Any Engineers with Low GPAs?

[uvaGirL07]

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anyone else kicking themselves in the butt for being an engineer major? sometimes i wish i had just majored in something else.........

i have a 3.0 in biomedical engineering @ the university of virginia. i haven't taken the DAT yet... since i'm a new pre-dent. hoping to take it this spring or summer before i apply. and i'm thinking of doing a volunteer health program abroad on a dental team this summer. and after i get back, i was planning on working for a year while i'm applying... as a dental assistant. yup that's my plan. hehe

are dental schools a bit more understanding about engineers with lower gpas? or does it just not matter at all... cuz then i'm really gonna kick myself in the butt if i can manage to... probably not though...

 

[Sinner Saint]

Hey;The same here.Do not panic.I have a B.S in mechanical eng. (not even a bio word in it) from outside the us with a very low GPA.I have taken about 30 units of the dentistry prerequisites in the united state (in those I got an A though) and I am still taking some upper divisions classes this year.I took my DAT in Aug and my scores were:
AA:21
TS:20
PAT:19
By now I have 2 interviews and I hope to get more🙂
Good luck!I like the challenge of experiencing both fields and I guess there are schools out there that like it too.👍

 

[jaypea65]

I am curious as to why didn't you pursue the field of biomed? It seems like a very interesting field.

 

[in her drawer]

I am curious as to why didn't you pursue the field of biomed? It seems like a very interesting field.

BME is a pointless major unless you know for certain you are doing health care. If you really want to do BME, you almost have no choice but to get a master's degree before you can get a job.

 

[denteng]

BME is a pointless major unless you know for certain you are doing health care. If you really want to do BME, you almost have no choice but to get a master's degree before you can get a job.

Entirely not true.

It is only November, and I have a job offer already lined up for graduating in 2007. This is from multiple job offers.

Granted, I am going to dental school, but it is considered backup.




.__________________
Arizonia State University - Biomedical Engineering Class of 2007
GPA= 3.90+
Applying to PENN, Iowa, UW, UCLA, Arizonia, Howard

 

[StephL26]

BME is not pointless...😛 I thought so at first, but then re-evaluated my initial motive for doing this major, and it confirmed that it's one of the best majors possible, if you're into engineering, math, science, biology, medicine...dental...it's all combined. If you took Tissue Engineering course, you'd see how it relates completely to dentistry. 😎

And if you didn't do dentistry...you'll have a few jobs lined up, as someone mentioned earlier in this post- it's true. And I also agree with whoever said that getting a masters was needed...I think it's certainly recommended, but not necessary to get a job after graduation. 😀

Ok, great, I hope no one figured out who I am yet, haha. Most BME's know of each other from my undergraduate class. 😉

 

[54807]

BME is not pointless...😛 I thought so at first, but then re-evaluated my initial motive for doing this major, and it confirmed that it's one of the best majors possible, if you're into engineering, math, science, biology, medicine...dental...it's all combined. If you took Tissue Engineering course, you'd see how it relates completely to dentistry. 😎

And if you didn't do dentistry...you'll have a few jobs lined up, as someone mentioned earlier in this post- it's true. And I also agree with whoever said that getting a masters was needed...I think it's certainly recommended, but not necessary to get a job after graduation. 😀

Ok, great, I hope no one figured out who I am yet, haha. Most BME's know of each other from my undergraduate class. 😉

I graduate this spring in engineering...my GPA isn't bad but it's not steller. Above average. My DAT is real good. They don't even ask me about my bad grades in engineering classes. Just do well on the DAT and you'll show them you can handle the sciences. Just becuase you're an engineer doesn't give you a GPA boost in their eyes. A 3.0 is still a 3.0 that drags down their averages so you better offer them something real good like high DAT.

I'd say a BME degree is worth it at some schools. Sometimes it's a hodgepodge of coursework that leads to knowing nothing real well but other times it's a real good mechanical engineering program with heavy biology application focus.

Remember, all engineering is the same at the core of it. I know of engineers who get hired by differing companies all the time. We have a guy graduating from BME getting hired by Raytheon. He'll be doing NOTHING bio related...

