Freaking Out over Pre-Dental

[DentalStudent4]

Hey guys, I'm really new to this site and chanced upon it a few days ago and saw how helpful everyone was here, so I thought I would give it a shot to see if you guys could offer me suggestions or tips. Please don't sugarcoat it and just give it to me honestly.

I am currently a freshman in college and this is my Spring quarter. I am in Ohio State University and we currently are doing the quarter system but we will be switching to Semester system next year.

My main concern is my gpa. When I entered college I thought it would be like high school and did really bad. Right now my gpa is a 2.516 and it is spring quarter. I had a small panic attack during Spring Break and I thought I ruined my chances completely for getting into a Dental school. I have been crunching numbers and if I ace all my classes this quarter I can get a 3.016 at the end of my freshman year. The bad part is by the end of my 3rd year if I get STRAIGHT A's I will still only be at a 3.56 and that's if I get straight A's. I can afford to get 4-5 B's and my GPA would be about a 3.45. I know the average GPA is about a 3.5 if I am correct. I can't say I will get all A's from here on out but in high school I was a 4.3 student, I just didn't put in effort in college which was my mistake and I have learned from that.

The question is, have I dug myself in too deep and should I maybe consider a different field? I would hate too as I really feel I belong in Pre-dent but I don't want to do all four years and not get into dental school. I was talking to a friend that is doing Pre-dental and she told me not to freak out and that I still had plenty of time. While I do believe her, I think she also may have said that just because she was a friend and didn't want to see me be sad.

She mentioned something to me that really surprised me. I'm not sure if this is true so if someone can enlighten me that would be great. She said if I did not get into dental school I could master in public health or get a masters in something else after undergrad. She said most people master in (public health? I think something along those lines), well most people that plan to re-apply to dental schools. She said since it's one of the easier masters program they get a pretty good gpa such as 3.7-4.0. Now this is the part that surprised me. She said if you do the masters program and re-apply they only look at your masters program GPA since that's the gpa you put in on applications. Is this true? Is that mean they don't look at my undergrad gpa at all? Because I feel that may be too easy.

She also said a good DAT score will offset a bad GPA.

I also saw on the 2011 statistics sheet from DOC that some of the schools average gpa's were only 3.0? Maybe I read it wrong, or did i?

Sorry for so many questions guys, but I really hope someone can help me out here as I have no idea what to do and am just looking for suggestions or tips or anything.

Thanks again!

EDIT: Something I forgot to mention was in Chem 121 I got a C and in Chem 122 I got a B minus. In Bio 114 I got a C minus (this was all because of the teacher, the average was a D plus and he still refused to curve it.) I'm currently in Chem 123 and that will be the Gen chem series. I finished the bio 113-114 series. Skipped 113 from high school.

--A hopeful future dentist

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[xjoohn]

Don't waste time crunching numbers and worrying about your GPA. Just focus on the classes ahead of you and try to at least get B+ on all the subjects. (This is not that hard to do if you try your best... especially since you were a 4.3 student in high school) Your still a freshman and you can easily get your GPA up to ~3.4. Honestly if you get at least 3.4 gpa and do well on the DAT, you don't have to worry too much. Good luck!

 

[DentalStudent4]

Don't waste time crunching numbers and worrying about your GPA. Just focus on the classes ahead of you and try to at least get B+ on all the subjects. (This is not that hard to do if you try your best... especially since you were a 4.3 student in high school) Your still a freshman and you can easily get your GPA up to ~3.4. Honestly if you get at least 3.4 gpa and do well on the DAT, you don't have to worry too much. Good luck!

I really hope so. My science GPA is really bad at the moment but I've gotten more serious. Thanks for the feedback! If anyone is able to answer some of the other questions I had that would also help. Thanks again for the feedback and suggestion!

 

[y3nd0]

Don't freak out now, especially if you're a freshman! Professional schools love to see improvement. If you screwed up your freshman year, you have 2-3 years to make up for it. If you get serious and improve your grades, they'll see that you have an upward trend and know that your freshman year was sorta an outlier.

There's also a thread here on the forums for "sub 3.0ers". You'll see that some of them got into dental school. Just focus on doing better, get some great extracurriculars, and do well on the DAT.
(And yes, a great DAT score will help offset the bad grades, as long as you don't have C's or D's across the board).

Stop stressing and keep working!

 

[tdkyun]

Trust me on this.. Just focus and get it done (whatever that may be). My first year GPA? <1.5

 

[433439]

My freshman year of college had me at around a 2.3cGPA and < 2.0 sGPA. Don't worry, a lot of it is the transitioning going on. High School was hellaaaaa easy compared to now.

 

[DentalStudent4]

Don't freak out now, especially if you're a freshman! Professional schools love to see improvement. If you screwed up your freshman year, you have 2-3 years to make up for it. If you get serious and improve your grades, they'll see that you have an upward trend and know that your freshman year was sorta an outlier.

