What BCP gpa is good enough?

[dentalpath262]

I graduated with my bachelor's in june and am working for a year before I go back to pursue dentistry. I still have to take some prereq's and the dat but I know I'm going to have to do a lot better in the rest of my bcp classes to have a chance. Right now I have overall gpa: 3.61, science gpa: 3.54, bcp gpa: 3.00 but I still have 6 out of 11 classes to take that will go under bcp gpa. I think I can get it to around 3.25-3.35, is that good enough to apply (to osu, bu, tufts, louisville, uk, indiana)? I can find averages of overall and science gpa for schools but I haven't found averages of BCP gpa for schools even though it's the most important.

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[7 Iron]

BCP gpa of 3.00 is on the low side but if you can raise it to 3.3 your chances are much better... and I think you could apply to the schools you listed as well, and have a reasonable chance.

 

[Maygyver]

Just get all A's in those classes and you will be fine. The higher the GPA, the higher the chances, but there is no specific "golden GPA."

 

[bigbrightsmile]

Osu likes pretty high gpa's so if your not an Ohio resident you better raise it as much as possible and rock the dat

 

[dentalpath262]

Thanks for the replies. I am an ohio resident and went there for undergrad so they're my number one choice. An advisor in the dental school said I was looking great but that was without seeing the bcp gpa, but I hope to get that gpa a lot higher and do extremely well on the DAT! thanks for the advice and congrats on the invites bigbrightsmile!

 

[Maygyver]

Thanks for the replies. I am an ohio resident and went there for undergrad so they're my number one choice. An advisor in the dental school said I was looking great but that was without seeing the bcp gpa, but I hope to get that gpa a lot higher and do extremely well on the DAT! thanks for the advice and congrats on the invites bigbrightsmile!

Yeah, you are definitely going to need to bring it up to get into OSU. Their average GPA is like a 3.71 or something around there.

 

[dentalpath262]

Wow, actually osu does have their bcp average, their gpa's are ridiculously high!
Overall GPA 3.72
Science GPA 3.65
Non-Science GPA 3.83
BCP (bio, chem, physics) 3.63

 

[LongTooth]

You also have to consider that some state dental schools have a high average GPA for admitted students, but this is coupled with relatively low DAT scores. While this pattern seemed strange to me at first, one explanation is that these schools take most of their students from lower-tier in-state schools where it's not terribly difficult to get a high GPA (hence the less-than-stellar DAT's). In other words, a 3.5 GPA at Podunk State U is not the same as a 3.5 from Harvard or Stanford.

 

[Maygyver]

You also have to consider that some state dental schools have a high average GPA for admitted students, but this is coupled with relatively low DAT scores. While this pattern seemed strange to me at first, one explanation is that these schools take most of their students from lower-tier in-state schools where it's not terribly difficult to get a high GPA (hence the less-than-stellar DAT's). In other words, a 3.5 GPA at Podunk State U is not the same as a 3.5 from Harvard or Stanford.

The average DAT score for OSU was pretty close to 20 or higher I believe.

 

[LongTooth]

The average DAT score for OSU was pretty close to 20 or higher I believe.

My hypothetical example isn't relevant for OSU, I guess. But consider UCLA, UConn, and LSU. All three have a mean GPA of 3.62 (and a mean sGPA in the 3.5's) for matriculants, yet their average DAT AA scores are 21, 20, and 19, respectively. The point is that you can't boil down your chances to numbers alone -- you have to look at the context and the big picture of the applicant.