Need advice desperately!

[nyr201]

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Hey guys, I really need advice on if I should retake DAT or not. I've applied for the c/o 2015 and so far been rejected from UCONN, TEMPLE, UMDNJ, and NOVA.

My stats are:

cGPA: 2.89
sGPA: 2.99( is there really a big difference between 2.99 and 3.0?)

DAT: 19AA/20TS/17PAT (sciences: 18 bio, 25 gc, 21 oc)

I'm waiting on NYU, TUFTS, BU, and BUFFALO

My app was submitted september 13th but my LOE were submitted late november, does that mean my app wasn't reviewed until late november?

I really should have done a masters during this year but I just didn't think of it bc I was too busy studying DAT and thats all I thought of.

Now if I get rejected from everywhere this cycle and when I go to reapply for next cycle I really have nothing new to show...would saying that I'm going to take a masters help and would they wait for first sem grades?

I really had a rough start to college and to top that I worked full time hrs all through out to help my single mom.

What do you think my chances are for this cycle?

Does anyone suggest I take a summer I course? just to add something new but I don't know what one class would do to sway anyone.

I have 100 hours of shadowing and I'm also an EMT.

Hope someone can help. Thanks

 

[bing12]

how many credit hours you have for your sgpa? i would suggest you sign up as quickly as possible to a local 4-year collect and take upper level bios. you should try as hard as possible to bring up both your sgpa and ogpa to above a 3.0. some schools have cutoffs for 3.0 or below. so thats what you should focus on right now.

 

[wizi]

There is a "Under 3.0 Club" thread somewhere in this forum. They have a lot of good information for you in that thread. You should check it out (use search function)

 

[nyr201]

how many credit hours you have for your sgpa? i would suggest you sign up as quickly as possible to a local 4-year collect and take upper level bios. you should try as hard as possible to bring up both your sgpa and ogpa to above a 3.0. some schools have cutoffs for 3.0 or below. so thats what you should focus on right now.

75 credit hours.

What do you think about my DAT?

 

[bing12]

your DAT seems fine, but its a tricky situation. Because your gpa is below avg, your DAT must make it up by being higher than the avg DAT score of acceptance. Do you think you can do better on the DAT? i usually dont like telling people to retake, but if you believe that you could study more, and prepare better to retake it, then go for it. If you think you did the best you can, then dont retake it, cause you run the risk of doing worse. I would prob look into a 1 -year master program.

 

[nyr201]

your DAT seems fine, but its a tricky situation. Because your gpa is below avg, your DAT must make it up by being higher than the avg DAT score of acceptance. Do you think you can do better on the DAT? i usually dont like telling people to retake, but if you believe that you could study more, and prepare better to retake it, then go for it. If you think you did the best you can, then dont retake it, cause you run the risk of doing worse. I would prob look into a 1 -year master program.

Thank you for ur advice man. I do think I can do MUCH better on DAT. I was in a pretty bad depression while studying and taking that exam due to issues at home. I never used ti as an excuse, even when I met with Dr. Mejia at NYU I didn't even mention what I was going through. I'm still very proud of my scores bc it took a lot of strength to get through that. I am in a much better place now so maybe DAT would be better. I just hate siting and studying everyday plus I work full time.

If I get rejected from everywhere this cycle, I'm definitely going to do a masters. But I think having a new and better DAT score would be good so I can show one area of improvement when I apply again in June.

How much better must I do? I really feel like there such a small margin between a 19, 20, 21. My 25 in chem means i got 29/30 right so if i got one more right that'd add 5 pts to my total which would jump me to a high 20. Maybe a couple more right on reading and I'd have a 20 instead of a 19 on reading so basically 3 more questions right would jump me to a 21 AA, thats crazy.

 

[dentalWorks]

Hey guys, I really need advice on if I should retake DAT or not. I've applied for the c/o 2015 and so far been rejected from UCONN, TEMPLE, UMDNJ, and NOVA.

My stats are:

cGPA: 2.89
sGPA: 2.99( is there really a big difference between 2.99 and 3.0?)

DAT: 19AA/20TS/17PAT (sciences: 18 bio, 25 gc, 21 oc)

I'm waiting on NYU, TUFTS, BU, and BUFFALO

My app was submitted september 13th but my LOE were submitted late november, does that mean my app wasn't reviewed until late november?

I really should have done a masters during this year but I just didn't think of it bc I was too busy studying DAT and thats all I thought of.

