I am currently working full time and taking three courses per semester maintaining a GPA of 3.63. Should I increase my course load or dental schools take into consideration that I work full time and my course load is fine?
I am currently working full time and taking three courses per semester maintaining a GPA of 3.63. Should I increase my course load or dental schools take into consideration that I work full time and my course load is fine?
? your gpa is what gets you interviews first, not the course load. I agree with DW. wouldn't you rather take the 3.7?But how does that make sense? taking 4-5 upper level sci courses and getting a 3.3-3.4 is not better than taking total 3 and getting a 3.7?
But how does that make sense? taking 4-5 upper level sci courses and getting a 3.3-3.4 is not better than taking total 3 and getting a 3.7?
😀 I wish i knew that, i thought they care about how you do when you are surrounded by hard intense classes. Everybody can do well taking 3-4 classes per semester. No biggie
Oh Man, I was tricked into taking 5 courses 😀 last semester i had 3 400 level biochem course + english and Psychology and still got a 3.5....imagine if i had taken only 3 bchem courses.....4.0 would have been possible....in Canada most and alot of ppl take 5 courses /semester. I have never seen anybody taking 3.
Trust me folks.... high GPA > high credits
I did a 3 year post-bacc where about 2 of those years I was only taking 5-13 credits per term and working fulltime 40-50 hrs per week..... I had 8 potential interviews this cycle all pre-december.
The school that I am attending (detroit mercy) SPECIFICALLY tells you on their website that they want to see students take 15-18 credits in Junior and Senior years....
Well, I did have 1 term where I took 20 credits (5 classes ~ all upper level), but, it was just 1 term.
well, obviously taking less units per semester is forgivable when someone is working full or part time.
I'm planning on taking anywhere between 12-16 units a semester, NOT working, but doing some shadowing and volunteer work, maybe amount to about 10-12 her per week.
People I knew in undergrad that applied (and got into) medical, dental and pharmacy schools took the minimum # of units a semester, which at my university was 13 units, never worked crazy schedules and did the right amount of volunteer work. They were good. But maybe post-bacc is different and you have to work harder?
P.S Just out of curiosity, people who manage to work 40+ hours a week and still go to school full time, how do you do it? Do you work night shifts, or do the normal 9-5 and take all your classes in the evenings or on weekends? I tried to register for a few open university courses while working a 9-5, 40hr/a week job and found that these classes simply could not fit into my work schedule.
physically it was challenging.... cause I had to split my mentality between 2 COMPLETELY different worlds and I couldn't let them intertwine.
When your sitting at work, your expected to be productive ESPECIALLY when you bosses respect you enough to give you flexible schedule so you can do the little post-bacc shindig. If you have an exam later that night, or your stressed out about an upcoming final, you can't think about it during work, cause... it will effect your performance and.... could get you laid-off or having the flexible schedule taken away (meaning no more post-bacc).... This was the hardest part, I had to keep the 2 worlds separate from each other.
Now the studying part and doing well in class, that was a piece of cake lol. When you get a job (career in my case) you develop a work ethic that you never thought you had in you before.... I've had situations where a specific program or unit-of-work was out of order and it needed to be turned in 2 days worth of time, stayed in the office and didn't leave until it was done (straight 35-40 hours shifts weren't uncommon for me)..... Studying for classes (compared to that kinda work) was...a joke.
That's intense! More power to you! 🙂 How far along in post-bacc are you? Have you gotten into dental school?
Do you think applicants who take 13-16 units per semester w/out working fulltime jobs are looked down upon by admissions? The nature of my work simply would not allow me a flexible work schedule, so I left and I am now back in school full time doing post-bacc. My first two semesters in post-bacc I'm planning on starting off w/ about 13-16 units and just doing some volunteering/shadowing on the side (Keeping my grades high is more important to me than anything, and I'd like to take it slow to start with).
I am currently working full time and taking three courses per semester maintaining a GPA of 3.63. Should I increase my course load or dental schools take into consideration that I work full time and my course load is fine?