Pre-med switching over to Pre-dent looking for advice on what to improve on!

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pduckworth

pduckworth

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Hello everybody! I'm a sophomore (microbiology major, Chinese minor) at a university in Florida that recently just committed to making the switch from pre-med to pre-dent. I'm not going to bore you guys with the reasons why. What I was wondering is if I could get some opinions as to where I stand in my sophomore year. I'll list my grades by semester along with my GPA. At the end, I'll list my other info 🙂

Fall 2010: 14 credit hours
General Chemistry I: B+
General Chemistry I Lab: A
English Composition I: A+
Honors Arts and Humanities: A
Precalc: B 😱
Term GPA: 3.57
Cumulative GPA: 3.70

Spring 2011: 18 credit hours
Bio I: B (No +/- grading, was 0.8% away from an A 🙁 )
Bio I Lab: A
General Chemistry II: B+
General Chemistry II Lab: A+
English Composition II: A+
Honors Geographic Perspectives: A
Calculus I: A (muuuuch better than my B in Precalc... haha)
Term GPA: 3.72
Cumulative GPA: 3.71

Summer 2011: 4 completed credit hours
Genetics: W
Statistics: A
Term GPA: 4.00
Cumulative GPA: 3.74

Fall 2011: 16 credit hours
Chinese I: A
Chinese I Lab: S (S/U grade only)
Organic Chemistry I: B 🙁 (Starting working with a tutor half way through course, exam averages were: 75%, 85%, 97%)
Language, Culture, and Film: A+
Physics I: A-
Physics I Lab: A
Physics I Problem Solving: A-
Term GPA: 3.71
Cumulative GPA: 3.73

Spring 2012: 17 credit hours
Chinese II
Chinese II Lab
Organic Chemistry II
Organic Chemistry I Lab
Bio II
Bio II Lab
Social Psychology

Projected Summer 2012: 7 credit hours
Physics II
Physics II Lab
Physics II Problem Solving
Organic Chemistry II Lab

I'm not overly proud about any of my grades. I had a really rough first year as an out of state student and came about *this* close to withdrawing from college. I hated myself and my grades surely reflected it. During spring, I kind of picked myself back up, but I completely lost all composure during summer and had to withdraw from Genetics. However, I've been able to fix the issues that were upsetting me and last semester I felt so much better and had a much more positive attitude about life! 🙂

As for EC's, during my freshmen year I did quite a bit of volunteering with my school's Honors College Student Council. I also became a member of Pre-Med AMSA and was a mentor for underprivileged high school students. In addition, I traveled to Costa Rica with my honors class for a week to do volunteer construction on a orphanage. During summer, I became a volunteer at a local hospital which I continued during fall. In addition, I will be traveling to Nicaragua in March to volunteer at a medical/dental clinic for the poor. Since I made my switch to pre-dental, I assume I should start looking into different places to volunteer and different clubs to join, correct?
Total volunteer hours as of this moment: 114.5

I do not have any shadowing hours yet, but this will change during summer. My brother is a periodontist up in MA and his wife is a teacher for Tufts' Dental School. He will be hooking me up with some shadowing and will take me to a dental conference (so excited!).

After reading where I am, what do you guys think I should do to improve? I'm thankful to be where I am now, especially considering how I felt a year ago, but I really would like some opinions (especially about my grades).

Thank you guys so much for reading my word vomit 🙂
 
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I kind of see the pre-med mentality going on there...not proud of your grades?! And I thought I had a tough first year.
It's ok, I made the switch in June, but I did both medical and dental (actually more dental) things juust in case.
Honestly, besides shadowing hours...which those will be easy to rack up...maybe do research. And it's not necessary of course, but some of the schools just love that stuff, and it really does help. It's also good just in case you want to go pre-med again (honestly, you never know).

As for opinions about your grades...I don't know if you've read through these forums but the majority have lower GPAs and still get in to great schools. After four years I don't even have a GPA in that range! But hey, things turned out okay for me. Anyways, either you'll stay the same or you'll go up so you're fine...and I'm sure you know that 😛
 
kamepan said:
I kind of see the pre-med mentality going on there...not proud of your grades?! And I thought I had a tough first year.
It's ok, I made the switch in June, but I did both medical and dental (actually more dental) things juust in case.
Honestly, besides shadowing hours...which those will be easy to rack up...maybe do research. And it's not necessary of course, but some of the schools just love that stuff, and it really does help. It's also good just in case you want to go pre-med again (honestly, you never know).