Now if I get rejected from everywhere this cycle and when I go to reapply for next cycle I really have nothing new to show...would saying that I'm going to take a masters help and would they wait for first sem grades?

I really had a rough start to college and to top that I worked full time hrs all through out to help my single mom.

What do you think my chances are for this cycle?

Does anyone suggest I take a summer I course? just to add something new but I don't know what one class would do to sway anyone.

I have 100 hours of shadowing and I'm also an EMT.

Hope someone can help. Thanks

I think masters would be a waste of time. Do 1-2 year of post-bacc If u do well then I don't think you'll need a retake

 

[nyr201]

I think masters would be a waste of time. Do 1-2 year of post-bacc If u do well then I don't think you'll need a retake

Interesting...I wish I had 2 years to commit to raising my gpa but I'll be turning 26 in May I really want to get the ball rolling here. Why do you say a masters would be a waste of time?

 

[Erhatstil]

if you took 2 years for a post-bacc wouldn't your DAT scores expire? then you'd be forced to take it again

 

[nyr201]

if you took 2 years for a post-bacc wouldn't your DAT scores expire? then you'd be forced to take it again

good point lol

I still don't know how a one year masters would be a waste of time tho.

 

[dentalWorks]

Interesting...I wish I had 2 years to commit to raising my gpa but I'll be turning 26 in May I really want to get the ball rolling here. Why do you say a masters would be a waste of time?

if you decide to do the masters, its not going to be that much shorter.... you'll still have to commit 1-2 years to get it. The downside to masters is, the GPA you earn from it does not lump sum into your undergrad GPA, and from looks of things, the undergrad GPA is one that matters most.

on the other hand, post-bacc, sure its a little longer, DAT might expire, but the plus side is you get to fix the GPA problem. well, you'll never fix it entirely, but you'll be able to make yourself look alot better on paper.

 

[peanutb123]

if you decide to do the masters, its not going to be that much shorter.... you'll still have to commit 1-2 years to get it. The downside to masters is, the GPA you earn from it does not lump sum into your undergrad GPA, and from looks of things, the undergrad GPA is one that matters most.

on the other hand, post-bacc, sure its a little longer, DAT might expire, but the plus side is you get to fix the GPA problem. well, you'll never fix it entirely, but you'll be able to make yourself look alot better on paper.

Why not 1 year masters?

Wouldn't it look BETTER than postbac. b/c the GPA for masters would be in a separate column by itself. So they can see that he can handle higher level Bio classes. Even though you said it wont lump sum into the u.grad gpa. It will lump sum into the Cum. GPA and wont they look at it first?

1 vote from me for 1 year masters.

 

[bing12]

i agree with peanut. if you can do well in a masters program by taking many upper level bios, it would look great. your DAT scores would be competitive for many 1-year master programs such as Tulane's, Western, Barrys, etc. look into these programs. if i were you though, i would sign up for 2 or 3 science classes, or see how many classes and what grades you need to bring your sgpa to a 3.0 while you apply to 1-year master programs.

 

[yappy]

Yeah OP why not do this...

raise that sGPA to 3.0 taking upper division bio's while applying for a one year masters program. Crush it and the DAT. That way you wont have your GPA's below 3.0 when you apply.

Also - if you're really looking to get this ball rolling and are interested in health care in general - you should look into DO degree if being a physician is at all attractive. I say this because they allow grade replacement; therefore, if you got an F in a class, did the retake and got an A, you will have a 4.0 in that class. Now that will raise it fast... but again this is only for DO. POD is another up in coming career field IMO too. Not trying to take your attention from dentistry or anything - I just wanted to make sure you looked into all your options if you're looking for good medical career.

 

[nyr201]

Peanut, bing and yappy, thank you so much for the great advice you guys are amazing.

I'll sign up for a summer class at my school and I'm sure an A would bring me above 2.99 into 3.0ville lol.

I'm applying to NYU oral bio masters, and UMDNJ biomedical sciences masters with a dental school track.

Also, I did not know about grade replacement about DO schools. That's really cool but I don't really want to take an MCAT. I really like the manual aspect to dentistry it's really a great skill.

What's a good gpa in a masters, is a 3.5 considered better than an undergrad 3.5?

I'll be aiming for 4.0 regardless but just curious.

Do you guys really think I need to retake the DAT if I crush a masters program? I'm still on the fence about a re take.

