Is Dental school possible for me?

[cinfid12]

Here goes, I am a junior right now. I started at a small school and had a 2.67 GPA at the end of my sophomore year. I was a pre-med, I am now at a larger university and more well known/competitive. Last march I was tested for ADHD and found out I had it. I was put on meds and it seems a lot eaier. My GPA now is hopefully going to be a 3.3-3.4 should be higher next semester. The school I am now is rated higher and is known as a better school. Is it too late to study for the DAT and take them this year and apply to dental school in the fall. The only problem is: I dont have any dental experience, I have plenty of clinical experience. So i dont know what to do. Are my grades to low? And is my excuse good enough to explain why there is a difference in my GPA?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[dentalWorks]

If your GPA right now is in 3.3-3.4 range, thats not bad at all. I mean the avrg for alot of schools is between 3.5-3.6, so your not that far off. Hows your science GPA, they like to see a high number here.

Also never underestimate the power of a nice DAT score, a nice AA of 20 and TS of 20 would match up really well with your application.

You said you have clinical experience, thats great, try to get 100 hrs worth of dentist shadowing. Try to set up 10 to 15 appointments with a dentist to shadow for 5-8 hrs per time, get a letter of recommendation from him and your all set. My advice to you is to contact a dentist you already know, maybe your family dentist or the same dentist you've been going to since you were a kid.

 

[cinfid12]

Thanks for replying as well as to my other post. I am a junior but my first two years were spent at another college. My cumulative GPA for the first 2 years was 2.67. Now i am at a larger university, which is well known my GPA will hopefully be around a 3.3-3.4 Hopefully higher next semester. My doctor had me tested for adhd and then put me on meds. Im afraid once dental schools average my gpa it will drop it way down and not consider the improvement. I have clinical experience but in hospitals and under medical doctors. I just dont know what to do

 

[dentalWorks]

oh you mean the first 2 years GPA was 2.67
and your last 2 years GPA was 3.3-3.4

Yes when you average everything together (and they will do that), your overall will be approx 3.0ish. A 3.0 GPA at the end of undergrad education is not the end of the world for you. You can do some informal post-bacc work after you graduated (that is you take more undergrad level courses in the upper level division like biochemistry, genetics, anatomy, physiology, immunology, pharmacology, etc etc) and rock those classes inside out (I mean try to 3.7+ everything) and depending on how much post-bacc your willing to do, you can bring that overall GPA to a 3.2 or even 3.3

I'll tell you a little story about myself, I finished my undergrad in computer science in 2004 with a 3.0 GPA (just like you). Decided to pursue dentistry and started taking post-bacc work early 2007. Right now I have racked up close to 50 credits in my post-bacc (straight 4.0 while working fulltime as software engineer) and my overall GPA is about 3.28ish and science is 3.7+. These are not the greatest numbers, but im hoping adcoms will be my huge upward trend in those 50 credits. Moral of the story is: If you really wanna become a dentist, nothing should get in your way

 

[lphiewok]

like above poster said, dentistry is possible for you but b/c of your gpa it'll take some time to build up.
i would say most likely 1-2 years of masters / post-bach classes with really good GPA would be the goal (of course you have to make mostly all A's from here on).

performing 2.6 at small university is not a good things. hopefully doing well at larger school will give adcom the ideas that you can handle courses but realistically i think you have to set a long goal. with ADHD medicine, 3.3-3.4 is still lower avg. side of GPA. you need to be getting nearly all A's if you really want to try to apply to go right after undergrad (2 years of 2.6 need another 2 years of at least 3.6+ to have decent chances)