Say an applicant has 20/20 DAT, solid extracurriculars, shadowing etc - at what point does a 4.0 in a masters in biology no longer make up for a crappy undergrad GPA? Will a student with a 3.0 and all of the above get in? 2.8? 2.5? Everyone's go to advice for sub-par GPA's is to pursue a masters, but at what grade point do you think it's futile? I know no one knows for sure, but I'm just curious what y'alls thoughts are!
At what point are you doomed?
- Thread starter HookEmBP
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I would consider rewriting and improving on DAT. 20/20 is good but not stellar considering GPA you described. It's possible to get 24+ on DAT which might compensate your GPA whereas improving GPA even by o.5 is almost impossible at some point.
20/20 is a very good score! i'm not sure how favorable the odds are that your score will improve (i'm not saying it can't).
taking extra courses can be very helpful...schools want to see that you will be able to handle the workload.
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It is hard to imagine that dramatic changes in academic achievement/maturity level lose their appeal simply because the starting level may have exceedingly low. In those situations the more poignant question is where are the schools that are willing to extend an acceptance to underperformers.(?)
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=602095
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=602095
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This thread really hits home for me as I'm in a VERY similar situation. My undergrad GPA was very poor ~2.9 but I began taking upper div. BIO courses right out of school and making up some poor grades. Its been 3 years of straights A's and I'm 8 months away from my Masters in Biology with a 4.0GPA. This is my fourth year applying so I'm really hoping some schools take a chance on me this year.
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Doing well in graduate sciences strengthens your application. Retaking and improving the DAT, rewriting your personal statement, getting new letters of recommendation, applying to more and different schools outside of the normal schools for any other d-school applicants you know all help. Of course there is no magic formula-lots of people have seemingly ideal applications and still get rejected. Any school I was rejected at, I contacted and asked how to make my application stronger for the next cycle -if the admissions people were willing to speak to me about it. I got some really good advice.
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I would say it's never futile to improve your gpa. As time goes on, people change, rather than dwelling on your past failures, i think adcoms will review your app and see that you have grown and matured. So as long as you are able to demonstrate the maturation, it's always good! 🙂
best of luck
best of luck
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I had a 2.75 undergrad
Did a tough masters in a hard science (I did a thesis but I advise taking one based on more coursework) got a 3.85
Took the DAT and scored a 25 AA, 27 TS
and I got in
So its possible from wayyyy down there
Your going to need a MONSTER score on the DAT if your under 3.0 tho (22+) IMO, this will help mitigate your undergrad.
REMEMBER!!! If your taking a two year masters thats a huge amount of time to study for the DAT you really should significantly improve your score.
Best of luck to all of you who are trying to earn a second chance the good news is it is indeed possible, the bad news is it isn't a walk in the park.
Did a tough masters in a hard science (I did a thesis but I advise taking one based on more coursework) got a 3.85
Took the DAT and scored a 25 AA, 27 TS
and I got in
So its possible from wayyyy down there
Your going to need a MONSTER score on the DAT if your under 3.0 tho (22+) IMO, this will help mitigate your undergrad.
REMEMBER!!! If your taking a two year masters thats a huge amount of time to study for the DAT you really should significantly improve your score.
Best of luck to all of you who are trying to earn a second chance the good news is it is indeed possible, the bad news is it isn't a walk in the park.
Thank you for all of the responses, but the situation was hypothetical (I haven't even taken the DAT yet). Acgeorge's post is exactly what I was getting at. To say it is never futile really isn't true. Someone with a 2.0 undergrad GPA will likely never gain admission to dental school. Sure there are extreme cases, but they're probably way less than 1% of those applicants. I feel like having a 3.0 is definitely still in the ball game, and 2.7-2.9 is iffy (minimum 2-3 years to gain admission). My guess is that a <2.6 is when someone should find another career because the oppurtunity cost just becomes way too big.
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