Thank you guys so much 😀

 

[PP2010]

Hey guys, I really need advice on if I should retake DAT or not. I've applied for the c/o 2015 and so far been rejected from UCONN, TEMPLE, UMDNJ, and NOVA.

My stats are:

cGPA: 2.89
sGPA: 2.99( is there really a big difference between 2.99 and 3.0?)

DAT: 19AA/20TS/17PAT (sciences: 18 bio, 25 gc, 21 oc)

I'm waiting on NYU, TUFTS, BU, and BUFFALO

My app was submitted september 13th but my LOE were submitted late november, does that mean my app wasn't reviewed until late november?

I really should have done a masters during this year but I just didn't think of it bc I was too busy studying DAT and thats all I thought of.

Now if I get rejected from everywhere this cycle and when I go to reapply for next cycle I really have nothing new to show...would saying that I'm going to take a masters help and would they wait for first sem grades?

I really had a rough start to college and to top that I worked full time hrs all through out to help my single mom.

What do you think my chances are for this cycle?

Does anyone suggest I take a summer I course? just to add something new but I don't know what one class would do to sway anyone.

I have 100 hours of shadowing and I'm also an EMT.

Hope someone can help. Thanks

I suggest you do SMP for one/two years and bring your GPA up, till then do not apply to any Dental Schools as your current GPA is low. Good Luck!!!

 

[dentalWorks]

Why not 1 year masters?

Wouldn't it look BETTER than postbac. b/c the GPA for masters would be in a separate column by itself. So they can see that he can handle higher level Bio classes. Even though you said it wont lump sum into the u.grad gpa. It will lump sum into the Cum. GPA and wont they look at it first?

1 vote from me for 1 year masters.

In theory, the "better" marks you earn in masters looks "better".... unfortunately the reality of dental school admissions is that they prefer the undergrad column above the masters column. Clearly this is not something you can prove, but if you spend time around SDN, you'll see a sprinkle of masters applicants here and there who did amazing on the masters, but thier undergrad GPAs were under 3.0s and some of them are struggling to land interviews.

Obviously, I am not using the undersized pool of SDN to prove my point, but it is something to think about. Another thing I'd like to bring up is my initial days as a pre-dental, this is even before I started any post-bacc, the few dental schools I contacted about "how to improve my chances" suggested the post-bacc idea, they even tough me about masters and told me that both options are good..... But they personally liked post-bacc a little better because alot of master programs seem to "inflate" their grades, they think its a bit easier to earn a high mark on a masters program than a classical 300 or 400 course from undergrad..... I dunno how much truth there is behind this, I've never entrolled in masters, but it was enough to steer me towards post-bacc (and looking back today, It was probably the smartest pre-dental decision I ever made)

 

[321931]

In theory, the "better" marks you earn in masters looks "better".... unfortunately the reality of dental school admissions is that they prefer the undergrad column above the masters column. Clearly this is not something you can prove, but if you spend time around SDN, you'll see a sprinkle of masters applicants here and there who did amazing on the masters, but thier undergrad GPAs were under 3.0s and some of them are struggling to land interviews.

Obviously, I am not using the undersized pool of SDN to prove my point, but it is something to think about. Another thing I'd like to bring up is my initial days as a pre-dental, this is even before I started any post-bacc, the few dental schools I contacted about "how to improve my chances" suggested the post-bacc idea, they even tough me about masters and told me that both options are good..... But they personally liked post-bacc a little better because alot of master programs seem to "inflate" their grades, they think its a bit easier to earn a high mark on a masters program than a classical 300 or 400 course from undergrad..... I dunno how much truth there is behind this, I've never entrolled in masters, but it was enough to steer me towards post-bacc (and looking back today, It was probably the smartest pre-dental decision I ever made)

Agreed. For some reason, every master's students have straight A's. Perhaps they try harder now, since its their last shot at raising GPA to get into a respective program; however, it seems like everyone is getting a 4.0 which, in theory, should be ridicously hard. At my school, its relatively easy to get a 4.0 for Masters as opposed to Undergrad.

Yes I know I know that in other schools masters is extremely hard, but in general, I would invest in a post-bac. Master's tends to have requirements, but post-bac you can leave whenever. Sorta awkward leaving 1st year of ure 2 years masters program. -_-

 

[peanutb123]

In theory, the "better" marks you earn in masters looks "better".... unfortunately the reality of dental school admissions is that they prefer the undergrad column above the masters column. Clearly this is not something you can prove, but if you spend time around SDN, you'll see a sprinkle of masters applicants here and there who did amazing on the masters, but thier undergrad GPAs were under 3.0s and some of them are struggling to land interviews.

