Can I still make up for my bad freshman year?

[439634]

---

Members don't see this ad.

.

 

[minafeet]

yes

 

[wo5678]

I'm going to be a 2nd year undergrad at UCLA. These were my freshman year grades:

Summer 2011 (before actual school year)
Writing - B
GE - B

Fall 2011
Chem - W
Calculus - D+
GE - A

Winter 2012
Bio Ecology - C+
GE - B+
GE - B+

Spring 2012
GE - A
GE - A
GE - A

Summer 2012
Calculus RETAKEN - B

Basically, the only pre-dental classes I've taken are the ones in bold.
My cumulative GPA is currently a 3.2X and my science GPA is pretty low as you can see.

I got my **** together in the Spring quarter with the classes I took, which was definitely a confidence booster. Assuming I have a decent amount of research and volunteering on the sideline and if I get A's and B's from here on out, will I still have a shot at dental school? I've been using this summer as a time to refocus to get myself in the right mindset.

I am in a similar boat as you. I took Calc III twice and got an F and a D, and I had F's in MANY other classes. I was young and unmotivated. Since then, I pulled my act together and got A's and A+'s, and scored well on my DAT. We will see if I get into dental school. If I could do it, then you can do it. I will let you know.
But I think you will be fine.

 

[bluesprite13]

You will be fine 🙂 Make sure to retake the classes that you got a C- or below. If you continue to do well throughout college as you have in your spring quarter, they will definitely like the upward trend. 🙂

 

[aznnytezx]

My GPA at the end of freshmen year was a 3.2 I believe. At the end of Sophomore year I brought it close to a 3.6. So I believe you can do it.

 

[rootz02]

.

 

[ushaseos]

UCLA isn't an easy school so if you keep performing like the Spring Quarter, I suspect most adcoms will overlook the bad quarters. Hell you might even get a slight boost if your GPA ends up being right on the border of competitive.

Its definitely do-able since you've resolved to mend your ways so early in the game, I had a similar issue though my grades weren't too bad. My first semester at Berkeley got me the worst GPA I ever had, but you can spin this positively by creating an upward trend. It won't be easy but it will make up for the few bad decisions we made while we were young and dumb 😛

 

[jigabodo]

I'm going to be a 2nd year undergrad at UCLA. These were my freshman year grades:

Summer 2011 (before actual school year)
Writing - B
GE - B

Fall 2011
Chem - W
Calculus - D+
GE - A

Winter 2012
Bio Ecology - C+
GE - B+
GE - B+

Spring 2012
GE - A
GE - A
GE - A

Summer 2012
Calculus RETAKEN - B

Basically, the only pre-dental classes I've taken are the ones in bold.
My cumulative GPA is currently a 3.2X and my science GPA is pretty low as you can see.

I got my **** together in the Spring quarter with the classes I took and was on the Dean's List, which was definitely a confidence booster. Assuming I have a decent amount of research and volunteering on the sideline and if I get A's and B's from here on out, will I still have a shot at dental school? I've been using this summer as a time to refocus to get myself in the right mindset.

Your freshmen year GPA was higher than mine, you will be alright. Good luck!

 

[dchoi]

there are people making up for an entire college career.... you will be fine.

 

[shootingstar7]

Yes. Especially if u r a science major because you will have many more bcpm courses in your future! Improvement is attractive because it shows discipline. Dont give up!!

Sent from my SCH-I500 using SDN Mobile

 

[UCLAzy]

i'm happy that you improved in the spring, but it's not really indicative of your ability to do well in science courses.

if you're a science major, you're very far behind at this point. many of your peers have taken 14A+B and LS1+2 and all three math courses. you've taken 2 of those 7 courses and did poorly in them. if you're not a science major, do everything you can to do well in those lower level ones (take less classes, etc)

there arent really any easy lower division science courses while there are a plethora of easy GE courses (also GE's tend to use a different part of the brain). i'm glad you had a GPA boost in spring, it's going to give you some needed confidence for the fall. but you need a major change in study habits to do well in your pre reqs.

 

[439634]

.