Dual Enrollment Grades

[deleted446889]

Hey guys,

Wanted to learn more about how Dental Schools view Dual Enrollment courses. Correct me if I'm wrong, but DE courses are factored into the overall GPA the schools look at, right?

Anyway, as I get closer to graduating, my dual enrollment grades have been stressing me out. I was only 16 years old at the time and didn't do so well in some science courses, and it's really dragging down my GPA, which is already not my strong point.

My university OGPA is 3.46 and BCMP GPA is 3.0, but factoring in the Dual Enrollment stuff brings me down to OGPA 3.36 and *gulp* sGPA 2.7ish.

Here are the science courses I took as a Dual Enrollment student:
Bio I - B+
College Algebra - B
Precalc - C
Intro to Chem - C

And my worst grade..a D in Trig that I took in the summer as a transient student after my sophomore year in college (retook later at university and passed).

Pretty ashamed of my low grades...I know I'm better than the grades show, and I have no excuse for not putting in the required effort. I still have a few science classes left to take, and if I do well in them my final OGPA should be around 3.5 and sGPA around 3.2, and including the DE courses the sGPA will be around 3.0.

I really, really, really don't want to do an SMP or Post-Bac as I don't want to take on any more loans and I'm pretty burnt out from undergrad (I'll be taking a gap year before Dental School hopefully). I'm planning on giving 3-4 months to studying for the DAT with no other obligations, but will a great DAT score be enough?

Do you guys think Dental Schools will factor in my age/other factors with the dual enrollment grades? Or do they just take the GPAs at face value? I am an honors student and I do think I'm better than my grades show, and I hope I can reflect that on the DAT.

Thanks!

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[Scumbag_Steve]

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[deleted446889]

Unfortunately, your dual enrollment grades are factored into your AADSAS GPA. I was in the exact same situation; 16 years old taking college classes that I was told would not count on my college transcript GPA (true), but ended up on my AADSAS GPA. I tried to find any possible way to convince myself that it wasn't true, but failed. They're going to be on there. Your AADSAS GPA will be the 3.36 and 2.7ish you described. I know it sucks but it's not going to be the end of the world.

Here's my story for reference. I graduated in 3 years, taking to summer or winter classes (known to be much easier than fall or spring at my undergrad). I routinely took 4 or 5 heavy science courses per semester and 6 classes total. My 6th and final semester I took 6 science courses. I took 14,17,18,20,19,19 credits each semester of undergrad (18 credits of dual enrollment/ AP credits that actually went towards my graduation requirements took place in high school). I also literally balled out and tried as hard as I could studying for the DAT because I took it in between sophomore and junior year when my GPA was only a 3.49. Not only did I get a 25 AA, but my last two semester I got a 3.85 averaged between the two, took 10 science classes, and fulfilled four years worth of Honors Program credits. My upward trend and ability to handle upper division science courses I think were not lost upon adcoms.

All of these things I did in undergrad were tainted by dual enrollment GPA. For the time I spent in undergrad, my GPA was a 3.62 and my sGPA was a 3.44. With the 39 credits of 2.89 from dual enrollment, my AADSAS GPA was a 3.41 and my sGPA was 3.25. I applied to 13 schools. BU routinely looses applications, and I still haven't heard anything from them. WVU also rejected me with no interview. I'll throw those out as outliers. Harvard and UNC rejected me without interviews, and Marquette put me on hold. I have over 2,000 hours of quality volunteering, decent work and shadowing experience. I guess my PS was good, and I think my LOR writers did a good job; I never read any of the letters. While by no means does it keep me up at night, I sometimes wonder if Harvard and UNC understood why my AADSAS GPA was what it was, whether they would have given me interviews or not. Who knows, maybe my GPA still wasn't high enough for them even without dual enrollment. Definitely possible there were just more qualified applicants and no room for me at either school. Like I said, I don't loose sleep over it, mainly because I got to interview at UConn, Pitt, Michigan, Columbia, Penn, Case Western, UNE, and Tufts. With a 3.41/3.25 on AADSAS. So the moral of the story is that you are more than your AADSAS GPA, and a good DAT and well rounded application can most certainly rectify that AADSAS GPA.

Also, this is important. Not a single one of the schools where I interviewed understood the dual enrollment situation. This means that they invited me for interviews thinking that my AADSAS GPA was indicative of my college work. So they invited me based on the deflated GPA, not what I did as an undergrad actually on campus from 18-21. I was asked about it at most interviews. I calmly and politely explained the situation without making any excuses. I got responses such as "I don't know why they do that, that's not fair" to "wow, that explains the descrapncy between your GPA and DAT score!" and similar things. Only one school was still a little confused. Some schools didn't seem to think even my low AADSAS GPA was an issue.

One more important note. If you got to a state undergrad school and are trying to get into a state school, they will be the most understanding of your situation. UConn's Early College Experience dual enrollment courses were what I took in high school because they're offered to CT residents. I went to UConn undergrad. At my UConn interview, my interviewers child had taken these courses, and knew exactly what they were, just not that they counted towards the AADSAS GPA. The interviewer was shocked to realize this, and immediately asked about the courses I had actually taken in college, because "that's what actually matters".

I know it sucks. Keep your head up. You're more than your deflated AADSAS GPA, and schools will understand that.

Thank you so so much for the detailed response! It sucks, but reading your situation gave me some insight. I'm going to do my best to pull up my AADSAS OGPA to a 3.4 and sGPA to a 3.0.

My best option is to crush the DAT, right? What do you think is the minimum score I'd need to hit to overcome the low GPA? Also, my state school is UF, do you know anything about them? You have a wealth of knowledge and I hope to learn as much as I can from you!

Thank you once again.