Advice please and be honest!

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Raghnild

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Hi all,

I'm a predental student in my junior year, I have a ogpa of 3.32 and a sgpa of 3.10. I want to apply to dental school this summer in June and I'm taking the DAT end of July. I am really worried if I even should apply with such a low sgpa 😕, I am considering doing a masters instead should I do that? just to be safe. Any advice or comments would be much appreciated 👍
 
Hi all,

I'm a predental student in my junior year, I have a ogpa of 3.32 and a sgpa of 3.10. I want to apply to dental school this summer in June and I'm taking the DAT end of July. I am really worried if I even should apply with such a low sgpa 😕, I am considering doing a masters instead should I do that? just to be safe. Any advice or comments would be much appreciated 👍

Your GPA on the low side, but you knew that. If you do well on the DAT you will have always have a shot to get in. Study your ass off and prove yourself with good scores. Apply to lots of schools, and ones that accept students with lower GPAs. What are your shadowing and EC hours looking like? It would really help you to have a ton of hours volunteering and also a good amount shadowing to show you are serious. Its better IMO to shadow more dentists with less hours than one dentist with lots of hours. Make sure you are getting strong letters of recommendation and write yourself a strong personal statement showcasing your abilities. best of luck!
 
Hi all,

I'm a predental student in my junior year, I have a ogpa of 3.32 and a sgpa of 3.10. I want to apply to dental school this summer in June and I'm taking the DAT end of July. I am really worried if I even should apply with such a low sgpa 😕, I am considering doing a masters instead should I do that? just to be safe. Any advice or comments would be much appreciated 👍

Have you taken all the pre-reqs including biochemistry? Many schools also have strongly recommended classes like anatomy, physiology, psychology etc. It might be best to finish that "upward trendline" strong with your senior year classes as well as get more shadowing, extra-curriculars, leadership, letters of references, etc during your senior year as well.

Everyone is different. You may rock the DAT and have a chance of getting in but I know I wasn't even close to ready the end of my junior year. I hadn't even taken 2nd semester o-chem so applying was out of the question for me.
 
Hi all,

I'm a predental student in my junior year, I have a ogpa of 3.32 and a sgpa of 3.10. I want to apply to dental school this summer in June and I'm taking the DAT end of July. I am really worried if I even should apply with such a low sgpa 😕, I am considering doing a masters instead should I do that? just to be safe. Any advice or comments would be much appreciated 👍

If you can get at least a 21 on the DAT, then you may have a slim chance of getting in. If you can only score 19, then your chance is ... slimmer 🙂 In either case, it's always up to you to apply or not. On average, it's about $160 per school. So if you have an extra $3200 to apply for 20 schools, then give it a shot. With a 19 DAT or lower, I would say 95% that you'll lose that money and get nothing back.
 
Your GPA on the low side, but you knew that. If you do well on the DAT you will have always have a shot to get in. Study your ass off and prove yourself with good scores. Apply to lots of schools, and ones that accept students with lower GPAs. What are your shadowing and EC hours looking like? It would really help you to have a ton of hours volunteering and also a good amount shadowing to show you are serious. Its better IMO to shadow more dentists with less hours than one dentist with lots of hours. Make sure you are getting strong letters of recommendation and write yourself a strong personal statement showcasing your abilities. best of luck!

I'm hoping to get a 21 or higher on the DAT. I have 20 hours of shadowing right now and 60 volunteer hours. I shadowed an orthodontist but I am currently shadowing a general dentist.
And thanks for the advice!
 
Have you taken all the pre-reqs including biochemistry? Many schools also have strongly recommended classes like anatomy, physiology, psychology etc. It might be best to finish that "upward trendline" strong with your senior year classes as well as get more shadowing, extra-curriculars, leadership, letters of references, etc during your senior year as well.

Everyone is different. You may rock the DAT and have a chance of getting in but I know I wasn't even close to ready the end of my junior year. I hadn't even taken 2nd semester o-chem so applying was out of the question for me.

I took all the prereqs already, so I do feel ready to take the DAT. You said that you weren't ready by the end of your junior year, when did you take your DAT? after your senior year or during?
 
