What to shoot for on the DAT with crappy GPA but upward trend.

[joshwake]

I guess I have a two part question. First, I know that schools look for improvement etc in gpa but I am wondering if I am out of luck: 3.22 gpa / 3.0 sgpa. my last 2 1/2 years (74 credit hours) I have been getting 3.60 gpa / 3.48 sgpa. What killed me is my father got cancer (everything is fine now ) and I did not do well the semester he was undergoing treatment (D in Ochem, retook and got a B) After this he threw some blood clots and was back in the hospital and so I took the next semester off. Since all that I have done well these past 2 1/2 years, Do you think schools will cut me much of a break? Is this something I should touch on quickly in my personal statement?

Also, what DAT scores do you think I need in order to have a realistic chance? I feel I am capable of 20/20/22 (ts/aa/pa) and I would be happy if I got that, do you think in my situation I would need to be much higher? I know, I should not limit myself etc. I am just trying to be as realistic about this as possible. I am in UT so no in state dental schools for me . Any advice etc is appreciated, thanks in advance.

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[dmd2011]

I guess I have a two part question. First, I know that schools look for improvement etc in gpa but I am wondering if I am out of luck: 3.22 gpa / 3.0 sgpa. my last 2 1/2 years (74 credit hours) I have been getting 3.60 gpa / 3.48 sgpa. What killed me is my father got cancer (everything is fine now ) and I did not do well the semester he was undergoing treatment (D in Ochem, retook and got a B) After this he threw some blood clots and was back in the hospital and so I took the next semester off. Since all that I have done well these past 2 1/2 years, Do you think schools will cut me much of a break? Is this something I should touch on quickly in my personal statement?

Also, what DAT scores do you think I need in order to have a realistic chance? I feel I am capable of 20/20/22 (ts/aa/pa) and I would be happy if I got that, do you think in my situation I would need to be much higher? I know, I should not limit myself etc. I am just trying to be as realistic about this as possible. I am in UT so no in state dental schools for me . Any advice etc is appreciated, thanks in advance.

you already posted this in the pre-dental forum.