Does it depend on where you come from? (GPA vs College Attended)

[Expat2014]

I recently browsed through the acceptance/rejection thread and noticed that students did not put the school they came from, only the school that they were accepted. Therefore, I'm not sure what the relationship is between GPA vs College vs Acceptance/Rejection.
In other words, how bad is having a low GPA from an Ivy League or other highly competitive college? For example, if two students applied to dental school X, with student 1 coming from Harvard with a 3.1 overall GPA (let's say 3.0 science), and student 2 coming from Ohio State with a 3.8 overall GPA (maybe a 3.7 science), but student 1 has a much higher DAT score than student 2, will 1 still be automatically ignored because of their low GPA?

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[dentalWorks]

I recently browsed through the acceptance/rejection thread and noticed that students did not put the school they came from, only the school that they were accepted. Therefore, I'm not sure what the relationship is between GPA vs College vs Acceptance/Rejection.
In other words, how bad is having a low GPA from an Ivy League or other highly competitive college? For example, if two students applied to dental school X, with student 1 coming from Harvard with a 3.1 overall GPA (let's say 3.0 science), and student 2 coming from Ohio State with a 3.8 overall GPA (maybe a 3.7 science), but student 1 has a much higher DAT score than student 2, will 1 still be automatically ignored because of their low GPA?

generally speaking.... high GPA looks better than low (irrespective of university and/or major)

 

[Bis-GMA111]

i've reached the conclusion that as long as you don't go to a CC....a high gpa from just about any 4 year university is fine.

 

[qnzbabi91]

i've reached the conclusion that as long as you don't go to a CC....a high gpa from just about any 4 year university is fine.

A solid +1!

 

[EpicDentist]

Doesnt matter what college as long as its not a community college

Dental schools do take into consideration if you went to Harvard and got a 3.0 vs an unknown school with a 3.0. Clearly in that case Harvard would get more credit.

 

[devz4lf]

School does matter, its not the the BIGGEST factor, but admissions know easy schools and hard schools. In the end just try to get a good GPA and rock the DAT, if you rock it shows you know the sciences as well as the kid who went to Harvard.

 

[Dent22519]

Yeah, high gpas tend to look better no matter where they're from, as long as its a community college. As for the "edge" an ivy league or high competitive college gives you, I think it's minimal at best, though I think dental schools do take notice. As dental school admissions has become more competitive, it's absolutely true that stats matter but the whole applicant package definitely comes into play too. Dental schools are looking for different things in applicants, so applicants probably aren't being ignored because of low gpa--it matters what you did and who you became at said university too. For reference, I went to a highly competitive college, 3.2o, 3.0sci, 20 dat, good overall application, and got 6 pre-dec interviews, 1 post-dec, and 2 acceptances. So is it possible with low gpa? Yes. Are the odds in your favor? No. There's a good amount of luck in the process, I believe. Just try to get the best gpa possible and do well on the DAT.

 

[Dgeorg6]

If your applying broadly no one cares as long as your GPA is good (and not from a CC).

If your applying to your state school they still like higher GPA's but they do know the difference between a small easy school from that state against a private school or state school and will consider it when determining if your accepted or not (even though it wont be that big of a difference)

 

[OsteotomyOMFS17]

It does't really matter as long as your GPA matches your DAT.

 

[dentalWorks]

It does't really matter as long as your GPA matches your DAT.

this is pretty accurate when it comes to the CC GPA + DAT debate

 

[UCSFx2017]

Where you go to school doesn't matter. But there is a difference between a 3.9 liberal arts (or any soft science) major and a 3.9 Engineering/Chemistry/Biology/Physics major. If you are one of the latter, it does seem out-of-the-blue why you would have anything less than a 20 on DAT. We can assume that if you were as hard-working for your classes that you would be equally as hard-working when studying for the DAT. However, someone with a 3.9 GPA with less than average matriculate DAT would still be competitive.

Also, http://gradeinflation.com/

 

[howaminow]

I think it matters in certain schools. I believe the state schools in California tend to look down on the CSU system and think students from the UC system are better or so seems to be the thought. I know it applies to medical school and I would think the dental schools operate the same way

 

[UCSFx2017]

I think it matters in certain schools. I believe the state schools in California tend to look down on the CSU system and think students from the UC system are better or so seems to be the thought. I know it applies to medical school and I would think the dental schools operate the same way

What do you mean by "look down"? I go to an out-of-state no name school (ranked lower than CSU schools by U.S. News) and was accepted to a UC.

 

[howaminow]

Once again this is what I heard about medical schools, but they feel that UC student's are superior to CSU.

A 3.7 at a UC would probably be favored over a 3.8 or 3.85 at a CSU probably, since the UC is seen as a harder school

 

[JAWSSS]

What school you attend is considered by some dental schools.

UCLA makes it clear in the information they provide to the ADEA when they stated: "We consider the difficulty of the undergrad major and institution..." in the "Other admission criteria" section.

I do not think it is outrageous to say that for some universities it is easy to get a 3.8 in X major... While it is painfully difficult in others.

