Damn Those Advisors!!!

[busupshot83]

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Is it just me, or do Academic Advisors seemingly throw all "negative" aspects of getting into Dental School at you?

Yeah, I know they are just keeping it real, but it seems everyone at SDN forums seem to "keep it real" better.

My advisor told me if I got 3 C's in the required classes, I'm done... that almost no school would accept me. Is this true? What's going on with these advisors? 🙄

 

[Brand]

I got 8 C's 1 D and 1 F. All in science courses. Your advisor is silly.

Of course I also got lots of A's my senior and Junior years. Only 1 C my last 2 years. Damn Dr. Jeffrey!

 

[busupshot83]

LOL! See, that's what I mean! My advisor tells me one thing, and then my fellow SDN members prove him wrong!

Anyone else with shaky science GPAs to prove my advisor's "knowledge" wrong?

Let the war stories begin...

 

[gauss017]

Hey Brand,

This is Dr. Jeffrey. You get busted, I will change your grade to an F--.



Just kidding. I agree with you. My ex g/f got accepted in dental school, and she has 7C's in her 5 years undergrad. 2C's in JC and


5C's in University. But she had a lot of A's and she did a double in Chem/Bio.


Yup, her advisor also told her that she was in dead end with 5C's, that she had no chance because she spoken English with an accent, that she no way could make to a state dental school because her low DAT (Aca:20/Pat 16)....etc.


Bushupshot83 you will make it to dental school if you work hard. Forget your advisors, man. (but not me and Brand though).



G'luck, man.

 

[zazzookode]

Yah-E had like 2.4 GPA AASDAS and he got into several schools. Don't believe the hype. Your advisor is a *****.

 

[busupshot83]

finally... i agree with zazzy on something

gauss, brand.... thanks for the help guys, time to go do some studying

 

[Yah-E]

On my 2002 AADSAS, #5450

Undergraduate Cumulative GPA:

BCP: 2.43 (111.6 credit hours)
Science: 2.34 (131.1 credit hours)
Non-Sci: 2.04 (64.5 credit hours)
Total: 2.24 (195.6 credit hours)

W: 7
F: 6
D: 9

Let me ask you guys this, what would you have said to me about my chances if you were my advisor? If I had a penny everytime an advisor told me to give up on dental schools (believe me, I had my share of advisors), I'd buy everyone of you a steak & lobster dinner with a bottle of wine of your choice!

Advisors go by guidelines and statistics, they don't go by their brains and gut feelings. Only thing they did for me was fueled my motivation to prove them wrong (which I did)! Motivation and determination will carry you a LONG way!

God, looking back, I had some "amazing" numbers there didn't I? I'm not proud of my past academic immaturity, but at the same time, I don't regret what I have learned and experienced from these numbers.

I hope KIDFLIP see this post, he'd think I'm a "super stupid" U.S. dental student!

Zazzookode: you can use me as an example anytime, my friend.

 

[busupshot83]

Yah-E,

Man, you are so right. Until I get accepted into dental school, whenever I feel depressed about admission, I will think back to your post on this forum. I'm glad you made those bad grades and lived about it to tell me 😉 . Thanks.

 

[ItsGavinC]

There's a lot of truth spoken here, but don't fool yourselves into thinking that bad grades will somehow help you getting into d-school.

What Yah-E didn't post were his grades from his post-grad program. But, as Yah-E mentioned, motivation is one thing that isn't measured by grades.

So are you out of luck by getting a couple of Cs, etc.? No, not at all! Are you a shoe-in for acceptance? No, not at all!

Follow your gut, apply yourself, and strive to reach your goals. Being positive is a huge component of being realistic, but overlooking the obvious isn't the way to go either.

The OP shouldn't worry *too* much about 3 Cs, but should realize that other applicants will be in a better position when it comes to grades.

 

[Yah-E]

Gavin's right here you guys...

with low numbers and bad grades, you'll just have to prove yourself that much more! It's not a easy task!

Getting into dental schools is not easy, IT'S COMPETITIVE! If you work hard at it, then you'll acheive your dream of becoming a dental student.

DAT will be a very important key to open some doors for you. You must get at least a 20 in Academic and 20 in Perceptual (20/20 Perfect Vision Club) to prove that your AADSAS application is worthy of being looked at!

Again, my undergraduate grades were ****ty, but I proved myself by doing well in graduate level courses and respectable DAT scores.

 

[Brand]

Something I did leave out, my lowest score on the DAT in any individual category was a 20. With low grades you have to stand out in some other way. Work at it! You won't get into every school, but work hard from now on and your chances will only improve!
Good luck!

