Course load

[shayanH]

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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?

 

[dentalWorks]

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?

GPA > amount of credits per term.

Don't jeopardize your GPA for the sakes of loading up credits....

 

[MAdental]

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?

 

[Dusk]

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?

? your gpa is what gets you interviews first, not the course load. I agree with DW. wouldn't you rather take the 3.7?

 

[dentalWorks]

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?

Give me the 3.7

 

[MAdental]

😀 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

 

[bing12]

I think you need atleast a semester or 2 of 4 classes. I agree with the gpa being stressed the most, but I also believe Dschools look at difficulty of course work. If you HAVE ONLY taken 3 classes at a time, that can present issue I believe.

 

[UBERlowGPA]

😀 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

It depends on your situation. For my post bac work, I was told directly by an admissions advisor that I should increase my courseload to show that I could handle it. Maybe that's because I was only taking 1-3 science courses a term in the past. I think you should definitely challenge yourself and take as many courses as you can handle and STILL do well. If that's 3, then great, but if it's 5, then even better.

3 classes/3.7 > 5 classes/3.3

but

5 classes 3.7 > 5 classes/3.3

Do you have to be working full time? If not, that's extra time you could be spending either raising the GPA with the courseload you are taking, or taking more classes.

 

[MAdental]

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.

 

[TheScienceGuy1]

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.

If you are applying to Canadian schools, I know that most D-schools want and even require students full course load (i.e 5 courses or 30 credits in Undergrad).

 

[Longcatislong]

In looking at various dental school admissions websites, I've noticed that some distinctly say course load or level of difficulty of courses as being something they consider...

 

[dentalWorks]

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.

 

[dudeman]

In general I think schools want you to have a challenging course load, you are going to be taking 25-30 hard credits a semester with them so they want to know you (their investment) is going to be able to hack it and not wimp out. Having said that, if you can try and schedule some of your other needed classes around it so you dont hang yourself with all of you hard upper level sciences that is a wise choice.

 

[FutureDentalSt1]

I took organic chemistry by itself....and another semester orgo and cell bio by themselves...and during the summer i took chemistry i and 22 and the next summer biochem by itself......and i was only working part time...i really don't think course load is a big deal...this is all however after i graduated with a bachelors

 

[Maygyver]

Or you could do both. Get a high GPA with a tough course load. I know my interviewer's mentioned how many courses I took, so I know that they look at your schedule pretty deeply. You should be able to get a good GPA with a full load.

 

[Longcatislong]

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.

 

[gatorsmile]

depends on the courses.
If you really feel like you're handling a full-time job and 3 courses right now without too much of a struggle, maybe try adding one more. But I wouldn't push it.
It's easy to kill your GPA by trying to do too much at the same time...trust me, I know.

 

[dentalWorks]

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.

 

[Longcatislong]

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).

 

[dentalWorks]

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).

Im done with post-bacc. I racked up 58 credits so.... there is literally no more undergrad classes to take (exception: immunology)

More people get rejected with bad GPAs than high ... this is an indisputable fact and it is IRRELEVANT of how many credits per term you took.

Find me 1 person with a superb GPA who got rejected because they "only" took 12-14 credits and I'll find you 20 applicants with sub-3.0 GPAs who tried to load up their semesters and ended up doing poorly.

Over the past couple of years, I got into the habit of talking to some dental students from Detroit Mercy... by the way, Mercy is HUGE on credits-per-term, here is their website:

Almost every student I've spoken with (even during our tour last November) told me they never took more than 15 credits. One guy I spoke to said his bachelors lasted 5 years because he never took more than 12 credits because he wanted to keep his 3.8 GPA high.

If you think you can load up 18+ credits and STILL DO WELL, then by all means, go a head, you'll graduate faster. But don't do it while jeopardizing your GPA

 

[maverick145]

I remember reading a while back a study of dental students and it calculated the percentage of time the students were enrolled at least full time when they were undergraduates (12 credits = full time, not including summer). The average student was enrolled in 12 credits or more only half of the time if I remember. The other half they were taking less then 12 credits! That should put the course load question into perspective. I’m guessing the responses on this website do not accurately depict the average accepted dental student, because I have never once read someone post that half of the time during their undergraduate years they were enrolled in less then 12 credits, yet according to that study doing that is actually what the average student does.

 

[youknowthedrill]

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?

You're fine. Keep the GPA high!

 

[reely989]

The main thing is that if you ever take a heavy load (18 or so hours), and have any summer classes on your record, there is really no reason to take heavy loads any more. I did it for a couple of semesters, and realized that if I kept doing it, I would pretty much have nothing left for senior year other than 3 or so high level biologies that are only offered at specific times. I guess you could take elective biologies and whatnot to make your coursework more challenging if you want, but all I want is a degree. I seriously doubt a dental school is going to look down on you for having a good GPA unless you take 3 hours a semester for however many years that would take.