My status - reason I want to become....

[monkee]

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Hi everyone,
I am new to SDN. I wanted to ask you about my status and reason I want to become a dentist. My spouse is a physician for the US Navy. He works very hard and he encourages me to go to d-school. The thing is my GPA is about 3.04. I am studying for the DAT and hope to take the exam in July. I really don't care about the $$ (income dentists make), but it is something that I like to do to help people. I know that I have to work hard on my DAT with my low gpa. Do you think that I may have a chance? How can I tell the adcom that money is not my motivation to pursue d-school? (because it is not) Thanks in advance for your advice!!!!

 

[SugarNaCl]

Hi everyone,
I am new to SDN. I wanted to ask you about my status and reason I want to become a dentist. My spouse is a physician for the US Navy. He works very hard and he encourages me to go to d-school. The thing is my GPA is about 3.04. I am studying for the DAT and hope to take the exam in July. I really don't care about the $$ (income dentists make), but it is something that I like to do to help people. I know that I have to work hard on my DAT with my low gpa. Do you think that I may have a chance? How can I tell the adcom that money is not my motivation to pursue d-school? (because it is not) Thanks in advance for your advice!!!!

First, ADCOMS may ask why you want to be a dentist, but I think it's pretty infrequent that they ask "are you becoming a dentist for the money?" Probably not many who are will end up liking what they do 😛 That said, you HAVE to do well on the DAT with your GPA. If that doesn't work, you will probably want to consider going through a masters program (2 yrs) and getting some research experience or some sort of post bacc. My GPA was just a little higher than yours and I had to apply twice. It is very possible though. Apply early and to quite a few schools. Good luck.

 

[Streetwolf]

Honestly, you need a better reason than 'to help people' because that's what everyone likes to say.

Not that you don't mean it, but it certainly won't make you stand out. There are so many professions out there where you can 'help people'. What else about dentistry appeals to you?