Okay so Im 21 years old, I’ve decided that I wanna go back to school, my deal is that when I was in High school I didn’t apply myself whatsoever and have a pretty bad GPA. Im practicing for my SAT to be taken in a couple months, if I do well do you think colleges will look over my HS GPA ? No not highly prestiges colleges but average colleges? That being said I want to be a dentist. Im very driven now that I have matured and am willing to study my butt off, yes odds are against me but I really want to change the direction of my life. I actually have a good paying job at the moment but its 60 hrs and I feel like if I could bottle all my ambitions up I could be doing drastically better in life in the long run with something I actually have interest in. Thanks in advance
I believe that a majority colleges except for a few will look at your high school resume(GPA, ECs, etc…). A good SAT score will help your chances for sure, but it won’t make them look over a bad GPA.
You might consider taking a few classes at a community college. Doing well in those classes, along with a good SAT score and a compelling essay will increase your chances. Best of luck to you!
Yes, if you complete your lower-division classes in community college, you won’t need to take the SAT at all, and your transfer applications will be evaluated solely on the basis of your community college grades. You’re likely to end up at a more competitive transfer school this way than if you try to apply directly based on your high school record, plus you’ll save lots of money and most likely get more individual attention in your classes. Plus, if you really want to go to dental school, you will need top grades in the prerequisite courses, so why not nail down some of those in community college where the grade curve is probably a little more forgiving?
What state are you in?
Im in Pennsylvania, But I do know some dental schools require you to not exceed 1/3 of your college credits in comm. College
If that’s the case regarding 1/3 credits, you should still start in a community college and transfer after one year. I agree that if you rock your CC courses you can transfer to a solid 4-year for pre-dental. I think public universities might be your best option as they are cheaper (and you’ve got dental school costs ahead of you) and they have more expectations to accept some CC transfer students (though that esp. applies to those who’ve finished their 2 year degree).
Work on getting stellar recommendations, try to get all As at the CC, reach out to admissions offices, and write some great essays. Your goal is to show not only you have the academic chops, but a lot of drive and purpose – which it sounds like you do! The fact is there is attrition at a lot of 4-year schools and I think a lot are looking for students just like you!
Good luck!
Thanks a bunch! Everyone has been helpful
There are also satellite campuses of both Penn State and Pitt… it might be that these could also be a pathway to where you want to go. You might want to post on the specific forums for those schools, to find people with detailed knowledge of the pros and cons of community college vs. satellite campuses in PA. Good luck!!
Why do you want to be a dentist? Trying to understand your choice, and figure how how set you are on dentistry. Have you Job shadowed with a dentist, or interviewed several dentists about their work duties? I have worked in a dental office and observed that the environment is quite unique.
Dental school may be very competitive, so what is your backup plan? I am not trying to rain on your ambition, just trying to see if you are considering several options as you head Back to school.
Best of luck to you!
I want to become a Dentist for a bunch of reasons. One to have the freedom( or the money ) to move from my small town, I absolutely love people ( 1 perk I have at the job I have now is that I get to communicate all day), I have high interest in teeth away from my own even. I actually thought about being a dental hygienist first because the cleaning part interests me the most but I think as I learned more about teeth other things would interest me. I’d eventually want to have my own practice for business reasons because I have a ton of interest in business ( actually part owner of a business at the moment but 25% owner and the other owner is 75% and doesnt want to expand or change whatsoever which really puts me at a dead end) id end up selling the 25%. And I also have family in dentistry. Back up plan? In trying to stick to Plan A but plan B is possibly dental hygienist, nursing, or physical therapy.
BTW I have an admission advisor meeting tomorrow @ 2pm for the nearest community college any questions you guys think I should ask?
You might ask about the process for determining your math placement. Perhaps a tiny amount of reviewing for a placement exam could keep you out of a really low math course, as you said you have been out for a while. This is assuming you did OK in math in school.
Keep us posted…i know a 28-year-old personal trainer who decided that he wasn’t just going to train rich guys anymore, he was going to be a rich guy. He went back to college (he hadn’t finished) and – very long story brought down to one amazing sentence – he’s now an orthopediac surgeon specializing in fitness and sports injuries.
Yes, to what @CheddarcheeseMN said re: placement test. That is a high stakes test for you! Sometimes colleges just send students down the hall to take w/o any prep and if they don’t do well you can end up in one, two or even three semesters of math b4 taking any college level courses. More CCs are using SAT/ACT and even your high school GPA to exempt you from placement tests – so be sure ask about the policy. If you do need to take a placement test, ask for recommended review materials and hit the books b4 you take it.
Good luck!
Also keep in mind that a growing number of states are responding to the shortage of dentists by approving the licensure of Dental Therapists, who are approximately to dentists as PA’s are to MD’s. http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2016/09/28/states-expand-the-use-of-dental-therapy PA is not on that bandwagon yet though.
Here’s one example of a program: https://www.dentistry.umn.edu/degrees-programs/dental-therapy - more will likely be springing up over the next few years.
As for the advisor meeting, I would ask about transfer pathways and pre-health support.
What I’m curious about, as a not-even-close-to-PA person, would be the pros and cons of community college vs. the Pitt Regional Campuses and the Penn State Commonwealth Campuses. I don’t know if an admissions counselor for a CC is the best person to ask about this, though.
There’s at least one explicit pre-dental track at a Pitt Regional Campus: http://www.upb.pitt.edu/predentistry/
I don’t know whether your HS stats are in range for this, nor if you have the mobility to choose a campus for its programs or if you need to stay local for your job/business, so… fwiw.
The dental therapy would be really cool if it was in PA ! And I most likely wont get into Pitt unless I transfer from a branch. My younger brother (going into his sophomore year of college this yr) got turned down by both PSU and PITT nursing because his SAT scores ended up being below 1100. He now studies @ Robert Morris University which Id love to go to if they gave me some sort of grant or scholarship like they did him because its a private school and costs like 40 some grand a yr to attend after everything.
The Pitt pre-dental program I linked to is at a branch campus. That’s what I’m saying - I’d be curious as to what people who are knowledgeable about the PA system would say about the merits of a Pitt branch campus vs. community college. But maybe your logistics already make that decision for you.
I went down to the community college yesterday and sent my application in, automatically accepted and now my next step is to take a placement test. They gave me some websites to practice and study until my test in 1 month. I took the 3 practice tests online 15/15 on the math, 13/15 on reading, and 14/15 on the writing material. In my opinion it was easy and feel like the real test (accuplacer) will be harder. When I took the math section it was honestly basic Mathematics. Anyone have any experience with the accuplacer test? I feel like college algebra will be on the test and in that case ill refresh and study that
Excellent! So glad you’re taking it seriously.
College Board makes Accuplacer and has practice tests – is that what you took? If so, it should be pretty accurate.
It does cover Algebra – including quadratics, polynomials, and graphing. Also basic geometry. Does not go into pre-calc or later.
Here’s a link to Accuplacer content and a crosswalk to Kahn academy topics that might help you prepare.
http://ccv.edu/documents/2013/10/khan-academy-accuplacer-topic-map.pdf/
I took the mometrix test prep online it was one of the tests that I was linked to throught the cc im going to. No calculator is allowed to take the test