How bad is a D?

[whiskeysour]

---

Members don't see this ad.

I graduate this semester with a degree in biochemistry and I'm seriously considering dental school. My stats...3.5+ GPA, graduating with honors (honors research+thesis), tons of extra curriculars (frat, mentor, community service, flying club), chem for majors ta, and good professor recs.

HOWEVER, I had gotten 2 D's (bio1 and organic 2)--no excuses. When i retook each of the classes I recieved an A in both. How bad is this going to look when applying to dental schools? During an interview I would place the blame on myself, but I was persistent, took the course over and aced it.

I have not taken the DAT yet, but I'm a great test-taker and am aiming for a 22+.

What do you all think? Do I have a decent shot of getting into good schools [UF(i'm a fla resident), BU, tufts, NYU]? I appreciate any encouragement, advice, or similar sucess stories.

WhiskeySour 🙂

 

[food4thots]

yes, everyone makes mistakes. i have a few blemishes on my transcript, and i go in.. so i don't think it will pose a problem especially because you made up for it.

 

[drhobie7]

not as bad as an F

 

[tinman831]

make sure that the school will give you credit for that course. some school's want C's or better in prereqs.

 

[colt]

So in other words, you are only about 96% of a perfect applicant......

 

[whiskeysour]

make sure that the school will give you credit for that course. some school's want C's or better in prereqs.

HOWEVER, I had gotten 2 D's (bio1 and organic 2)--no excuses. When i retook each of the classes I recieved an A in both. How bad is this going to look when applying to dental schools? During an interview I would place the blame on myself, but I was persistent, took the course over and aced it.

Got A's, baby!

 

[tug1625]

some schools dont like redo's... it would obviously be expected that you do better in the same class since you had seen the information before. But overall im sure you will be ok.

 

[kiggar4l2000]

not as bad as an F

but worse than a C

 

[toofache32]

but worse than a C

You guys beat me to it.

 

[tinman831]

Got A's, baby!

oops! sorry. i missed that part. 😳

 

[samwY]

but worse than a C

eh? why is a D better than a C

 

[geckel]

eh? why is a D better than a C

Nobody said that. Re-read your quote. But since you asked.....you could argue because you can retake a class that you got a D in but can't retake for a C.

 

[fightingspirit]

I graduate this semester with a degree in biochemistry and I'm seriously considering dental school. My stats...3.5+ GPA, graduating with honors (honors research+thesis), tons of extra curriculars (frat, mentor, community service, flying club), chem for majors ta, and good professor recs.

HOWEVER, I had gotten 2 D's (bio1 and organic 2)--no excuses. When i retook each of the classes I recieved an A in both. How bad is this going to look when applying to dental schools? During an interview I would place the blame on myself, but I was persistent, took the course over and aced it.

I have not taken the DAT yet, but I'm a great test-taker and am aiming for a 22+.

What do you all think? Do I have a decent shot of getting into good schools [UF(i'm a fla resident), BU, tufts, NYU]? I appreciate any encouragement, advice, or similar sucess stories.

WhiskeySour 🙂

off course you have a shot! you seem to be a persistent student. you got A's in both classes and you are not giving excuses. that shows a strngth of character and resilience. and if you get that 22+, then make no mistake, you will qualify for the most competitive schools in addition to the ones you mentioned. keep up the fighting spirit 😀

 

[BrianD]

If you have a D on a prereq, do all schools require you to retake the class for a C- or higher?

Thanks,
Brian

 

[PDizzle]

Did you get D's in those two classes in the same semester? If so, they might just assume something went down during that time period (family or whatever). The rest of your grades are great so it might not even be brought up in an interview, especially if you get 22+ on the DAT.


Don't sweat it.

Here's another reason why you shouldn't sweat it....you can't do anything about it! You retook them and got an 'A'. That's all you can do. You might want to organize your thoughts into an answer to why you got D's in the first place in case it it is asked in an interview.

 

[PDizzle]

If you have a D on a prereq, do all schools require you to retake the class for a C- or higher?

