2 questions

[ugradconfused]

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hey everyone, i have two questions, both of which i am sure have been answered in the past, but i can't find them and i wanted to ask anyway.

first: does undergrad institution and difficulty of classes at that institution play a factor in terms of gpa? as in, would a lower gpa at a "better" undergrad school be acceptable. by "better" i mean having a reputation for being harder, like top 10 ranked school without tremendous grade inflation that i have heard exists at some.

second: does applying to medical and dental school, or even taking the MCAT, hurt chances of admission to dental school? i am going to be a junior and i am unsure which field i want to go into (which i feel is entirely legit as they are both medical fields and all). i dont want to hurt my applications to dental school by also applying to medical school or the other way around.

hopefully you guys can help me out. thanks

 

[aggie-master]

first: does undergrad institution and difficulty of classes at that institution play a factor in terms of gpa? as in, would a lower gpa at a "better" undergrad school be acceptable. by "better" i mean having a reputation for being harder, like top 10 ranked school without tremendous grade inflation that i have heard exists at some.

From what I've seen/heard, your GPA and DAT scores are the most important parts of your application, and you're going to look better with a 3.9 GPA from Joe Blow State University than a 2.9 from a top 10 school. A big part of it is your DAT scores. You control how well you do on the DAT by putting more effort into the exam. You don't need to go to a top 10 school to do well on the DAT. I made a 22 (96th percentile) and took all of my prereqs at a Junior College.

 

[ugradconfused]

From what I've seen/heard, your GPA and DAT scores are the most important parts of your application, and you're going to look better with a 3.9 GPA from Joe Blow State University than a 2.9 from a top 10 school. A big part of it is your DAT scores. You control how well you do on the DAT by putting more effort into the exam. You don't need to go to a top 10 school to do well on the DAT. I made a 22 (96th percentile) and took all of my prereqs at a Junior College.

i dont really have the choice to take my prereqs at a jc since ive already taken them at a top 10 school. also, im talking like 3.5 at this school, not 2.9. is that competitive at top dental schools?

 

[reapply2007]

An advantage of going to a potentially known and larger four-year school is that they may have an established link to dental schools as well as pre-dental clubs with connections to research experience, and other ECs that a junior college or community college typically doesn't have set up.

But you'll still need a strong GPA and DAT. 3.5 is in the mix. Break out the science GPA versus overall GPA. Competitive science GPA starts 3.2 - 3.3 typically but there are exceptions.

"Top" dental schools? Dental schools haven't cooperated to be ranked since the 90s as the schools think rankings are bunk and don't capture the uniqueness of each school. They have plenty of applicants for every slot available. No need to make things worse by ranking the schools, if you are a school.