It's been 5 years....

[UMDeeMan]

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Ok here's my question. Most schools want your pre-req classes to have been taken within the last 5 years. They consider classes that have not been taken within the last 5 years obsolete and therefore a student must retake them. So since courses that are 5+ years old have to be retaken, does this mean that the grades received for these "archaic" classes does not matter? For example, when they compute the 3 different gpa's, do they only include the classes from the last 5 years??? you think that's how it should be done. I mean wouldn't it be kinda hypocritcal to count a class's gpa from 5+ years ago, but yet you have to retake the class because it is 5 years old?? just a thought, but also an honest question, please let me know the technicalities guys and gals.

 

[The Musketeer]

If the dental schools told you that they will not consider courses more than 5 years old, then the grades that you've got then will not count toward the GPA. So basically you will start with a 'clean sheet' on your transcript (if you haven't taken anything currently) - do take care of your grades now and you will be prime to get into dental school!


Good luck!

 

[UMDeeMan]

thanks for taking the time to voice your info Musketeer. I am starting to feel like I'm a terrbily annoying noob on this site to the experienced users with all my "basic" questions. we were all at the point where I am now though weren't we??😛 oh well though, thanks for you info and i'll have to check again with the schools i'm looking into. if that's the case, then damn, my gpa is is near perfect. thanks again!!!

 

[swiminh2o]

Good question. I am an atypical applicant with undergrad grades stretching back to 1988. I am pretty sure AADSAS used all of my grades even those ancient ones to calculate my overall, science GPAs. Does AADSAS tailor the GPAs to each schools statute of limitations? Don't think so but not entirely sure.

 

[UMDeeMan]

swiminh2o - i think you are right. although it seems pretty crappy that you have to retake a course that is 5 years old, but yet either have it work for or against you is something that needs to be looked into.

Case 1 - you did awesome in all your pre-req work, was a shoe in for dschool, but then something came up (family crisis, personal crisis, kid, financial burderns, etc). now you have spend all that money to take the classes over again (and there is no financial aid for repeating classes) and you could in all actually hurt your grade for the class if you do worse then what you have originally done. I concede the fact that it shouldn't hurt your overall gpa due to the amount of credits assumed to have been built up with undergrad completion. But still, what if you take those classes and get a C. I'm sure adcom's wouldn't like that.

Case 2 - you did bad in your early years. The early years being 5+ years ago, hence you must retake those pre-req classes that are outdated. you retake the courses or are trying to get your gpa up. the fact remains you take the classes over and have to shell out the cash. say you do better and get the necessary A's or B's. but now these grades are dropped due to the performance from the class that is 5 years old and technicallly you never took. basically you get penalized for what you did now by a class that really doesn't exist on paper (due to the 5 year rule).

i don't know if anyone can make any sense out of what i'm trying to say but that's just my thoughts. I understand that dental isn't for everyone, yadda yadda yadda, pre-req courses are there to elminate the weak, yadda yadda yadda. but it seems unfair to penalize a student in either cases. but then again, i guess it's just an unwritten rule type of scenario. These cases i have illustrated more then likely represent those statistics on the class profiles of various schools that are sub 3.2 gpa.

 

[wimmcs]

Originally posted by swiminh2o
Good question. I am an atypical applicant with undergrad grades stretching back to 1988. I am pretty sure AADSAS used all of my grades even those ancient ones to calculate my overall, science GPAs. Does AADSAS tailor the GPAs to each schools statute of limitations? Don't think so but not entirely sure.

I know for a fact that AASDAS used my grades from college I got back in 1992 through 1996 (when I completed my degree) to calculate my GPA. I also took a few community college hours while in high school, late 80's early 90's and all those grades were a;sp used to calculate my overall GPA. I was actually surprised.

 

[Serge718]

The AADSAS omly knows the grades you give them in your course works list. Same goes for your transcript, the schools know only about the transcripts you send them. I have a friend who went through two years of school and got horrible grades. He then took a year or two off and decided to go back to a different school and retake everything. When he applied to dental schools, he didn't even mention that he had previously attended college, he only submitted the grades and the transcripts from his current school. He was accepted almost everywhere he applied.

