Need Honest Advice!!

[schafenm]

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Hi Everyone!!

I graduated with a 3.57 and a sGPA of 3.4 in 2009. I took the past 2 years to deal with some personal issues, deaths in the family etc. I am planning on applying for the 2012 cycle. I am taking my DAT in April, I have taken it once with an embarrassing score of 16. I didn't really study and barely tried. I am back and ready with a a fiery passion. I was a D1 college athlete, president of the biology honor society, I did student research in my 3rd year and spent the summer in Chile as a research assistant to one of my professors, I worked for 2 years in the off season from volleyball, and I am a quarter native american. The only issues with my research is I chose to do it in ecology and parasitology because I thought found the project to be extremely interesting. I have spent the last year shadowing and working part time for a dentist. My primary job is bartending and serving, because it allows me the time to shadow and study adequately for the DAT (while still making a decent living). I am applying to a few one year post bacc's for the fall to get back in school. I am worried about my time off, I know I needed it so that I would be prepared mentally for D school. I was just wondering if anyone could shed some light on whether or not my time off would be a huge black mark on my application. I also used the time off for running a marathon and raising money for the leukemia and lymphoma cancer society. My number 1 school is LSU since I would be an instate applicant and of course instate tuition is always nice. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank You SDNers when I start to lose motivation on those long study days, you guys always bring me back!!!

Much appreciation, and I wish everyone the best on here!!

 

[Erhatstil]

it all comes down to your DAT. score 20+ and you should land some interviews. Make sure you apply to numerous private schools even though LSU is your top choice. The fact that I took a couple years off was barely mentioned in my interviews and shouldn't be an issue for you either

 

[quillow]

I think you have a pretty good shot if you can raise your DAT. I don't know about LSU (I didn't apply there), but you would get in at some school. The time off doesn't matter that much if you have a good reason/explanation for what you did. It sounds like you do. Your GPA is pretty good. You have good extracurriculars. You're shadowing right now. You have research experience (I don't think it matters that it was in ecology). IMO, you may not even need to do a post-bacc, but it's not a bad idea -- it'll at least show that you are still able to handle academics. And if you can boost your GPA (not that it's bad right now), that's always a plus.

I think you have a good shot. I decided to apply five years after graduation and I still got in. The time off isn't as bad as you might think.

 

[schafenm]

thanks guys for the replies!!!