As for opinions about your grades...I don't know if you've read through these forums but the majority have lower GPAs and still get in to great schools. After four years I don't even have a GPA in that range! But hey, things turned out okay for me. Anyways, either you'll stay the same or you'll go up so you're fine...and I'm sure you know that 😛
Click to expand...
Haha I guess I do still have a pre-med mentality. Out of my friends who are pre-med, I have the lowest GPA so I guess I beat it into myself that I need to have a perfect 4.0.

I'll definitely look into research. My school discourages freshmen and sophomores from applying for positions, but I'll see what I can do.

Thanks for the reply!
 
I was once a pre-med who switched to pre-dent as well.. The only thing I see wrong with your grades is most of your important science classes (besides labs and physics) are all B's..

You need to start getting some A's in your Biology's and Chemistry's..
 
I'm interested in why you made the switch from pre-med to pre-dent as well. Don't sweat about your grades, you won't get much sympathy from here worrying about a 3.7 GPA. Get some shadowing/volunteer hours in, do well on your DAT, and maybe start to do better on those science classes but again...a 3.7 is nothing to complain about. Just make sure you have a well rounded application to supplement it and you'll be good.
 
I was in the same boat as you two years ago. My very first thread on SDN was actually practically the same title. And my grades were significantly lower than yours. Today I've gotten into all the schools that I've applied to but one. Don't sweat about whatever it is that you're sweating about... you're on a great track!
 
Since a few of you were wondering why I decided to switch, I'll do my best to explain my reasoning.

As a pre-med student, I was never one of those people that could say, "I always wanted to be a doctor." I kind of sat down one night in high school and was like, "hmm... well, I guess I could become a doctor!" and always went with that idea. When I first started college, I had no idea what it meant to be pre-med. I struggled through quite a bit of self-hatred and depression for various reasons. After getting my grades my first semester, I hated myself so much for getting B's. Come spring, I ended the semester with the same feelings.

Trying to figure out why I was doing so poorly, I came to the realization that it wasn't that I didn't enjoy my science classes, but it was because I was forcing myself to study for classes that were going to lead me to medical school, and I just didn't have the passion for it. Summer came and I could not bring myself to even get out of bed, yet alone study for genetics (another course that I "needed for med school"). I had to withdraw from in hopes of not ruining my GPA. All I could think about was how I destroyed my chances at medical school... even though in reality, I probably didn't.

My parents were really worried about me and they had me start communicating with my older brother, somebody I was never really close with. He told me all about his experiences in undergrad, dental school, residency, and as a practicing periodontist. He was (and still is) so passionate about dentistry that it made me realize that I really should not be heading down a path toward medicine. At that point, I began to weigh my options. Thinking about everything that he told me, I told myself that I would study for my classes this semester with the idea of switching to pre-dental.

This past semester, I had zero mental breakdowns, very little stress, and would have had all A's if I didn't mess up my first exam in orgo (exam grades: 75%, 85%, 97%... clearly I improved by the end of the semester). I was actually ENJOYING everything that I was doing.

My plans were to fly up to Boston a few weeks ago to shadow my brother and make sure I enjoy seeing what he did as much as I did listening to what he was doing, but I had to cancel my flight due to a scheduling conflict. However, I have it credited for summer and plan on shadowing then.

I guess a tl;dr summary of this is that as a pre-med student, I had zero passion for anything. Now, being pre-dental, I feel like I have the motivation and the drive to be a student again.
 
samueltak said:
Your reasons for switching premed to predental would be very interesting to us. Please share.
You really need to take more science courses than humanities. I would understand that if you're in the honors program and they restrict the kinds of classes you can take but considering the grades you have now in the prerequisite science courses, you need to bring that sci. gpa. up. Your course selection may have been more favorable had you done a little better on your sciences.

Regardless of my critique, you are doing much better than a lot of people who apply to dental school. With your grades, you may have had a slim chance at getting interviews at med school but you have a very favorable chance of getting an acceptance to at least one dental school.
Click to expand...
After this semester, I still have 13 credit hours worth of humanities type gen. eds. to take for honors :/ (four more classes). I would love to stop taking them as they are ungodly boring, haha.

I also guess that I should mention that I plan on getting a minor in Chinese, hence all of the Chinese classes!


