What are my chances? Low gpa, high post bacc

[Seldentaleli]

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[Ryxndek]

Seems like you thought about pursuing pharmacy before dental. How do you plan on addressing how you came to choose dentistry in your application?

 

[Seldentaleli]

Seems like you thought about pursuing pharmacy before dental. How do you plan on addressing how you came to choose dentistry in your application?

I always wanted to do dentistry, I just happened to find a job at a pharmacy near my house due to friends working there. I didn’t know at that time that I could become a dental assistant without experience.

 

[Ryxndek]

I always wanted to do dentistry, I just happened to find a job at a pharmacy near my house due to friends working there. I didn’t know at that time that I could become a dental assistant without experience.

I'm not totally sure admissions would see it that way unless you can also show you've been active within dentistry, but I could definitely be wrong. @Mr.Smile12 what do you think? If you can get the dental assistant role I think that will certainly help. Your GPA is fairly low, so you will have to crush the DAT to be a contender for In-State schools. I would also add some east coast schools (but you should be fine if your dat is ~20+ for privates): Touro, Tufts, and maybe Case Western. You probably want to aim for 10-12 schools, DAT of 23+ maybe you could get away with 8-9 schools.

I would also just make sure all your post-bacc credits will count towards the required prerequisites. Keep in mind that the AADSAS application will average out your grades, so for example a D in a course and retaken and bounced back to an A would average out to I think around a C+/B-. But schools will notice the turnaround, it just affects your overall GPA. I think you've got some good experiences! And yes, apply as early as you can, it will certainly make a difference. Best of luck!

 

[Seldentaleli]

I'm not totally sure admissions would see it that way unless you can also show you've been active within dentistry, but I could definitely be wrong. @Mr.Smile12 what do you think? If you can get the dental assistant role I think that will certainly help. Your GPA is fairly low, so you will have to crush the DAT to be a contender for In-State schools. I would also add some east coast schools (but you should be fine if your dat is ~20+ for privates): Touro, Tufts, and maybe Case Western. You probably want to aim for 10-12 schools, DAT of 23+ maybe you could get away with 8-9 schools.

I would also just make sure all your post-bacc credits will count towards the required prerequisites. Keep in mind that the AADSAS application will average out your grades, so for example a D in a course and retaken and bounced back to an A would average out to I think around a C+/B-. But schools will notice the turnaround, it just affects your overall GPA. I think you've got some good experiences! And yes, apply as early as you can, it will certainly make a difference. Best of luck!

Thank you so much, I appreciate your advice and will do my best to do really well on the DAT!

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I definitely think you should wait until you have your DA job for a lot of the perception reasons @Ryxndek mentioned. Since you already have a lot of shadowing, you may not need a ton of hours (maybe at least 50 more).

Being Middle Eastern does not make you URM (read "Overrepresented Minorities": A Brief History - SDN ). That said, you should be able to find many MENA dental students at various schools. Get trained for Xray certification if you can.

You may have to address that low GPA though. Even with a high DAT, you still need a good record with upper level biology (recommended) courses, which should be part of an upward trend. That's not clear from what you disclosed.

Until you get a score, think geographically: you have UIC, SIU. Consider UDM, Marquette, Creighton.

 

[Seldentaleli]

I definitely think you should wait until you have your DA job for a lot of the perception reasons @Ryxndek mentioned. Since you already have a lot of shadowing, you may not need a ton of hours (maybe at least 50 more).

Being Middle Eastern does not make you URM (read "Overrepresented Minorities": A Brief History - SDN ). That said, you should be able to find many MENA dental students at various schools. Get trained for Xray certification if you can.

You may have to address that low GPA though. Even with a high DAT, you still need a good record with upper level biology (recommended) courses, which should be part of an upward trend. That's not clear from what you disclosed.

Until you get a score, think geographically: you have UIC, SIU. Consider UDM, Marquette, Creighton.

Hi, thank you for replying! I have one of my interviews for the dental assistant job tomorrow so if all goes well, I would be starting within the next couple weeks. I will definitely look into getting the x-ray certification. Also, all of the courses I have taken after graduating have been upper level biology/chem courses. By the time I apply, I will have taken around 25 courses, which I started taking in June 2022. I have been taking a really large course load by doing dual enrollment. Im hoping that this will help schools see that I can handle a rigorous course load. All of my pre-reqs have been in person, except for when my university was closed during the pandemic. The other science courses that aren't pre-reqs I have taken have been a mixture of online/in person.

Something I wanted to ask about is retaking pre-req courses I got a C in. UDM told me not to retake them and just focus on upper level science courses but USC told me I should retake any course I got a C in. So, I'm a bit torn on what to do. I would only have to retake like 2 courses but I'm not sure if it is a good idea since UDM told me not to.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Hi, thank you for replying! I have one of my interviews for the dental assistant job tomorrow so if all goes well, I would be starting within the next couple weeks. I will definitely look into getting the x-ray certification. Also, all of the courses I have taken after graduating have been upper level biology/chem courses. By the time I apply, I will have taken around 25 courses, which I started taking in June 2022. I have been taking a really large course load by doing dual enrollment. Im hoping that this will help schools see that I can handle a rigorous course load. All of my pre-reqs have been in person, except for when my university was closed during the pandemic. The other science courses that aren't pre-reqs I have taken have been a mixture of online/in person.

Something I wanted to ask about is retaking pre-req courses I got a C in. UDM told me not to retake them and just focus on upper level science courses but USC told me I should retake any course I got a C in. So, I'm a bit torn on what to do. I would only have to retake like 2 courses but I'm not sure if it is a good idea since UDM told me not to.

Retake courses you got a C-minus or worse. I don't know which courses you got a C in, but unless you really want to go to U$C...