 

[FMLizard]

Originally posted by Brand
I got 8 C's 1 D and 1 F. All in science courses. Your advisor is silly.

Of course I also got lots of A's my senior and Junior years. Only 1 C my last 2 years. Damn Dr. Jeffrey!

And you got into MICHIGAN!?!??!

I have a friend who had a 3.7 and a 21 DAT who didn't even get an interview offer, in-state. He got in several other places.

 

[busupshot83]

science is my weakest subject, so I'm preparing in advance by volunteering at a soup kitchen, shadowing my dentist, and joining the predental club. I have 2 years until I graduate, so I should have 2 years of each underneath my belt. That with a good DAT score (I hope) will give me some depth... 😳

 

[FMLizard]

Originally posted by Yah-E


Let me ask you guys this, what would you have said to me about my chances if you were my advisor? If I had a penny everytime an advisor told me to give up on dental schools (believe me, I had my share of advisors), I'd buy everyone of you a steak & lobster dinner with a bottle of wine of your choice!

You found an advisor at the U? More than one to boot? Wow, they must have been the first to get laid off during the last budget crisis.

I had to get pretty persistent and creative to find any sort of pre-dental advising here. They all say I am crazy (because I will make "so much money with my business degree from here" -- common false belief) but agree that I have a dang good chance.

For the OP: Find at least one non-dental and non-school related thing that is really interesting and cool to talk about and sets you apart. That is probably one of the best "non stats" things you can do.

 

[Brand]

And you got into MICHIGAN!?!??!

I have been told that I am dead sexy. Maybe that helped.

 

[Yah-E]

Brand:

I know one of your classmates, her name is Angela, cute blonde hair girl from Marquette, MI. I met her over Christmas break in Michigan. If you see her this summer tell her Andy at Nova said "hi"! I met her boyfriend Matt also.

 

[Brand]

I met her boyfriend Matt also.

DOH!

I will tell her Hi if I see her.

 

[tinker bell]

Hehe, as long as Yah-E and I still live, those advisors are proved to be dead wrong. Advisors at UCD didn't even want to send out my LOR because they think I would never get accepted anywhere, and my stinking GPA is a shame for UCD golden stats.

I got more Cs than you in all of my prereq classes. And I still got in one of the top notch school (can say one of the most difficult public school to get in) in the country. Yah-E is better than me in one aspect that he can still count his C and D. I lost count of all those Cs. I give up looking at them. And I got into every single school that I interview, and all are good schools like: UOP, UCSF, Case Western, BU, Temple. I also have to turn down couples of interviews too.

Tell your advisors that they are dead wrong, because I not only got in, I got into UCSF only 2hrs after my interview, with scholarship too. I know many ppl with higher GPA than mine waited for months to get accepted to UCSF.

Do not listen to those ppl who just try to belittle you. Keep up your motivation and work hard on the DAT. I wish you lots of success on your way to dental school.

 

[Supersonic]

Hey Yah-e, my undergraduate grades were almost identical to yours. Naturally, I took some grad courses to prove myself and I did get into a couple of dental school with a DAT score that pretty much saved my ass.

Anyway, I read a lot of the postings on here and, like everyone on this forum I'm sure, I'm aware that you are spending every waking hour thinking about getting into an OMS residency. Although I haven't begun dental school yet, I have very ambitious goals of applying for a residency/specialty upon graduation, BUT I am very aware of the daunting fact that program directors take a very close look at your undergrad grades. So, I already feel somewhat disappointed being at a disadvantage for applying for specialty, and I haven't even taken a dental school course yet. My question to you is how do you think program directors will react to your undergrad grades? Aren't people in our boat pretty much screwed? They place at least some emphasis on undergrad grades, so how do people like us even have a shot against people with stellar undergrad grades and even stellar-er dental school grades? Please tell me what goes on in Yah-e's mind concerning this issue.

Thanks.

 

[Yah-E]

Supersonic:

Great question, let's go over to the DENTAL forum and we'll chat! I don't want to take the OP's topic away.

 

[busupshot83]

interesting supersonic... tell me what you guys come up with in your "chat" 😎

Tink, I was waiting for your input on this thread, you seem to have lots of knowledge on dental admissions... thanks

 

[wasabi007]

i agree w/gavinc...that you shouldn't let a few bad grades discourage you...but at the same time, don't let this get to your head in thinking that a dip in your gpa won't go unnoticed either. because interviewers DO ask about specifics in your transcript. dental school app process is all encompassing--admissions looks at the WHOLE picture...not just undergrad gpa.

for those amazing success stories of what seemed like improbable stats for admission, you should ask them what they did to prove themselves--ie. stellar performance in graduate programs or post-bac programs, excellent/extensive extracurriculars, amazing life experiences, unbelievably high DAT scores...etc.

a lot of emphasis is put on trends--so as long as you show improvement...a few bad grades won't hurt you...