Source: My sister went to Stanford and thought she dropped a neurobiology class and a bioengineering class so she stopped attending, didn't take any tests and got an A and B- respectively. (I AM NOT saying that Stanford is grade inflating or easy... I am just shocked that that was even possible).

 

[wcombs]

I recently browsed through the acceptance/rejection thread and noticed that students did not put the school they came from, only the school that they were accepted. Therefore, I'm not sure what the relationship is between GPA vs College vs Acceptance/Rejection.
In other words, how bad is having a low GPA from an Ivy League or other highly competitive college? For example, if two students applied to dental school X, with student 1 coming from Harvard with a 3.1 overall GPA (let's say 3.0 science), and student 2 coming from Ohio State with a 3.8 overall GPA (maybe a 3.7 science), but student 1 has a much higher DAT score than student 2, will 1 still be automatically ignored because of their low GPA?

Most people got it right in this thread. To reiterate, your university is, more or less, irrelevant. That doesn't include community colleges, or even 4 year junior colleges (which are looked upon in the same light as CCs).

A 4.0 CC GPA looks worse than a 3.3 university GPA. I'm pretty solid evidence for that argument

 

[RegisBioMedMS]

Schools DO look at your university, I guarantee it, and it is something they definitely weigh in their decisions. But it is more complicated than just 4 year, vs. ivy league, vs. CC. Admissions committees get comfortable with graduates from certain programs who have provided consistently successful students in the past and they return to those pools over and over again for that "known product".

So, ask your pre-health advisor what programs other graduates of your undergrad or post-bac often attend. You'll have somewhat better chances of admission in those schools.

 

[Glimmer1991]

From what I've gathered, it doesn't seem to carry too much weight, so long as your GPA scores match. If you have a 4.0 from some unknown school and a 17 DAT, some flags are going to be raised. I think this makes sense, too, because the type of person who would work their butt off to get a 4.0 would typically be willing to put in the same effort for DAT preparation. It makes it look like that 4.0 wasn't very difficult to achieve if your DAT isn't so great.
In all honesty, I think it should matter more, and this is coming from someone who goes to a small and essentially "unknown" private university. We do have 2 or 3 people getting into med/dental school every year, though, out of the 4 or 5 that apply. My GPA is high, and I wanted to make sure my DAT matched so that the rigor of my courses wouldn't be questioned. I'm no idiot, though. Were I at Harvard, I wouldn't have a 3.95. I know some absolutely BRILLIANT people at Harvard who can't pull that off.

 

[ToothbrushBuddy]

Schools DO look at your university, I guarantee it, and it is something they definitely weigh in their decisions. But it is more complicated than just 4 year, vs. ivy league, vs. CC. Admissions committees get comfortable with graduates from certain programs who have provided consistently successful students in the past and they return to those pools over and over again for that "known product".

So, ask your pre-health advisor what programs other graduates of your undergrad or post-bac often attend. You'll have somewhat better chances of admission in those schools.

I've suspected that they do that, it just makes a lot of sense.

 

[UCSFx2017]

I went to a school ranked within 150 by U.S. News and got into all the schools (UCSF, UPenn, VCU, and NYU) that were within my range. If I had to go through this again and again, I would choose my affordable state school every single time. School name is important but nearly as important as the actual person. My school had little to do with how much effort I put into classes, research, volunteering, and developing my own world-view. The books at Harvard are the same as the books I use here. The students are different, which is one reason I have a hard time finding classmates with the same academic values and motivations as me, but this rarely affects me and its really not that important in undergrad. The teachers are different but this also isn't as important in undergrad because I largely learn independently. It's a different story with regards to higher-level research mentorship but I found great research mentors at my school.

There are so many seats at top schools that you can't possibly fill them all with only Ivy League students. Schools have to find fitting students elsewhere.

Stop focusing so much on a loosely associated 3rd party name and just focus on becoming an accomplished student. An accomplished student is a great applicant no matter what school he/she attended. Step away from the statistics and remember that schools are wagering on the person and not the school that they attended.

 

[NYDano]

This is something that was debated in my undergrad (Ivy League) pre-dental society. We decided to contact an admissions officer and were told that adcoms are aware, more or less, of which schools inflate grades / which are more competitive. The same admissions officer also said a +0.2 modifier was used for GPAs at my school, though I suspect this is highly variable from dental school to dental school.

 

[UCSFx2017]

This is something that was debated in my undergrad (Ivy League) pre-dental society. We decided to contact an admissions officer and were told that adcoms are aware, more or less, of which schools inflate grades / which are more competitive. The same admissions officer also said a +0.2 modifier was used for GPAs at my school, though I suspect this is highly variable from dental school to dental school.

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/14/the-history-of-college-grade-inflation/

http://gradeinflation.com/

 

[NYDano]

UCSFx2017, don't get me wrong.... I wasn't arguing that all Ivy league schools get a bump... Harvard is notorious for grade inflation. As I said, adcoms are more or less aware of which schools inflate.