need help!!!!!!

[silver037]

I have a degree in Marketing with Health&Sciences minor. Unfortunately my gpa sucks! It is 2.9.. I took some prereqs as well when I was in college but still need to take orgo and physics. I am wondering if i still have any chance of getting into a dental schools if i get a good score on DAT.
Here are my questions if you lovely people can help me out..

1. Can I take those prereq courses again to raise my GPA? I mean, can I repeat them if i didn't do too well? are they called post bac?

2. Should I take extra science courses such as anatomy?

3. Can I take classes from a community college?

3. Even though I have a bad GPA from a non-science major...do i still have a chance??

Thanks in advance!!!

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[diane07]

I don't have an answer for most of your questions. But I do know that some schools give higher preferance for applicants who take their pre-requisites at a four year college/university. Although I have read plenty of posts from people who say they went to community college and think that's just fine. If they took community college classes and got into dental school, then mabye it is fine. Who really knows . . . but just so you have an example, below is an excerpt from UIC's website. Maybe others can give some insight regarding your other questions.

"The Admissions committee strongly prefers that the prerequisite science courses be taken at a four-year United States College/University. We do not limit Community College course work, but we strongly recommend that student take their courses at a four-year U.S. institution."


Technically, you can choose to do whatever you want. But it would probably be wise to
research the schools you're most interested in to find out what their preferances are.

 

[vize]

I'm not too sure, but I believe an admissions officer at Michigan told me they don't accept people who took the pre-reqs at a community college.

 

[silver037]

thanks for all your replies~
I need more help though

 

[Nasem]

I am in a similar situation as you...

I graduated in 04 with a B.S in Computer Science and minors in mathematics. My over all GPA was a crappy 3.01 (similar to yours). Anyways to make story short, after working for a while as a software developer, I realized that the money is sweeeet for someone thats 25 years of age but the job it self, just wasn't doing it for me.

I did some research here and there; the research was primarily based on if I can get my self a possibility to pursue another career. I, middle of my 20s realized that I want to go after medicine……

So, at that point, My goal was “medical” school (but wasn’t sure which route to take)…. I chose dentistry (sister has been a dentist since 1992 and I would say she was the biggest influence).

Anyway, I did a TON of research, here are some of my findings and please, these are not totally facts, they are only my judgments based on what my research indicated:

1) MOST dental schools do not like applicants who take community courses; they like to see applicants take the classes at 4 year institutes because they feel the 4-year institutes provide better teaching.
2) Dentistry schools like to see applicants with good GPAs and DATs but THAT’S NOT ALL THEY LOOK FOR. They also look for “serious & mature” applicants. You don’t need a Genius I.Q to get into dentistry but you need to show them that you’re a serious person….. for example if you had a bad GPA for your undergrad, ok, go back to school and take another major which requires you to take more science courses (biochemistry / biology / chemistry / chemical eng. / etc / etc) and rock those classes inside out (get a 3.5+ GPA), they’ll see that you “matured” out of your undergrad years and now you’ve become a more serious person.
3) Dental schools like people who can speak / express themselves well in public. Your job as a dentist requires you to have strong social skills and they like to see that in especially when they read your personal statement / interview you.
4) Relax and enjoy your years before getting into dental schools. If you think getting into D school is hard, wait until you see the first 2 years of d-school (extremely tough and heavy course loads)

As far me, I applied to MSU last September as a 2nd degree bachelors of science in Chemistry, got accepted in November and right now, I am still working my full time job in the software business and attending MSU (taking Gen Chem I and the lab)

 

[OregonDent]

I have a degree in Marketing with Health&Sciences minor. Unfortunately my gpa sucks! It is 2.9.. I took some prereqs as well when I was in college but still need to take orgo and physics. I am wondering if i still have any chance of getting into a dental schools if i get a good score on DAT.
Here are my questions if you lovely people can help me out..

1. Can I take those prereq courses again to raise my GPA? I mean, can I repeat them if i didn't do too well? are they called post bac?

2. Should I take extra science courses such as anatomy?

3. Can I take classes from a community college?

3. Even though I have a bad GPA from a non-science major...do i still have a chance??

Thanks in advance!!!

Here are a few, more detailed, answers.

1. Yes, you can replace those prereq's by retaking the class, HOWEVER to have those grades stricken from your record you must retake the class at the school you originally took them (check to verify this with your particular school). Otherwise, the both grades would show on your transcript. Even if this is the case, it would not be that bad, at least it would show a dedication to improve your application.

2. Extra science classes are a must. If all you have is the basic bio sequence your going to need to take some upper level sciences. A few good classes would be anatomy, microbiology, genetics, biochem, and cell biology. If nothing else I would recommend anatomy and biochem. Also you will need your science GPA to be at least 3.3, but to be competitive 3.5 if preferred.

3. As Silver said a four year university is strongly recommended.

4. Even though the difference between 2.9 and 3 is almost nothing, it does look a lot different. I would try to get the non science GPA above 3


With a SGPA of 3.3 and a overall of above 3.0 your still going to need a very high DAT 21's and 22's. Hope that I could help