Alternatives to my situation

[Johnny4by4]

Hello, all posting because I believe I have found my self "stuck between a rock and a hard place".
I going into my Jr. year of college and trying to figure out my aspiring dream of becoming a dentist.
Currently, my GPA at my college is a 3.67 at the college I am attending at a 3.5 at the community college I attended before it (may actually be lower due to my repeating of two classes, and they don't count the old grade into new GPA). My dilemma comes from a couple of years ago at my first college, I thought I withdrew from all my classes before the deadline for them to actually go into GPA/drop consideration (Had to withdraw due to MAJOR family issues, I guess I didn't fully know how college worked at the time). Bottom, line is I ended up with an F in almost every single class except for a few (12hours). So, this brings my Cumulative GPA down to a 2.8. I forgot about this situation until I was told to retrieve these transcripts from the school.
Now, I guess I could say I was down a bright path before my realization haha, as in I've put in alot of work.

(500 hours)-community service
Apart of Pre-Dental society at my school going on for 2 years
(100 hours)- Shadowing Doctors
Work in a Dental office and Hospital

But, I know with that kind of GPA it's pretty hopeless and wanna know what kind of alternatives are available to me as seeing how I feel lost...

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[JLT223]

Do a post bac if you need to get your gpa up after graduation. Really not that big of a deal. Oh, and you'll need to retake and pre req classes with a grade lower than a C.

 

[Johnny4by4]

Do a post bac if you need to get your gpa up after graduation. Really not that big of a deal. Oh, and you'll need to retake and pre req classes with a grade lower than a C.

I have retaken them all already and I don't completely understand how that'll make those grades go away sorry I never previously did any research since I didn't think I'd have to go down that route

 

[Tman26]

Hello, all posting because I believe I have found my self "stuck between a rock and a hard place".
I going into my Jr. year of college and trying to figure out my aspiring dream of becoming a dentist.
Currently, my GPA at my college is a 3.67 at the college I am attending at a 3.5 at the community college I attended before it (may actually be lower due to my repeating of two classes, and they don't count the old grade into new GPA). My dilemma comes from a couple of years ago at my first college, I thought I withdrew from all my classes before the deadline for them to actually go into GPA/drop consideration (Had to withdraw due to MAJOR family issues, I guess I didn't fully know how college worked at the time). Bottom, line is I ended up with an F in almost every single class except for a few (12hours). So, this brings my Cumulative GPA down to a 2.8. I forgot about this situation until I was told to retrieve these transcripts from the school.
Now, I guess I could say I was down a bright path before my realization haha, as in I've put in alot of work.

(500 hours)-community service
Apart of Pre-Dental society at my school going on for 2 years
(100 hours)- Shadowing Doctors
Work in a Dental office and Hospital

But, I know with that kind of GPA it's pretty hopeless and wanna know what kind of alternatives are available to me as seeing how I feel lost...

I would look into a post bac program, and make sure that you get stellar grades. You need to briefly explain the situation within your personal statement as it relates to those lower grades and what you have been doing to make up for it. Also, call the dental schools you are interested in and ask them what you need to do--they are very good about giving you guidance for their particular school. Even if you have to take a year or two off to make up for the grades, it's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but definitely talk to the admissions officer for different schools.

 

[BiologyMajor86]

Had a friend that aced Organic Chemistry and Physics at a CC, then realized some MD and DDS schools didn't accept these credits, so she retook those classes at a 4 year college and aced it again with an A since the material was already fresh in her mind. She was already a 3.9 student, so the extra A's didn't really help. It does serve as a nice buffer if there's trouble down the road with a class you can't avoid. Another friend of mine was coming back from a tough freshman and sophomore year, but genuinely enjoyed math, so he looked for math-heavy science classes marked as a BCP course such as Intermediate Math Methods (marked as Physics), Physical Chemistry, Biostatistics (in the Biology department), and Mathematical Methods in Biology (a Biology course). This is not recommended for everyone because more or less your typical student is allergic to math. I saw another thread where a student took Organic Chemistry at two different schools, but was labeled differently on their transcript - one was Organic Chemistry 1 and 2, the other was called Molecular Chemistry 1 and 2. You can take Physics 1 and 2 for health-science majors, then take Physics 1 and 2 for math majors at a different school. There are ways around your issues, but it just requires extra time and money. They were not asked about these issues at the medical school interview, so you shouldn't worry too much about adding fluff to your course load.

 

[DentistJoon]

Just don't send in your transcripts from there.... Or count any of the classes you took at that school. Redo them somewhere else

 

[dyesht]

Just don't send in your transcripts from there.... Or count any of the classes you took at that school. Redo them somewhere else

OP don't listen to this. They will find out and it will be impossible to redeem yourself.

 

[plusalpha]

Just don't send in your transcripts from there.... Or count any of the classes you took at that school. Redo them somewhere else

I'm pretty sure you have to send the transcripts from EVERY college/university you've taken courses at....

 

[DentalLonghorn2014]

Just don't send in your transcripts from there.... Or count any of the classes you took at that school. Redo them somewhere else

Not sure if trolling...but definitely the worst advice I've seen on SDN.

 

[fogorvostan]

Just don't send in your transcripts from there.... Or count any of the classes you took at that school. Redo them somewhere else

Echoing that this is a terrible idea. You must send in all transcripts.

 

[doc toothache]

Enough for a club.
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/posts/17544057/
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/posts/17544057/

 

[Johnny4by4]

OP don't listen to this. They will find out and it will be impossible to redeem yourself.

I know, I didn't plan on doing that ^_^

 

[sumin5924]

There's no way you can go back and get the grades corrected? If you had to drop out for extreme circumstances, getting the quarter/semester changed to even W's would be good. I don't understand why you can't hash this out with the school's adminstration, especially if you had previously disclosed your reasoning for dropping your courseload to them.