If planning to apply after two years, should I just take GPA boosters?

[HenryH]

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I'm curious about something. It would seem, to increase my chances of getting accepted to a dental school after only three years of college (applying to 20 schools -- minimum!), to be a good idea to take a number of lower-level science classes in addition to my pre-reqs. I figure, if I'm not expecting to earn a degree, why take mostly courses that fulfill the requirements of your major? In other words...why not just concentrate on boosting the science/overall GPAs?

Of course, this plan would backfire hellaciously if I'm not accepted to a school when I apply after the end of my sophomore year. But then again, if I can ace a bunch of easy three-credit science courses like "Selected Topics in Daffodils" and "Chemistry in Your Kitchen" and maintain a 3.6 or above science GPA, why wouldn't I get accepted to at least NYU (or one of the other schools with generally lower admissions stats)? Currently, I plan on taking the DAT sometime during Spring of '08 -- or, I could apply super-early in May '08 with great GPAs and take the DAT during the summer (and send the scores, of course, to the schools I applied to).

What do you guys think? Too risky?

 

[NavyDDS]

Bad idea. Adcoms will see that you earned a high G.P.A in lower lever
basket weaving. There is no easy way in, people who get accepted after only
a few years of undergrad have proven that they can handle the real deal usually by being academically advanced. It looks a lot better if you have a decent gpa (3.0~3.5) after busting your ass by taking hard classes, than by being Summa C.L by after sitting on it, and taking classes that require minimal effort. Anyways, don't you want to challenge yourself, and learn the stuff that will help later on? I would reevaluate your plan.🙂

 

[artmed12]

This is not such a bad idea. From my interview experience this year, if you have a 3.6 gpa and have fulfilled all of your respective schools' requirements, you will be reviewed favorably whether you take immunology or the age of dinosaurs.

 

[D for Drill]

the more upper division sciences, especially Biology courses, you take, the more ready you will be for the course load in dental school.
Take as many anatomy, microbiology, and immunology classes as you can, since the schools also look at what classes you are taking each semester.
I was taking 20-25 credits a semester and usually it was 4 or 5 sciences. It is hard to juggle, but so worth it when you are accepted. By the way, my GPA was around 3.9 and I dont have a bachelors degree.

 

[shamrock2006]

Also, dont assume that NYU will take you b/c it has "low admissions standards"...if you check out predents.com...on the accepted column the DAT AA is a 21+...will all those people go? of course not, but you can bet this year's average will be much higher than in years past...they've also turned away/waitlisted people with great stats as well...my point here is dont assume anything. The whole process from here on out is going to get much more difficult and much more erratic b/c there are thousands of much more qualified applicants these days than in years past. If you are going to apply that early, you better make sure you're damn near perfect in all aspects of your app. If not, just wait until your junior year and start right the summer after undergrad..which is the ideal situation anyway.

 

[Chrono1984]

The fact that you won't have a degree will put your application under additional scrutiny. So having a 3.6-3.8 GPA based soley on intro level courses will not work in your favor.

Now if you can tackle some upper level bio, get A's, and maintain a strong EC profile, strong DAT, you might have a decent shot. Most schools recommend courses like: histo, AnP, biochem, ect. Most of the non-degree matriculants I know took several additional upper lvl courses and did well. They also had high GPAs (3.8+)

However, the recent trend seems to be that most schools "strongly recommend" the degree which is another way of saying require. Every school is unique though, so it would be beneficial for you to check out the requirements of each and even call schools for clarification.

Get the incoming class profiles, you will see that students without degrees make up an infinitesimal amount of the total matriculants.

I'm not saying it's impossible, but I would definitely re-evaluate your current plan so that there are no "hellacious" consequences if it doesn't work.

 

[HenryH]

My university is unique (in a good way!) in that they actually catalogue a lot of the easy classes as 5000-level or above. For example, I believe that all of the "Seminar in Beta Fish Care," "Seminar in Household Sciences," etc. courses are 5000-level AND worth 4 credits -- and they're super-easy! I've talked to some of my friends who thought they were pre-dental/med. who did the same thing, but they took the easy classes before they started taking their pre-reqs; most of them took a bunch of these breeze-courses during their freshman year (along with Biology 1 or something), cultivated a bitchin' science GPA, then got to their sophomore year and failed gen. chem. They didn't fail because they're stupid (well, maybe a little bit), but because these guys and gals have the P.E.-majors' work ethic (kidding, kidding, pls. don't attack me for this). I managed to squeak out of gen. chem. 1 with an A (how the hell did that happen), and things are looking really well for Biology I, so would it really appear "bad" to ad-coms.?

