Word of advice? - Not good GPA, but good work experience

[loveseed]

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So I graduated last May 2013 with some pre-reqs under my belt but no the best grades in the science field at least. I graduated with a BA in music and took pre-reqs. I have been working in a dental office (general and specialist) for almost 3 years assisting and doing front desk work. I took my DATs and they definitely weren't good enough to get into dental school.
I know we can only take it 3 times, and I've already used 1 time, so I have 2 more times I can take it.
I know I should be re-taking classes but I need advice (yes after looking through all these threads) on what to do in terms of moving forward. I have been working in my current dental office for a year and a half, and prior to this I was working for another dentist for almost two years and I have learned so much. I love working in the dental office too! My boss likes to ask me what diagnosis of certain cases based on x-rays and patient reaction. My current boss is very encouraging of me getting into dental school but I have not really had any help except looking online.
Unfortunately my previous schools' pre-dental/health advisors were not much help at all.
I am not sure if I should do a masters program or post-bacc? Should I do it with a school I really want to get into or do it at the local university near my home (but that is the university I graduated from and their chemistry department is terrible). I know what I have to do but I know there's a couple options and I need some guidance.

If anyone could give me advice, that would be great!

And like everyone else here, I really want to get into dental school and eventually become an oral surgeon.

 

[hitmans45]

How bad is your GPA exactly? That would probably help others in forming their advice.

 

[loveseed]

GPA is below 3.0 Overall GPA is 2.9, but science is below that... I think 2.5

 

[monstromyfishy]

Definitely do a post-bacc or a Masters program. I personally like the idea of a Masters program over a post-bacc because at least you get a a degree for the money you're paying, though a post-bac program might be easier to get accepted to. You have to be prepared to work hard. When you do apply, you might want to look into schools that are service orientated and love to see those hours (ASDOH, MOSDOH, UDM and such).

 

[loveseed]

What if I just take a few classes at the local university near my home to help boost my GPA? Would that be worthy of anything, or would doing the Masters route fully be the best advice?

 

[LaughingGas]

At this point you will need to do 2+ years of postbac due to low sgpa. Having done postbac for years, I recommend doing masters. Most likely, you will have to do 2 year track. The thing is, from what I have seen in the postbac forum, you will need to get near 3.0 for ugpa (not sure if it's for sgpa as well) to gain admission to SMPs. I would contact few SMPs, and see what you can do to gain admission to their program.