Please help me with my situation~

[silver037]

Dear whom it may concern,

Hello. I have some questions about my situation on applying to dental schools . I graduated in 05 from with a degree in Marketing and minors in Health and Science. I, middle of my 20s realized that I want to pursue my dream career, dentistry. I have always been interested in dentistry so I took some pre-req science courses in my undergrad years such as Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, and one semester of physics. I still need to take Organic Chemistry lab and the second part of Physics. My overall GPA was 2.9 which is not great. Above is my situation and here are a few detailed questions.1. Since my overall GPA is not outstanding, what are my options about raising my GPA?Some schools offer post-baccalaureate programs for individuals who want to go back to take prerequisite coursework for medical or dental school. I am not sure if this suits me since I already have some credits from science classes. If I can do this program, will it replace the courses I took before?
2. If I didn't do well in those science courses I took, will retaking those prereqs replace my grade to raise science GPA? I would apply as a non-degree seeking students and take some of the prereq courses I need, is this correct? If I get a good grade by retaking courses, I believe it would show a dedication to imrove my application; I am not sure if it will actually help my GPA.

I would really appreciate it if someone can advice me on my situation. Thank you very much.

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[zthang]

Doing post-bacc work will always help, especially if you do well. As for whether your new grades will replace old ones...the answer is not really. Even if your particular school replaces the grade, AADSAS calculates its own GPA, and in their system it doesn't quite replace the grade. It think it averages it. You have to list all the classes you've taken on AADSAS, including the date/semester you took it, what grade you got, as well as whether or not it's a repeat course. Basically, if you retake a course, you have to list the same course twice.

 

[ohioboy]

Dear whom it may concern,

Hello. I have some questions about my situation on applying to dental schools . I graduated in 05 from with a degree in Marketing and minors in Health and Science. I, middle of my 20s realized that I want to pursue my dream career, dentistry. I have always been interested in dentistry so I took some pre-req science courses in my undergrad years such as Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, and one semester of physics. I still need to take Organic Chemistry lab and the second part of Physics. My overall GPA was 2.9 which is not great. Above is my situation and here are a few detailed questions.1. Since my overall GPA is not outstanding, what are my options about raising my GPA?Some schools offer post-baccalaureate programs for individuals who want to go back to take prerequisite coursework for medical or dental school. I am not sure if this suits me since I already have some credits from science classes. If I can do this program, will it replace the courses I took before?
2. If I didn't do well in those science courses I took, will retaking those prereqs replace my grade to raise science GPA? I would apply as a non-degree seeking students and take some of the prereq courses I need, is this correct? If I get a good grade by retaking courses, I believe it would show a dedication to imrove my application; I am not sure if it will actually help my GPA.

I would really appreciate it if someone can advice me on my situation. Thank you very much.

no offense dude, but stick with your major. If you could only get a 2.9 with a Marketing major...doubt dental school is in your future. I know that sounds harsh...but that's exactly what admissions com. persons will be thinking.
Stick with Marketing...it's a great field.

 

[pacbum]

i'd do the post bac program, try to go get a master's degree. id you get that gpaup just a bit, you'll have an excellent chance of getting in somewhere. schools will especially like that you're truly following your dream, and doing what you want to do. they'll like that drive and motivation. and i imagine that as a marketing person and a dentist, you'd probably do pretty well in the profession. so go for it, do that post bac degree, and impress them with how much better you do. good luck.

 

[utahdent123]

no offense dude, but stick with your major. If you could only get a 2.9 with a Marketing major...doubt dental school is in your future. I know that sounds harsh...but that's exactly what admissions com. persons will be thinking.
Stick with Marketing...it's a great field.

Maybe he didn't try as hard because it didn't matter as much. The competivness of Med school and Dental school motivated me to work extra hard to qualify myself when the time came to apply. Just a thought.

 

[Nasem]

Dear whom it may concern,

Hello. I have some questions about my situation on applying to dental schools . I graduated in 05 from with a degree in Marketing and minors in Health and Science. I, middle of my 20s realized that I want to pursue my dream career, dentistry. I have always been interested in dentistry so I took some pre-req science courses in my undergrad years such as Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, and one semester of physics. I still need to take Organic Chemistry lab and the second part of Physics. My overall GPA was 2.9 which is not great. Above is my situation and here are a few detailed questions.1. Since my overall GPA is not outstanding, what are my options about raising my GPA?Some schools offer post-baccalaureate programs for individuals who want to go back to take prerequisite coursework for medical or dental school. I am not sure if this suits me since I already have some credits from science classes. If I can do this program, will it replace the courses I took before?
2. If I didn't do well in those science courses I took, will retaking those prereqs replace my grade to raise science GPA? I would apply as a non-degree seeking students and take some of the prereq courses I need, is this correct? If I get a good grade by retaking courses, I believe it would show a dedication to imrove my application; I am not sure if it will actually help my GPA.

