Course grades of year prior to dental school enrollment

[boxdesker]

---

Members don't see this ad.

I am aware of the mid-semester academic update requirement for dental schools. Applicants will have to submit their grades for the Fall 2008 semester.

I am also under the assumption that Spring 2009 semester grades will NOT matter (i.e. as long as you get B- and higher in all your classes, then you are in good shape).

My question is whether Fall 2008 grades will matter when the admissions committee looks over your application.

I finished my application early September, so I'm expecting to hear back regarding an interview before the end of the semester, but am not expecting to hear back regarding an admission before the end of the semester.

Reason for why I think Fall 2008 grades would matter:

• Schools will not have made a decision regarding admission on my, and most other SDN users', applications by the time grades come out. So dental schools would have time to take a quick look at Fall 2008 grades and use that as an additional factor in determining admissions.

Reasons for why I think Fall 2008 grades would not matter:

• Some students, though, will have been notified as early as December 1 regarding an admissions offer. It may seem too complicated for the admissions committee to judge some students on Fall 2008 grades and not other students.
• Dental schools already have enough of your academic transcript to look at in order to "judge" your qualities as a student.

Reason for why I think there may be multiple answers to this question:

• The three previously mentioned reasons.

If anyone has inquired about this question or knows, it would be greatly appreciated if you could share. It would be the difference between a significant level of additional unnecessary stress.

If you have specific information regarding a specific school, please also mention which school it is.

Thanks!

 

[boxdesker]

So is this post not interesting/relevant to anyone? Or is the post too long to read? Or does nobody simply know the answer to the question? I've searched SDN and haven't found a thread that answers this question.
Any admins know or can find out? I'm sure I'm not the only person with this question on my mind.

 

[MrLebowski]

I have been wondering the same thing for some time now. If anyone has any input, that'd be sweet.

My big question is what is the criteria for withdrawal of acceptance offer by a school? I.e., how bad would you have to do in a class for a school to drop you after they accepted you?

I have 6 interviews, and all will be done before November 10th, so assuming I did hear before the end of December, those grades would not even be available to be judged upon.

Would a C+ post-acceptance get a man dropped? C?

 

[TeethandGums]

Your Fall 2008 grades matter under certain conditions.....The schools you interview at, may not accept or reject you come Dec1., but rather further review you in comparison to other applicants. Now they may ask you to submit your fall 2008 grades, to allow them to make a better assesment of you. If you are blessed to receive an acceptance Dec.1, then your good. It becomes a matter of completing all the courses required by the school prior to enrollment. So if you failed a class fall 2008 that it is requirement by the dental school, you would need to take it again and have it completed before you start dental school.

 

[oreoson]

"as long as you get B- and higher in all your classes, then you are in good shape"

To the best of my knowledge, spring grades don't count at all. A friend of mine failed a course, and somehow managed to get in.

 

[doc toothache]

Dec. 1 acceptances are based on the info adcoms have and, at the discretion of the Dean of Admissions, are contingent on maintaining a reasonable consistent gpa for the fall and spring semester prior to enrollment in ds.

 

[klpennin]

Yeah, I have been wondering this as well. I mean, should I stress myself out to make all As, or should I just relax and be happy with some Bs. I'm not so sure, I would hate for something like that to affect my application. So as of now, I'm trying in my classes hard, but I'm trying not to stress myself out too much. My main thing is that I just want to relax my last year...

 

[MrLebowski]

Would anyone be able to speculate as to whether if a guy with a 3.55, accepted in December, got around a 3.0 for fall with a C+ or two would then have his acceptance pulled? Basically, how bad would your GPA/individual class performance have to be for the Dean of Adm. to drop you?

 

[Plopper]

Would anyone be able to speculate as to whether if a guy with a 3.55, accepted in December, got around a 3.0 for fall with a C+ or two would then have his acceptance pulled? Basically, how bad would your GPA/individual class performance have to be for the Dean of Adm. to drop you?

well i don't know about you, but my school doesn't go on break for Dec until Dec 20th, and then the professors have the next 3 weeks to submit the grades, so realistically i won't know my fall grades until mid January. So i don't think that fall grades will make a huge difference if you are accepted around december.