Obviously, I am not using the undersized pool of SDN to prove my point, but it is something to think about. Another thing I'd like to bring up is my initial days as a pre-dental, this is even before I started any post-bacc, the few dental schools I contacted about "how to improve my chances" suggested the post-bacc idea, they even tough me about masters and told me that both options are good..... But they personally liked post-bacc a little better because alot of master programs seem to "inflate" their grades, they think its a bit easier to earn a high mark on a masters program than a classical 300 or 400 course from undergrad..... I dunno how much truth there is behind this, I've never entrolled in masters, but it was enough to steer me towards post-bacc (and looking back today, It was probably the smartest pre-dental decision I ever made)

Um... I do not know how much of what you said is true or not. Since OP has applied to schools he/she needs to call the schools and ask them to talk to a admissions adviser and ask them Why he/she got rejected. And how you can improve your chances. Op call all the schools you applied to and ask them. Then ask them which is better a masters or post bac. Since you must of atleast applied to 5 schools call all of them and write down what they say.

DW... I understand what you are saying but IMO its not reliable data to base such an important decision. Even what i have said is for pure advertising purposes to stand out. Like the schools would see Cumulative GPA first then if its above or equal to there requirements they will look into the next column which would be graduate gpa if its high then they would stand out automatically. If they were to do a postbac everything would be in one gpa. And if its low I mean like 3.1 then, it wouldn't give them enough motivation to look at there individual grades. Again this is just my opinion on me visiting 2 schools and them showing me what they have received from aadsas and how they look into my folder/file.

Regarding inflation, Undergrad vs. masters. It depends on the schools, program, prof.'s. One could argue and say that X univ orgo is peace of cake compared to Y univ. No one can prove it. Its still an organic class. So Masters is Masters its still higher level education so it would be a plus...

 

[nyr201]

Agreed. For some reason, every master's students have straight A's. Perhaps they try harder now, since its their last shot at raising GPA to get into a respective program; however, it seems like everyone is getting a 4.0 which, in theory, should be ridicously hard. At my school, its relatively easy to get a 4.0 for Masters as opposed to Undergrad.

Yes I know I know that in other schools masters is extremely hard, but in general, I would invest in a post-bac. Master's tends to have requirements, but post-bac you can leave whenever. Sorta awkward leaving 1st year of ure 2 years masters program. -_-

Wow, these are definitely some things to think about. I don't know how many more upper level bio classes I can take since I majored in bio and took the majority of classes that my school offers. The only classes I can think of that I can take are genetics and microbio. Would two classes really show a big dif? Could I take upper level chemistry classes?

 

[peanutb123]

Agreed. For some reason, every master's students have straight A's. Perhaps they try harder now, since its their last shot at raising GPA to get into a respective program; however, it seems like everyone is getting a 4.0 which, in theory, should be ridicously hard. At my school, its relatively easy to get a 4.0 for Masters as opposed to Undergrad.

Yes I know I know that in other schools masters is extremely hard, but in general, I would invest in a post-bac. Master's tends to have requirements, but post-bac you can leave whenever. Sorta awkward leaving 1st year of ure 2 years masters program. -_-

Again OP, First call the schools. Rainee, you might be speaking of couple examples. But the app pool contains many more graduate students and not all of them have perfect nor close to perfect grad GPA(no data to prove weather if its true or not). You might be just seeing couple examples on SDN, but much of the info that they put up can be questioned.

You can leave after 1 year of masters. If its a 1 year program then its good, But not for 2 year programs. If you are planning to leave in the middle most D-schools wont agree with it. They would tell you, that you need to finish Masters before you enroll.

 

[ALLDAYYY]

OP, i was in your position and this past year I have actually finished a masters program in biochem and molecular biology from UCR GPA (3.81) and applied. DAT (20/20/20).

To tell you the honest truth youll have to do BOTH a masters and post bacc work to be competitive. I contacted the schools i was rejected from and they told me that "ALTHOUGH A MASTERS IS GOOD IT IS NOT REQ FOR DENTAL SCHOOL ADMISSION BUT WHAT IS REQ IS THE BCP SECTION ON YOUR AADSAS SO UNLESS THAT GPA IS GOOD YOU WILL NOT BE COMPETITIVE". This makes sense because 1 year of good grades cannot compensate for 4 year of mediocre ones.

i have been rejected from 5 schools so far and i have interviewed at 3 and im on the alternate lists at 2 BUT NO ACCEPTANCES.