I'm hoping to get a 21 or higher on the DAT. I have 20 hours of shadowing right now and 60 volunteer hours. I shadowed an orthodontist but I am currently shadowing a general dentist.
And thanks for the advice!

You're welcome. Get those shadowing hours up to at least 60 by the application cycle. Some schools require 100 I believe. Im retaking the DAT in 2 months and I also plan on getting a 21+, got a 20 last time but that was almost 3 years ago. Good luck to us!
 
You're welcome. Get those shadowing hours up to at least 60 by the application cycle. Some schools require 100 I believe. Im retaking the DAT in 2 months and I also plan on getting a 21+, got a 20 last time but that was almost 3 years ago. Good luck to us!

I'm going to do that, thanks! Good luck! We can do this!
 
I'd shadow a general dentist for at least 60 hours and overall predental experience of ~100 hours. NYU and Umich now strongly recommends at least 100 hours. Tufts requires a LOR from a dentist who you shadowed for 60 hours( needs to specifically write how many hours you shadowed/volunteered with him.) Apply to 20+ schools. Make sure your letter of recommendations and personal statements are top notch. Some people don't think personal statements matter much, but I received compliments on my personal statements from many of my interviews. Go find an advisor from your school career center to get help on your personal statement. There also may be some private services you can hire to get help on your application from start to finish. What's done is done with your GPA. Just as someone suggested, try to get that upward trend for your GPA. Do well on your DAT. APPLY EARLY.

I'd also prepare for post-bac/masters application as a backup. Good luck.
 
I'd shadow a general dentist for at least 60 hours and overall predental experience of ~100 hours. NYU and Umich now strongly recommends at least 100 hours. Tufts requires a LOR from a dentist who you shadowed for 60 hours( needs to specifically write how many hours you shadowed/volunteered with him.) Apply to 20+ schools. Make sure your letter of recommendations and personal statements are top notch. Some people don't think personal statements matter much, but I received compliments on my personal statements from many of my interviews. Go find an advisor from your school career center to get help on your personal statement. There also may be some private services you can hire to get help on your application from start to finish. What's done is done with your GPA. Just as someone suggested, try to get that upward trend for your GPA. Do well on your DAT. APPLY EARLY.

I'd also prepare for post-bac/masters application as a backup. Good luck.

There are also a number of us who have volunteered to read and crit personal statements. I've found that a lot of the people in the school's "writing labs" or career centers are generally pretty useless when it comes to polishing up something like a PS. Additionally, I don't really know that a private service for your app is necessary. Just be sure to add anything and everything you can think of, and present it as well as possible. It's all about honest embellishment.

As far as the upward trend goes, I think a LOT depends on how you did this past year. Getting a 4.0 your senior year really won't matter a whole lot if your cGPA dropped because your junior year. ADCOM's likely won't hold your app for reconsideration after academic update if that's the case. Like everyone else has suggested, your best hope now is to do an incredible job on the DAT. I'll also warn you that just taking all your prereq's does not prepare you for the DAT. If you're planning on taking at the end of July then you had best start implementing your preparation plan soon. 9-10 weeks is not bad, but you need to be committed during that time if you hope to score at least 21 across the board.

I would personally apply this cycle but wouldn't expect a whole lot. It seems that people in your situation rarely ever get in their first try, but I'm kind of the opinion that schools almost intentionally reject "so-so" applicants just to see what they do for an additional year...kind of a way to see how bad you want it. But I would still apply for no other reason than to have all your info filled out and saved by AADSAS for the 2015 cycle. It's a lot easier to get your app in the first week when you don't have to worry about re-entering all your course info and shadowing/EC/award info. (but then again, I had ~180 credit hours worth of courses to enter) 🙂

All the same, I think you need to know what to do...so do it. Like I said before, I wouldn't bank on getting any acceptances this cycle, which means you should still be taking a heavy courseload your senior year and doing WELL (3.8+) to show that you are, in fact, committed to matriculating to dental school. If Nov/Dec/Jan comes around and you haven't gotten any interview offers, don't get frustrated. Just stay committed and make sure you don't screw yourself for the 2015 cycle.

BTW autoclavemonkey, congrats on UM. I'll see you there at the end of June.
 
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