. Because your trend goes beyond 1 year and shows little improvement, I think your GPA is more baked than you want it to be. Failing intro cell bio twice is a real warning sign that you need to rethink about why you want to go into dentistry/medicine if you are unable to adjust your study habits or life schedule to properly focus on your courses. You're going to enter a very high-pressure career where money will play a more significant role pressuring you to succeed. I don't see you have made effective adjustments to be confident your plans will help you succeed in dental school.
I know your circumstances limit you, but you won't have any excuses to lean on if you go to dental school. I'm guessing that you want to stay in-state at VCU, but what if they don't take you? You need to talk with their admissions team, because I suspect they'll say all roads must go through a SMP, which will be expensive and is your last chance to show you can focus and be successful in a very rigorous science curriculum. With your profile, it is absolutely necessary that your science faculty have full confidence you can do well, because your grades are not giving me much confidence.
Also, really do your homework about HPSP and what they look for in candidates. Right now, I don't know if you meet their GPA requirement.
You have a solid prehealth team at VCU especially if you're part of their certificate program. So what advice has they given you? You need to be realistic; your prerequisite GPA doesn't look great. While you don't have to retake C's, taking overload semesters could put you at greater risk of keeping your GPA lower than optimal.
You have been in school for two years. I understand you come from a low-income background, and VCU has plenty of resources that help other low-income students do well in their science courses. Because your trend goes beyond 1 year and shows little improvement, I think your GPA is more baked than you want it to be. Failing intro cell bio twice is a real warning sign that you need to rethink about why you want to go into dentistry/medicine if you are unable to adjust your study habits or life schedule to properly focus on your courses. You're going to enter a very high-pressure career where money will play a more significant role pressuring you to succeed. I don't see you have made effective adjustments to be confident your plans will help you succeed in dental school.
I know your circumstances limit you, but you won't have any excuses to lean on if you go to dental school. I'm guessing that you want to stay in-state at VCU, but what if they don't take you? You need to talk with their admissions team, because I suspect they'll say all roads must go through a SMP, which will be expensive and is your last chance to show you can focus and be successful in a very rigorous science curriculum. With your profile, it is absolutely necessary that your science faculty have full confidence you can do well, because your grades are not giving me much confidence.
Also, really do your homework about HPSP and what they look for in candidates. Right now, I don't know if you meet their GPA requirement.
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deleted1224386
Hi @Mr.Smile12,
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my post and respond, it really means a lot to me and I appreciate your honest feedback.
To clarify your questions:
1. I plan on applying to either a graduate program or VCU’s CERT program at the end of my senior year. I’ll be aiming to take the DAT around that same time.
2. When I mentioned I had “2 academic years left,” I misspoke — I meant my current junior year plus my upcoming senior year. So if everything stays on track, I’ll be graduating after my fourth year.
3. I’m actually a George Mason University student, not VCU. Unfortunately, we don’t have as strong of a pre-health/predental advising team here (there are only a handful of predental students at my school). That said, I’ll make sure to connect with the advisors we do have and see what guidance they can provide.
I completely agree with you that my GPA is very baked at this point and there’s no way to fully “fix” it — the best I can do is keep trending upward and make incremental improvements. I really appreciate your point about not overloading myself with too many credits, since that could backfire, and I’ll definitely take that advice seriously.
And yes, I’ll also look more closely into SMP programs as a realistic next step after graduation.
In addition, I wonder if there's anything you’d recommend I do right now (beyond GPA) to make myself more competitive down the line (e.g., DAT prep strategy, certain ECs, networking with dentists/professors)?
Thanks again for your input, it helps me ground myself and think more clearly about what’s ahead.
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If you keep your GPA at or above 3.0, you should only consider SMP's. I would check VCU CERT's team or the G2 program at Mason about how those programs might fit your goals to get into dental school. Otherwise, you'd be looking at other SMP's at dental schools (BU) or programs with strong articulation agreements (like Barry University in Florida). I'm sure you want to take a less expensive path, but cheaper could mean longer. You should look into it now because any postbac option will cost you in time or money.
Again, what if you don't qualify for HPSP or NHSC (given limited funding)? Would that change anything about your goals? You are going to stare into a $400K debt number against you.
Again, if you can't pass your intro cell bio class, you can't access the other upper-level courses like Microbiology, Physiology, or Biochemistry. That's what is going to worry me more. You're right that you can't afford any more grades below B; arguably, you can't afford any more grades below A. I think you need to adjust your hours working outside of class because you won't be working while taking SMP courses (if you're serious about it) or dental school. As far as I know, you are curricularly behind where you want to be, and that's the more important concern. If you can't show us you can do well in those classes, your DAT will likely be lower than ideal. Everything is built on the foundation, and you have to make some choices if this is what you want to do. Otherwise, you can be a dental assistant or hygienist, provided you can address their academic requirements.
Again, what if you don't qualify for HPSP or NHSC (given limited funding)? Would that change anything about your goals? You are going to stare into a $400K debt number against you.
Again, if you can't pass your intro cell bio class, you can't access the other upper-level courses like Microbiology, Physiology, or Biochemistry. That's what is going to worry me more. You're right that you can't afford any more grades below B; arguably, you can't afford any more grades below A. I think you need to adjust your hours working outside of class because you won't be working while taking SMP courses (if you're serious about it) or dental school. As far as I know, you are curricularly behind where you want to be, and that's the more important concern. If you can't show us you can do well in those classes, your DAT will likely be lower than ideal. Everything is built on the foundation, and you have to make some choices if this is what you want to do. Otherwise, you can be a dental assistant or hygienist, provided you can address their academic requirements.
HPSP has been extremely competitive, and will be even more difficult this year and later due to the one big beautiful bill
A- and B- are not going to help your standing
you need to be as close to 4.0 as possible...
VCU postbacc will mostly help you with only vcu
an SMP will help you everywhere
but you need to prove to these programs you can handle high level science material first...
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