<3.0 GPA, 27 DAT. Competitive?

[Toothenator]

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Hey everyone, I have a >3.0 gpa. According to the ADEA calculation it’s a 2.9GPA & 2.8sGPA, including retakes in orgo 2, calc 2, & physics 2. I finished by BS Biology at Temple in 5 years; I had a bad hand injury that slowed me down during my 3rd/junior year & worked part time as well as being involved in several extra curriculars. My DAT is 27AA, 27TS, & 22PAT. Should I do a one year postbacc/SMP, or am I competitive if I apply broadly and early?

 

[Bigjt1420]

Get your GPA above 3.0, as that is the cutoff at many dental schools. After that, you have a good chance considering maybe 5 other people in the country who took the DAT did better than you. Good luck!

 

[artist2022]

Dental schools don't replace grades, so you have to include both your first and your retake grades in your GPA calculations. Nonetheless, I think you should do an SMP because your GPAs will filter you out at many schools before your app is even looked at by a committee. Also, there's a huge discrepancy because you did well on a test that people study a few months for, but you did poorly in a degree that took you 5 years to complete, a year longer than most. To overcome that discrepancy, I think an SMP would show schools you didn't just get "lucky" with the DAT... just my thoughts.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Hey everyone, I have a 2.9GPA & 2.8sGPA. This is with retakes in orgo 2, calc 2, & physics 2. I finished by BS Biology at Temple in 5 years; I had a bad hand injury that slowed me down during my 3rd/junior year & worked part time as well as being involved in several extra curriculars. My DAT is 27AA, 27TS, & 22PAT. Should I do a one year postbacc/SMP, or am I competitive if I apply broadly and early?

You're in a great position for an SMP similar to the one offered at Temple (or go somewhere else if you want). Find a school with a strong linkage track to acceptance. Having such high DAT's actually places a hotter spotlight on your sub-3.0 GPA, so a successful SMP GPA of 3.7+ will help provide an argument that the DAT score wasn't a fluke.

 

[doc toothache]

2014 Range of GPA/DAT; "Cut off"scores.

A myth that keeps making the rounds on SDN is that schools have “cut off” DAT and GPA scores. There are 4 schools that have a declared minimum DAT scores (Florida15, Missouri KC 16, Oregon 15, Temple 19). In the case of Temple, the declared minimum of 19 is probably a typo since, for 2013, the...

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[danchoi03]

Impressive DAT. I think you have chance to land more interviews if you do either SMP or post-bac for 1 year with a 3.7+ GPA.