Advice for friend of mine

[yakuza]

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I have a friend who's changing from engineering to predental but the thing is he's in really worrying shape concerning his academics. He's really determined to become a dentist though

His GPA & sci GPA are ~2.6 with ~80 hours

I told him the best decision he can do right now if he wants to become a dentist is
1. major in Nutrition (nutrition classes count towards sci GPA) to simultaneously boost his oGPA and sGPA...
2. Score near perfect on the DAT

Will dental schools look down upon the Nutrition degree and think of it as him trying to 'boost' his sci GPA?

Also, any advice for him?

 

[206127]

I think that as long as he takes the pre reqs and does well in those they won't look down on his degree. Now if he does poorly on his pre reqs and boosts his GPA with the other classes, it will be clear to anyone why he took those classes. I'd tell em to just do well in bio, chem, ochem and DAT and he should be fine. A friend of mine on here by the name of "chober" did that and I think he's golden... check out his posts and look for him on predents...

 

[A8]

I have a friend who's changing from engineering to predental but the thing is he's in really bad shape concerning his academics. He's really determined to become a dentist though

His GPA & sci GPA are ~2.6 with ~80 hours

I told him the best decision he can do right now if he wants to become a dentist is
1. major in Nutrition (nutrition classes count towards sci GPA) to simultaneously boost his oGPA and sGPA...
2. Score near perfect on the DAT

Will dental schools look down upon the Nutrition degree and think of it as him trying to 'boost' his sci GPA?

Also, any advice for him?

As long as he takes pre-requisite courses and performs well on his pre-req's and DAT, he got chances! I am engineering major myself, and I think it is not hard to make transition as long as you are determined to become a dentist. I also heard adcoms curve engineering GPA since they know engineering courses are very challenging so I don't think your friend needs near perfect DAT scores. He just needs to start taking pre-req courses for about a year and then prepare for DAT to score 21+ on his DAT.

 

[yakuza]

Thanks for the advice.

Another big thing I'm a bit concerned about is that I calculated with his 'ideal' GPA would be if he majored in nutrition and applied to d-school. It turned out to be boarder-line 3.0...I think ~2.95. Would this be a big problem even if he makes all A's in his prereqs

 

[206127]

Thanks for the advice.

Another big thing I'm a bit concerned about is that I calculated with his 'ideal' GPA would be if he majored in nutrition and applied to d-school. It turned out to be boarder-line 3.0...I think ~2.95. Would this be a big problem even if he makes all A's in his prereqs

as long as he has a strong upward trend he's fine... that's how my friend did it...

 

[doc toothache]

I have a friend who's changing from engineering to predental but the thing is he's in really bad shape concerning his academics. He's really determined to become a dentist though
His GPA & sci GPA are ~2.6 with ~80 hours
I told him the best decision he can do right now if he wants to become a dentist is
1. major in Nutrition (nutrition classes count towards sci GPA) to simultaneously boost his oGPA and sGPA...
2. Score near perfect on the DAT
Will dental schools look down upon the Nutrition degree and think of it as him trying to 'boost' his sci GPA?
Also, any advice for him?

Your friend is in need of a reality check. It is not a matter of whether or not ds will "look down upon a degree in nutrition". Rather it is deciding whether or not he will be happy having chosen nutrition as a career should he have difficulties gaining acceptance to ds.

 

[yakuza]

I think that as long as he takes the pre reqs and does well in those they won't look down on his degree. Now if he does poorly on his pre reqs and boosts his GPA with the other classes, it will be clear to anyone why he took those classes. I'd tell em to just do well in bio, chem, ochem and DAT and he should be fine. A friend of mine on here by the name of "chober" did that and I think he's golden... check out his posts and look for him on predents...

Yeh I just saw his posts and predents. That's really impressive to get an interview at both UCSF and Western. wow..

 

[yakuza]

Your friend is in need of a reality check. It is not a matter of whether or not ds will "look down upon a degree in nutrition". Rather it is deciding whether or not he will be happy having chosen nutrition as a career should he have difficulties gaining acceptance to ds.

Well, imo, pre-dental is similar to the all or nothing principle (unless you majored in business, or something very useful) because most degrees are biology. Without acceptance into dental school, there's actually not much different between a biology and nutrition degree since there's very little you can do with these two. I'm also majoring in bio so I hope this doesn't offend anyone

 

[doc toothache]

Well, imo, pre-dental is similar to the all or nothing principle (unless you majored in business, or something very useful) because most degrees are biology. Without acceptance into dental school, there's actually not much different between a biology and nutrition degree since there's very little you can do with these two. I'm also majoring in bio so I hope this doesn't offend anyone

Actually biology majors represent just slightly over 50% of the enrollees. You can always find a job with a bio degree or nutrition although the fringe benefits may not be what we were looking for. By this logic, a degree in engineering would be a heck of a lot more desirable than a degree in "pre-dent" or bio.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=516945

 

[chober]

My friend beat me to my story, but I was also an engineering major first. I graduated with a 2.33 overall and 2.1 science GPA with about 132 hours. This is probably about as bad as you can get.

I spent 2 years at a community college doing general requirements and then transferred to a university to do more pre-reqs and recommended courses. As of now I'm in my 5th year after my undergraduate degree. It may take some time, but if you're determined enough you can be considered competitive and get interviews.