 

[StephL26]

Yea, definitely. I agree about the doing well on GPA and DAT part. Despite major, if dentistry is what you want, you'll have to do whatever it takes to get to where you want to be.

However, I do hope that most schools see the engineering aspect of our majors, because in many cases, particularly mine, the GPA kind of gets screwed up because of the intense curriculum. 😀 But that's no excuse for engineers to not do well on other aspects, ie. DAT, ECs, etc.

 

[denteng]

Yea, definitely. I agree about the doing well on GPA and DAT part. Despite major, if dentistry is what you want, you'll have to do whatever it takes to get to where you want to be.

However, I do hope that most schools see the engineering aspect of our majors, because in many cases, particularly mine, the GPA kind of gets screwed up because of the intense curriculum. 😀 But that's no excuse for engineers to not do well on other aspects, ie. DAT, ECs, etc.

The majority of engineers do very well on their DATs for the aforementioned reasons. After you do engineering, the prerec dental courses are a joke compared to engineering courses.



.__________________
Arizonia State University - Biomedical Engineering Class of 2007
GPA= 3.90+
Applying to PENN, Iowa, UW, UCLA, Arizonia, Howard

 

[54807]

After you do engineering, the prerec dental courses are a joke compared to engineering courses.

I didnt want to say it, but yeah, I totally agree.

 

[denteng]

I didnt want to say it, but yeah, I totally agree.

Most people who have gone through engineering find this to be the case with almost any course.


(obviously excluding subjective classes requiring talent like performing fine arts)


.

 

[pacbum]

i personally think engineers are some of the brightest people out there. they master things that most people can't even comprehend. 3.0 in engineering is still pretty good, and although many schools say they don't care of the major, i think that if you draw attention to the fact that to even get through 4 years of engineering, you have to be a great problem solver, you'll be fine. personally, i think engineers make great doctors and dentist just because they have such good problem solving skills when compared to other disciplines (no offense to anyone else) and that's extremely important in healthcare, because not everything is so cut and dry. a 3.0 in engineering i would say is equivalent to 3.5+ in any other discipline (again no offense to anyone...it just really beyond what most people think). so rather than seeing it as a disadvantage because of the lower numbers, use it to distinguish yourself as a nontraditional applicant. and like others said, just do well on the dat and your prereqs and there's nothing to worry about.

 

[uvaGirL07]

BME is not pointless...😛 I thought so at first, but then re-evaluated my initial motive for doing this major, and it confirmed that it's one of the best majors possible, if you're into engineering, math, science, biology, medicine...dental...it's all combined. If you took Tissue Engineering course, you'd see how it relates completely to dentistry. 😎

And if you didn't do dentistry...you'll have a few jobs lined up, as someone mentioned earlier in this post- it's true. And I also agree with whoever said that getting a masters was needed...I think it's certainly recommended, but not necessary to get a job after graduation. 😀

Ok, great, I hope no one figured out who I am yet, haha. Most BME's know of each other from my undergraduate class. 😉

i'm really glad to hear that!! i'm taking tissue engineering next semester. 😀

hopefully the schools will cut me some slack GPA-wise. i haven't taken the DAT yet, and I just started studying for it... but so far so good!! as an engineer... i'm LOVING the math section... and the PAT section.. muahahaha

thanks for all the insight! i'll let you guys know what happens~! 🙂

and i agree... any science & arts class i have taken in the past... and pre-dental courses... seemed much easier and relaxed than any of my engineering courses.... probably because there weren't any weekly homeworks or projects due...

the classes that have given me the most trouble were mostly programming classes or classes dealing with signals and systems.... if i wanted to be an electrical engineer i would've signed up to be one!! aRGH!!!! circuitry pisses me off sometimes... hahaha but then again it's pretty cool when you can not only analzye ECG waves, but build an ECG machine too. hahahaha GO ENGINEERS! ^^

 

[Fulcrum77]

I graduated with a 3.08 in Computer Engineering. Two years later, I decide I wanted to become a dentist. I went back to school, aced all the pre-reqs, and scored well on the DAT. Admission people are not dumb, they KNOW all majors are NOT the same no matter what they say. You will be fine, I promise!