Another My Chances thread

[danchoi03]

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Here are my projections for my GPA breakdown by the end of next year:

Overall GPA: 2.85
Science GPA: 2.82 (due to huge amount of engineering classes)
BCP: 3.54

Do you think I have a shot at dental school if I do well on DAT?

If not, what other routes should I take?

1. More post-bacc classes
2. Apply to SMP. The problem here is that I don't think any SMP will accept applicants with less than 3.0. 😡

What should I do please help.

 

[amalgamgrillz]

Here are my projections for my GPA breakdown by the end of next year:

Overall GPA: 2.85
Science GPA: 2.82 (due to huge amount of engineering classes)
BCP: 3.54

Do you think I have a shot at dental school if I do well on DAT?

If not, what other routes should I take?

1. More post-bacc classes
2. Apply to SMP. The problem here is that I don't think any SMP will accept applicants with less than 3.0. 😡
What should I do please help.

Well, if I'm being completely honest, I think you should post this in the What Are My Chances thread.

 

[93geo]

your bcp is good but your overall gpa is still below 3.0 so that will hurt you. You also don't have a DAT score yet so its not really that easy to say what your chances are at this point

 

[KittySquared]

1) Take post-bac classes for a year. 3 sci classes in the fall, 3 sci classes in the Spring. Make sure you get 3.8+ so it brings up your GPA overall and especially sci GPA. Take some miscellaneous classes as well, like healthcare ethics related classes. Maybe even a sculpture class.

2) Take DATs and score 19 or 20+ on everything.

3) Apply to SMPs. You could also apply to dental schools next summer given that you have great DATs and GPAs have been brought to above 3.3 overall. When AADSAS calculates your GPA, the +/-s are taken into account, so your AADSAS GPA is frequently lower than your actual GPA from school transcripts, unless you've been getting 4.0s with A+s which is sort of rare.

I think in short:
2.85 GPA + 3.8 post-bacGPA + 1yr SMP GPA concurrently apply to 20 schools while yielding 3.8gpa = success

Given that you have a lot of dental activities and solid letters.

Best of luck

-Kitty


PS: I know a dentist with your name. Stay positive! You can be Dr. Choi too.

 

[danchoi03]

Thanks everyone for the replies,


Actually I have been doing post-bacc for a 1.5 year and I am planning to do one more year and apply. My concern was that even after another year of post-bacc work I barely can move my overall gpa and science gpa. The max gpa I can get by next year is around 2.8. As for the DAT, I did the ADA practice exam I get:

AA/BIO/GC/OC/TS/PAT/RC/QR
21/20/19/24/21/22/19/18/22

This was my score even without o-chem, so I am confident I will do well on the real test.

I forgot to mention that my undergrad gpa is 2.4. I started post-bacc work 1.5 years ago and got a gpa of 3.85 all together. I realize my gpa poses a lot of problem for me but will adcoms over look that even after 2.5 years of post-bacc work?

 

[KittySquared]

Your concern is understandable. I think adcoms will look at your postbac work and realize that you've worked hard to improve your GPA. Not every pre-dent is going to be stellar A students all from the beginning. I think you should apply after you take your DATs (rooting for a 20+ all sections) and also apply to SMPs just as a backup. It's always wise to have a backup, imo.

-Kitty

 

[SeattleRDH]

Will you be getting a degree in engineering? If so, that will be to your advantage. Engineers do very well in dental school.

 

[glo1984]

There is no reason why you can't succeed in dental school, the only problem is matriculating. Take the sample ADA exam with a grain of salt because it clearly isn't on the same level. For example, I didn't miss any questions in the science section & I clearly did on the actual exam. It gives you an idea of how they ask questions so just be sure to study hard.

Given your work ethic, hopefully stellar DAT, great post-bac and solid PS.. I think you definitely have a solid chance. Apply broadly and choose wisely!

 

[danchoi03]

Will you be getting a degree in engineering? If so, that will be to your advantage. Engineers do very well in dental school.

I have an engineer degree. Hopefully you are right about the degree that it gives me an advantage.

 

[danchoi03]

There is no reason why you can't succeed in dental school, the only problem is matriculating. Take the sample ADA exam with a grain of salt because it clearly isn't on the same level. For example, I didn't miss any questions in the science section & I clearly did on the actual exam. It gives you an idea of how they ask questions so just be sure to study hard.

Given your work ethic, hopefully stellar DAT, great post-bac and solid PS.. I think you definitely have a solid chance. Apply broadly and choose wisely!

I figure ADA exam is not a good measure of my capability so I will take the Kaplan practice exam next week and see where I stand. Thanks for the reply.

 

[AwesomeTeeth]

I figure ADA exam is not a good measure of my capability so I will take the Kaplan practice exam next week and see where I stand. Thanks for the reply.

Do you know a friend who is applying right now? Most likely they have a copy of TopScore or Achiever that is still good. Go takes on of those. Kaplan practice tests are kinda shady as well.

 

[danchoi03]

Ok last night, I read through the "What schools should I apply to" sticky above and found out that my gpa poses a bigger problem which is my UTHSCSA score is roughly a 10.21 and that is with 22+ on the AA section on the DAT. My UTHSCSA score is not even competitive enough for low tier schools. This is really frustrating because my gpa barely moves even with 2.5 years of postbacc work 😡.

 

[AwesomeTeeth]

Ok last night, I read through the "What schools should I apply to" sticky above and found out that my gpa poses a bigger problem which is my UTHSCSA score is roughly a 10.21 and that is with 22+ on the AA section on the DAT. My UTHSCSA score is not even competitive enough for low tier schools. This is really frustrating because my gpa barely moves even with 2.5 years of postbacc work 😡.

Apply next cycle. Go all in with everything you got on the DAT and make a great score. Get great letters of rec, apply on the first day, do everything by the book. Pray alot. If you don't get any interviews by December, you probably should start about getting into a SMP in the spring. If you can't do SMP, then go sign up for some masters program and just take high level biology electives that are relevant to dental/medical. And then go from there.