What to do?

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KOM

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3.2 GPA, 3.1 SCIENCE...

You guys think I'm in the game for any schools out there or is competition this year going to get me buried underneath the hordes of other applications?

Should I tackle a full load of science courses this fall doing an informal post-bacc to boost the 'ol GPA up or just wing it, keep my job, and see what happens? Got to make the decision soon so any advice would be appreciated.

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boosting your science gpa is never a bad idea.
 
KOM said:
3.2 GPA, 3.1 SCIENCE...

You guys think I'm in the game for any schools out there or is competition this year going to get me buried underneath the hordes of other applications?

Should I tackle a full load of science courses this fall doing an informal post-bacc to boost the 'ol GPA up or just wing it, keep my job, and see what happens? Got to make the decision soon so any advice would be appreciated.



your stats arent bad. i'm not sure about your EC's and LOR's but with your current stats you def have a shot at schools like BU or NYU. why do an informal post bacc when you might not even need it. this is just my opinion but keep your job and see what happens
also predents.com might be a good thing to check out for yourself
 
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KOM said:
3.2 GPA, 3.1 SCIENCE...

You guys think I'm in the game for any schools out there or is competition this year going to get me buried underneath the hordes of other applications?

Should I tackle a full load of science courses this fall doing an informal post-bacc to boost the 'ol GPA up or just wing it, keep my job, and see what happens? Got to make the decision soon so any advice would be appreciated.

i'd boost my science gpa, if i were you. i think that with your gpa and decent dat's, you are very borderline.
 
Bump

Wow, im in exactly the same boat - Ive been on SDN for several months now, and when i started i had the impression that getting into dental school would be no problem at all. But now it's getting really worrisome, especially for me since the way my schedule works, i only have room for interviews within a couple weeks of november (I'll be in Japan for the year). Having said that, i already graduated - can't improve anymore. What do you guys think?
 
damn are you guys serious?! my gpa is a 3.18 and a 2.51 science and people said i have a chance... heh.. a chance to non-minority schools such as ucsf, uop, unlv, etc. although i am a minority myself, howard/meharry are not really options
 
KOM said:
3.2 GPA, 3.1 SCIENCE...

You guys think I'm in the game for any schools out there or is competition this year going to get me buried underneath the hordes of other applications?

Should I tackle a full load of science courses this fall doing an informal post-bacc to boost the 'ol GPA up or just wing it, keep my job, and see what happens? Got to make the decision soon so any advice would be appreciated.

it is good that you have options as to how to improve your marketability in the dental admission process.

your DAT is competitive. your GPA is not. if you do not want to do post-bac to raise the GPA, then my suggestion is to retake the DAT, get 21+ AA and apply to schools that have relatively large incoming classes. if you are ok with raising the GPA, then your current DAT score is probably good enough to get you into several schools. raising both GPA and DAT is the safest way to go in my opinion. i dont have much information about what the applicants look like statistically for the class of 2011 but here is what i can tell you with confidence: for the admission cycle of the class of 2010, it was clear that most accepted applicants had competitive GPAs and competitive DATs. still, some were left behind even with high DATs and GPAs.

good luck
 
i've always thought that if schools want diversity they want diversity in everything, not just ethnic background. meaning they would want 4.0 and 3.0 students to average out to a 3.5. but hey, what do i know?
 
abzirian said:
Bump

Wow, im in exactly the same boat - Ive been on SDN for several months now, and when i started i had the impression that getting into dental school would be no problem at all. But now it's getting really worrisome, especially for me since the way my schedule works, i only have room for interviews within a couple weeks of november (I'll be in Japan for the year). Having said that, i already graduated - can't improve anymore. What do you guys think?

That's because you've been reading too many of these posts. They have the ability to psych people out, so just concentrate on your interviewing skills and you'll be fine.
 
Your stats really aren't that bad. I'd advise you to give it a shot. If you check predents.com, you'd see that a lot of people have gotten into dental schools with GPAs under 3.0. Besides your DATs are solid. You have a pretty good shot at Howard, methinks...

Good luck!
 
2BeDentist said:
Your stats really aren't that bad. I'd advise you to give it a shot. If you check predents.com, you'd see that a lot of people have gotten into dental schools with GPAs under 3.0. Besides your DATs are solid. You have a pretty good shot at Howard, methinks...

Good luck!

I've heard Howard is a no-go unless you're an African American. I applied anyways considering the fact that I do want to start practicing in rural, under-served areas and I know they look highly on that. Anyhow, thanks for the encouragement. We all need that from time to time. Part of the problem for me in choosing between work and school is that my job is actually very interesting (scientist/chemist at a pharmaceutical research company) and I would hope that schools might look highly on that type of experience as well. So, in essence, it's not like I'm just making an easy decision to quit a construction job or something like that. Anyone doing construction please take no offense to that. Ha. I've already signed up for a bunch of science courses, so that's probably the route I'm going to go. Why gamble ya know? If it's too late for dental schools to see the grades reflected in my GPA this year, then at least I'll be that much better off for the next cycle.
 
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