Im think im behind.. ahh first semester student

[Nicekid23]

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hey guys..... well its my first time posting on the sdn, ive been reading some of these forums and most of the responses i see are good ones so i decided to post my question

I just finished my first semester in college and i did very good (3.6)... only problem is i haven't taken gen chem or gen bio or any science courses. For gen chem at my school, you have to be placed in anything higher than pre-cal.. and for gen bio, you have to be placed in a 101 level writing course called "Expository Writing" which i was not placed in.. So now i was told that i cant even take either one of them in the spring so that means i will go the whole year without taking ANY pre-reqs for dental school.

I know that i am going to be a year behind so i wanted to know what was the best thing to do.

1) Take Gen Bio and Gen Chem together sophmore year, then Orgo and Physics my junior year...if i take this route i will have to apply to dental school the month of when i graduate instead of after my junior year because i will only have my senior year to take upper level bio courses like microbio, biochem etc

2) Take Gen Chem or Gen Bio this coming summer....i am strongly considering this but i heard dental schools don't like when applicants take pre-reqs over the summer, but if i do this i will fall right back on track i think lol

Any other routes or advice would be appreciated thanks🙂

 

[MAR89]

Hey man, I found myself in a similar position during my first year (albeit for a different reason). In my case, I went with option 1. Lagging a year behind in pre-reqs isn't such a bad thing. I actually found it to be more enjoyable that way, as I felt that I wasn't necessarily "competing" with my classmates, even though technically I was. For some strange reason, I felt much less pressure than I think I would have otherwise, had I started taking them Freshman year. Anyways, the downside to this approach, as you mentioned, is the fact that you'd have to take most of your upper divs senior year. If your university is like mine, it's almost impossible to get a decent LOR from any of the pre-req professors given the size of the classes. This is one of the main reasons I opted to take a gap year (that and my procrastination in studying for the DAT, which I still haven't started 😛). But if you can manage to get those LOR's together in time, there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to apply right after junior year as the majority of predents do. You don't need to have taken the upper divs by the time you apply. As long as you signal your intent to take them during senior year, you should be just fine.

As for option 2, that strikes me as a perfectly reasonable approach as well. I haven't heard too much (at least not here on SDN) about adcoms looking down upon summer pre-reqs. I took Orgo2 over the summer to make up for lost time from my semester abroad. If you only take 1-2 during the summer, then I'm sure it makes no real difference (as long as you're not taking them at a CC).