how important grades before post bacc?

[jankodejenko]

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I was a non science major in undergrad and got a pretty low overall GPA and some W's. however its clear that I wanted to pursue dentistry having dedicated 2-3 years in a post bacc. i'm a career changer.

since I didn't take major pre-reqs in undergrad, just some math courses - I'm wondering how much does my "past" grades really affect my screening process. do adcoms consider that my undergrad was sort of a time for personal development, and lean more towards scrutinizing my post bacc grades?

I do understand that overall gpa is something they look at but want to know how much effect it really has

 

[fourxxxx]

I'm wondering too. I'm a career changer and was majoring in Business. I'm now in a post-bacc program, it's my first quarter tho.


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[MLC45]

In general admissions look at the overall GPA from all the years of school, but focus more on the last 2 years of your undergrad work. They understand the first 2 years may have been a bit of a play time. I think, (I could be wrong) that the post-bacc does help them realize you’re serious about school and your future and your party days are behind you. However you still need to have (at most schools) a minimum of 3.0 overall GPA to meet the basic requirements for admissions. Also note that a high science GPA is highly favored over the overall GPA.

 

[SweetMelonPreDent]

Post bacc GPA is extremely important. and What I see now, sadly, your previous undergrad experience is Just as important.

 

[Bootes]

Very important, but of course the specifics are important. The issue is that if your overall GPA/science GPA is too low, they're probably not even going to look at your application or will hold it off while they go through the "better" applicants first. GPA is just the easy way to weed out a bunch of the thousands of applications that they receive.

So it would be important to boost your GPA to something acceptable. Having a low GPA before the postbacc is fine, but make sure that it's in an acceptable range after the postbacc.

However, a good way to overcome a low GPA is with a high DAT score.