Dental Hygienist considering med

[dentalhygienist2016]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Hi all, I'm a 26 year old pediatric dental hygienist whose considering going back to school for med. I always wanted to work in the medical/dental field but ended up choosing dental hygiene due to pressure from my family to pick something "easy". I started at a 4 year university and ended up transferring to a 2 year college and graduated with a 2.8 overall. Because the way DH school grades (A is 94 and up, B is 84 and up, C is 75 and up, anything less is failing) my GPA suffered. After some serious soul searching I've realized how much I regret not choosing pre-med when I started out. Now after being a dental hygienist for 2 years I know I won't last long in this field and should have done med school. Where do you all think I should start from here?

I can go back and do a "degree completion" program from a University and have my bachelors in DH in 2 years, but would any med school consider me? I know they frown upon specialized health majors, and with my GPA being so low I don't feel like anyone would take me. I know I have a lot of work to do on my GPA, but I do have a good bit of volunteer work (only in the dental field) and I feel like I can do well on my MCAT if I apply myself. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[IsleyOfTheNorth]

I don't know what's required at DH school, but most med schools require one year each of:

• Biology
• General (inorganic) chemistry
• Organic chemistry
• Physics

...and labs for each.

2/3 require English and about 1/4 require calculus.

Source: https://www.kaptest.com/mcat/medical-school/medical-school-prerequisites

Though it's not listed there, I know some schools require 1 semester of Biochemistry as well.

So be sure to check off those classes if you're considering your BS in DH. Otherwise you might want to switch majors to include those classes. On the upside if you haven't already taken these, they may bring up your GPA.

 

[dentalhygienist2016]

I've taken almost all of these courses, minus physics, as a pre-requisite for my DH degree, but the highest grade I received was a "B" (I didn't do a traditional approach before DH school). Do you think I should plan on retaking them while completing my BS in DH, or mainly focus on bringing up my GPA with the remainder of classes needed for my BS? Thanks for your input

 

[AnotherLawyer]

I've taken almost all of these courses, minus physics, as a pre-requisite for my DH degree, but the highest grade I received was a "B" (I didn't do a traditional approach before DH school). Do you think I should plan on retaking them while completing my BS in DH, or mainly focus on bringing up my GPA with the remainder of classes needed for my BS? Thanks for your input

If you're already qualified to work as a dental hygienist and you know you don't want to be a dental hygienist, then why would you go back to school to complete a BS in dental hygiene? Allied health grads do worse, on average, than others in medical school admissions. Moreover, many of the allied health courses (e.g. chemistry for nursing) don't fulfill the prereqs at many medical schools.

 

[IsleyOfTheNorth]

Do you think I should plan on retaking them while completing my BS in DH, or mainly focus on bringing up my GPA with the remainder of classes needed for my BS?

Disclaimer: I know very little about DH programs.

Since you've already gotten B's, I wouldn't retake them unless you need the refresher for the MCAT.

As AnotherLawyer said, it might be better to take a stronger program. Having said that, if you are 10 creds away or something, I'd finish the DH degree.

If you can find a solid major that most of your credits will transfer to, see how much time it would add vs. the DH degree. A stronger program would also show that you can handle the tougher upper-level courses.