Question for a friend's stats

[gymbee2013]

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I've already applied for those who have seen me waiting (im)patiently to hear back

A friend of mine did not apply this cycle to D schools simply her stats are too low
Overall GPA 2.91 SGPA: perhaps lower

She has minor in psychology I think the minor is over a 3.0
She has a lot of extracurriculars involving medical mission trips
South America countries, Vietnam, studying abroad in Argentina and Australia (summers both)
She has lots of shadowing

her letters of rec... I don't think they're great

She knows she will have to do a postbac to prove herself

I haven't given her any actual advice besides, try your best, you can do it, try try try again
While I'd like to be as optimistic as her, my opinions are that she might not even get into a postbac program

How competitive are these postbac programs, she's looking into California schools, would she have a chance to get into postbacs?

She was premed for a very long time and signed up for the MCAT before deciding to switch over to dental, her practice MCAT score was 24, I'm not sure what that translates to for the DAT but she is planning to officially take the MCAT in Jan.

Will she have a chance for these postbac programs? If she does get in, then changing GPA proving yourself at this level will definitely improve your chances but I'm not sure if its too late for her.

 

[gymbee2013]

She signed up for the MCAT awhile ago this was before she decided to change her goals for dental school. So she will use these new scores for post bac programs, she will not be taking the DAT for these post bac programs.

 

[gymbee2013]

Advice anyone? on the likelihood of acceptance into a postbac, and following that into d school for my friend?

 

[Ionz]

I've already applied for those who have seen me waiting (im)patiently to hear back

A friend of mine did not apply this cycle to D schools simply her stats are too low
Overall GPA 2.91 SGPA: perhaps lower

She has minor in psychology I think the minor is over a 3.0
She has a lot of extracurriculars involving medical mission trips
South America countries, Vietnam, studying abroad in Argentina and Australia (summers both)
She has lots of shadowing

her letters of rec... I don't think they're great

She knows she will have to do a postbac to prove herself

I haven't given her any actual advice besides, try your best, you can do it, try try try again
While I'd like to be as optimistic as her, my opinions are that she might not even get into a postbac program

How competitive are these postbac programs, she's looking into California schools, would she have a chance to get into postbacs?

She was premed for a very long time and signed up for the MCAT before deciding to switch over to dental, her practice MCAT score was 24, I'm not sure what that translates to for the DAT but she is planning to officially take the MCAT in Jan.

Will she have a chance for these postbac programs? If she does get in, then changing GPA proving yourself at this level will definitely improve your chances but I'm not sure if its too late for her.

That's a no-go almost everywhere (if not everywhere), considering year-to-year increase in competitiveness of the applicant pool. Next year will only be harder than this year. Not sure if a post-bacc can even remedy that at this point... doesn't hurt to try though!

 

[gymbee2013]

That's a no-go almost everywhere (if not everywhere), considering year-to-year increase in competitiveness of the applicant pool. Next year will only be harder than this year. Not sure if a post-bacc can even remedy that at this point... doesn't hurt to try though!

would they take the postbac gpa seriously? or should she just do something else than pursue grad school? like would they look at undergraduate GPA > postbac GPA?

would she even get into the postbac program with that low of a gpa?
some postbacs she said have a 2.75 gpa cut off (doesnt sound right to me...)

 

[hypemachine]

would they take the postbac gpa seriously? or should she just do something else than pursue grad school? like would they look at undergraduate GPA > postbac GPA?

would she even get into the postbac program with that low of a gpa?
some postbacs she said have a 2.75 gpa cut off (doesnt sound right to me...)

my first worry would be even getting into the post-bac. If she manages to do that, and she excels at it, then I think they'd give her the benefit of the doubt since she has an upward trend (assuming she has everything else, e.g. shadowing hours, research, community service, etc).

 

[gymbee2013]

my first worry would be even getting into the post-bac. If she manages to do that, and she excels at it, then I think they'd give her the benefit of the doubt since she has an upward trend (assuming she has everything else, e.g. shadowing hours, research, community service, etc).

That's a no-go almost everywhere (if not everywhere), considering year-to-year increase in competitiveness of the applicant pool. Next year will only be harder than this year. Not sure if a post-bacc can even remedy that at this point... doesn't hurt to try though!

how does it look that she is taking an MCAT for this postbac program when her plans are really for d school?
she signed up for prep courses for the MCAT before switching her goals which is why she is registered for the MCAT

 

[hypemachine]

how does it look that she is taking an MCAT for this postbac program when her plans are really for d school?
she signed up for prep courses for the MCAT before switching her goals which is why she is registered for the MCAT

yeah that was something else I wanted to mention. Dental schools might think that she is either a) unsure of what she wants to do and not fully committed to D-school or b) that she chose D-school because she wanted to take the "easy way out", both of which look negatively on her. if she needs the MCAT in order to get into the post-bac program, then that is a good excuse for why she should still take it. otherwise, it might be in her best interest to sacrifice the MCAT money and take the DAT instead.

above anything, she first has to know that she is SURE she wants to go to dental school.

 

[gymbee2013]

thanks, any input is helpful. I thought as much but I didn't know if I was just being a downer or if it was actually realistic interpretation of what she wants to accomplish

 

[doc toothache]

Your friend needs to take a proactive role irrespective of what route she chooses, unless the plan is to attend a professional school by proxy. A practice test has zero importance. The mean MCAT score for 2012 was 28.3 for applicants and 31.2 for matriculants.

 

[gymbee2013]

thanks for ur reply,
her plans often change so I dont know how long she will stick this new goal

I was doubting her ability to get into a postbac program which she thinks will magically erase the college years of bad study habits and no method of prioritization

Your friend needs to take a proactive role irrespective of what route she chooses, unless the plan is to attend a professional school by proxy. A practice test has zero importance. The mean MCAT score for 2012 was 28.3 for applicants and 31.2 for matriculants.