So if you don't want them to count your old grades, then simply don't submit them (this also means that you can't submit the transcript w/ those grades)

 

[blankguy]

Originally posted by Serge718
The AADSAS omly knows the grades you give them in your course works list. Same goes for your transcript, the schools know only about the transcripts you send them. I have a friend who went through two years of school and got horrible grades. He then took a year or two off and decided to go back to a different school and retake everything. When he applied to dental schools, he didn't even mention that he had previously attended college, he only submitted the grades and the transcripts from his current school. He was accepted almost everywhere he applied.

So if you don't want them to count your old grades, then simply don't submit them (this also means that you can't submit the transcript w/ those grades)

I don't get it? Are you saying that grades can be hidden? 😕 My understanding is that old grades will get counted even if it's 5+ years old to the overall GPA.

 

[HBomb]

Serge, be careful on what you're saying or advising on this board. It is true that dental schools and AADSAS will not know if you've gone to a certain institution if you do not input your information or provide them with your transcript. But not submitting all your coursework would be DISHONEST and UNETHICAL. If the dental school found out, it could grounds for future action by the dental school. And regardless of what the dental school would do to you if they found out, it is just plain wrong. So it would not be prudent to advise anyone to do this.

In regards to old coursework, everything counts in AADSAS. It doesn't matter how old the coursework is. That's pretty much what everyone else already said in this thread. For instance, if you took a 5 unit class in gchem in '91 with a letter grade F and then you retook the 5 unit class in '03 with a letter grade A, then you would count both courses, for a whopping total of 10 units in gchem, with a gpa averaging out to be 2.0.

Also, some schools don't care how long ago you took the required coursework. But it sounds like the ones you've checked with want more recent work. But remember, "want" and "require" are two different things. If you haven't contacted the dental schools directly, I'd recommend you do so. Also, I think you may be able to convince them that the age of your coursework is less unimportant if you get high DAT scores in those subjects.

Good luck.

 

[UMDeeMan]

awesome responses everyone. truly helpful. i have to agree with Hbomb on the hiding grades issue. i mean, ethics is a major component of the health service professions. Next to procedure, ethics is the second most stressed component for physicians. i would do alot of things to get into dschool, but neglecting to report past academic history (good or bad) is wrong. and as Hbomb said, i would most definitely think if for some reason the true history came up, expulsion from dschool would come and possible black listing with other dschools and possibly other professional schools. i'm pretty sure if you got expelled (for dishonesty ie cheating, record dishonesty) from undergrad it would be near impossible to get in anywhere else half decent. I would only imagine is 10x worse for dental school since it's a tighter network of professionals. i would think it would be kinda like getting black-listed from a casino. i'm going to mention that to my advisor though when i speak next, i'm sure he will just laugh at me and say that is the worst possible thing anyone could do then proceed to lecture me on values/morals and how they relate to the profession. .........on second thought, i'm not going to mention it all.

 

[Serge718]

Originally posted by HBomb888
Serge, be careful on what you're saying or advising on this board. It is true that dental schools and AADSAS will not know if you've gone to a certain institution if you do not input your information or provide them with your transcript. But not submitting all your coursework would be DISHONEST and UNETHICAL. If the dental school found out, it could grounds for future action by the dental school. And regardless of what the dental school would do to you if they found out, it is just plain wrong. So it would not be prudent to advise anyone to do this.

In regards to old coursework, everything counts in AADSAS. It doesn't matter how old the coursework is. That's pretty much what everyone else already said in this thread. For instance, if you took a 5 unit class in gchem in '91 with a letter grade F and then you retook the 5 unit class in '03 with a letter grade A, then you would count both courses, for a whopping total of 10 units in gchem, with a gpa averaging out to be 2.0.

Also, some schools don't care how long ago you took the required coursework. But it sounds like the ones you've checked with want more recent work. But remember, "want" and "require" are two different things. If you haven't contacted the dental schools directly, I'd recommend you do so. Also, I think you may be able to convince them that the age of your coursework is less unimportant if you get high DAT scores in those subjects.

Good luck.

I agree with you completely, hiding grades would be unethical and no doubt that if the truth came out then you are finished. I was merely saying that the schools and AADSAS only know what they are told. In no way was I implying htat info should be left off.

 

[blankguy]

Whew! You guys were scaring me.