-wasabi007

 

[PDPjester]

wassup.
My story is that I had a weak GPA also. 3.02, (I had about 5 C's and had about same number of A's, and rest were B+ B- and B's) No wonder my GPA is exactly 3.0.

When I went to Columbia for the interview, the first thing the interviewer said is "your GPA is a bit low." So immediately I changed the subject around to focus on how demanding my undergraduate program in Biomedical Engineering has been, and started talking about my senior and current volunteer project, and she loved it. When I showed her pictures of the projects she made photocopies of it and everything.

I think the key is if you have a weak area like the GPA, try and boost up other positive aspect you have. Many who apply has at least one weak area, if not the GPA, then their personality, if not, then something else. Just don't let it be more than two or three, then you're just asking for it.

 

[busupshot83]

"...that you shouldn't let a few bad grades discourage you...but at the same time, don't let this get to your head in thinking that a dip in your gpa won't go unnoticed either. because interviewers DO ask about specifics in your transcript. dental school app process is all encompassing--admissions looks at the WHOLE picture...not just undergrad gpa."

Wasabi, I gotcha man.

Jester, thanks for the insight
😉

 

[shabu2]

My undergrad advisors told me I would NEVER go to dental school and I should do something else. Needless to say, I have her picture on my dart board, and she better hope that she never gets into an accident that requires her to visit my ER. HAHA beotches!

 

[in her drawer]

My undergrad advisors told me I would NEVER go to dental school and I should do something else. Needless to say, I have her picture on my dart board, and she better hope that she never gets into an accident that requires her to visit my ER. HAHA beotches!

shabu, where did you drag this one up?

 

[GiveMeDMD]

My undergrad advisors told me I would NEVER go to dental school and I should do something else. Needless to say, I have her picture on my dart board, and she better hope that she never gets into an accident that requires her to visit my ER. HAHA beotches!

and u got into Columbia? hmmm.....

 

[Drill2Fill]

and u got into Columbia? hmmm.....

Exactly. You had the stats to get into Columbia, but your advisor thought you couldn't get into dental school? What were they smoking.

 

[shabu2]

and u got into Columbia? hmmm.....

AND OMFS!!!😀

 

[Whahoo]

Haha these storie proved me right. I have never gone to an academic advisor for 'help'. Honestly, they really can't tell you anything you don't already know/ could find out with a little detective work/ might find out from a friend. I guess it would be nice to hear what they have to offer from time to time, but you know your goals situtation better than they can ever attempt. Here's to proving them usless!

 

[teeth2]

I can't agree more with you guys. My adivsors suck and I stopped going to them sophomore year. They told me unless I got a 3.5 in every pre-req class that I basically stood no chance of being a competitive applicant and should perhaps look into other fields like chiropratic or podiatry. One of them was even telling all the predents and premed students they didn't need to take the second ochem lab b/c it wasn't needed to get in. ******s.

 

[Suicide_Stat]

Is it just me, or do Academic Advisors seemingly throw all "negative" aspects of getting into Dental School at you?



My advisor told me if I got 3 C's in the required classes, I'm done...

Your advisor is bully. Yah-E got in with a 2.4...I love it😀
Being in the under 2.5 gpa club and getting in is something to brag about. Propz to Yah-E😎

 

[dentwannabe]

BUSUPSHOT, don't be fooled by these people.

These people did NOT specify whether they got a C or an F in what classes.

I KNOW that getting a C in REQUIRED classes IS a big deal. Getting a C is any old science class isn't such a big deal, so long as you show improvement.

I got 20+s on DAT and I had a D and F in two required classes, a C+ in another, and I repeated the D, F classes to get B+ both times. I got into one school: NYU.

Another thing about YAH-E. He'll say it himself. He got in YEARS ago. In just ONE year the app. cycle has changed so much. 3.3 means you're barely making it. In Yah-e's time, 3.3 was definitely in. Now a days, 3.6+ is what you need to INSURE a spot.

 

[tinman831]

Now a days, 3.6+ is what you need to INSURE a spot.

No score... not even a 4.0, will insure you a seat in dental school.

 

[busupshot83]

wow, this thread is ancient. A blast from the past?

 

[Suicide_Stat]

Yeah dude you resurrected the dead with this thread

"Knowledge is food for thought so I wisely swallow."

 

[Blitzdt]

I have been told that I am dead sexy. Maybe that helped.

I'm dead ugly! that helped too. I got in because of "pity"!😀