I am a junior in college and recently made the decision to pursue a career as a dentist. I have only taken General Chemistry I and received a D for the semester. I am taking Organic Chemistry I and Intro Bio II during winter break, finishing up now. From the way it seems, I'm failing both. I would be lucky to get a D. My overall GPA at the point factoring these grades would be about a 2.0. I registered to retake these classes for spring semester. Would it be possible for me to get into a DMD/DDS school if I managed to pull off a 4.0 my remaining 3 semesters and a 18+ on the DAT. If not, what other options do I have?
Should I even try?
- Thread starter droidrazr
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1.raise your undergad gpa+sgpa >3.0 first (i'm not sure how long it would take with your 2.0 gpa)
2. enroll in bio-related 2year master program and get >3.7 at least
3.18+ dat is not high enough with your gpa, get >21
there are some people who do get in with sub 3.0 gpa
but its extremely rare.
2. enroll in bio-related 2year master program and get >3.7 at least
3.18+ dat is not high enough with your gpa, get >21
there are some people who do get in with sub 3.0 gpa
but its extremely rare.
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Sorry to hear. Before continuing further, you should take a serious look at your study habits. If you received D/F's in G Chem, O Chem, and Bio 2. I doubt you can pull off 18+ on your DAT.
Go to your academic adviser or someone who can really sit down with you to take a close look at the way you manage your time/course work. Even with 4.0's for the remaining 3 semesters, your GPA won't be high enough. You HAVE to fix this before taking any more pre-req science courses.
If your GPA is not high enough after this, I'd suggest you to do post-bach or masters.
Good luck.
Go to your academic adviser or someone who can really sit down with you to take a close look at the way you manage your time/course work. Even with 4.0's for the remaining 3 semesters, your GPA won't be high enough. You HAVE to fix this before taking any more pre-req science courses.
If your GPA is not high enough after this, I'd suggest you to do post-bach or masters.
Good luck.
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Even with a 4.0 in the remaining semesters you probably won't make it to the 3.0+ you need unless you take MANY more units/ classes and manage the 4.0. Also you will need a much higher DAT to compensate for the low GPA. You can also do post bacc or masters to boost the GPA if you really want to be a dentist.
If that all seems like a lot of hassle and you don't feel too strongly about dental, you may want to look in to Dental Hygienist, Pharm etc. Plenty of other health careers are great options and usually have less stringent academic reqs.
If that all seems like a lot of hassle and you don't feel too strongly about dental, you may want to look in to Dental Hygienist, Pharm etc. Plenty of other health careers are great options and usually have less stringent academic reqs.
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What you really need to do is take a break and consider your options. Stop taking classes just to take classes. I don't think you are being honest with yourself as to what it takes to get into dental school. There's too many people with good GPA applying and failing for you to think you will be the exception. Less than 5% of sub 3.0 GPA get in. Don't expect to be part of that group.
Take some time and find out why you are failing these classes, what you can do to get A's in them, and chart a path to get there. Its a waste of time to just go through the motion and then say, "at least I gave it a shot." When in actuality you never gave it your all, therefore never had a chance; because when a person does sacrifice everything, then getting into dental school is no obstacle.
Take some time and find out why you are failing these classes, what you can do to get A's in them, and chart a path to get there. Its a waste of time to just go through the motion and then say, "at least I gave it a shot." When in actuality you never gave it your all, therefore never had a chance; because when a person does sacrifice everything, then getting into dental school is no obstacle.
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Should you even try?
Frankly: No.
(unless you have an interest in throwing away time and money)
Frankly: No.
(unless you have an interest in throwing away time and money)
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It depends on his situation. If he does succeed in getting 4.0s on the rest of his college career and possibly take on another major and get straight A's. I think it is very manageable.
OP, how bad do you want it? If you are hesistant, forget about it and go somewhere else. You need to want it.
Also, with that low of a GPA, you need to get at least a 20+ on your DAT.
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Not exactly clear how you can take organic without gen chem II.
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I don't believe in the whole, "believe it and therefore you will see it" nonsense. (Back when common sense was more prevalent it is called wishful thinking.)
I see nothing that leads me to believe in the OP's successful candidacy.
Every human being possesses at least 1 talent. To get into dental school 1 of the requisite talents is in academic pursuits (academic brain). I see ZERO. Therefore, the OP ought to develop the innate talents he/she has and drop the daydream based on something the OP has not.
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hahah what a realist! good argument
You really need to grab-a-hold of the time committment. To retake pre-reqs and bring to up your GPA to a competitive level will take you realistically another 3 years MINIMUM. Plus most people are having to apply now at least 2-3 times. So when you add all that together it is thousands of dollars of your money and countless more for your time for a small chance. I hate to say it but unless you want to move heaven and earth to get into dental school and it is your passion this is not a good option at this point.
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A goal to get into dental school is admirable. But what you have to think about besides getting into dental school is if you had this much trouble with undergrad prereq's, do you think you will be successful in dental school where the classes are lightyears ahead of gen chem 1 and ochem?
Ditto! D-school is 3 to 4 times as hard as my undergrad. Be prepared to not even be able to study all the material for a test, and hope that you will do well. We just had a test in IDIT which covered 37 lectures from 2 weeks worth of lecture. Not to sound negative, but you also have to be honest of yourself. If you don't really like science classes, then you are REALLY going to hate dental school. Granted, I'm a D1 and you are expected to get destroyed in science classes the first year, but this stuff is no joke!
We are on the modular system so we finished Gross anatomy in 2 1/2 months .
