Do I Have A Chance or Should I Reconsider?

[nicole!]

Hi guys!

I've recently graduated from my undergrad and have been feeling really discouraged lately. Going to dental school and becoming a dentist has been such a large dream of mine for a decade now. I started at a community college with a 3.66 GPA and transferred to UCSD finishing with a 2.8 GPA. Today I calculated my dental school GPA and it came out to a 3.12 overall. I was reading dental schools do not allow a C- in core science classes meaning I'd need to retake physics 1 and I need to finish my organic chemistry 2 since UCSD only requires up to 1. This is why I did not calculate my science GPA because I figured it was a waste. Given my overall and how my GPA hurt tremendously at UCSD, would it be foolish to even apply? I've considered post bacc and a masters but don't know which to look further into given my GPA. Any help or encouragement is welcomed. Thanks in advance!

In addition, I also read that dental schools only require courses up to 5 years, is this true?

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[yasc]

I'm definitely no expert but I would definitely consider a master's if I were in your shoes. A lot of intuitions offer a 1 year biomedical master's meant just for health professional students. Some places like lecom and Midwestern garuntee interviews if you achieve a certain GPA in their program. Also even though a master's won't technically replace your undergraduate GPA I hear a lot of schools won't hold a lower undergrad GPA against you if you killed the masters program.

And yes I believe the core science classes have to be taken within a certain time frame and don't forget about your DAT!

 

[deleted767916]

Hi guys!

I've recently graduated from my undergrad and have been feeling really discouraged lately. Going to dental school and becoming a dentist has been such a large dream of mine for a decade now. I started at a community college with a 3.66 GPA and transferred to UCSD finishing with a 2.8 GPA. Today I calculated my dental school GPA and it came out to a 3.12 overall. I was reading dental schools do not allow a C- in core science classes meaning I'd need to retake physics 1 and I need to finish my organic chemistry 2 since UCSD only requires up to 1. This is why I did not calculate my science GPA because I figured it was a waste. Given my overall and how my GPA hurt tremendously at UCSD, would it be foolish to even apply? I've considered post bacc and a masters but don't know which to look further into given my GPA. Any help or encouragement is welcomed. Thanks in advance!

In addition, I also read that dental schools only require courses up to 5 years, is this true?

I also recommend doing a master's program; I heard some schools don't accept community college credits so your GPA might be closer to the UCSD GPA.

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[Iroh]

Probably start a Master's and then take a gap year after completion to retake/take the pre-reqs you need while applying.

Also I believe most Master's aimed at Med/Dental school require the DAT for consideration.

It's not that schools only require up to 5 years, it's that some schools will only consider pre-reqs taken within 5 years assuming you stopped academics. If you continued pursuing courses (most likely in the sciences) they should still take your pre-reqs taken years ago.

 

[yasc]

I also recommend doing a master's program; I heard some schools don't accept community college credits so your GPA might be closer to the UCSD GPA.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using SDN mobile

Just like to add that the amount of schools that don't accept CC credits is pretty small and I don't think OPs CC credits would be a issue.

 

[nicole!]

I'm definitely no expert but I would definitely consider a master's if I were in your shoes. A lot of intuitions offer a 1 year biomedical master's meant just for health professional students. Some places like lecom and Midwestern garuntee interviews if you achieve a certain GPA in their program. Also even though a master's won't technically replace your undergraduate GPA I hear a lot of schools won't hold a lower undergrad GPA against you if you killed the masters program.

And yes I believe the core science classes have to be taken within a certain time frame and don't forget about your DAT!

Thank you so much for your response! I totally appreciate it. I've read up a lot on both just didn't know which one would benefit my situation most. I've also read several forums on here that people have had low GPA's and have been accepted which is sort of encouraging. I just want to do whatever is within cost because I don't have thousands of dollars lying around lol. I'm based out of California and would really love to stay local too. I read that Western has a Masters program but I'm not sure about the guaranteed interview so I figured I'd call admissions to see if I can discuss the situation a little more! Thanks again for your feedback though and I love the prison Mike icon by the way haha.

 

[nicole!]

Probably start a Master's and then take a gap year after completion to retake/take the pre-reqs you need while applying.

Also I believe most Master's aimed at Med/Dental school require the DAT for consideration.

It's not that schools only require up to 5 years, it's that some schools will only consider pre-reqs taken within 5 years assuming you stopped academics. If you continued pursuing courses (most likely in the sciences) they should still take your pre-reqs taken years ago.

Thanks so much for your response, I totally appreciate it! Do you mean that they only consider 5 years after academics have stopped completely or within? Because my undergrad took me a little longer than 4 years since community college classes are so impacted. If you do mean within, I finished my last summer classes in August, so is it bad that I haven't applied for classes during those several months? I figured since I was too late for this semesters registration that I would start studying for the DAT and do more volunteer and clinic hours. Sorry to bombard you with so many questions like you are some admissions guru haha. Also, love the avatar icon!