scared

[treasure_island]

ok this is my situation: i would like to apply for fall 2006 and i am a second year at UCI. i haven't taken the DAT yet, but i am involved in research and also volunteering at a dental clinic.

now, i think my grades are my biggest barrier to dental school:

bio classes: 3.029

humanities classes: 3.343

physical science classes: 2.593

social science classes: 3.15

overall gpa: 2.988

if i wanna apply for fall 2006, will i have a chance of getting in somewhere? how much more can i improve my grades, since ochem is killing me right now.....

please help me on that one!

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[Mo007]

If you are planning to apply for fall 2006, you have plenty of time:

1. To improve your GPA (at -least to 3.3).

2. To study for the DAT and do well (even re-take it if you are not satisfied with your scores).

3. To shadow and explore the field of dentistry.

4. To establish yourself with admissions faculty at Colleges you plan to apply.

5. Etc...

Do take these TIPS seriosuly - and you should do fine for most parts... you still have to face the interviews and personal essays.

Good Luck

 

[aphistis]

There's always a chance. There's not always a sure thing by any means, but nor are you ever ruled completely out. Rather than setting specific numerical milestones, I'd suggest you simply buckle down and starting kicking as much academic butt as you possibly can in the time you have--DAT, grades, LOR's, and extracurriculars. Personally, that's also the order of importance I would place them in for your particular scenario, but that's up to you as well. You can't do any more than your honest-to-God best effort, so just put that out. If you get in, great! You'll have your effort to thank. If you don't, at least you'll know there wasn't anything else you could've done that might've made the difference. Good luck to you.

 

[HBomb]

Don't worry about the past. You have no control over that anymore. Just focus on the things you have control over. Right now, you need to focus on getting your GPA up. You need to focus, take every future and current class seriously, and get better grades. You also need to bring up your science GPA. I think you should seriously consider taking more science classes and get A's (I know, easy for me to write and much harder to execute ). Secondly, you absolutely must do well on your DAT. Some dental schools look very favorably on candidates who have high DAT scores even though their GPA's may be less than desirable. I'd recommend that you do not take the DAT until you are sure you can get competitive scores (based on other practice materials like TopScore). For competitive scores, based on your GPA, I'd recommend you search past threads on this forum.

Good luck.

 

[briansle]

I feel your pain man,

I'm a soph at USC and also, will be applying for fall of 2006. You probably work your butt off, but the curves still kill you because UCI is such a competitive school (aka. too many damn asians). You must be pissed off when you see people that go to calstates or some no-name out of state school have a better chance of getting into dental school beacuse they have a +3.5GPA due to the fact that the rest of the people in their science classes are semi-******ed.

You probably wish you went to Cal-state fullerton now. I know I certainly do. My life would be hell of alot easier.

I wouldn't stress about it too much man, I'm sure your DAT scores will be great and you'll get in somewhere.

Like my dad always says, "any FOB off the boat can become a dentist."

 

[aphistis]

Originally posted by briansle
Like my dad always says, "any FOB off the boat can become a dentist."

Any fresh off the boat off the boat, eh?

 

[busupshot83]

Originally posted by treasure_island
ok this is my situation: i would like to apply for fall 2006 and i am a second year at UCI. i haven't taken the DAT yet, but i am involved in research and also volunteering at a dental clinic.

now, i think my grades are my biggest barrier to dental school:

bio classes: 3.029

humanities classes: 3.343

physical science classes: 2.593

social science classes: 3.15

overall gpa: 2.988

if i wanna apply for fall 2006, will i have a chance of getting in somewhere? how much more can i improve my grades, since ochem is killing me right now.....

please help me on that one!

Keep chugging man, and tear the DAT up... take it out before it takes you!

DAT ---> <--- YOU

Seriously now, I want to raise your hopes. You should check out Yah-E's "Under 3.0 Club."

Here it is: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=28491&highlight=under+3.0

Here is another one: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=109329&highlight=under+3.0

Best of luck in your studies my friend.

Pce,

bus.

 

[savvysearch]

From the people here who have gotten in, it seem that science GPA is the most important to increase, even more important than overall GPA.

 

[sxr71]

High DATs made GPA blunders forgivable, and an upward trend in (science) grades always works in your favor. Never give up, and always have confidence during the process. They can smell confidence (or lack thereof) from a mile away.

 

[JRogoff]

Originally posted by aphistis
Any fresh off the boat off the boat, eh?

Now that is good comedy!

 

[preludexl]

Drop the research my fellow anteater. What kind of research are you doing anyway? Research is so overrated. Both my roommates and I did research, one did it in ecology and messed up the room with his mud tracking each day. Another did the damn drosophila thing, and brought a loose one or two back every once a while, and I scrolled dna fragments on a damn computer screen. I'm so glad I gave up doing that crap after 6 months. Concentrate on your classes. Get in group tutoring if you need help in O chem...although I found I spent time more wisely prepping myself and buying Clone Notes. Come to think of it, I stayed in group tutoring only cuz 2 twin girls were really cute. Stop volunteering, spend it on your classes. Take gross anatomy or something over the summer session if you can and show them you can hack it, not to mention to boost your gpa. They do look at your core classes more tho. I don't know if the younger o chem prof from harvard is still teaching but he was an awesome lecturer...Williams???

Why are you trying to do so much. I know every nut at school, most likely a pre-med, does ALL these things, but you know what? You dont have to. It's better to do a few things well than to do poorly at many things. You might want to change majors and just take pre-req dental classes. It gets harder in your junior year. If you think O chem is hard wait till you take genetics.

P.S. Cal-States were developed for a reason, as were junior colleges. If you can't hack it at UC, then maybe you should downgrade to a Cal-State.