Not only will I be basking in the "prestige" of a 5000-level (I think my uni. catalogues PChem, etc. under this) science course, but my sci. GPA (including BCP) will benefit from a four-credit boost. In fact, I *think* Biology II at my school is a buffet-styled "choose-your-own-seminar" thing, where you can take a class in research methods, a "Selected Topic," etc. Most of my aforementioned friends took two or three of these Topic courses per semester, because most of them only last 4 or 5 weeks.

Would ad-coms still be able to see through my "scheme," even though the classes are 5000-level and above?

 

[Drpr1982]

Finish your degree. Dental schools, atleast the good ones, are starting to require a bachelors degree. It would be in your best interest to have a background in many of the classes you will be taking anyway.

 

[diane07]

Check out the websites of the school's you're interested in attending.
Schools may differ somewhat in their requirements, but they will spell it out for you on their website. So do the safe thing, and do your research!

For example, these are exact quotes from UIC's website.

"A Baccalaureate Degree is not required, but it is strongly preferred, and the majority of those accepted into the DDS program have a degree."

"Highest consideration will be given to applicants who take at least three of the following upper level science courses or their equivalents and show evidence of high academic performance under heavy course loads."

And on UIC's website, they list the courses that are considered upper level sciences. So it may backfire when you take easy science classes because Admissions are smart enough to distinguish the level of difficulty taken.

And it might be fun taking the easy route, but it might not adequately prepare you for the rigors of dental school. It could be a shock to your system if you do squeak by, and then discover you can't handle a truly difficult course load.

 

[HenryH]

Thanks, guys...I'll be sure to check the websites of the schools I want to apply to.

I guess it's not really a do-or-die thing -- more of a "if I have a shot of getting in, I'm going for it!" kind of mantra.

 

[polf]

whatever suits you. I'm sure you can get away with it, but I would feel its kinda of a waste spending $$$$ on learning about "beta fish care"...

 

[pacbum]

even if the class was known as an easy A, if i didn't like it, i didn't do well in it. basically, it was that way with a lot of the easy A classes at my school. if it was known as super hard, but i enjoyed it, i did well. so i'd say take the easiest classes that YOU enjoy

 

[HenryH]

whatever suits you. I'm sure you can get away with it, but I would feel its kinda of a waste spending $$$$ on learning about "beta fish care"...

That's the cool part -- I'm not spending a PENNY (well, okay, $12) to go to school this year. How am I getting away with this? The HOPE Scholarship; basically, if you're a Georgia resident enrolled in a Georgia college, you can go to school for free (and receive a nice book allowance) -- IF you maintain a 3.0 GPA or above...which is good rule for me, anyways.

I'm super-determined to get in after three years...I'm applying to many, many schools, so it's gotta happen somewhere (I hope)!

 

[maksidaa]

what georgia school are you currently in? i was at uga and i applied after 2 years w/ a 3.7 and 21's on the DAT. i got 4 interviews and zero acceptances. every school said that unless you have a degree your application will be highly scrutinized and anything against you will set you in the back of the line. for instance, MCG a few years ago accepted 2 people w/out a bachelor's degree and i'm pretty sure they were non-traditional students. i think this past year they didn't accept anyone w/ out a degree. however, there is such a thing as automatic acceptance, which can be granted if you have the right numbers. i've seen applicants w/ 24's on the DAT and 3.9 or higher get automatically accepted based on their stats. so if you can pull that off, then go for it, but don't screw up your course load and graduation date just for an unsure attempt at early acceptance. when schools see you won't have a degree they'll look really close at what your next few semesters are going to be like to see if you'll be ready for d-school. good luck.

 

[HenryH]

what georgia school are you currently in?

Hey,

I'm at Columbus State University in Columbus, GA -- you've probably never heard of it. I guess it's more of a "small-town" college or something. The scary thing is, I've never heard of ANY dental students getting accepted to d-school out of here, there is no pre-dental (or medical!) club nor has one ever existed, and, as far as I know, I'm the only pre-dental student at the college (there are plenty of pre-med gunners, of course -- which works in my favor!). The university's website is www.colstate.edu.

 

[polf]

If you have full scholarship why not stay the four years? the main reason to get out early is to save the $40k tuition cost right?

just make sure you keep up the GPA, I used to go the Georgia Tech and I knew tons of people who lost the scholarship after a year..

 

[HenryH]

Yeah, Georgia Tech is supposed to be HARD (heck, my orthodontist went there, and you know he's gotta be a smart SOB -- you know, to land the ortho residency). I, on the other hand, am just smart enough to know not to even bother with a school like Georgia Tech...😀