-------------------
In summary though, you guys are all suggesting to really start rocking my science classes. I'll be working with a tutor for orgo II and orgo I lab, so hopefully I'll do better there. My goal for Bio II is not to slack off at the end and miss getting an A by 0.8% (still kicking myself over that!).
Also, to start shadowing and volunteering more. My only question with volunteering is should I just continue with what I've been doing or should I try to find things more specific to dentistry? I'll have a ton of shadowing next summer with my brother and his wife. I was planning on becoming a volunteer at the Humane Society next semester. I adopted my two bunnies from there and would love to give back to them. Would this look silly or should I try to find something more ... related?
I filled out an application to begin the process for undergraduate research at my school. I'll try meeting with an advisor for it the first week of classes in January.



Thank you everybody for your input so far. I appreciate it so much 🙂
 
Last edited:
pduckworth said:
Hello everybody! I'm a sophomore (microbiology major, Chinese minor) at a university in Florida that recently just committed to making the switch from pre-med to pre-dent. I'm not going to bore you guys with the reasons why. What I was wondering is if I could get some opinions as to where I stand in my sophomore year. I'll list my grades by semester along with my GPA. At the end, I'll list my other info 🙂

Fall 2010: 14 credit hours
General Chemistry I: B+
General Chemistry I Lab: A
English Composition I: A+
Honors Arts and Humanities: A
Precalc: B 😱
Term GPA: 3.57
Cumulative GPA: 3.70

Spring 2011: 18 credit hours
Bio I: B (No +/- grading, was 0.8% away from an A 🙁 )
Bio I Lab: A
General Chemistry II: B+
General Chemistry II Lab: A+
English Composition II: A+
Honors Geographic Perspectives: A
Calculus I: A (muuuuch better than my B in Precalc... haha)
Term GPA: 3.72
Cumulative GPA: 3.71

Summer 2011: 4 completed credit hours
Genetics: W
Statistics: A
Term GPA: 4.00
Cumulative GPA: 3.74

Fall 2011: 16 credit hours
Chinese I: A
Chinese I Lab: S (S/U grade only)
Organic Chemistry I: B 🙁 (Starting working with a tutor half way through course, exam averages were: 75%, 85%, 97%)
Language, Culture, and Film: A+
Physics I: A-
Physics I Lab: A
Physics I Problem Solving: A-
Term GPA: 3.71
Cumulative GPA: 3.73

Spring 2012: 17 credit hours
Chinese II
Chinese II Lab
Organic Chemistry II
Organic Chemistry I Lab
Bio II
Bio II Lab
Social Psychology

Projected Summer 2012: 7 credit hours
Physics II
Physics II Lab
Physics II Problem Solving
Organic Chemistry II Lab

I'm not overly proud about any of my grades. I had a really rough first year as an out of state student and came about *this* close to withdrawing from college. I hated myself and my grades surely reflected it. During spring, I kind of picked myself back up, but I completely lost all composure during summer and had to withdraw from Genetics. However, I've been able to fix the issues that were upsetting me and last semester I felt so much better and had a much more positive attitude about life! 🙂

As for EC's, during my freshmen year I did quite a bit of volunteering with my school's Honors College Student Council. I also became a member of Pre-Med AMSA and was a mentor for underprivileged high school students. In addition, I traveled to Costa Rica with my honors class for a week to do volunteer construction on a orphanage. During summer, I became a volunteer at a local hospital which I continued during fall. In addition, I will be traveling to Nicaragua in March to volunteer at a medical/dental clinic for the poor. Since I made my switch to pre-dental, I assume I should start looking into different places to volunteer and different clubs to join, correct?
Total volunteer hours as of this moment: 114.5

I do not have any shadowing hours yet, but this will change during summer. My brother is a periodontist up in MA and his wife is a teacher for Tufts' Dental School. He will be hooking me up with some shadowing and will take me to a dental conference (so excited!).

After reading where I am, what do you guys think I should do to improve? I'm thankful to be where I am now, especially considering how I felt a year ago, but I really would like some opinions (especially about my grades).

Thank you guys so much for reading my word vomit 🙂
Click to expand...

Everything seems fine except the GPA.... It should be higher especially since your only taking 15-16 credits per term
 
dentalWorks said:
Everything seems fine except the GPA.... It should be higher especially since your only taking 15-16 credits per term
Click to expand...

So, I gotta' ask...is that sarcasm? 16 units being few, and 3.73 being low?

Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk
 
UCSD1984 said:
So, I gotta' ask...is that sarcasm? 16 units being few, and 3.73 being low?

Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

:/
I would need written approval from a dean if I wanted to take more than 18 credit hours a semester.
 
