What can compensate a low GPA?

[victorialuu7]

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Please give me your utmost honest (even brutal) opinion on my stats:

First two years of college: 3.80 GPA
Third year: Failed first quarter, and completely withdrew winter and spring quarters
Fourth & fifth year: Retaking classing and crossing my fingers for straight A's this quarter (finals are next week) and hopefully keep above 3.5 GPA

I have leadership positions, dental related experience, community service awards, research, and volunteered in Africa.

I plan to take the Kaplan course in January and hopefully be ready to take my DAT by June or July.

Please tell me if there is anything I can do to compensate for my major downfall third year. How well would I have to do on my DAT? What kind of GPA would I have to maintain from now on? Are my chances destroyed because of my third year?🙁

 

[sgdorfl90]

why did u fail the first quarter, the problems that led to it can give a better approximation of your situation.

 

[eleminopee]

I got a 1.67 and 2.45 or so my first year of college. bad times. to make up for it i took a Kaplan course before the DAT and got a 22. Then in interviews i made sure to bring up the school year and approach it maturely and explain what happened and why. since then i've worked hard and averaged a 3.6ish and will complete college in a total of 5 years. I also tried to do meaningful community service, not just generic stuff. I got into Case this year and had 5 interviews. The sucky part is just getting them to look into your low science gpa and see that only one or two grades cause it. I'd also try to include that in your personal comments essay. good luck

 

[victorialuu7]

The reason why I did so badly in my third year was because I just transferred from a community college, and lot my motivation. I kept doing poorly in classes, so it became a vicious cycle, where I withdrew my winter and spring quarters to rethink things. It wasn't until this quarter that I started doing better. I plan to bring it up in my personal essay, but not sure how to approach it in a positive way.

 

[aggie-master]

Get a 23 or better on the DAT.

 

[DDSY]

Yes do well on the DATs and on try to keep your GPA up. Many people go through hard times. It's just a matter of showing Adcoms that you have improved and are a very capable person.

 

[SugarNaCl]

Yeah, low 20+ DAT scores will do it... or get a masters degree and do well in that. Your GPA doesnt sound that bad, but community college doesn't have as good of a reputation as a 4 year college either. Sounds like you just needed time to adjust. I took physics at a CC and received an A. I'm willing to wager with the amount of time I put into it in undergrad, I would have gotten a B in my 4 year institution physics class. I'm definitely no expert, but be prepared in an interview when you get one though to answer the "what happened" question. I had heard that they rarely ask that, but I was asked that by both of my interviewers. Best of luck. My undergrad GPA wasn't great at all. My grad GPA was pretty decent.

 

[DDSY]

By the way, I did really well in undergrad but totally bombed grad school--more so than your semester of poor performance. I managed to do really well on the DATs to show adcoms that my performance in grad school is not representative of my capabilities as a student.

 

[busterb]

I think it is really tough to overcome a bad GPA. My GPA is low (due to my freshman year) but not horrible (3.45 Cum, 3.01 sci), so I worked my butt off to do well on the DAT and I was pleased with a 21 AA, 21 TS, 19 PAT. I thought I had a decent application as well with lots of service and good LORs, but I recieved one interview, and no acceptances. I think that at lots of schools they saw my low science gpa and was just an afterthought beyond that. My grades have gone up a lot since that first semester, but they have so many applicants they can't look at the trend forever. Oh, I applied to 15 schools too. So, so far my freshman year has pretty much screwed me over.

 

[azpike182]

I have have a 3.3 cum and 2.8 science gpa and I graduated with a B.S two years ago. I called a couple schools and they informed me the best way for me to prove that I can handle dental school is not to retake the classes I got a B or C in, but instead get a masters in a science related subject. hope that helps!

 

[MoobDDS]

high DAT scores. it's the great equalizer. plus a great personal statment.

 

[drdoodle]

On the application there is a section that asks "If there is anything else you would like admissions committees to know about you and take into consideration, please write it here". Use that section to write a brief but eloquent statement about your situation and be prepared to answer questions about it on an interview. Also touch on it very briefly in your personal statement and go on to highlight how much you've improved and bounced back.