Now if you don't get accepted in dec maybe that changes, and the DS will look at the grades (especially if your GPA is borderline)

I think that some sort of B straight through would be fine as long as you get accepted in December.

 

[murff05]

Granted we may be getting senioritis and slack off a little bit but how much fun are you going to substitute for good grades. Do you think you may turn into a crazy partier or are your classes that hard? 😛

 

[boxdesker]

What I've been gathering from the responses is that most people aren't sure exactly what sort of grades are needed and what sort of grades are acceptable to keep a dental school's admission offer. Calling the schools and asking them directly reflects poorly on you--especially if you haven't even been accepted yet. But it would be very nice to know the answer to this question.

Most of us are not asking this question so that we can completely slack off. I would say most pre-dental students are hard-working students with a high work ethic. But, it would be nice to know exactly what's expected of you (i.e. "you need to maintain a 3.0 GPA in your science classes and a 2.7 GPA in your GE classes. You can only get 1 C and it can't be in a prereq class" is better than "maintaining a consistent reasonable GPA").

I am taking significantly hard classes this semester and the difference between getting a C, B, and A are huge in terms of time spent preparing for the class. I'm sure this is the same for others as well.

 

[MrEcon]

After our interviews were over one of the admissions coordinators came in and gave us a wrap up. She said that if we get accepted then we just need to pass our classes. She said to make sure our GPA didn't fall below the schools minimum. She did say if we failed a pre-req we would be dropped. So as of right now they are reviewing us based on what is completed. I love this as I waited to take my physics series this fall and next spring. No stress. Granted I need to be accepted Dec 1st somewhere to be safe but this is the standard answer for other schools also.

 

[sweetpea2]

Good question. I was wondering..did any of you submit in your AADSAS app. what courses you are taking for the Fall 2008 semester of senior year. For me, I already had one interview and got another in Jan, but none of the schools even know what courses im taking (I never put it in on AADSAS bc i wasnt sure what classes I was definitely gonna take). Is this a problem?? Or it doesnt really matter. Thanks

 

[polarmolar]

Would anyone be able to speculate as to whether if a guy with a 3.55, accepted in December, got around a 3.0 for fall with a C+ or two would then have his acceptance pulled? Basically, how bad would your GPA/individual class performance have to be for the Dean of Adm. to drop you?

I asked this a couple weeks ago but didn't get any firm responses. I think its safe to say don't drop below a "C", no matter how infected by senioritis you are.

 

[Plopper]

I asked this a couple weeks ago but didn't get any firm responses. I think its safe to say don't drop below a "C", no matter how infected by senioritis you are.

i think if you get straight b's (or B+'s and b-'s) then you would be completely sure you wouldn't be dropped.

I mean college isn't THAT hard. go to class, study before exam for 2days, and you'll be fine.

pre-dents ARE smarter than average students haha

 

[mamelons]

I think it depends on the school. In my acceptance letters 2 years ago, it said something along the lines of "Congratulations... your acceptance is pending upon successful completion of..." Some schools will have a certain GPA to maintain, others will not...

And as far as December grades -- I was accepted to all 4 schools I interviewed at on December 1st, so I know they did not have my December grades. A lot of schools make decisions on applicants having never seen their fall semester grades... maybe this is because the student has shown consistency in their grades, or they may not have any other pre-reqs to complete.

 

[mamelons]

Good question. I was wondering..did any of you submit in your AADSAS app. what courses you are taking for the Fall 2008 semester of senior year. For me, I already had one interview and got another in Jan, but none of the schools even know what courses im taking (I never put it in on AADSAS bc i wasnt sure what classes I was definitely gonna take). Is this a problem?? Or it doesnt really matter. Thanks

I don't think it will be a problem, but that is why I listed some courses, and if they had changed, I would have called/emailed the schools with the update.

 

[Plopper]

I don't think it will be a problem, but that is why I listed some courses, and if they had changed, I would have called/emailed the schools with the update.

at uconn interview, they asked for what classes I was taking senior year