Worried Pre-Dental Student

[ChrisM07]

Hey all,

I have a couple of questions for you and was hoping you could help.

I am a Freshman in college now about to complete my spring semester, and I am extremely interested in applying to dental school at the end of my four years. However, I got off to a rough start in my fall semester and left with a 2.0GPA. I have heard from some people and they say that it is hard to pull low GPA's up past the 3.0 point by the time one graduates. This worries me because I know that many dental schools require a 3.2-3.3. Have I completley blown my chances of dental school already, or can it be pulled up? Also, will dental schools even consider someone that isn't in the 3's (maybe 2.8-2.9?)? This has been in the back of my mind my entire freshman year.

Thanks a lot!
Chris, Temple U.

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[dmd2011]

Hey all,

I have a couple of questions for you and was hoping you could help.

I am a Freshman in college now about to complete my spring semester, and I am extremely interested in applying to dental school at the end of my four years. However, I got off to a rough start in my fall semester and left with a 2.0GPA. I have heard from some people and they say that it is hard to pull low GPA's up past the 3.0 point by the time one graduates. This worries me because I know that many dental schools require a 3.2-3.3. Have I completley blown my chances of dental school already, or can it be pulled up? Also, will dental schools even consider someone that isn't in the 3's (maybe 2.8-2.9?)? This has been in the back of my mind my entire freshman year.

Thanks a lot!
Chris, Temple U.

chill out, you have plenty of time to bring up your GPA. you have only completed one semester so you are ok. the ppl that have low gpas and have completed more than half of their degree have a hard time bringing up their GPAs. its good that you recognize this now. try to find out why you havent been doing well and work to correct it.

 

[rebar]

definately agree with dmd2011.... you should not be so worried at your position in school yet... usually your first semester of school is the worst... the transition from highschool to college is different and classes are not a blow off to get your diploma any more... the one thing to concentrate on is improving.. schools look at your transcript and if you do bad in easy first year classes but really good in hard upper level classes then you should be ok... make sure you research the schools you want to apply to one day... good luck

 

[c0mpletec0ntrol]

Whoa dude first and most importantly calm down. You have most definitely NOT blown your chances at dental school admissions. You have a great many credits left to take that you'll be able to pull your gpa up to that 3.4 and then some! Adcoms also love seeing increases in grades over your 4 years, and you can explain that in your personal statement ie. you became serious about school when you realized your passion and really pulled it together. You have more than enough time left to bring it up.

However if for some reason you received a less than average grade last semester in a pre-dental course, I would totally advise you to retake the course and study hard! Freshman year for most people is the year that they're getting acclimated to school and earn less than par grades compared to the remainder of their academic tenure. Admissions committees realize this. I hope this helps and good luck to you!

 

[NoFear66]

I had a cumulative 2.3 after my entire freshman year. In 3 semesters of around 15 hours and two summer classes I am at a 3.4. You can definately pull up your GPA but just realize that you need to match that 2.0 with 3.7-4.0 GPA semesters. It is kind of dissapointing though when you do get 4.0 semesters but your cumulative GPA is still low, but it is nice when you get your transcript and you see a bad freshman year but then after that it is almost all A's.

I don't know if your school website has a GPA calculator, but go to this website and you can type in how many hours you have completed, your current GPA and a desired GPA then enter it in and the website instantly calculates how many hours of A's you need to obtain the desired GPA you wish to have. Haha it can be good or bad.

http://web.utk.edu/~cehhsstu/advising/fac_resources/gpa.html

 

[c0mpletec0ntrol]

I had a cumulative 2.3 after my entire freshman year. In 3 semesters of around 15 hours and two summer classes I am at a 3.4. You can definately pull up your GPA but just realize that you need to match that 2.0 with 3.7-4.0 GPA semesters. It is kind of dissapointing though when you do get 4.0 semesters but your cumulative GPA is still low, but it is nice when you get your transcript and you see a bad freshman year but then after that it is almost all A's.

I don't know if your school website has a GPA calculator, but go to this website and you can type in how many hours you have completed, your current GPA and a desired GPA then enter it in and the website instantly calculates how many hours of A's you need to obtain the desired GPA you wish to have. Haha it can be good or bad.

http://web.utk.edu/~cehhsstu/advising/fac_resources/gpa.html

haha that website is going to be the death of me.

 

[mc1459]

Yes-dental schools will consider someone w/ a gpa of less than 3, but usually everything else about their application is stellar. However, witht the trend that is going on...its going to get harder and harder to get in. But don't resign yourself to have a sub 3 after one semester of college. You have a ton of time to bring it up!! You can definitley get your gpa up to a 3.4 or higher. Just work really hard. Dental schools can overlook one bad semester if you do great the rest of them.