Poor grades from excessive workload

[bwc]

This semester is probably going to be the worst semester in terms of grades for me, as I will likely end up with all B grades. How much will that harm me when applying to dental school?

I had no choice but to take three engineering courses, all of which students and advisors rated as being much more work than other classes of equal credit hours. I completely gave up having a social life and did minimal activities outside of studying, but still could not get the grades I wanted. None of those courses have anything to do with dentistry, and are not going to be used to meet any prerequisite, but I doubt that makes the situation much better.

I was originally going to take one of the classes pass/fail, but then was told that doing so will result in dental schools assuming that I received a C in the course unless I pay a fee to get the registrar to send a special transcript that that actual grade uncovered. Therefore, it seemed that I had no choice but to take the course for a grade.

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[Brocuspid]

Also an engineering major here that just got into a few schools this cycle. I have had a couple semesters where I had pretty much all B's, but my overall GPA is still above a 3.60. I wouldn't worry about it too much if you still have a good overall and science GPA even with one or two B semesters of engineering.

 

[Typical Average Student]

Vouch for above, just worry about your overall GPA, try not to fall below a 3.5 and keep C's to a minimum.

 

[Faefly]

I think Dental schools knows that Engineering majors and physics majors are way harder than the others, so as long as you keep your gpa above 3.5 you should be fine with a decent DAT. (20+)
I am not saying they will accept you right away and you should not worry about these B's.
Please worry, and work hard next semester to get straight A's , but these B's are not the end of life, on the contrarily, they are motivations to do better on next semester and on the DAT.
Best of luck!

 

[bwc]

This is already my second semester where I have no A's, if you count my study abroad semester. For both semesters, none of the courses I took are even relevant to dentistry. My semester abroad I had one C, and that was the one and only C I have gotten in my entire college career. This semester just happened to be a particularly tough one, where all three courses I took are known to be on the heavy workload end - the typical engineering student would often plan their schedule to have no other hard classes when they are taking any one of those courses. I am already done with what I need to get done in terms of pre-dental coursework, and I just need to finish up the engineering stuff.

My overall GPA is still at ~3.6, with roughly a 3.48 BCP GPA. Basically, among the courses that actually have to do with dentistry, I have roughly half A's and half B's. Trying to finish both the engineering and pre-dental requirements with minimal extra semesters has always forced me to disregard my pre-health advisor's warnings about workload. My engineering advisor is the kind of person who considers no workload to be "too much". I have been constantly having to pull all nighters and do almost nothing outside of school since sophomore year, just to manage to get okay grades (they would be considered great for engineering, but mediocre at best for a dental applicant).

 

[blablabla1]

This is already my second semester where I have no A's, if you count my study abroad semester. For both semesters, none of the courses I took are even relevant to dentistry. My semester abroad I had one C, and that was the one and only C I have gotten in my entire college career. This semester just happened to be a particularly tough one, where all three courses I took are known to be on the heavy workload end - the typical engineering student would often plan their schedule to have no other hard classes when they are taking any one of those courses. I am already done with what I need to get done in terms of pre-dental coursework, and I just need to finish up the engineering stuff.

My overall GPA is still at ~3.6, with roughly a 3.48 BCP GPA. Basically, among the courses that actually have to do with dentistry, I have roughly half A's and half B's. Trying to finish both the engineering and pre-dental requirements with minimal extra semesters has always forced me to disregard my pre-health advisor's warnings about workload. My engineering advisor is the kind of person who considers no workload to be "too much". I have been constantly having to pull all nighters and do almost nothing outside of school since sophomore year, just to manage to get okay grades (they would be considered great for engineering, but mediocre at best for a dental applicant).

I have very similar GPA to you right now and I have had 6 interviews total this cycle out of 13. Just do well on the DAT and maintain your current GPA, you will be fine.