I would really appreciate it if someone can advice me on my situation. Thank you very much.

The good news is there is alot of hope for you....
The bad news is that your going to have to work your ass off to try to beat the competition and even then, you will still be boarderlining.

If I was you, I would enroll into some 4-year university and take a god load of science courses, Repeat ALL of your pre-dental classes and take alot of additional high level science coureses like biochem, microbio, physiology, anatomy, etc etc etc.
Do this for the next 2 years or so, taking 4-5 classes each semester and rocking a 3.6+ GPA. This will show the adcoms that you have matured out of your undergrad mentality and you now are ready for dental school.

 

[Veneto]

no offense dude, but stick with your major. If you could only get a 2.9 with a Marketing major...doubt dental school is in your future. I know that sounds harsh...but that's exactly what admissions com. persons will be thinking.
Stick with Marketing...it's a great field.

i'd do the post bac program, try to go get a master's degree. id you get that gpaup just a bit, you'll have an excellent chance of getting in somewhere. schools will especially like that you're truly following your dream, and doing what you want to do. they'll like that drive and motivation. and i imagine that as a marketing person and a dentist, you'd probably do pretty well in the profession. so go for it, do that post bac degree, and impress them with how much better you do. good luck.

I think each of these guys are right to a certain degree. If you really want to do dentistry, and you could never be happy with Marketing, then go ahaead and spend the next three-four years getting into dental school. With a 2.9 GPA you wont have alot of luck being accepted into dental school, especially if your scince GPA is about the same or lower. That's first gotta go up. Dont bother retaking the classes, unless they are D's or F's, cause they are just figured into your total GPA through AADSAS. Take the rest of your pre-reqs and get A's, along with some upper division classes like biochem, micro, genetics, etc. Remember that B's are going to help. If you can manage A's in theose classes then move forward and do really well on the DAT, like 21 or above. If the grades arent all A's after the first year I really consider something else, cause it's only getting harder and you'll be up against people with 3.6's and 20's. I am not trying to be negative, but eventhough the second person I quoted said that schools will see your motivation and drive, keep in mind that they will only see that motivation and drive if they are able to first look and see that your scores are competetive. Good luck.

 

[aec563]

I also did a post-bacc program and am heading to dental school in the fall. Personally don't think its worth it to repeat those classes in a post-bacc program unless you can come out with (cringe) A's in all of them b/c when you apply, all your scores are averaged, sciences and other. Definitely look into taking some advanced courses cell bio, anatomy and physio, genetics and biochemistry. This way you can work at the same time, while deciding whether this is the right course of action for you. If you come out doing well, I'd try and rock the DATs as the new standard is really 20 and above on all sections.

 

[silver037]

HI guys,
Thanks for all your responses. I did pretty well in my Chem, Orgo, and physics when i took them in undergrad. As and Bs. So do you guys recommend that I go to a four year college as a non degree seeking student and take high level science courses in addition to the rest of my prereqs? Also, does retaking classes such as biology look bad??

 

[aec563]

Depends on if you think you can get an A in Bio the second time around. if you can, why not then ask for a rec from the professor, as this will really overshadow the perhaps not so good grad you got on it the first time around. Take your courses at a four year college if possible.

 

[PracTxDentist]

Dear whom it may concern,

Hello. I have some questions about my situation on applying to dental schools . I graduated in 05 from with a degree in Marketing and minors in Health and Science. I, middle of my 20s realized that I want to pursue my dream career, dentistry. I have always been interested in dentistry so I took some pre-req science courses in my undergrad years such as Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, and one semester of physics. I still need to take Organic Chemistry lab and the second part of Physics. My overall GPA was 2.9 which is not great. Above is my situation and here are a few detailed questions.1. Since my overall GPA is not outstanding, what are my options about raising my GPA?Some schools offer post-baccalaureate programs for individuals who want to go back to take prerequisite coursework for medical or dental school. I am not sure if this suits me since I already have some credits from science classes. If I can do this program, will it replace the courses I took before?
2. If I didn't do well in those science courses I took, will retaking those prereqs replace my grade to raise science GPA? I would apply as a non-degree seeking students and take some of the prereq courses I need, is this correct? If I get a good grade by retaking courses, I believe it would show a dedication to imrove my application; I am not sure if it will actually help my GPA.

