Junior with C's and GPA 3.2

[veggytable]

Hi everyone,
I'm a junior in undergrad right now, and I have 5 C's and a GPA of 3.2 and a science GPA of 2.7. The C's are in Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Physics and a political science class. Would you guys recommend retaking the science classes? I realize those are core science classes and I AP'ed out of General Chemistry and Biology, so I'm not sure how bad that is. I'm taking other science classes to hopefully raise my GPA and I have yet to take the DAT. I have not applied this round and plan to take a gap year in between, mainly to raise my GPA before application. Is it important to do clinical work/shadowing during my gap year? I really appreciate all the help in advance!

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[DentistJoon]

take easy science classes to raise your GPA asap! you need to raise your science GPA at least to a 3.0 if not more

 

[BiologyMajor86]

I would find easy science classes at your 4 year college and ace them. Be sure that you are taking Biology, chemistry or physics labeled classes so a good performance in them not only raises your BCPM average but your science average. In a sense, you will be double dipping. A lot of the easier BCPM classes are for non-science majors such as astronomy, nutrition, and so forth.

 

[fogorvostan]

You're going to want to check to see what schools accept your AP credits for gen chem and bio and if those are schools that you are interested in applying to.

 

[doc toothache]

I would find easy science classes at your 4 year college and ace them. Be sure that you are taking Biology, chemistry or physics labeled classes so a good performance in them not only raises your BCPM average but your science average. In a sense, you will be double dipping. A lot of the easier BCPM classes are for non-science majors such as astronomy, nutrition, and so forth.

That is certain to fool adcoms.
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/chance-me-a-statistical-perspective.1133457/

 

[changtw]

Hi everyone,
I'm a junior in undergrad right now, and I have 5 C's and a GPA of 3.2 and a science GPA of 2.7. The C's are in Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Physics and a political science class. Would you guys recommend retaking the science classes? I realize those are core science classes and I AP'ed out of General Chemistry and Biology, so I'm not sure how bad that is. I'm taking other science classes to hopefully raise my GPA and I have yet to take the DAT. I have not applied this round and plan to take a gap year in between, mainly to raise my GPA before application. Is it important to do clinical work/shadowing during my gap year? I really appreciate all the help in advance!

I think this situation is going to be a tough sell unless big changes are made.

Gchem and gbio wound up being some of the most difficult classes for me (and most other pre-health majors I knew), and at the university level, they were nowhere near the difficulty of the courses offered in HS. Given that your C's happened to be in pre-req courses, you're going to have to put in the work to prove your aptitude for the sciences.

I believe in the comeback, and as long as you put in the effort, you can turn this around!

I wouldn't recommend taking a load of easier courses, but take a look at your course catalogue to see which upper div sciences courses strike your interest. Do what you can to fit in 3 of those courses into your schedule. If you think it'll be a huge struggle to succeed, or do it and wind up doing poorly, this may be indicative of a bigger problem (maybe a change in study habit is needed, or you need to find a method to self-motivate). During this time, you'll also have to find time to study for the DAT. It will only benefit your application if you can counter your course performance with a high DAT TS.

If you are able to find time to log in additional hours shadowing, that would be ideal. The more time you put in at dental offices, the more certain you will be in your career choice. The last thing you'd want is to realize during D2 or D3 that you went into the wrong field, after putting in so much money and effort.

 

[BiologyMajor86]

My school offered a lot of research seminars that were labeled as BIO or CHEM 300 and 400. Take as many as those as possible. Those require considerably less work than the average upper division science class.

 

[veggytable]

Thank you everybody! I really appreciate the advice! I have done 2 summers of shadowing at 2 dental offices and worked as a licensed dental assistant as well, so hopefully that will help and I do feel pretty committed to this path. Do you think it would be beneficial to retake some of the science courses I made C's in? I will definitely work on taking easier science courses to raise my GPA.