I AM STILL RETAKIN UGRAD CLASSES AFTER finishing my masters and im planning on reapplying again. Its gonna be a long road so dont be afraid to take the time to improve your application no matter how long it takes. the main goal would be to jus get in to d school b4 ur DAT expires = /.

 

[dentalWorks]

OP, i was in your position and this past year I have actually finished a masters program in biochem and molecular biology from UCR GPA (3.81) and applied. DAT (20/20/20).

To tell you the honest truth youll have to do BOTH a masters and post bacc work to be competitive. I contacted the schools i was rejected from and they told me that "ALTHOUGH A MASTERS IS GOOD IT IS NOT REQ FOR DENTAL SCHOOL ADMISSION BUT WHAT IS REQ IS THE BCP SECTION ON YOUR AADSAS SO UNLESS THAT GPA IS GOOD YOU WILL NOT BE COMPETITIVE". This makes sense because 1 year of good grades cannot compensate for 4 year of mediocre ones.

i have been rejected from 5 schools so far and i have interviewed at 3 and im on the alternate lists at 2 BUT NO ACCEPTANCES.

I AM STILL RETAKIN UGRAD CLASSES AFTER finishing my masters and im planning on reapplying again. Its gonna be a long road so dont be afraid to take the time to improve your application no matter how long it takes. the main goal would be to jus get in to d school b4 ur DAT expires = /.

Sorry to hear about this.... Its frustrating to see someone excel at 400 & 500 level molecular biology courses and still have to go back and take undergrad 100/200 level courses

 

[nyr201]

OP, i was in your position and this past year I have actually finished a masters program in biochem and molecular biology from UCR GPA (3.81) and applied. DAT (20/20/20).

To tell you the honest truth youll have to do BOTH a masters and post bacc work to be competitive. I contacted the schools i was rejected from and they told me that "ALTHOUGH A MASTERS IS GOOD IT IS NOT REQ FOR DENTAL SCHOOL ADMISSION BUT WHAT IS REQ IS THE BCP SECTION ON YOUR AADSAS SO UNLESS THAT GPA IS GOOD YOU WILL NOT BE COMPETITIVE". This makes sense because 1 year of good grades cannot compensate for 4 year of mediocre ones.

i have been rejected from 5 schools so far and i have interviewed at 3 and im on the alternate lists at 2 BUT NO ACCEPTANCES.

I AM STILL RETAKIN UGRAD CLASSES AFTER finishing my masters and im planning on reapplying again. Its gonna be a long road so dont be afraid to take the time to improve your application no matter how long it takes. the main goal would be to jus get in to d school b4 ur DAT expires = /.

Thanks for the motivation. Don't lose hope you still have a shot this cycle!

I really have a dilemma here now. I will call schools as advised tho to see which is a better idea.

Thanks again to peanut, DW and rainee.

 

[nyr201]

Ok so I did some calculations and I figured that if I get A's in 36 credits of post bac, my sGPA will balloon to 3.5! and BCP will be 3.52 but my cum GPA will only get up to a 3.1...what's up with that lol.

would those stats suffice? along with my 19AA/20TS/17PAT

I just hope I can find 36 creds at my school to take.

In the short term however, I'm looking at 6 credits this spring sem (im late and will try to get an exception) with A's in 6 creds sGPA will be 3.06, BCP:3.07 and cGPA 2.93...

What do you think????

 

[dentalWorks]

Ok so I did some calculations and I figured that if I get A's in 36 credits of post bac, my sGPA will balloon to 3.5! and BCP will be 3.52 but my cum GPA will only get up to a 3.1...what's up with that lol.

would those stats suffice? along with my 19AA/20TS/17PAT

I just hope I can find 36 creds at my school to take.

In the short term however, I'm looking at 6 credits this spring sem (im late and will try to get an exception) with A's in 6 creds sGPA will be 3.06, BCP:3.07 and cGPA 2.93...

What do you think????

there is no guarantee if anything you do is "enough" but... 3.5 science and BCP GPA are great numbers. Those are the 2 GPA categories that most dental schools seem to care about the most.

In my honest opinion, if you can swing 36 credits with a solid 4.0 performance, you'll be a great applicant. The only problem is, do you have that many classes to take in undergrad? You suggested there aren't enough biology courses to take.... so isn't this an issue for you? One that might force you to enroll in a masters program?

