I am going to be graduating from UNC soon with a B.S. in biology and a GPA ~2.5 and a DAT score of 21. I have 100+ hours of shadowing, 200+ hours of volunteer work, I was the president of my sorority, and I’m involved in several other clubs/ECs. I have also worked as a dental assistant (radiology certified) for a year now. My GPA is very much average for the rigor of both my school and my major, but obviously at a glance it sucks. Especially when you compare it to predents with womens studies majors from easier schools, for example, who will have near 4.0.
Several dental schools have no minimum GPA, and several others have 2-2.5 as a “soft” minimum. What are my chances of being accepted to one of these schools?
You have a very good DAT score, but your GPA seems to be too low for a dental school acceptance. The reality is that the people you mentioned, “predents with womens studies majors from easier schools, for example, who will have near 4.0,” will have a much better chance if they can get a decent score on DAT. You can see the average GPA for students admitted to dental schools, for example, at the following site: http://www.dentaldat.com/2011/09/dental-schools-ranked-by-gpa.html
Do you think I have a chance at being asked back to an interview at all with some of the easier dental schools? The thing is that my DAT score shows that I know the science (right??) and if you break it down and look at my transcript, I’ve had to take at least 3 science classes per semester since sophomore year and it seems like making two Bs and a C+ in a schedule like that is better than just making a B in a science class when that’s the only science class you had all semester. Does that make sense?
It just seems like I’m being punished for taking on a challenging major, and it’s sending the message that people should take easy majors and do the bare minimum science classes just to keep that GPA up and they’ll be the ones accepted to dental school, when in reality I know that I know much more biology, chem, physics, everything than them.
Not sure why anyone would major in engineering to go to dental school? Perhaps biomedical engineering, which is very different…
Anyways, I never said that I was the only one majoring in a science. However, only a small percentage of science majors have a bachelor of science, and the curriculum is very different than that of a bachelor of arts in biology/chemistry/etc. Of that small percentage, an even smaller percentage go to research-based universities that curve every science class to a 70-75 average.
Nonetheless, you clearly misunderstood the objective of the post, which was not to proclaim that I am special, but rather to ask advice/opinions from people who know what they’re talking about. This clearly doesn’t apply to you, @bodangles but thanks for your time.
To the OP. In the web page below you may get a sense of how difficult it is to be accepted with a low GPA. On that page the poster with a high DAT score of 21 (just like you) but with a low GPA of 3.0 (higher than yours) was having a difficult time. You can see that people were suggesting a post-bac or a graduate program to boost the GPA. https://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/threads/schools-i-should-apply-to.1004570/#post-14028515
I think you are really confused. You want your 2.5 GPA at UNC to be compared with someone who has a higher GPA but went to a “easier” school. First, everyone has to have taken all of the required prereqs–which are some heavy hitting science classes. Second, given the limited number of dental school spots and large number of applicants, many people with higher GPAs and DAT scores than you don’t get into dental school.
Do you have a pre-dental advisor at UNC? What are they telling you?
