Easier school vs. competitive school

[blankguy]

---

Members don't see this ad.

I have dilema, should I go for an less competitive school or more competitive school. I have a lackluster GPA(<3.0). The plus is that less competitive is that it is cheaper and easier pull As. However I fear the school being less well regarded than the As from other more competitive school. The more competitive is more expensive and harder to get As(risk!). I am interested in knowing what your opinions are. I am considering Harvard, BU, and UMass Boston.

 

[mcataz]

I don't know if I agree with that statement. NYU is realtively easy to get into, but with their class size so large, it's extremely competitive. The same can be said of Boston U as well.

I think if you really want to specialize, I would attend a school with a small class size. I think your chances are better if you only have to compete with 54 students as opposed to 108 students.

 

[scandalouslj]

I agree it totally depends on what you want to do. You have to see which schools you really fit with and if you want to specialize. If you want to specialize things like clas rank is important, but I think borad scores will really level the playing field. So dont look at how competative the school is, but the quality of the program. By the way I hope you have somethiing extraordinary, becuase do you think you are even gonna get an interview with a 3.0 at Harvard?

 

[ItsGavinC]

Is "UMass Boston" Tufts? If not, then I've never heard of UMass Boston.

In any event, I'll be perfectly honest and say that I don't think you have much of a chance at all (okay, zero chance) at Harvard.

You might have a chance at BU, but that isn't for sure.

You are simply going to have to increase the number of schools you are applying to, or you aren't going to get in anywhere. You've GOT to look at some private schools in your situation. The public schools are getting too many applicants these days to even give your application a notice.

 

[PashaJ]

I don't think he means for dental school. I remember earlier he was asking about repeating courses at UMass Boston so here I think he may mean the same thing. He is asking if he should repeat classes at Harvard where the reputation is great and expensive but hard to get a good grade or go to a cheaper school like UMass Boston and get the easier A.

I could be wrong.

 

[blankguy]

Sorry, should have been more specific. I meant taking the prereqs.

 

[ItsGavinC]

Thanks Pasha. If that is the case, then I would go wherever it is cheapest AND easiest to get good grades.

 

[ItsGavinC]

BTW, Blankguy, can you really even get into Harvard to complete prereqs with a current 3.0 undergrad GPA?

I wouldn't worry about the name associated with the school, I'd just go out and DO IT!

 

[blankguy]

Okay, so it doesn't matter. I was making a fuss over this because somebody(forget who) posted that you have to be careful where one does his prereqs and I thought he/she meant the reputation as well. I saw your comment of just do it coming.😀

 

[mcataz]

Originally posted by blankguy
Okay, so it doesn't matter. I was making a fuss over this because somebody(forget who) posted that you have to be careful where one does his prereqs and I thought he/she meant the reputation as well. I saw your comment of just do it coming.😀

It was I who suggested that, but you misunderstood me. You are going to post-bacc to improve your GPA. So why on earth would you enroll in a post-bacc program where you will hope for B's at best? Therefore, there is no point in attending a really competitive post-bacc that might be more difficult than your actual undergrad. All post-bacc programs are valid. Go to the one in which you can get A's.

Some may argue that the more challenging post-bacc will better prepare you for dental school. But at this point, you are just trying to get into any dental school. A 3.5 GPA at Joe Post-bacc is still better than a 3.1 from Harvard post-bacc. Adcoms are going to be less concerned with the name of your post-bacc and more concerned with the type of classes you take. For example, an A in biochem is impressive regardless of where you take it.

School name is so overrated. Go to the STATS page. You will see people from average schools get into great dental schools. Like Gavin said, just go to any program and do it.

That's my 2 cents or 1 cent however you want to look at it. I personally wouldn't do Harvard Extension school. There are too many gunners and that means B's at best. I doubt a dental school will discredit you if you attend non-Ivy post-bacc.

 

[blankguy]

Okay so either I was being a snob or misunderstanding where I should be taking the prereqs. I might stick to UMass then.

 

[Comet208]

Gavin,

There is a program at Harvard called Harvard Extension. its the same as continuing education everywhere else, so any one with ANY GPA is able to register for their classes as long as they can pay the fee. i was once considering that but i decided to go to a nearby small state college and be a nondegree student and pay 1/3 of fee!

The advantage of such programs is that you are able to get recommendations from professors at Harvad or any other big name school. Maybe this doenst happen at harvard but i believe that if a dental school has a post-bacc program affiliated with it, you have a fot in (recommendations you get and connections you make)

Comet

 

[mcataz]

Originally posted by Comet208
Gavin,

There is a program at Harvard called Harvard Extension. its the same as continuing education everywhere else, so any one with ANY GPA is able to register for their classes as long as they can pay the fee. i was once considering that but i decided to go to a nearby small state college and be a nondegree student and pay 1/3 of fee!

The advantage of such programs is that you are able to get recommendations from professors at Harvad or any other big name school. Maybe this doenst happen at harvard but i believe that if a dental school has a post-bacc program affiliated with it, you have a fot in (recommendations you get and connections you make)

Comet

That is the one caveat to what I said. If a dental school has a post-bac associated with it, then go there. But you have to research these programs well. Anyone could make the mistake of taking post-bacc classes at Harvard and assume they have a better shot at getting into Harvard dental simply because they share the same name.

I'm talkiing about formal post-bacc programs that the dental school recognizes and is associated with. UCSF has a post-bacc program that it's dental school recognizes it and reserves slots for its best students. Tinkerbell attended it and is now starting at UCSF dental.

Unfortunately, I don' t think there are a lot of dental schools linked to post-bacc programs. These are mostly involved with medical schools.

 

[blankguy]

Originally posted by mcataz
That is the one caveat to what I said. If a dental school has a post-bac associated with it, then go there. But you have to research these programs well. Anyone could make the mistake of taking post-bacc classes at Harvard and assume they have a better shot at getting into Harvard dental simply because they share the same name.

I'm talkiing about formal post-bacc programs that the dental school recognizes and is associated with. UCSF has a post-bacc program that it's dental school recognizes it and reserves slots for its best students. Tinkerbell attended it and is now starting at UCSF dental.

Unfortunately, I don' t think there are a lot of dental schools linked to post-bacc programs. These are mostly involved with medical schools.

Tufts has a linkage program with Dental and Medical schools, however they do have a GPA cutoff and as was posted its $2500 per course.