Need Some Advice On My Current Situation ...

[JrZyBud]

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Okay, so Im a bit of a non traditional student. Ever since I was just a wee little tyke I was brought up to run my family's construction company. If people asked me what I was going to do when I grew up I always had an answer ... Not be an astronaut or firefighter, but a general contractor. I was going to be my own boss, run the company that my grandfather started 35 years ago.

Okay, so things have changed ... the economy sucks and we had to shut our doors. Now what do I do? I always said that if I wasn't in construction I would be a dentist or a history teacher. I'm leaning towards dentist. Here's the deal though, I'm 27 going on 28 in April. I went to school right out of high school and never really took it very seriously. I wanted to work in the field, be a carpenter, not sit in school listening to lectures. I was young, stupid and ready to get to work. I ended up leaving Rutgers and started my apprenticeship in carpentry. Unfortunately for me now, I didn't bother to withdraw from my classes and I took a whole bunch of F's. This was about 7 or 8 years ago. Flash forward to now and Im taking courses at Stockton College in NJ. I'm just starting out (tomorrow is actually my first day of class) and I'm a bit worried that I may have totally screwed myself by not withdrawing from those courses at Rutgers since all grades are factored into your GPA from all schools. Im a good student, I have no doubt that I will be able to maintain a high GPA at school now. I've also done a whole lot with my life since I left college the first time. I've completed my apprenticeship and currently I am a union carpenter. I have my real estate license in NJ. I'm working on finishing up the last few hours of my pilots license. I've completed the AFA freefall course for skydiving and am working towards my A license. I also started the Philadelphia chapter of Mustaches for Kids, a charity that helps to raise money for local school kids. I plan on doing plenty of shadowing, but what I really want to know is if I can still get into dental school if I get a high GPA and kill the DAT's? Are any of these activities something that will benefit me? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Oh and my current GPA from Rutgers is a 1.7 and I did have a 3.5 from a local community college that offered a construction professional program. Not too good unfortunately ...

Buddy

 

[doc toothache]

For starters, talk to the registrar at Rutgers and see what can be done to change your records to Ws.

 

[NCarolinaDent]

I am a non-traditional applicant as well who did not do exceptionally well in undergraduate. But I just got my first acceptance from Kentucky.

It is a hard road, but my advice would be to stay focused on making better than a 3.6 GPA in your science classes. Obviously the higher the better. From there make a 20+ on the DAT and get a couple hundred hours of shadowing and volunteer hours at a dental clinic for the underserved.

If you make it that far then you will have a good chance of getting an interview somewhere. Some central themes of your application should revolve around your excitement to dentistry, the strides you have made as a student, and how you are focused. Every applicant is measured differently and many schools are focused on putting together a dental class of different people with different experiences.

Keep your head up and be willing to apply more than once and to a variety of schools.

 

[peanutb123]

Dont get addicted to those casinos man... and lose your money...

Rutgers wont change grades to W. especially if it was that long ago... unless something really bad happened to you. B/c its not fair to other students.

Try to do your best at stockten this is your chance to shine most people wont even get that. But why did you leave Rutgers is there anyway that you can go back... b/c i know couple people from stockton and they do not have any premed or predental advisors... or committee. So its a good thing that you have asked this question NOW then when is too late?


- This semester you are going to get a good gpa and apply to Rutgers again.
then after that you are

1. how many schools are you going to apply to? if more than 3 then your proff. will get tired writing or even sending recommendations letters to all the schools. and no committee letter which is very imp. part of the app. process.

Plus i believe Rutgers will open more doors. Try to go back to it. and may be repeat(some courses will be replaced by stockten classes) those classes that you have taken. I mean you could not even have been more than 1.5 years at rutgers b/c u will be put on probation and get kicked out.. so some of the classes grades can be averaged by rutgers so you should be set just work hard.

 

[JrZyBud]

Thanks for all the advice ... I decided on Stockton because I got into this rather late in the game and Stockton was the only school I could make the deadline for. I would have liked to have gone back to Rutgers, just not enough time. You are right, I was only there for about a year and a half so I'm basically starting over again. lol, looks like I'm going to start looking back into the process of getting back into Rutgers.

Thanks!

 

[DrDDSman]

Dont get addicted to those casinos man... and lose your money...

Rutgers wont change grades to W. especially if it was that long ago... unless something really bad happened to you. B/c its not fair to other students.

Try to do your best at stockten this is your chance to shine most people wont even get that. But why did you leave Rutgers is there anyway that you can go back... b/c i know couple people from stockton and they do not have any premed or predental advisors... or committee. So its a good thing that you have asked this question NOW then when is too late?


- This semester you are going to get a good gpa and apply to Rutgers again.
then after that you are

1. how many schools are you going to apply to? if more than 3 then your proff. will get tired writing or even sending recommendations letters to all the schools. and no committee letter which is very imp. part of the app. process.

Plus i believe Rutgers will open more doors. Try to go back to it. and may be repeat(some courses will be replaced by stockten classes) those classes that you have taken. I mean you could not even have been more than 1.5 years at rutgers b/c u will be put on probation and get kicked out.. so some of the classes grades can be averaged by rutgers so you should be set just work hard.

All they have to do is send the letter to AADSAS, and AADSAS will forward copies to the chosen schools.

 

[JrZyBud]

I would honestly like to be able to stay at home and save some money, so Stockton works out well. The main reason I picked the school was that it was close and the deadline for transfer hadn't already passed. Rowan would also be an easy option and they seem to have a more focused pre health professions program. While I've only been at Stockton for a few weeks my experience has not been all that stellar as far as student advisors and registration has been concerned. At the very least Im in class now and actually earning credits. Would it be a bad thing to transfer again? Now that I have time I can pretty much pick a better school. Given that I was previously enrolled in Rutgers would it be a smarter choice if I went back to school there? I believe that is what you are saying Peanutb123? What makes you think that Rutgers would open more doors as well?

Buddy