Hello all - I'm a non-traditional student about to submit my applications, and I wanted to pick some brains on here…
I'm 35, a father of two, and walked away from a decade+ career in management with Trader Joe's last fall to return to school full-time to finish science pre-reqs.
I have a bachelors degree in Italian from Washington University in St. Louis (2004), and was accepted to/enrolled in a Masters program in Italian at the University of Chicago in 2005, though I ended up backing out of the program 6 weeks in (was young, had just gotten engaged, and Trader Joe's had offered me an appealing package to enter into management).
Math & the sciences were always my forte and passion--I simply fell in love with Italian after taking my first course at Wash U and never looked back. Before that I had always been interested in medicine and was especially intrigued by dentistry.
DAT scores from last week:
PAT 21
QR 18
RC 20
Bio 21
GC 20
OC 15
TS 19
AA 19
Obviously the Orgo score stands out in an otherwise solid set of numbers. But that's where my first question to you all comes from. First a touch of background - I wanted to make sure I could apply this cycle for matriculation in 2017, so when I went back last fall I kept a heavy schedule. Fall semester '15 was Bio I, Gen Chem I, Physics I. Spring '16 was Bio II, Gen Chem II, Physics II. Then I took a condensed 5-week Orgo I suicide course this past summer so I had at least a semester under my belt going into the DAT. While my Orgo professor was incredibly knowledgeable, he had a thick Jamaican accent which was difficult to understand at times. That paired with the heightened pace of cramming a semester of Orgo into 5 weeks made it especially challenging. I did pull off an A in the class (lab professor was fantastic), but I certainly didn't feel like I knew the material like the back of my hand.
Since going back to school for the science courses listed above, I've maintained a 4.0. I'm not sure if AADSAS includes intro BCP courses (of which I took a couple back at Wash U) when calculating the science GPA, so my science GPA will be anywhere from 3.85 - 4.0. My overall GPA will be 3.2 - 3.25.
So my question - I'm noticing that many dental schools (and even medical schools if I'm not mistaken) are going from requiring two semesters of Orgo w/ lab to only one semester. Indeed the two main schools I'm looking at--UIC and Midwestern IL (to stay close to home)--only require one semester of Orgo. Midwestern even accepts the Canadian DAT, which doesn't even have an Orgo section on it.
So my first question is - considering all of the above, what kind of weight does that 15 hold? If a school only requires one semester of Orgo, yet the DAT tests knowledge on more than that, I would think there's a bit more leeway with the Orgo score, no?
Due to the post length, I'll save other questions for another thread
I'm 35, a father of two, and walked away from a decade+ career in management with Trader Joe's last fall to return to school full-time to finish science pre-reqs.
I have a bachelors degree in Italian from Washington University in St. Louis (2004), and was accepted to/enrolled in a Masters program in Italian at the University of Chicago in 2005, though I ended up backing out of the program 6 weeks in (was young, had just gotten engaged, and Trader Joe's had offered me an appealing package to enter into management).
Math & the sciences were always my forte and passion--I simply fell in love with Italian after taking my first course at Wash U and never looked back. Before that I had always been interested in medicine and was especially intrigued by dentistry.
DAT scores from last week:
PAT 21
QR 18
RC 20
Bio 21
GC 20
OC 15
TS 19
AA 19
Obviously the Orgo score stands out in an otherwise solid set of numbers. But that's where my first question to you all comes from. First a touch of background - I wanted to make sure I could apply this cycle for matriculation in 2017, so when I went back last fall I kept a heavy schedule. Fall semester '15 was Bio I, Gen Chem I, Physics I. Spring '16 was Bio II, Gen Chem II, Physics II. Then I took a condensed 5-week Orgo I suicide course this past summer so I had at least a semester under my belt going into the DAT. While my Orgo professor was incredibly knowledgeable, he had a thick Jamaican accent which was difficult to understand at times. That paired with the heightened pace of cramming a semester of Orgo into 5 weeks made it especially challenging. I did pull off an A in the class (lab professor was fantastic), but I certainly didn't feel like I knew the material like the back of my hand.
Since going back to school for the science courses listed above, I've maintained a 4.0. I'm not sure if AADSAS includes intro BCP courses (of which I took a couple back at Wash U) when calculating the science GPA, so my science GPA will be anywhere from 3.85 - 4.0. My overall GPA will be 3.2 - 3.25.
So my question - I'm noticing that many dental schools (and even medical schools if I'm not mistaken) are going from requiring two semesters of Orgo w/ lab to only one semester. Indeed the two main schools I'm looking at--UIC and Midwestern IL (to stay close to home)--only require one semester of Orgo. Midwestern even accepts the Canadian DAT, which doesn't even have an Orgo section on it.
So my first question is - considering all of the above, what kind of weight does that 15 hold? If a school only requires one semester of Orgo, yet the DAT tests knowledge on more than that, I would think there's a bit more leeway with the Orgo score, no?
Due to the post length, I'll save other questions for another thread
