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Given my situation, what is the best possible route from FAILURE to dental school?
Hello everyone, I am a 21 year old college student who woke up one day and decided to pursue a career in dentistry. Although many successful students get a "kick start" on this early on in high school, I say it's better late than never! If not dentistry, then a successful someone with a doctorate in the field of science. I am compassionate, enjoy helping people, have volunteer experience at a hospital and I love everything about the Dentistry profession. I owe a lot to my widowed mom who has suffered a lot to make financial sacrifices for everyone in my family. Sounds great, right? Only one major problem...
Unfortunately I didn't hit the ground running. My college experience so far has been filled with indecision, costly mistakes and wasted opportunity. I've spent 2.5 years at a 4-year university, accumlating more C's, D's, F's and W's than acceptable and have nothing left but a pitiful 1.5 GPA, 27 credits, "academic warning" status and a head full of regret.
I assure you, I'm not a complete idiot! Many people see me as bright and talented guy, but I have a tendency to get caught up in emotional drama. Each year it's the same story: I devise an elaborate plan to get where I need to be, but I always sabotage it by losing focus and getting distracted. It turns out my disclipine and study habits need a lot of work. Most importantly, I need serious educational advising to overcome these great obstacles.
The harsh reality now is my academic status. Let's just say I took a "leave of absence" from my 4-year college and decided to pursue an alternate route from Associate to Bachelors to Dental School. My current plan is detailed below:
Going from failure to academic prestige... can it be done? What do you all think? All advice and suggestions are much appreciated.
For reference, this thread is encouraging to people who have bad grades:
" To people who freak out over things...my story"
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=783024
👍 (~Don't tell me to give up or that it isn't possible. When there's a will, there's a way!)
Hello everyone, I am a 21 year old college student who woke up one day and decided to pursue a career in dentistry. Although many successful students get a "kick start" on this early on in high school, I say it's better late than never! If not dentistry, then a successful someone with a doctorate in the field of science. I am compassionate, enjoy helping people, have volunteer experience at a hospital and I love everything about the Dentistry profession. I owe a lot to my widowed mom who has suffered a lot to make financial sacrifices for everyone in my family. Sounds great, right? Only one major problem...

Unfortunately I didn't hit the ground running. My college experience so far has been filled with indecision, costly mistakes and wasted opportunity. I've spent 2.5 years at a 4-year university, accumlating more C's, D's, F's and W's than acceptable and have nothing left but a pitiful 1.5 GPA, 27 credits, "academic warning" status and a head full of regret.
I assure you, I'm not a complete idiot! Many people see me as bright and talented guy, but I have a tendency to get caught up in emotional drama. Each year it's the same story: I devise an elaborate plan to get where I need to be, but I always sabotage it by losing focus and getting distracted. It turns out my disclipine and study habits need a lot of work. Most importantly, I need serious educational advising to overcome these great obstacles.
The harsh reality now is my academic status. Let's just say I took a "leave of absence" from my 4-year college and decided to pursue an alternate route from Associate to Bachelors to Dental School. My current plan is detailed below:
- Pursue an Associate of Science degree from Excelsior College. (Distance learning) Use their credit bank service to consolidate all my good grades into a single transcript, while erasing the bad grades. Taking CLEP exams (a great idea for getting college credits on a tight budget), taking some of pre-dentistry science prerequisites at a community college, pulling solid A's to prove that I am capable. Get an A.S. degree and finish with a decent GPA.
- Bring the Associate of Science degree back to a 4-year university and complete a B.S. Biology degree, again maintaining a competitive GPA to prove my worth. And finally, score high on the DAT.
Going from failure to academic prestige... can it be done? What do you all think? All advice and suggestions are much appreciated.
For reference, this thread is encouraging to people who have bad grades:
" To people who freak out over things...my story"
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=783024