Advice

[john kyler]

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I graduated with a B.S. in Biochemistry. My GPA is extremely low at a 2.5. I took the DAT and performed decent on it received 19's and 20's. Average for Science was 19. What could I do to improve my chances at looking into getting in a dental school. I was considering going back to school for a Masters in Chemistry or Biochemistry, where i will have to maintain a GPA of at least 3.0. Is that my best option or are there alternatives that would be more sufficient in my aim to get accepted to a dental school? Thank you for your advice in advance.

 

[Seamonkey Doc]

I graduated with a B.S. in Biochemistry. My GPA is extremely low at a 2.5. I took the DAT and performed decent on it received 19's and 20's. Average for Science was 19. What could I do to improve my chances at looking into getting in a dental school. I was considering going back to school for a Masters in Chemistry or Biochemistry, where i will have to maintain a GPA of at least 3.0. Is that my best option or are there alternatives that would be more sufficient in my aim to get accepted to a dental school? Thank you for your advice in advance.

A Master's is a good idea, but you'll need a 3.5 or higher GPA for a good shot. Your DAT is good, but you might have to score higher (21+) to make up for the low undergrad GPA.

Good luck

 

[wired202808]

I graduated with a B.S. in Biochemistry. My GPA is extremely low at a 2.5. I took the DAT and performed decent on it received 19's and 20's. Average for Science was 19. What could I do to improve my chances at looking into getting in a dental school. I was considering going back to school for a Masters in Chemistry or Biochemistry, where i will have to maintain a GPA of at least 3.0. Is that my best option or are there alternatives that would be more sufficient in my aim to get accepted to a dental school? Thank you for your advice in advance.

DAT is fine. Take a Masters 1 yr non-thesis based program to boost the weak GPA. Also find out what your sGPA is to make sure that its competitive as well.

 

[UltimateHombre]

I graduated with a B.S. in Biochemistry. My GPA is extremely low at a 2.5. I took the DAT and performed decent on it received 19's and 20's. Average for Science was 19. What could I do to improve my chances at looking into getting in a dental school. I was considering going back to school for a Masters in Chemistry or Biochemistry, where i will have to maintain a GPA of at least 3.0. Is that my best option or are there alternatives that would be more sufficient in my aim to get accepted to a dental school? Thank you for your advice in advance.

I am going to shoot straight with you man... your chances will be pretty slim... even with a masters degree. Assuming you have 120 credits of 2.5 GPA, even if you 4.0 a 30 credit MS program (which is no easy task), you will still only have an overall GPA of 2.8. But your undergrad GPA will still be at 2.5, which may be lower than some schools cut offs.

I would personally recommend you do a year of post bac before doing an MS program. If you take 30 credits of upper division bio and 4.0 them, you will then have an undergrad GPA of 2.8. You could then do a 30 credit MS program and get your overall GPA up to 3.1ish.

Now after all that work... you have to be prepared for the fact that you still might not get in. You might also need to retake the DAT. Below average GPA + average DAT does not bode well for you. So you might need to get it up to the 21+ range. This process will take a lot of hard work and probably at least 2 years of grade correction. You need to look down inside and see if you have what it takes. You could also consider other health professions... nursing, chiropractic, optometry, pharmacy, or podiatry. However, you will still need to fix your GPA before applying to those programs too.

Don't mean to be a jerk, i am just trying to give you some very practical advice. Best of luck!!

 

[Sublimazing]

I am going to shoot straight with you man... your chances will be pretty slim... even with a masters degree. Assuming you have 120 credits of 2.5 GPA, even if you 4.0 a 30 credit MS program (which is no easy task), you will still only have an overall GPA of 2.8. But your undergrad GPA will still be at 2.5, which may be lower than some schools cut offs.

I would personally recommend you do a year of post bac before doing an MS program. If you take 30 credits of upper division bio and 4.0 them, you will then have an undergrad GPA of 2.8. You could then do a 30 credit MS program and get your overall GPA up to 3.1ish.

Now after all that work... you have to be prepared for the fact that you still might not get in. You might also need to retake the DAT. Below average GPA + average DAT does not bode well for you. So you might need to get it up to the 21+ range. This process will take a lot of hard work and probably at least 2 years of grade correction. You need to look down inside and see if you have what it takes. You could also consider other health professions... nursing, chiropractic, optometry, pharmacy, or podiatry. However, you will still need to fix your GPA before applying to those programs too.

Don't mean to be a jerk, i am just trying to give you some very practical advice. Best of luck!!

Agreed. You're gonna have to do a post bac and build up that gpa...then masters

But first...do you think you're capable of really pulling that gpa up? To go from a 2.5 to a 4.0 isn't the norm

And even with all that work your chances of getting in aren't stellar. You're in a tough spot, time to start making some hard decisions

 

[timwatley]

You can definitely get in but you've got quite a hole to pull yourself out of. You'll need to ace a ton of post bacc courses but it has probably been done before. If you want it bad enough you'll get it.

 

[Tootyfruity]

I am going to shoot straight with you man... your chances will be pretty slim... even with a masters degree. Assuming you have 120 credits of 2.5 GPA, even if you 4.0 a 30 credit MS program (which is no easy task), you will still only have an overall GPA of 2.8. But your undergrad GPA will still be at 2.5, which may be lower than some schools cut offs.

I would personally recommend you do a year of post bac before doing an MS program. If you take 30 credits of upper division bio and 4.0 them, you will then have an undergrad GPA of 2.8. You could then do a 30 credit MS program and get your overall GPA up to 3.1ish.

Now after all that work... you have to be prepared for the fact that you still might not get in. You might also need to retake the DAT. Below average GPA + average DAT does not bode well for you. So you might need to get it up to the 21+ range. This process will take a lot of hard work and probably at least 2 years of grade correction. You need to look down inside and see if you have what it takes. You could also consider other health professions... nursing, chiropractic, optometry, pharmacy, or podiatry. However, you will still need to fix your GPA before applying to those programs too.

Don't mean to be a jerk, i am just trying to give you some very practical advice. Best of luck!!

sadly this

you'll have to get straight 4.0s from now on + either open up a clinic in darfur or get 23+ on the dats

if you're URM it might help

gl man

if you can get in at some point let sdn know, cause you'd deserve mad props

 

[JdogDMD]

Chances are slim my friend... Might want to look at something else.