Questions about undergrad transfer

[sarahw2222]

I just finished my freshman year at an early college in Massachusetts with a 4.0 GPA and I'm considering applying for transfer in my sophomore year, but I'm not sure how I should choose which schools to apply for.

My school has a 3+2 engineering program with Columbia University, and the classes I've taken so far fulfill a lot of their required courses, so I'm also debating whether I should just do the 3+2 in biomedical engineering and then apply for dental school.

My main question is, to get into the top dental schools like UPenn and USC, do I need to get my Bachelor's at a top university as well? And would dental schools "prefer" students from certain universities over others?

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[Mr.Smile12]

What do your transfer advisors tell you? We're mixing up "schools" and "colleges" here, so I hope we are clear with this conversation.

First of all, the top priority is to make sure you transfer to a school that accepts all of your past credits from your previous college. Otherwise, you'll have to retake a lot of those courses over. I presume you didn't take a lot of prerequisites, but those absolutely should be transferred over as would any courses that count towards a degree. Your transfer advisors are your helpers here.

If you like engineering, go for the 3+2, but understand engineering is REALLY hard, and you don't get bonus points because you took an engineering major instead of a "lighter" (haha) biomedical major or even shift to humanities.

To get into top dental schools, you need to have strong champions who can vouch for your preparation for dental school from clinical exposure, academic performance, research (perhaps), and community service. GPA and DAT are still paramount, but finding your purpose as a dentist in spite of 400K+ of student loan debt is going to be very important.

 

[Ryxndek]

Agreed with everything above. Engineering isn't easy, and it's hard to maintain a high enough GPA to become competitive. If you can maintain >3.5 GPA as an engineering major then I think you stand a competitive chance.

You also don't need to go to a "prestigious" university to get into a top dental school. Any school where you can get the highest GPA will help you get there and whichever one prepares you well for the DAT.

 

[sarahw2222]

What do your transfer advisors tell you? We're mixing up "schools" and "colleges" here, so I hope we are clear with this conversation.

First of all, the top priority is to make sure you transfer to a school that accepts all of your past credits from your previous college. Otherwise, you'll have to retake a lot of those courses over. I presume you didn't take a lot of prerequisites, but those absolutely should be transferred over as would any courses that count towards a degree. Your transfer advisors are your helpers here.

If you like engineering, go for the 3+2, but understand engineering is REALLY hard, and you don't get bonus points because you took an engineering major instead of a "lighter" (haha) biomedical major or even shift to humanities.

To get into top dental schools, you need to have strong champions who can vouch for your preparation for dental school from clinical exposure, academic performance, research (perhaps), and community service. GPA and DAT are still paramount, but finding your purpose as a dentist in spite of 400K+ of student loan debt is going to be very important.

Thank you so much!! I'm not a huge fan of engineering and I'd really rather maintain my GPA right now.. I guess I was a little swayed because a lot of people around me have been telling me how great the 3+2 opportunity is and that I should do it since I've already fulfilled a lot of the required courses. Your advice was extremely helpful thanks again!