Non-traditional grad student..School fail to give me advice.

[lordress]

I have always want to be a dentist since high school. So I went to college, intending to major in Biology. I wanted to graduate in 4 years so I instead, minor in Biology and major in general studies. This I think was a mistake.

I graduated undergrad in 2013. My overall GPA was a mere 3.0 and I need a better GPA to be competitive in my application. So I decided to go into grad school. I am a current grad school student in Education- Secondary Biology (good job market, maybe) while still trying to strengthen my record for my dental application. I plan to take more of their required classes, specifically biochem on my semester off from grad school. The advising people say I can not take any more biology courses at the institution because I am in their masters program. They recommend that I take my science class at the community college. I already took enough credits at the community college that is acceptable. The adviser said that it is odd that I plan to go into dental school but is mastering in Education, and that the dental school would question that.. . This is very uninspiring

I have a mortgage to pay and am getting pay to teach, thats why i chose my master program. I feel like one day i will be happy not pushing dental school and wasting my time. im 25. I dont want to pursue something I cant obtain forever.

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[BetaHelix]

Unless you are taking upper division biology or science courses your current masters program probably won't help and may raise question to why you chose that over another health-profession specific masters program like a Biomedical Sciences. Many applicants DO do a masters program to raise their GPA but the programs they complete are upper-division science course specific and are designed to increase your application credentials for health professional school. In fact that's essentially ALL they aim to do.

Have you taken your pre-requisites for dental school as part of your bio undergrad?

If you HAVE and those courses are strong and you have a solid science GPA a high DAT may make you competitive.