Confused possible pre-dental student

[Bellepepper]

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Hi Gang 🙂

I'm in need of some dire advice.

I'm a 26 year old student studying accounting. My passion as always been to study Dentisty. I took a few biology classes, I made some wrong choices and ended up getting in a bad relationship that got me sidetracked. I ended up changing my major to accounting and since the age of 21 have been struggling to clean up my grades. They are not very pretty. The bio classes I did take I had solid A's or B's, however I did awful in my business clases.

The point being i'm not at all happy studying accounting. I'm wondering if its too late to get back into
pre-dental course work. I also plan to take the certified public accountant CPA) exam to boost my image as my BA gpa is shameful, hanging to a 2.0.

The school I attend has a program for pre-dental majors, basically once you finish your pre-dental classes they help you prep for the DAT and entrance essay etc.

Based on my age and the long way I have to go, is it worth it, or has my 2.0 undergrade GPA in accounting pretty much killed my chance?

Thank you Kindly

 

[Beatles0467]

As a dental student who's been through the process and sort of knows what it takes, a GPA around 2.0 will be extremely difficult to overcome. I say this simply because the average GPA at most schools is in the 3.5-3.7 range, so you can bet that everyone is over 3.0 and 90%+ are over 3.2. However, if you take all the dental prereqs and get A's in all of them, then you could theoretically get that GPA up to around the 3.0 range and have a really really high science GPA. Obviously I don't know how many credits you've taken and how many more you need to take to cover all of the prereqs so I don't know for sure what it would take to get your GPA up to 3.0, but I feel like any admissions committee would see a 2.xxx and say no. Then with a good statement, some good letters of recommendation highlighting your devotion to dentistry, good DAT, and the right school, I think you could definitely get in somewhere. Hope that helps.

 

[xhamburgersamx]

As a dental student who's been through the process and sort of knows what it takes, a GPA around 2.0 will be extremely difficult to overcome. I say this simply because the average GPA at most schools is in the 3.5-3.7 range, so you can bet that everyone is over 3.0 and 90%+ are over 3.2. However, if you take all the dental prereqs and get A's in all of them, then you could theoretically get that GPA up to around the 3.0 range and have a really really high science GPA. Obviously I don't know how many credits you've taken and how many more you need to take to cover all of the prereqs so I don't know for sure what it would take to get your GPA up to 3.0, but I feel like any admissions committee would see a 2.xxx and say no. Then with a good statement, some good letters of recommendation highlighting your devotion to dentistry, good DAT, and the right school, I think you could definitely get in somewhere. Hope that helps.

I think Beatles is spot on. If you were to push closer to 3.0 with something around 2.8-2.9 with a super strong DAT (22+ AA) then you would have a significantly good chance of getting into at least one school. It def. helps to have a strong record of most recent grades (1-2 years) and that might help you a little bit when adcoms review your apps.

 

[Daurang]

You can make a statement by getting A's in all the science classes and then score really high on the DAT. Even then, you'd still need to be a member of a minority or have special connection or have a family member who's currently a student to get them to pull your file out for a special interview. Otherwise your application will likely languish somewhere with all the other rejects for not meeting the gpa threshhold.

 

[Bellepepper]

Thanks everyone, really good advice.

The university I currently attend has a program with UOP and UCSF that helps students who either come from a disadvantage background or have been rejected, by helping them write good personal statements and earn good DAT scores. I'll look into the program.

I wish I could turn back time but I reckon everything happens for a reason.

Best wishes for everyone on their goals and studies.

 

[ibo man]

Bellepepper,

Don't give up on your dream. It would happen for you. Just continue to work hard. Don't give up.

 

[oreoeater82]

Ibo is the smartest one of the bunch! Not to say that all the other comments didn't answer your question... they were excellent responses and i agree whole heartedly with them. you can do anything you put your mind to... even at age 26. i know that there have been guys in their 30s who have gotten into school after working years in an area that they hated.

Get that GPA up by killing it in your science classes! Remember that this is your dream and nobody can stop you from achieving your goals if you work hard👍

 

[La fea]

At 26 you are still a kid w/ the world at your feet.
Don't give up your dream.
Good Luck.

 

[AkaDr]

Just kill the DAT with 22+, i seen a couple ppl with 2.9-3.2 and 22+ get very early interviews and then acceptances. Also, i noticed my school choose the older applicant over the younger one (they had about the same stats).

 

[ZenoVT]

Yeah, the most important thing you could do for yourself, if you want to go down this path, is to make sure they see that you are a changed man from when you went to undergrad the last time. Go back to school and finish the pre-dent course load and get as many A's as you possibly can. Destroy the DAT and maybeee just maaybeee get a masters. It'll take a lot of time and effort, but hey only you could answer if it's worth it or not.

 

[pietrodds]

5-10 years ago, I'd say that you might have a chance if all the stars aligned. I hate to rain on your parade but I think it's necessary to be realistic before you invest a large amount of money and time into such a venture. I remember in college a lot of people who'd go around saying they wanted to be a doctor but didn't have the grades to back it up... 20 years ago those people often went into fields like dentistry. Dentistry has gotten extremely competitive the last few years and rivals med school in terms of requirements. I think there's still a lot of great opportunities in health care that you should consider if you get your grades up such as hygienist, physician assistant, nursing, or perhaps pharmacy.

The one exception I would say is if money is not a concern, then go for it as you have nothing to loose. Assuming you did actually go through with it, to be 34 or 35 years old and looking at 400K getting out of school is not a position very many would want to find themselves if you want to have any kind of life outside of fixing teeth.

If you think I'm an ass for shooting down your dream, sorry just trying to get you to think realistically. You're lucky to just have an undergrad degree if you finished with a 2.0. If you go the route of following your dream, more power to ya. I recommend researching which states take preference to in state residents then doing your prereqs there while also establishing your residency there to give yourself a fighting chance getting in and perhaps save some $$ in tuition. Good luck either way.

 

[Sajitude]

Hi Gang 🙂

I'm in need of some dire advice.

I'm a 26 year old student studying accounting. My passion as always been to study Dentisty. I took a few biology classes, I made some wrong choices and ended up getting in a bad relationship that got me sidetracked. I ended up changing my major to accounting and since the age of 21 have been struggling to clean up my grades. They are not very pretty. The bio classes I did take I had solid A's or B's, however I did awful in my business clases.

The point being i'm not at all happy studying accounting. I'm wondering if its too late to get back into
pre-dental course work. I also plan to take the certified public accountant CPA) exam to boost my image as my BA gpa is shameful, hanging to a 2.0.

The school I attend has a program for pre-dental majors, basically once you finish your pre-dental classes they help you prep for the DAT and entrance essay etc.

Based on my age and the long way I have to go, is it worth it, or has my 2.0 undergrade GPA in accounting pretty much killed my chance?

Thank you Kindly

It is nice to see you are excited about dentistry and I truly wish you the best. Now are you a minority? This will play a role in how competitive your application is. After you complete your required classes where will you GPA be. If you cannot get into the 3.0+ range than your chances are not that good. How well can you do on the DAT. As many people suggest you may have to be in the 22+ range. Realistically you will have to do amazing on the DATs to help offset your GPA. At a minimum I would consider a competitive student to have around a 3.3 GPA with a 17/18 DAT score. I know this may seem very negative but the time and money it takes to reach the point of being able to apply to dental school is significant and applying to dental school in itself is very expensive.

Basically what you have to ask yourself is if you take all of the required classes and DATs but still do not get into dental school would regret doing all of this work or would you be happy with knowing you tried your best and it just didn't work out?