Here's a few bits of advice.

I think your grades are on track. Try to come with a respectable grade on Ochem2. Realize you're almost done with the foundation classes you need to take the DAT. Id start getting not just mentality prepared for it, but I'd also try to keep my gchem and bio fresh. Your DAT score in the end is what will differentiate you. I know some dent schools prioritize DAT's to GPA's

Step up your shadowing game. Don't be scared to contact general dentists and specialist wherever you are and ask to spend a morning, afternoon, or day with them. I was often asked questions in interviews where I was able to preface my answer saying "after spending time in the offices of pedatric dentists, an endodontist, an oral surgeon, numerous general dentists.......I have come to realize such, such, and such" I think my interviewers really like that and I felt those experiences actually really helped me personally.

Wiggle your way into research opportunities. At one of my interviews the interview only wanted to talk about the research projects I worked on. And as a piece of advice, keep in mind not all good research is strictly science based. For that interview the interviewer was more interested not in the research I did with Cancer Bio prof but the research I did with a Sociology prof on health inequalities.

I hope this helps. I felt these forums helped me so i want to give back. If you want to know more, feel free to message me.
 
samueltak said:
. So how will the admissions tell if your capable enough to take the science courses in dental school? You also won't be able to have freedom in choosing the classes in dental school.
I hope this motivates you to try even harder and challenge yourself with upper level science courses.
Click to expand...

You do realize the guy's a sophomore right? How many upper level science courses is he going to be taking? Once he gets the intro to bio, gen chem, and ochem out of the way (which he has), then he can take more upper levels as a junior and senior. It's not like he's going to fill up those years with upper level chinese classes :laugh:

To OP, you're fine and on the right track. Just take upper level sciences your junior and senior year and do well on the DAT. Your brother is a dentist and sister in law teaches at Tufts, that's a huge edge most people don't have. Ask them for their advice.
 
AwesomeTeeth said:
You do realize the guy's a sophomore right? How many upper level science courses is he going to be taking? Once he gets the intro to bio, gen chem, and ochem out of the way (which he has), then he can take more upper levels as a junior and senior. It's not like he's going to fill up those years with upper level chinese classes :laugh:

To OP, you're fine and on the right track. Just take upper level sciences your junior and senior year and do well on the DAT. Your brother is a dentist and sister in law teaches at Tufts, that's a huge edge most people don't have. Ask them for their advice.
Click to expand...
Basically, this is my projected scheduling for my next couple years of college as laid out by my advisor:

Spring 2012: 17 credit hours
Bio II + Lab
Orgo II
Orgo I Lab
Chinese II
Social Psychology (gen ed)

[end sophomore year]

Summer 2012: (7, maybe 10 credit hours)
Physics II + Lab + Problem Solving Class
Orgo II Lab
Maybe another humanities gen ed if I have the money D:

Fall 2012: (16 cr)
Biochem + Lab (5 cr)
Cell Bio (4 cr)
Genetics (3 cr)
Chinese III (4 cr)

Spring 2013: (18 cr)
Cell Metabolism (3 cr)
Chinese IV (4 cr)
TWO REQUIRED honors classes (7 cr) -_-
General Microbiology (4 cr)

[end junior year]

Summer 2013: (3 cr, maybe 11)
Last gen ed (3 cr)
Possible study abroad in China (8 cr)

Fall 2013: (17 cr)
Thesis (3 cr)
Determinative Bacteriology + lab (5 cr)
Molecular Microbiology (3 cr)
Chinese directed study courses (6 cr)

Spring 2014: (17 cr)
Thesis (3 cr)
Chinese directed study courses (6 cr)
Principles of Immunology (3 cr)
Microbial Physiol/Genetics + Lab (4 cr)

[end senior year and graduate!)

So I mean, my upper level courses are 1/2 science, 1/4 Chinese, 1/4 Honors.
Total credit hours of about 156.
Unfortunately, my humanities classes are not just for fun. I legitimately have to take those to graduate as they are all part of my general education requirements.
 
pduckworth said:
Basically, this is my projected scheduling for my next couple years of college as laid out by my advisor:

So I mean, my upper level courses are 1/2 science, 1/4 Chinese, 1/4 Honors.
Total credit hours of about 156.
Unfortunately, my humanities classes are not just for fun. I legitimately have to take those to graduate as they are all part of my general education requirements.
Click to expand...

Ace your junior year and you're golden. Do well on your DAT as well. You're on the right track, your schedule looks fine.
 
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