I was a student at a pretty good 4 year college taking pre-dental courses. My freshman year was fine and my grades good. Sophmore year and on, my grades slipped and I was on probation and then kicked out of college. I’ve been very sad lately and been pressured a lot by my father and mother. I took two semesters at a community college and did good but the college that dismissed me hasn’t accepted me back although one of the deans said they would if i had 2.5 GPA or higher. Now i am completely lost and there is no one to help me (including myself because im confused).
When starting college, I really wanted to get into dental school but obviously now i am nowhere near that dream. I was just hoping someone can tell me what I should do next and how i can change my life around. I understand it is funny for a person in my position to consider dental school, but i really want to get in, in the future. Please help me!
Contact the dean’s office and speak personally to a dean. You need your transcripts from the community college, so make sure you have those available to scar and send.
If they told you that you would be accepted, then you need to follow through with that.
thank you for your response. I’ve also seen an adviser at the 4 year college (prior to calling and speaking to a dean) that said i shouldn’t bother applying to this 4 year college because they wont take me and that why would i bother since the gpa at this college is so low.
So you’ve been given conflicting information; it happens. As aunt bea suggested, call the dean and admissions, but also accept the fact that you may not be reinstated, that happens too, and you may simply have to move on. It’s hard to advise you not knowing where you live, your financial situation or your non-dental-school academic interests.
But REST ASSURED you can get through this. Many, many students experience hiccoughs in their academic career, and go on to graduate and find jobs. You can too. Begin by looking at all your educational options. If going back to your old 4-year school doesn’t work out, what are your alternatives? Contact them, make an appointment to see someone in admissions. share your story, ask for advice. Rethink your post-grad plans - if not dental school, then what? Are there medicine-related fields that interest you? Would you have the stats for them? Whatever you do, don’t give up now. You’ve rebounded academically after a dismissal: that’s the hard part!
The other thing is ask what happened after you found out you were on probation…did you change any of your study habits? Start going to office hours? Get a tutor? Attend the writing center? Make use of any of the on campus tools?
Can you apply to a state school as a transfer student at this point?
This is not the advisor’s call. It is the dean’s. You need to prepare for your meeting with the dean. This should be in person if poassible. As @bopper wrote, you need more than just your new, better transcripts. You also need to be able to demonstrate that you have recovered your academic mojo and that you have eliminated bad patterns that led to your string of bad grades. If depression is also a factor, it will be useful if you can incldue information about the meant you have been using to keep that under control.
Deans are not interested in readmitting students just to readmit them. They want you to be where you can be most successful, even if that means moving on to another college or university. If your dean determines that this college/university is a bad match for you, they are likely to have solid ideas about places where you can do well and be happy.
As for dentistry: consider focusing on your grades for now to pull up your overall GPA. Then look around for a post-bac pre-dent program where you can just take (or re-take) the core pre-dent courses. Often those programs have good placement. Come to think of it, this could be another thing to include in your conversation with the dean.
Your story sounds exactly like that of my husband. He too failed out of college and was under heavy pressure from his family. He was diagnosed with ADHD many years later. It sounds like you’re dealing with some depression or anxiety and I recommend you work on that before continuing your education. Maybe you need a break to sort things out.
Don’t give up your dream of attending dental school. Take some time off and then go back and finish up with stellar grades. That’s what my husband did. He got into University of Pennsylvania Dental School and he wrote about failing out of college in his essay. If you can learn why this has happened, why your grades slipped, and then educate yourself about it, overcome it, and turn it into a strength, you can still achieve your dreams.
Some of this is general, and some specific to your situation.
search this topic on CC and you will see many other posts on academic appeals
Make sure your letter states what the issue was that caused you to have academic difficulties
Did you talk to your professors/dean of students about the issue?
Did you make use of the many resources your school has? if not, why not?
Find out what those resources are…e.g. counseling center, talking to professors, talking to your adviser, withdrawing from class, talking to dean, maybe taking incompletes,
State how you would use those in the future
How are you addressing what caused the issue?
Think about if you should continue at college, or take a break.
Think about if you should continue at a community college, to be close to your family
How is your college funded? Will that continue?
In general, keep in mind what the college wants…they want students who can succeed. They need to know that you understand what the issue was, know now the resources that you can use, how the problems is resolved so you will not have academic issues in the future.
One possibility would be to take a year off. It sounds like a long time, but a year goes quickly, and if you use it to refocus yourself and reflect on what is important then it can be transformative. Many (most) people struggle at times; it’s really the norm in life. The important thing is being resilient and figuring out how to go forward in a more productive way. That might take a while, and require some honest soul searching, but you can do it.
Here’s an idea: go work in a national park or some place outdoors for a year. Concessionaires (Xanterra, Delaware North, Aramark, etc.) staff national parks like the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, or Yellowstone. They hire for hotels, restaurants, shops, etc. Because these are often isolated locations, they will provide housing and subsidized food. So you aren’t dealing with landlords etc. Parks have pretty large employee communities. You could make your own money, see how that feels. Take time to reset and think about what is important to you. Being in nature can be helpful–after all we are probably evolved to spend more time in nature than we do. In the end, you might want to go back to your school. You’d potentially have a good story to tell them about reflecting on your poor performance and how you will do better going forward, which is what they want to hear. You might decide a different school is best for you.
But know this can just be a blip on your path–and there are many paths, not one standard one for everyone. The important thing is be resilient, look forward, reflect honestly on why you did not succeed and how you can do better. Good luck!
You need time and space to figure out why you are not doing well. When you sit down to study, are you focused or is your mind wondering? Have you lost interest in subjects you used to love?
When I flunked out of college years ago, there was no professional office available to counsel students. Deans just thought I should either work harder or chalk up the loss to lack of ability. Sleep was my only escape from studying subjects I used to love. Today I know it was depression brought on, in my case, by family events.
It is not uncommon for second year college students who were better prepared than their classmates to experience a slump in the second year. The less prepared classmates are baptized in the first year as a carefully watched cohort which is just learning to face serious academic challenges. Were you getting by in the first year without working too hard? In sophomore year the baptizing freshmen faculty squad goes away. Sophomores are on their own and must live with whatever new habits they developed in their first year.
How many hours of PRODUCTIVE studying were you actually putting in each day?
After a year of ski bumming, working in a gas station and the US Army (they had a draft then), my recovery was complete! I was not dumb after-all, just depressed. I completed a BS at the same college (all A’s) and even went on to graduate school for free!
Work on your puzzle. A good advisor can help you with the pieces.