There is a 7 year dental program that Case Western Dental school does with the University of Toledo. Their minimum requirement is a 25 on the ACT or 1150 combined SAT (Math and Critical Reading) and a 3.5 GPA. I can easily get 1300-1400 on the SAT part and a 32 on the ACT, however my GPA is less than desirable and I will end up with a 3.4 by the end of my Junior year.
It isn’t that I didn’t try, but because I went through extremely stressful life events during my Freshman and Sophomore year. You see, my dad is a travelling businessman so I only get to see him once or twice a year and my mom is a researcher at Case Western and she takes care of both me and my older brother. However, during my 8th to 9th grade transition summer, my mother was diagnosed with type 3 breast cancer. We were still South Korean nationals at the time so my mother returned to the Republic of Korea to get treatment. My older brother, who had been accepted to Case, had to go live in a dorm due to a mandatory first year policy that Case has. Which left me completely alone. Thankfully, due to a wonderful community, I was able to stay in my local school district due to family friends fostering me. However, it was a time of serious stress and despair and the frequent moving from house to house really disturbed me and my grades started to slip. By Sophomore year, my mother returned victorious in her battle against cancer, but the doctors had to take out most of the muscle tissue in her right arm leaving her incapable of handling any more weight heavier than 5 pounds. It was an emotional period in my family. I was the only one home to help out my mom and it was extremely stressful, and to make things worse I was already far behind on my academics so Sophomore year became a big flop as well. I ended the two years with a 3.0 GPA. Now fast forwarding to today, I have earned a 4.2 GPA this semester bringing my grade to a 3.24 and I can easily pull this off again next semester and end this year with a 3.4. The application process for this program starts immediately in the fall of my Senior year leaving no room for further improvements.
Now for my extracurricular activities:
I volunteered as a social worker to give back to my community and have put in 100 hours and went to the Ohioan Congress to advocate for youth programs to keep urban children off the streets. I have been given the wonderful opportunity to directly work with juvenile delinquents and I have had the honor of guiding seeing teens turn their life around becoming productive members of society from a background of abuses.
I will be, hopefully, volunteering at the VA Hospital shadowing a dentist over the summer. If not I will still probably volunteer at a dental facility.
I have been a part of a US Navy program called the United States Naval Sea Cadet Corps (Auxiliary of the US Navy) and and will be graduating from the program as a Petty Officer Third Class. In this program I worked with veterans and was the Color Guard Commander for a year and I was recently promoted as the Assistant Leading Petty Officer of First Division where I was given the honor of training the new recruits. I won the best shipmate award during a summer training at the US National Guard base at Camp Ravenna.
I am currently taking AP Calculus AB, Orchestra (advanced orchestra, no honors credit though :-/), Spanish 2 (I speak English, Korean, and I took 2 years of Chinese prior). Health, Financial Literacy, and AP Physics 1. I will be taking AP Government next semester.
My SAT should be more than enough to get in, but my GPA is less than desirable. I wanted to know if you guys could give me some advice, tips, experiences, most importantly my chances of getting in or even some comforting and encouraging words. I highly appreciate it! Also while I’m at it, do you think I have a shot at Case Western Reserve University?