low gpa junior year

[itsmemario123]

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[AppalachianDentalBoy]

You are in a huge pickle.

You should be stressing out even more, possibly consider changing majors to something easier at this point because you will need a lot of As to repair the damage you have done.

Most schools require a science GPA of at least 3.0 (as in you will be auto-rejected). Don't take the DAT until you can get your GPA up. Someone from my school had a 23AA (97th percentile DAT) and a 2.92 sGPA and was rejected so my theory is a high DAT won't do you any good unless your sGPA and cGPA are >3.0.

I know @DSchoolorBust202X was accepted this cycle with 11 Cs and a low gpa but (s)he had a >3.0. Perhaps message them about it and read through the many threads like The Under 3.0 Club part 02

Are you a URM? What are you ECs like? Non-traditional?

Good luck OP

 

[DSchoolorBust202X]

hi im in a bit of a pickle
im a third year biomedical engineering student who is predent. The problem is my cGPA is a 2.72 and my science is like a 2.52, mostly because of the hard classes I had to take with my major. I was thinking about doing a post bacc but i dont even know if that would help me. Im taking the dat my senior year during winter break but I am just super stressed out about my gpa. if anyone who had a similar expereince could please help me out that would be great

Thanks for the shoutout, @AppalachianDentalBoy! I'm happy to help OP in any way I can.

I was BME too, so I know the struggle of getting good grades with the crazy classes we had to take. Although my GPA was not great, I did graduate undergrad with a oGPA of 3.02 and sGPA sub-3.0.

My method of strengthening my application was a little extreme, but here it is: I realized in junior year that my grades were not going to do me any favors when it came to applying to a professional program, and looking back now, I can honestly say I was not ready for that responsibility. From that point, I buckled down and tried my best and ended up getting no C's my entire senior year (which was my metric for success haha). After graduation, I still knew my grades were not great, so I chose to work full-time to save up some money. I ended up starting to take classes part-time about two years after graduation. Some of the classes I took were retakes where I had gotten C's in undergrad (chem II, orgo I & II), while some were classes that were unavailable at my undergrad institution (anatomy and physiology I & II). I took additional courses and made sure I aced all of them, but with working full-time and only taking 1-2 classes per semester, it was a LONG road. Here I am, three years after that initial post-bacc class, and I wouldn't personally have done it any other way because I saw how much I grew in that time.

This may be a good route for you because doing post-bacc work raises your undergrad GPA so that you can at least get your foot in the door. Ultimately, it's up to you and how you want to handle the situation, but please feel free to reach out to me if you ever need any advice or guidance or just have questions. I'm here to help! 🙂

 

[DSchoolorBust202X]

Don't take the DAT until you can get your GPA up.

I also wanted to reiterate this point because it is important. Don’t take the DAT until you’re closer to getting ready to apply. Most schools will not accept scores that are older than 3 years, and if you end up taking it soon and plan to do post-bacc or masters work for a year or two, they might be too old by the time you apply meaning you will have to retake the DAT.

Also, having a solid foundation in the sciences will be of major benefit for this exam, and I only felt confident enough to take it after I started making A’s in those post-bacc classes.

 

[Cthuluhoop]

What others have said is great advice, however if you are funding an expensive masters program through student loans, I would really be sure you understand the financial implications of that cost and that you only want to do dentistry.
Adding another $60k+ grad plus student loan at 7% interest or higher (they are rising) on top of 4 years of dental school can make the outrageous cost of dental school significantly worse

 

[knewstance]

Not to be the "Debbie-Downer," but it also may be an excellent opportunity in your educational career to decide if dentistry really is your ideal career. You don't need to prove that to me, but I highly suggest seeking out other possible careers. See if those interest you, if you could see yourself doing that as your career and be happy with your life. If you find something else, GREAT, pursue it!

However, if you come back around to dentistry, you will realize that A- in any class won't cut it anymore and the only way you will reach it is getting LOTS of A's. This *should* be enough motivation for you to study hard enough to get A's and nothing less for the rest of your undergrad education and hopefully, that will be sufficient to pull your GPA to a reasonable level for application to dental school.

This is exactly the process I went through. I happened to come back to dentistry. I almost didn't. I'm still not 100% (I'm 98%) sure it was the right choice, but I'm in it for the long run. Don't shut out your other options just because you have told yourself and everyone else that you are going to be a dentist, you have plenty of time to still change your career goals.

 

[itsmemario123]

hi thanks for ur guys help; i was planning to grind out these last 3 semesters and hopefully get over a 3.0 cgpa and then take post bacc classes or a masters..would this not be a good plan or not

 

[knewstance]

Until you've done what I posted, that is not a good plan.

If you decide on dental, I'm not sure "grind out" would be ideal. A's from here on out is about your only option, so whatever it takes to do that is what you need to do. After you finish your undergrad then would be time to re-assess.

 

[Cthuluhoop]

hi thanks for ur guys help; i was planning to grind out these last 3 semesters and hopefully get over a 3.0 cgpa and then take post bacc classes or a masters..would this not be a good plan or not

Like I said, if you are funding your own masters program and taking out a loan for it. Then I would personally say no, it's not a good plan. If you strictly only want to do dentistry and dentistry only, then it's your only option to do the masters program.
But understand the financial implications of doing this and the very long road you have ahead to pay off these loans. It's already hard enough to pay off $350k+ for the dental school loans, adding another huge loan to that with interest accumulating for at least 4 years will be huge.

@knewstance is offering great insight and being very honest. We don't know if we'll even like dental school until we're there. Then we won't know if we even like the career until reality slaps us in the face and we begin working after school. I'm sitting here on acceptances and debating whether or not the debt load is worth it for me. Look into other career options while you are deciding, you may find one you really like and that is way less risky than dentistry currently is, especially in your situation.