This isn’t a post to brag or anything like that at all. You can probably just look at my post history to see how worried I was about these issues and they have kept me up at night ever since they occurred years ago. My main goal is to provide even a shred of hope for anyone who is in the situation I was once in.
I graduated from undergrad 6 years ago with a sub 3.0 sci and overall GPA. During that time, I had several course withdrawals, multiple C’s in science courses, an F in a science course, and also ended up receiving an academic integrity violation in another course after a classmate copied off of my homework assignment.
I honestly have no excuse for my grades and actions besides the fact that I lacked motivation, had no direction at the time, and was depressed. The usual circumstances...
A couple years after graduating, I decided to pursue dentistry and enrolled in a postbac program where I attained a 4.0 GPA. However, I still had doubts whether schools would even give me a glance since I knew I was facing an uphill battle with the demons that lay hidden in my past. I didn’t let those thoughts deter my motivation for studying for the DAT and I ended up scoring a 24AA.
I finally applied this past cycle and fully took responsibility for my past issues, fully disclosed the violation, and was offered 10 interviews along with a couple of acceptances. It definitely was not an easy task and it is very draining, physically, mentally, and financially in dealing with my mistakes. However, I will say that old cliché that if you want something bad enough, you can make it happen. My advice to anyone who is in the situation I described would be to take a year or two off and to work full-time and volunteer in order to put some time between you and the violation. You have to demonstrate maturity and reinvent yourself as someone who is not same person who will make the same mistakes. If you are in the low GPA pool, I would advise you to consider a 1-2 year postbac or master’s program depending on how low your GPA is and also. You definitely need to score high on the DAT as well.
Hopefully this was helpful in some capacity. Good luck!
I graduated from undergrad 6 years ago with a sub 3.0 sci and overall GPA. During that time, I had several course withdrawals, multiple C’s in science courses, an F in a science course, and also ended up receiving an academic integrity violation in another course after a classmate copied off of my homework assignment.
I honestly have no excuse for my grades and actions besides the fact that I lacked motivation, had no direction at the time, and was depressed. The usual circumstances...
A couple years after graduating, I decided to pursue dentistry and enrolled in a postbac program where I attained a 4.0 GPA. However, I still had doubts whether schools would even give me a glance since I knew I was facing an uphill battle with the demons that lay hidden in my past. I didn’t let those thoughts deter my motivation for studying for the DAT and I ended up scoring a 24AA.
I finally applied this past cycle and fully took responsibility for my past issues, fully disclosed the violation, and was offered 10 interviews along with a couple of acceptances. It definitely was not an easy task and it is very draining, physically, mentally, and financially in dealing with my mistakes. However, I will say that old cliché that if you want something bad enough, you can make it happen. My advice to anyone who is in the situation I described would be to take a year or two off and to work full-time and volunteer in order to put some time between you and the violation. You have to demonstrate maturity and reinvent yourself as someone who is not same person who will make the same mistakes. If you are in the low GPA pool, I would advise you to consider a 1-2 year postbac or master’s program depending on how low your GPA is and also. You definitely need to score high on the DAT as well.
Hopefully this was helpful in some capacity. Good luck!
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