having doubts...

[happyending2011]

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im a senior graduating in the fall2011 with a bio degree.
im somewhat hopeless at this point because my gpa is only like 2.7. with sgpa, it might be more lower. with my passion in dental field, i thought i could get everything through. i try to do best in what i do but i guess results show that i may not be a candidate in this field. ive been interning at a dentist for almost 2 years and i still want to become a dentist. so i was thinking about going to graduate to study more to bring up the gpa or do post bacc? is post bacc all offered at a university? does it matter what you study in post bacc as long as it relates to science field? ahhhh i feel so lost..can someone give me advice on what i should do after i graduate?

 

[jmt1984]

im a senior graduating in the fall2011 with a bio degree.
im somewhat hopeless at this point because my gpa is only like 2.7. with sgpa, it might be more lower. with my passion in dental field, i thought i could get everything through. i try to do best in what i do but i guess results show that i may not be a candidate in this field. ive been interning at a dentist for almost 2 years and i still want to become a dentist. so i was thinking about going to graduate to study more to bring up the gpa or do post bacc? is post bacc all offered at a university? does it matter what you study in post bacc as long as it relates to science field? ahhhh i feel so lost..can someone give me advice on what i should do after i graduate?

You have an eerily similar background to myself, and I even did what you are planning, I got a Master's degree and focused on bringing up/ doing well in my science classes, and I was successful, I got a 4.0 during my master's, and wrote a thesis and had the 'research experience'. Despite this, I feel that my undergrad GPA is my liability, and (although I limited myself to the schools that I applied too).

I would do the master's degree, mainly because if you end up like me, you can get a job a bit easier in my opinion. So, I have to ask, is your 2.7 because of a couple bad classes, or just an overall B- average?

 

[LaFleur]

I think that you should focus on taking more classes/getting a master's degree and ACING all the classes you take. Don't get down, just keep working. There is something you're doing wrong, you need to figure out what that is and change it! I'm sure you're a very capable person, but you need to correct your mistakes and keep moving forward.


Btw, the post-baccalaureate forum might be better prepared to answer these questions. 😀

 

[John Durian]

Hm, difficult boat to be in.

Post-bac means you will literally retake all of your undergrad prereq classes. It'll be counted towards your undergrad GPA if I'm not mistaken. It may be a good route to go to improve your undergrad GPA...

Masters will not be counted with your undergrad GPA but a whole different category altogether. It'll help show growth and commitment. Might also be easier to find a job with it...

 

[notin]

Make an appointment to speak with an admissions person at your state dental school. Bring a resume and your transcript and ask them what they would like you to do.

Not every school offers a post-bacc, but a good many do. Many post-bacc's are specifically for students like you trying to improve grades for professional school admittance, so choose one of those and it will be science-related and be fine. I would think taking another year of undergraduate classes after graduation and before the post-bacc would be helpful also, but the dental admissions person would be able to tell you better.

Get a's this spring. Get a's in all your work from here on out. Perhaps consider taking some time off after graduation and working for a year or two, then going back to school focused.

 

[LaFleur]

Many post-bacc's are specifically for students like you trying to improve grades for professional school admittance, so choose one of those and it will be science-related and be fine.

From my understanding, formal post bacc's exist for the purpose of enabling individuals who have had very little to none of the prereqs to take their prereqs for the first time and then apply for medical/dental etc school.

I think what you're talking about are more like specialized master's programs, which are programs that are offered specifically for students who are trying to improve their grades to get into professional schools. These are slightly different programs--kind of a "last chance" for people with low stats to improve themselves--and usually will have two forms: 1) they follow a curriculum that is slightly similar to that of a 1st year medical or dental school student or 2) they will just allow you to do a whole bunch of graduate-level science classes to prove that you've got what it takes to actually succeed with difficult science classes. Since these programs are mainly for premed students (and dental students who go to them are a smaller proportion), some of them even have linkage programs to medical schools associated with them. The dental specific ones (there is one at UMDNJ and one at BU) might have linkages to dental schools, but I don't know.

Since the OP is a biology major, s/he wouldn't have success with the traditional post baccalaureate program, and especially with his/her grades should consider something that's more similar to an SMP. However, I will give the following warning: OP, DO NOT go to an SMP before you have corrected the problems in your study habits. If you do an SMP and do not do well, you are essentially saying that you wouldn't perform well in medical/dental school (and therefore are KILLING your chances), so you need to fix your study habits before you consider a program like this.

Now if by post bacc you meant that the OP should just sign up for some courses at a local university and ace them, that's a completely different thing from a formal post bacc program.