Need some advice

[PharmDr.]

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I have a question for you guys (and girls). Do dental school adcoms look unfavorably at how many years it took you to finish your undergraduate degree? It just seems like my future class schedule is just real crammed and I know I would get those A's instead of border lined B's if I paired the harder classes w/ the easier ones, instead of all harder ones. For me to finish my bio degree in 4 yrs. , i'm going to have to do all summer schedules throughout(Im taking 11 credits now in summer and it seems that all I do is study in order to pull A's). I get too stressed out about school all the time as do probally most of you and it's not healthy. Should I just suck it up and go through it or is it ok for it to take 5 yrs. to get my degree? Thanks

 

[Biogirl361]

why do you have to cram all science classes in plus do summers? are you double majoring? did you fail classes your first year? or does your school just require like 150 credits to graduate? i ask because it probably depends how they look at your 5 years depending on the reason it took longer than traditional time.

 

[PharmDr.]

Actually my first semester my counselor told me before knowing anything about college req. and what I should be taking, that chem1 is the only science course I should take. Along w/ chem1, I took speech,eng 1,and college algebra but later I audited that b/c I was doing poorly(barely had a c after 2 tests and it didnt look good for me cont. and doing the cum. final) I did repeat the algebra and now I still need to take pre-calc. calc.w/analytical geo. 1,and statistics for my req. for bio major. I also need to complete org.1,2,physics1,2,humanities1,2,sociology, and bio 2 in the timeframe of beginning my upper level bio courses w/ exception to physics1,2 cause I can take them in my junior yr. I made the mistake to take anat./physiology 1 this summer and I just found out that dental schools dont req. this and this is a combined course and not upper level so I guess it is not as impressive to the adcoms? Anyways I am going to be a soph. in the fall and just need some guidance as to what to take and not to take at certain times, cause it seems that noone at my school knows sh#t about health prof. admissions.thanks

 

[sidewalkman]

Congrats on learning that 99% of all advisors are useless! 😀

Something seems off. You should be able to take bio 2 as a soph, then take the upper level bio classes without a problem. At my ugrad, lots of people took bio and orgo together as sophs, and then physics junior year. Then take some upper bio elective junior and senior years, and you should be all set to graduate in 4 years with or without summers. As for the other prereqs, take them as it fits into your schedule best.

And I don't think that anatomy/physio class is "useless".... in fact, it's a highly recommended elective at some dental schools.

 

[Thaxil]

Your situation is to complicated for me to sort through, but to answer your question. I think Adcom do not care much at all. What they do not want to see it less then full time study, that is less then 12 unit/quarter. I think if you take two core sic with one non-science at less for every quarter and do 3.3+GPA you should be fine. I took me 6 years to complete (including the 5 F's in first year of college) my BS, and non one question was asked about the duration.

As sidewalkman stated, the vast majority of advisors are too impatient and unwilling to help students. Anyways most freshmen need to figure a lot of things out for them selfs.

 

[PharmDr.]

I have one more question. The university I am transferring to states on their web-site that calc., and statistics are pre req. for the bio program, does this mean I have to complete these classes before I begin taking the upper level coursework or that they are required to graduate? I also researched and found out that there are less req. classes than I thought and that there are some slots for taking elective type classes.

 

[omaralt]

hey, just to give u some hope, i began my freshman year as an engineering major. i took zero science classes my first year, but i did get physics I and my math requirements out of the way. beginning my second year, i decided to pursue dentistry, so i only began taking science classes then. so ur pretty much in the same boat, and i'm actually managing to graduate in 3.5 years! so i believe that it can easily be done, u just might have to work a little harder and take 2-3 science classes a semester, which is going to be expected of you in dental school anyways. good luck,


omar

 

[sidewalkman]

Calc and stats should not be required for a run-of-the-mill upper-level bio course. The school probably requires that all bio majors take those classes at some point before graduation. Your school may be different, though. Get a copy of your school's bulletin and check every single elective that could be offered to make sure calc and stats is not a prereq for a course that really sounds interesting/useful.