I would really appreciate it if someone can advice me on my situation. Thank you very much.

Okay, speaking from experience, this is what you need to do (in my opinion).

Proving you are capable: As others have said, you have some work ahead of you, but your goal of getting accepted into dental school is very reasonable. Because you have a lower GPA, you are going to need to remedy that by taking more difficult science classes and performing well in them. Thus, you will need to take graduate level science courses and do very well in them (>B+). In regards to graduate school GPA, you should aim for marks well above the national average for science GPA. This will be important because admissions committee members will want to know, unequivocally, that you WILL be able to handle the dental school curriculum.

Selection of program: I would personally recommend getting a masters degree from a medical or dental school which requires you to take classes with medical or dental school students. This will allow the adcom to have a direct comparison in performance between you and dental or medical school students. I think a masters degree will serve you better both in the admissions process and in your life compared to a non-degree program. There is just a different level of achievement in my opinion when you compare the two. In addition, if for some reason dentistry doesn't work out for you, then you will at least have a graduate degree under your belt and your potential for job opportunities will have increased significantly.

Timing of DAT and applying to dental school: Although numbers are important, the timing of your application and when you take the DAT are also equally important. I would recommend taking the DAT when you are done or almost done with your graduate degree. You will need to do very well on the DAT, especially the science sections when you sit for this exam. You should really aim for >20 for the total science, academic average and PAT sections. These are the three key scores most dental schools look at. Furthermore, be sure to apply as early as you can. This will also be critical for you.

Get great letters of recommendation: This may be a controversial topic, but a part of any graduate/professional school admissions is about WHO you know. If you happened to do research or be mentored by a major professor in the dental school/medical school community who would be willing to fully support your application to dental school, then this can be your ticket into a particular dental school. It is not uncommon to have boarder-line applicants who are basically sitting on the fence be accepted because of an extra-ordinary letter of recommendation by someone within the dental school community.

In summary, if would enroll in a masters program at a medical or dental school, get above average grades, score >20 on the DAT, get strong LOR's from prominent faculty attesting of you ability and apply as early as possible. If you were able to accomplish these things, you should be in good shape.

Good luck

 

[infernobutterfl]

Okay, speaking from experience, this is what you need to do (in my opinion).

Proving you are capable: As others have said, you have some work ahead of you, but your goal of getting accepted into dental school is very reasonable. Because you have a lower GPA, you are going to need to remedy that by taking more difficult science classes and performing well in them. Thus, you will need to take graduate level science courses and do very well in them (>B+). In regards to graduate school GPA, you should aim for marks well above the national average for science GPA. This will be important because admissions committee members will want to know, unequivocally, that you WILL be able to handle the dental school curriculum.

Selection of program: I would personally recommend getting a masters degree from a medical or dental school which requires you to take classes with medical or dental school students. This will allow the adcom to have a direct comparison in performance between you and dental or medical school students. I think a masters degree will serve you better both in the admissions process and in your life compared to a non-degree program. There is just a different level of achievement in my opinion when you compare the two. In addition, if for some reason dentistry doesn't work out for you, then you will at least have a graduate degree under your belt and your potential for job opportunities will have increased significantly.

Timing of DAT and applying to dental school: Although numbers are important, the timing of your application and when you take the DAT are also equally important. I would recommend taking the DAT when you are done or almost done with your graduate degree. You will need to do very well on the DAT, especially the science sections when you sit for this exam. You should really aim for >20 for the total science, academic average and PAT sections. These are the three key scores most dental schools look at. Furthermore, be sure to apply as early as you can. This will also be critical for you.

Get great letters of recommendation: This may be a controversial topic, but a part of any graduate/professional school admissions is about WHO you know. If you happened to do research or be mentored by a major professor in the dental school/medical school community who would be willing to fully support your application to dental school, then this can be your ticket into a particular dental school. It is not uncommon to have boarder-line applicants who are basically sitting on the fence be accepted because of an extra-ordinary letter of recommendation by someone within the dental school community.

In summary, if would enroll in a masters program at a medical or dental school, get above average grades, score >20 on the DAT, get strong LOR's from prominent faculty attesting of you ability and apply as early as possible. If you were able to accomplish these things, you should be in good shape.

Good luck

very well put...

do all or most of this.