There's also a thread here on the forums for "sub 3.0ers". You'll see that some of them got into dental school. Just focus on doing better, get some great extracurriculars, and do well on the DAT.
(And yes, a great DAT score will help offset the bad grades, as long as you don't have C's or D's across the board).

Stop stressing and keep working!

Yea I just saw those threads. That definitely gives some hope

Trust me on this.. Just focus and get it done (whatever that may be). My first year GPA? <1.5

Really? Have you applied to any dentist schools yet though?

My freshman year of college had me at around a 2.3cGPA and < 2.0 sGPA. Don't worry, a lot of it is the transitioning going on. High School was hellaaaaa easy compared to now.

Yea, have you also applied to dental schools and gotten in? Yea high school in my opinion did a bad job of preparing us for college. Some of it was definitely my fault too though.

 

[Davermz450]

I feel ya. I had a 2.6 my freshman year first semester and got a c minus in calc 1. But I figured out the game of college and then I got a 3.2, 3.4, 3.64, and 3.41 and this semester is looking great. Don't worry I was just like you. My back up is D.O or Chiropractor lol that's if I totally fail. Just keep chugging away and you will get the hang of college. It's all a game, learn what the professors want and focus on that, don't get me wrong learn the stuff too. Work super hard on that BCP. that's we're I really try to shine. My BCP is a 3.48 but that is not super but not horrible. My advice would be to take the annoying GE classes as pass fail. That's is what is killing my gpa is B minuses and Bs in GE Classes. You got it buddy don't give up yet

 

[SnowyRox]

Remember, you need a C or above in all pre-reqs... so you have to retake your C- class.

 

[DentalStudent4]

Remember, you need a C or above in all pre-reqs... so you have to retake your C- class.

Why would I need a C or above? A C- works at OSU. I can take the higher level classes.

 

[hellopeople]

Get roughly an A- average from here on out. Don't stress about it too much unless you need to in order to focus yourself. Just think, you get to have a B+ for every equivalent credit hour A you get. The occasional B won't kill you either.

If you happen to get an A+, remember that those are worth 4.333 on your app. Also, for schools that like their GPAs sans "+"'s and "-"s, your A-'s will be essentially A's so put that little bit of extra effort into a class if you are between a B+ and A-.

Carefully plan you classes around maximizing study time for the courses you know are hard at your school. "ratemyprofessor.com" is your friend in this department. Keep in mind that for intro classes the ratings seem to always be low. Newbies like to complain about even normal workloads.

I had like a C+ average or something my first semester, and applied late, yet still received 8 interviews out of 15 schools. You have time to improve. I'm guessing a 3.45 will still be fine in a few years.

Also, sleep matters. Unless you actually failed to study at all, maybe take the sleep time over the extra study time before an exam. I didn't pick up on that until later that I would care to admit. Good luck.

wow... what a ramble. My bad.

 

[hellopeople]

Why would I need a C or above? A C- works at OSU. I can take the higher level classes.

Most people apply to more than one school.

 

[HeadgearBraces]

I went to Ohio State last year and was in the exact same predicament as you. I ended up transferring to a college I can commute to from home after the spring quarter. A lot of the things I'm about to explain are obvious but its not easy to see with so much going on. At OSU and any college there is a lot to get used to your freshman year. Dorm life, going out with new friends, being away from home, horrible microwave food, roommates you don't get along with, no car your first year to get around, and college in general. On top of all this they expect you to find a place to live next year and roommates before winter break when leases get signed, and you just started late september. All of this is going on and it makes it really easy to not focus on the reason you are in college, to do good. Sleep is a huge factor now that I look back, I wasn't getting nearly enough . You can go out and have fun every once in a while on the weekends, enjoy college, but there is so much pressure to go out at OSU that you probably are going out too much without even realizing it. Once you get an apartment next year, it will be much easier to focus on school. As previously stated by others, dental schools will notice an upward trend. My GPA was close to yours, if anything worse. Now I am focused on school and not everything else that causes stress and I am getting A's. The good thing is if you stay you will get preference at the OSU dental college, i think the statistic was 30 people from OSU two years ago. It's not going to be easy, develop college study skills and find and use campus resources, which OSU can't possibly make sure all 70,000 students know about. I think the best tip came from my advisor at my current college that explained to not try and take 25 credit hours per semester just so you can finish in 4 years, especially if you want a job on the side. It's much better to take less classes, work less, and raise your GPA from here. Good luck to you and if you have any more questions from someone that was in the same situation, don't hesitate to PM me.

 

[doc toothache]

I also saw on the 2011 statistics sheet from DOC that some of the schools average gpa's were only 3.0? Maybe I read it wrong, or did i? Thanks again!
EDIT: Something I forgot to mention was in Chem 121 I got a C and in Chem 122 I got a B minus. In Bio 114 I got a C minus (this was all because of the teacher, the average was a D plus and he still refused to curve it.) I'm currently in Chem 123 and that will be the Gen chem series. I finished the bio 113-114 series. Skipped 113 from high school.

You should quit blaming someone else for your lackluster grades. Maybe you should not have skipped 113 since, clearly, your hs prep was inadequate. Oh, and you did read it wrong.

