My college counts each course as "1" as well. 32 credits are needed to graduate. We are on a 2 semester plan. The school assigns 3 credit hours per course credit, no matter what the course is or the actual hours spent per week. In other words, science majors really get ripped off. There is no credit given for lab time-separate or otherwise. A science course with a 3-4 hr lab per week, in addition to class time counts the same 3 credit hours as a philosophy course that only meets 3 hours a week. When I filled out my application for dental school, I didn't know how to fill in credit hours. I knew I could not add hours for science lab cause the instructions say you can't unless the lab is listed separately with separate grade on transcript. I listed each course as 3 credits so it would match my school transcript. Problem is, Adcoms seem to think I have not done enough undergrad work. They are looking at total credits taken and see 69 credits and think I fall short of everyone else. My 69 credits are equal to every other school's 96 credits. (my dad said he went to a trimester school where he had 120-some credits when he graduated!) I have not taken less than everyone else-I have taken a full load and am right in line to graduate. I only need 3 courses next semester in fact. I have had all the dental prereqs, am always on Dean's List, am on an academic scholarship, member of 2 national honor societies (math and premed)
I have gotten comments from 3 different adcoms already such as, "Do you think you can handle the course load of dental school?" or they mention how rigorous their program is and comment that I have not done that much. (My GPA is 3.3 dual major Math/Bio. My school is small, private. good ranking top tier of private colleges.) What should I do? Is this even something I can correct with AADSAS or not because I did calculate it the same way my school does. I typed a brief note of explanation myself to each dental school stating I had the equivalent of 96 credits and mailed it myself. Will this be enough or won't it be used since it came from me and so is not official. My school sends a packet from the pre healing arts advisor that supposedly (according to them) explains the school's curriculum, level of difficulty, etc. but I have not read this myself to know whether it adequately explains the situation. Also, I think the dental schools did not receive my undergrad packet at the same time as my application.(AADSAS did not send altogether for some reason.) Please advise. Thanks.
