How many C's are acceptable? go to grad school? Freaking Out.

[stallownage]

Please provide some feedback:

Anyways, I went to a public university for 3 years, and my original plan was to graduate a semester early during my senior year.

That being said, I had to withdraw halfway into that last semester - my family needed me to help them out and manage one of the stores for the remainder of the semester.

Right now, instead of going back to school in the spring to finish that last semester to graduate, I'm taking time off school and currently am doing some cancer research at a hospital, where I'll be staying until the end of August.

I'll finally be able to graduate in the fall of '07, hopefully apply to dental school in june '08 for the '09 cycle.

The problem is my GPA is like a 3.17 and my science gpa is barely a 3.0, and i have around 4 C's in the following classes: biochemistry C- , microbiology C, physiology C+, immunology C. It doesn't help that I'm a biology major too. I have no extracurriculars, except doing 2 separate years of prostate and breast cancer research.

With one semester left in the fall, I will get my LOR's, ace that last semester, and dominate the DAT's this august or after i graduate (i do well on standardized tests imho - i got a 1500 on the sat's if that means anything, but that was like 5 years ago). I'll also be working at a dental office the spring after i graduate.

My question is, what is the best plan of action under these circumstances? Should I apply to grad school even after I bring my grades up for one semester (by the time i get my masters, i'll be 24 turning 25).

Should I retake biochem in the fall (albeit my schedule will be completely full and ridiculous, but there is no doubt i will dominate it)?

I spend hours upon hours trying to figure this out, especially on SDN. Oh, btw, hypothetically speaking, let's say I get at least a 24 AA on the DAT (I study kaplan bb, destroyer, schaum's, quite a bit).

Sorry for the long post and the confusing timeline, but any kind of feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Please help this poor soul out

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[KOM]

I spend hours upon hours trying to figure this out, especially on SDN. Oh, btw, hypothetically speaking, let's say I get at least a 24 AA on the DAT (I study kaplan bb, destroyer, schaum's, quite a bit).

Hypothetically that would be a great DAT score.

I had numerous C's (probably 6-8 and most outside the bio realm) and while it hurt my GPA I overcame this hurdle by performing well later on...3 semesters of between 3.6-4.0 GPA.

I also debated whether or not to apply for a grad program because my GPA wasn't very good (3.18 - cumulative, 3.05 - science), but instead I just took a couple more science courses and did well in them raising my GPA to 3.25 and 3.15 respectively. I didn't want to spend more money on a grad program and decided to spend less by just taking a couple of extra courses in an informal post-bac program. I got lucky, but it was a gamble nonetheless.

You either take your chances with what you got, play it a bit "safer" by enrolling in a couple science courses like I did, or spend the money and enroll in a grad program so you're not wasting a year doing nothing while waiting for that acceptance letter that may not come.

Question is...are you a gambling man?

 

[stallownage]

I didn't want to spend more money on a grad program and decided to spend less by just taking a couple of extra courses in an informal post-bac program. I got lucky, but it was a gamble nonetheless.

I would hate to be wasting time to find out I got rejected, but then again, I would also hate to be wasting ~2 years to get a masters and the $$$ trying to achieve it.


Out of curiosity, which post-bac program did you enroll in and for how long?

 

[dmd2011]

Please provide some feedback:

Anyways, I went to a public university for 3 years, and my original plan was to graduate a semester early during my senior year.

That being said, I had to withdraw halfway into that last semester - my family needed me to help them out and manage one of the stores for the remainder of the semester.

Right now, instead of going back to school in the spring to finish that last semester to graduate, I'm taking time off school and currently am doing some cancer research at a hospital, where I'll be staying until the end of August.

I'll finally be able to graduate in the fall of '07, hopefully apply to dental school in june '08 for the '09 cycle.

The problem is my GPA is like a 3.17 and my science gpa is barely a 3.0, and i have around 4 C's in the following classes: biochemistry C- , microbiology C, physiology C+, immunology C. It doesn't help that I'm a biology major too. I have no extracurriculars, except doing 2 separate years of prostate and breast cancer research.

With one semester left in the fall, I will get my LOR's, ace that last semester, and dominate the DAT's this august or after i graduate (i do well on standardized tests imho - i got a 1500 on the sat's if that means anything, but that was like 5 years ago). I'll also be working at a dental office the spring after i graduate.

My question is, what is the best plan of action under these circumstances? Should I apply to grad school even after I bring my grades up for one semester (by the time i get my masters, i'll be 24 turning 25).

Should I retake biochem in the fall (albeit my schedule will be completely full and ridiculous, but there is no doubt i will dominate it)?

I spend hours upon hours trying to figure this out, especially on SDN. Oh, btw, hypothetically speaking, let's say I get at least a 24 AA on the DAT (I study kaplan bb, destroyer, schaum's, quite a bit).

Sorry for the long post and the confusing timeline, but any kind of feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Please help this poor soul out

im not so sure you need to do a post bacc at this point. you should ace your classes your last semester and get your LORs. start studying for the DAT and try to take it this summer, that way you will have your DAT completed for when you apply next may. it is critical to get your completed application to schools early. if you do really well like 22+ you stand a pretty good shot. look at Armorshell from predents and SDN, his gpa is similar to yours and he rocked the DATs and got in. also be sure to apply to schools that favor the DAT over GPA.