How to Dental Schools look at my situation? PLEASE HELP

[toothhornet88]

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[Predoctalk]

yes, upward trend!

 

[doc toothache]

That would depend on what other cards you can show.

 

[toothhornet88]

That would depend on what other cards you can show.

Let's just say that I have over 2.5 years of dental work experience (approx. 2000 hours) working with children, young adults, and autistic children at a dental office. I have served as a Chief Marketing Officer at my school at a Pre-Dental Association. I am a business major. I volunteered in many places such as prisons, tree planting, and housing projects. I am currently a leader in my church where I am involved in drama (acting) and I preach and travel to different cities to other churches to preach. I speak 2 other languages besides english and I play piano and guitar. Do you think that's a good amount of "other cards"?

 

[adizzle87]

Do you think that Dental schools will see that I really improved my last 2 years compared to my first 2 and give me a chance or no?

Yes, but do well on the DAT to further support your scholastic improvement over the last 2 years.

 

[doc toothache]

Let's just say that I have over 2.5 years of dental work experience (approx. 2000 hours) working with children, young adults, and autistic children at a dental office. I have served as a Chief Marketing Officer at my school at a Pre-Dental Association. I am a business major. I volunteered in many places such as prisons, tree planting, and housing projects. I am currently a leader in my church where I am involved in drama (acting) and I preach and travel to different cities to other churches to preach. I speak 2 other languages besides english and I play piano and guitar. Do you think that's a good amount of "other cards"?

Let's just say that if you believe that your laundry list of ECs will make up for a lusterless academic/DAT performance you are pretty good at wishful thinking.

 

[THINKOFMYFUTURE]

My first and third semesters I had a very bad GPA (2.4 and 2.7) However my second, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th semester I averaged 3.57 GPA and was on the Dean's list last 4 times. THe reason my GPA was so low is that I got 2 D's and 1C- in my science courses. However I retook all 3 of them and have received A's in all of them. However now because of my D's the AASDAS will calculate my science GPA to be very low (around 3.0) Do you think that Dental schools will see that I really improved my last 2 years compared to my first 2 and give me a chance or no?

Short answer, No to the first part. A GPA is a number. It doesn't matter how you got there; they don't care if it is that low.

No amount of EC's how great will make up for low stats; your app. will get tossed - won't make the initial cut.

You need to RAISE the GPA to a solid 3.2+, get a high score on the DAT, 22+.
Then they will consider the rest.

D.S has gotten sharply more competitive this year from an already such process. They get awe-inspiring numbers of applications, such as yours.

It is just naive to think they'll think someone is special from their extracurriculars that they would overlook severely risk-warranting stats and offer them an interview, etc. Not only that, I have not heard ANYONE with less than a 3.2 get in this cycle( maybe Howard and Meharry, maybe) no matter how out-of-this world hobbies/EC's letters. Yes, even those who pulled every right string - applying early, what-not.


By all means you can apply at the earliest opening of AADSAS, though, cause you may never know. If you do, apply broadly. Judging from the going ons as recent though, I think what I say is correct for the most part.

Just in case you don't get in, also apply for a post-bac or a master's program.

 

[FutureDent020]

Yes, but do well on the DAT to further support your scholastic improvement over the last 2 years.

Agreed. People on this site have gotten in with sub 3.0's. Not many, but I have seen a couple. You do have a nice laundry list of EC's, which will look good if schools OK your stats. Just do well on the DAT. That should be your main concern at this point considering you haven't taken it yet.

 

[DatRat86]

I had a simmilar experience to yours. I have a 3.19 and not awesome on the DAT. But as I worked my butt off the last couple years and got my 3.5's I was able to get in. The thing is though is that I pretty much knew everyone at USC, because I would do service with the school frequently. and also my bro is graduating from there this spring!

 

[adizzle87]

It is just naive to think they'll think someone is special from their extracurriculars that they would overlook severely risk-warranting stats and offer them an interview, etc. Not only that, I have not heard ANYONE with less than a 3.2 get in this cycle( maybe Howard and Meharry, maybe) no matter how out-of-this world hobbies/EC's letters. Yes, even those who pulled every right string - applying early, what-not.

I can't begin with how wrong your statement is. Is dental school getting more and more competitive, yes. Would it be ideal to have at least a 3.5 and 20s, sure. Do a substantial number of people (not just 2 or 3 "exceptions") get in with less than a 3.2 and 20 - most definitely.

Just to give you a general idea of what the GPA distribution of a school whos average GPA of 3.5 is:
http://www.dental.washington.edu/education/pdfs/DDS_Admissions_Statistics.pdf

I understand that most of the people who have high stats and who have gotten in have earned their place in dental school. Tireless hours of studying during your entire time of college paid off. But chill out. A number of factors go into dental school admissions, numbers play a major role but grade trends and intangibles like ECs do as well.

 

[dentalWorks]

My first and third semesters I had a very bad GPA (2.4 and 2.7) However my second, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th semester I averaged 3.57 GPA and was on the Dean's list last 4 times. THe reason my GPA was so low is that I got 2 D's and 1C- in my science courses. However I retook all 3 of them and have received A's in all of them. However now because of my D's the AASDAS will calculate my science GPA to be very low (around 3.0) Do you think that Dental schools will see that I really improved my last 2 years compared to my first 2 and give me a chance or no?

How many science credits is that 3.0 from? Is it just from those 3 courses you took (2 D's and 1C... and the retakes?) or are there are more science courses that are dragging that science GPA down.

I bring this up because, if your credits for that sGPA are low (like only 20-30 credits), you can easily fix it. Say for example, you have only 20 credits of science courses and the sGPA is 3.0.... If you take another 20 credits of sciences (which isn't hard cause of classes like physiology, anatomy, biochemistry, genetics, microbiology, pharmacology, histology, etc etc) and land a 4.0 in those 20 credits...... your new sGPA will be exactly 3.5. So its not hard to fix a science GPA as long as your initial credits are fairly low