 

[Dgeorg6]

You should quit blaming someone else for your lackluster grades. Maybe you should not have skipped 113 since, clearly, your hs prep was inadequate. Oh, and you did read it wrong.

I agree, the first step to getting better grades is taking responsibility for your bad grades.

Alot of professors are going to be hard, and just because the average is bad doesn't mean it's that bad, it just means a lot of people didn't care enough to get the good grades..

I personally believe the intro level biologys for biology majors are weed out classes. My freshman year I had around 500 people in my Bio 1201 class and the average on every test was around 60-66. It's not because it was insanely hard, it's just because every jack ass goes to college thinking "hey I can be a doctor, it's not that hard" and then end up changing their majors after the first 2 intro classes destroy their confidence. I think my incoming freshman class was a little above 5000 and literally about 1300+ were biology majors. Now their is probably 400-600.

You just have to stay focused and determined and start making at least a 3.5 for each semester, or go ahead and switch majors cause your just wasting your time and money

 

[tmirchel]

Just show a great improvement over time. For instance UoP says they really only looks at your last couple years of your GPA because that's when they know you decided to be a dentist. Just don't show a negative slope.

Also if you got C- in some prereqs you may have to retake them, regardless if you take upper levels courses in the same subject. Some schools don't care, but I guess you could chose not to apply to them.


I would also start the volunteering thing and research thing now. Get it out of the way before you are taking 3-4 upper level bio classes. I did research, volunteering and 16 credits, 3 science in the same semester and it sucked but it looks good...

 

[tdkyun]

Yea I just saw those threads. That definitely gives some hope



Really? Have you applied to any dentist schools yet though?

Yes. I got accepted to UT Memphis on my third try (but only applied twice to Memphis)

 

[DentalStudent4]

Most people apply to more than one school.

Oh no I know that, what I meant is my C minus in that class allows me to still take all my bio major courses. Would I still need to retake it?

You should quit blaming someone else for your lackluster grades. Maybe you should not have skipped 113 since, clearly, your hs prep was inadequate. Oh, and you did read it wrong.

Sorry doc, I didn't mean it like that. I thought I was prepared, I studied in the class and over his notes. The thing was he told us it would be over his notes and not to read from the book at all as he never got it from that but in the end it ended up being from the book. I didn't mean to blame the teacher, I guess miscommunication came into play. Regardless, you're right, I shouldn't blame other people.

I agree, the first step to getting better grades is taking responsibility for your bad grades.

Alot of professors are going to be hard, and just because the average is bad doesn't mean it's that bad, it just means a lot of people didn't care enough to get the good grades..

I personally believe the intro level biologys for biology majors are weed out classes. My freshman year I had around 500 people in my Bio 1201 class and the average on every test was around 60-66. It's not because it was insanely hard, it's just because every jack ass goes to college thinking "hey I can be a doctor, it's not that hard" and then end up changing their majors after the first 2 intro classes destroy their confidence. I think my incoming freshman class was a little above 5000 and literally about 1300+ were biology majors. Now their is probably 400-600.

You just have to stay focused and determined and start making at least a 3.5 for each semester, or go ahead and switch majors cause your just wasting your time and money

I will definitely not switch and will aim for that 3.5 if not higher. Thanks.

Just show a great improvement over time. For instance UoP says they really only looks at your last couple years of your GPA because that's when they know you decided to be a dentist. Just don't show a negative slope.

Also if you got C- in some prereqs you may have to retake them, regardless if you take upper levels courses in the same subject. Some schools don't care, but I guess you could chose not to apply to them.


I would also start the volunteering thing and research thing now. Get it out of the way before you are taking 3-4 upper level bio classes. I did research, volunteering and 16 credits, 3 science in the same semester and it sucked but it looks good...

I'm confused in the retaking of the cminus class. If I am still able to take the upper level bio courses then should I still re-take it as it doesn't play that big of a role anymore? Oh okay I saw what you meant, I will talk to my counselor and advisor about this. Thanks!

Yes. I got accepted to UT Memphis on my third try (but only applied twice to Memphis)

Ah okay, congrats mate!

 

[Parklife]

Do you go to udub by any chance?

 

[DentalStudent4]

Do you go to udub by any chance?

Udub? What is that? University of Dublin?

 

[wwuviking]

Udub is the University of Washington...(side note - Price for Heisman - from a Coug)

But as stated before you still have tons of time to boost the GPA . . . But keep in mind many schools have a cut off of C+ as the lowest grade they accept, so you will have to retake the courses you didn't at least get a C+ in. Take advantage of the opportunity of your youth and put in effort to get A's in those classes . . . if I can get an A anyone can. Good luck and if your willing to make the sacrifices you'll get it done. Best of luck on the journey.

If I were you I would do quite a bit of shadowing and soul searching about why you want to pursue dentistry. It will help you either find the motivation needed to succeed in these courses, or it will detour you from pursuing something you aren't passionate about. With whatever you decide best of luck!