 

[peanutb123]

Ok so I did some calculations and I figured that if I get A's in 36 credits of post bac, my sGPA will balloon to 3.5! and BCP will be 3.52 but my cum GPA will only get up to a 3.1...what's up with that lol.

would those stats suffice? along with my 19AA/20TS/17PAT

I just hope I can find 36 creds at my school to take.

In the short term however, I'm looking at 6 credits this spring sem (im late and will try to get an exception) with A's in 6 creds sGPA will be 3.06, BCP:3.07 and cGPA 2.93...

What do you think????

One more suggestion, I have abused this system in the past... May be you can too...

I have taken 5 masters class through my honors college during my undergrad... so You can take masters classes along with undergrad classes and they will count towards your postbac... if there are no science classes to take. they will count just like undergrad classes.
For me it counted as undergrad.

For grad it counted all the undergrad basic science pre reqs + 5 masters classes + 5 undergrad classes.


Good luck

 

[nyr201]

One more suggestion, I have abused this system in the past... May be you can too...

I have taken 5 masters class through my honors college during my undergrad... so You can take masters classes along with undergrad classes and they will count towards your postbac... if there are no science classes to take. they will count just like undergrad classes.
For me it counted as undergrad.

For grad it counted all the undergrad basic science pre reqs + 5 masters classes + 5 undergrad classes.


Good luck

Awesome, I'll definitely check to see if I can swing something like that. That's amazing that you got to do that.

 

[yappy]

Lets be honest - at this point it's a numbers game. For those 36 credits you have to ace why not take that 100 lv nutrition class offered by your BIO department? How about that intro to geo offered by the physical science department? And lets not forget those 100 lv chemistry courses taught be the chem department for nurses. Easy A's and they'll raise that BCP just as much as getting an A in 499 molecular biology!

 

[nyr201]

Lets be honest - at this point it's a numbers game. For those 36 credits you have to ace why not take that 100 lv nutrition class offered by your BIO department? How about that intro to geo offered by the physical science department? And lets not forget those 100 lv chemistry courses taught be the chem department for nurses. Easy A's and they'll raise that BCP just as much as getting an A in 499 molecular biology!

Do you really think that would fly?

 

[lnngu]

Lets be honest - at this point it's a numbers game. For those 36 credits you have to ace why not take that 100 lv nutrition class offered by your BIO department? How about that intro to geo offered by the physical science department? And lets not forget those 100 lv chemistry courses taught be the chem department for nurses. Easy A's and they'll raise that BCP just as much as getting an A in 499 molecular biology!

I'm not so sure. My personal take on it is that it's a numbers game when your stats are almost good enough and you are borderline for acceptance to begin with. In cases where you have some catching up to do (which seems the case for the OP), you need to impress the adcom. They will want to see that you are able to handle the load, once you get into school. Taking a bunch of easy classes is a poor way to do that, and I'm pretty sure the adcom can spot those. If it were me, I would overload like crazy on hard classes, challenge myself like never before, and do what I need to, to excel. If nothing else, it's good prep for when you do get accepted.

 

[nyr201]

Ok, so I still haven't heard back from NYU, Tufts, or BU...I also called my school to see if I can get in on registration, and I was told I'm too late.

I tried to sit down and start studying for the DAT again, so I have some immediate improvement for next cycle just in case. However, I have a big problem.....I CANNOT FOCUS lol, I really do not want to study for this again.
What if I do worse? Is it worth the risk? I mean my scores are pretty good. It's just the gpa.

I've applied to the UMDNJ masters waiting to hear back from that but that starts in the Fall...Can anyone give advice on how else to improve my app for next cycle? Research? more volunteering?

Thanks in advance guys.

 

[lnngu]

Ok, so I still haven't heard back from NYU, Tufts, or BU...I also called my school to see if I can get in on registration, and I was told I'm too late.

I tried to sit down and start studying for the DAT again, so I have some immediate improvement for next cycle just in case. However, I have a big problem.....I CANNOT FOCUS lol, I really do not want to study for this again.
What if I do worse? Is it worth the risk? I mean my scores are pretty good. It's just the gpa.

I've applied to the UMDNJ masters waiting to hear back from that but that starts in the Fall...Can anyone give advice on how else to improve my app for next cycle? Research? more volunteering?

Thanks in advance guys.

Your DAT is not competitive when matched with your gpa. Quit whining and get to work.