Thanks,
Brian

I can't officially speak for ALL schools but I think that the overwhelming majority will not accept a D for a pre-req.

 

[everest]

I graduate this semester with a degree in biochemistry and I'm seriously considering dental school. My stats...3.5+ GPA, graduating with honors (honors research+thesis), tons of extra curriculars (frat, mentor, community service, flying club), chem for majors ta, and good professor recs.

HOWEVER, I had gotten 2 D's (bio1 and organic 2)--no excuses. When i retook each of the classes I recieved an A in both. How bad is this going to look when applying to dental schools? During an interview I would place the blame on myself, but I was persistent, took the course over and aced it.

I have not taken the DAT yet, but I'm a great test-taker and am aiming for a 22+.

What do you all think? Do I have a decent shot of getting into good schools [UF(i'm a fla resident), BU, tufts, NYU]? I appreciate any encouragement, advice, or similar sucess stories.

WhiskeySour 🙂

Make sure you're going to get consistent DAT scores of 22++ in every category... not just your TS.

 

[Lefty7]

You'll be fine. I was in a similar situation (except I dropped and pulled two F's). Retook them and did fine. It hurt my GPA, but overall I was a good student with a bad semester. Nobody seemed to care much except that I had a good answer to "So what happened here?"

 

[dksnap]

I noticed some schools stated that they require C's on all prereqs, meharry I think, but some schools didn't mention anything. I got also got a D in a prereq, but since I already graduated awhile ago theres nothing I can do about it. My overall and science GPAs are still good though. Will it matter to Adcoms if I get 22+ AA on the DAT?

 

[steedums]

check with the schools first, many will reject you immidiately
2 year out as a research associate with a D in ochem1, 3.4 gpa and a 18 on the ochem dat, still rejected from several schools soley because of that

 

[whiskeysour]

thanks for all the responses guys...i needed those words of encouragement.

i did not get the two D's in the same semester. this is not an excuse, but i was young and personally never really had to really "study" for a class before these two. also, i was on call ~100 hrs/week as a surgical tech removing corneas from cadavers. it took a toll, but once again it's not an excuse...i take the blame.

i have a 3.6 overall gpa, and 3.52 science gpa (with the D's factored in)...shadowing in a couple of difference practices...one specialized, one general. honors research, community service, chem ta, and previous surgical experience, play guitar and have my pilots license (if this stuff matters). although I haven't taken the DAT yet, I've been studying heavily and i don't think a 22 across the board is out of reach.

i hope i don't sound like i'm tooting my horn, but i'm trying to gauge what sort of schools i can get into with these 2 blemishes on my transcript--and for clarification, i did retake both courses and got an A. i'm looking heavily at UF, columbia, tufts, bu, penn, and michigan. i'm a florida resident. what do yall think?

STEEDUMS, what schools outright rejected you?

Thanks again for the encouragement.

 

[Richnator]

I graduate this semester with a degree in biochemistry and I'm seriously considering dental school. My stats...3.5+ GPA, graduating with honors (honors research+thesis), tons of extra curriculars (frat, mentor, community service, flying club), chem for majors ta, and good professor recs.

HOWEVER, I had gotten 2 D's (bio1 and organic 2)--no excuses. When i retook each of the classes I recieved an A in both. How bad is this going to look when applying to dental schools? During an interview I would place the blame on myself, but I was persistent, took the course over and aced it.

I have not taken the DAT yet, but I'm a great test-taker and am aiming for a 22+.

What do you all think? Do I have a decent shot of getting into good schools [UF(i'm a fla resident), BU, tufts, NYU]? I appreciate any encouragement, advice, or similar sucess stories.

WhiskeySour 🙂

Sup bro,

You will do fine. Two D's isn't bad, but since you got 2 A's, it proves to ADCOM that you can handle the workload if you get serious. Just make sure you do well on the DAT though. Worst thing is to screw up on the DAT and all that hard work is down the toilet. Good luck and study hard.

Take care,
Rich