Is it possible to improve your undergraduate GPA after graduation

[vikachu]

I need some advice.

I recently decided much later in life to pursue dentistry and despite scoring 99th percentile on the DAT, I did not get an interview at UofT.

At first I thought it may be my CASPer (2nd quartile) but saw that there were a couple of people on this forum with the same score and still received interviews. They both had higher GPAs but lower DAT. Now I think it is my GPA.

Is it possible to improve your undergrad GPA after graduation? For your reference, I completed my undergrad in 2010 and went on to complete as Masters in 2012.

Is it possible to redo the courses that I did poor on and still have it counted in my GPA years after graduation? If not, what are my options? What have other people in similar situations done?

Any insights would be appreciated and thank you in advance.

 

[frenchpress]

30 minutes ago, vikachu said:

I need some advice.

I recently decided much later in life to pursue dentistry and despite scoring 99th percentile on the DAT, I did not get an interview at UofT.

At first I thought it may be my CASPer (2nd quartile) but saw that there were a couple of people on this forum with the same score and still received interviews. They both had higher GPAs but lower DAT. Now I think it is my GPA.

Is it possible to improve your undergrad GPA after graduation? For your reference, I completed my undergrad in 2010 and went on to complete as Masters in 2012.

Is it possible to redo the courses that I did poor on and still have it counted in my GPA years after graduation? If not, what are my options? What have other people in similar situations done?

Any insights would be appreciated and thank you in advance.

 

I can’t comment specifically on dentistry, but I assume there are parallels to med here. Policies for how repeated courses will be assessed varies, and so you likely need to check with the school. But in general, repeating courses is often not that helpful as many schools will simply include both attempts at the course in your GPA calculation (rather than replace it). In medicine, this is also frowned upon by some schools.

It IS possible to improve your GPA. The route many in med take is to do another undergraduate degree, or at least a couple years of one. The effectiveness of this depends somewhat on how bad your GPA is and how much you need to boost it. Others who have applied to dentistry may have some more specific suggestions or tips based on school admission requirements. 

[vikachu]

23 minutes ago, frenchpress said:

I can’t comment specifically on dentistry, but I assume there are parallels to med here. Policies for how repeated courses will be assessed varies, and so you likely need to check with the school. But in general, repeating courses is often not that helpful as many schools will simply include both attempts at the course in your GPA calculation (rather than replace it). In medicine, this is also frowned upon by some schools.

It IS possible to improve your GPA. The route many in med take is to do another undergraduate degree, or at least a couple years of one. The effectiveness of this depends somewhat on how bad your GPA is and how much you need to boost it. Others who have applied to dentistry may have some more specific suggestions or tips based on school admission requirements. 

Thank you for your insights. My GPA, if I calculated it right, was 3.87-3.89 depending on the scale conversion.

[MDee2B]

1 hour ago, vikachu said:

At first I thought it may be my CASPer (2nd quartile) but saw that there were a couple of people on this forum with the same score and still received interviews.

The casper score revealed to applicants is only the quartile score. 2nd quartile = 26th-50th percentile. Don’t forget there’s a lot of variation in there and so it’s possible it still could be your casper.

1 hour ago, vikachu said:

Is it possible to improve your undergrad GPA after graduation?

I am not too familiar with dentistry admissions specifically either, but i do know that some schools (for example university of Montreal) take into account all undergraduate courses (even those undertaken after graduation) when evaluating undergraduate academic performance for med admissions.

i wish you good luck! 

[vikachu]

 

.

 

[vikachu]

32 minutes ago, MDee2B said:

The casper score revealed to applicants is only the quartile score. 2nd quartile = 26th-50th percentile. Don’t forget there’s a lot of variation in there and so it’s possible it still could be your casper.

I am not too familiar with dentistry admissions specifically either, but i do know that some schools (for example university of Montreal) take into account all undergraduate courses (even those undertaken after graduation) when evaluating undergraduate academic performance for med admissions.

i wish you good luck! 

Thank you and thanks for your input!

I plan to redo my Casper and hope to have a better score next cycle. 

But in the event it is my GPA, I would like to plan my next course of action as I would only have until September to retake and/or do additional courses to have it count for next cycle.

Unfortunately, the DAT is only valid for 2 years so after the next cycle, I will have to rewrite

[bearded frog]

Each school calculates things differently, but in theory you can just sign up for university courses without declaring a program and the grades will contribute, although you get diminishing returns over time with a cumulative GPA, ie at mac, vs a school with weighting for more recent grades or a second degree.

[vikachu]

On 1/15/2022 at 1:21 PM, MDee2B said:

The casper score revealed to applicants is only the quartile score. 2nd quartile = 26th-50th percentile. Don’t forget there’s a lot of variation in there and so it’s possible it still could be your casper.

I am not too familiar with dentistry admissions specifically either, but i do know that some schools (for example university of Montreal) take into account all undergraduate courses (even those undertaken after graduation) when evaluating undergraduate academic performance for med admissions.

i wish you good luck! 

UPDATE: UofT got back to me they told me it was because my CASPer was a bit low compared to the other applicants that got interviews. They didn't mention my GPA at all.

 

[vikachu]

On 1/15/2022 at 4:47 PM, bearded frog said:

Each school calculates things differently, but in theory you can just sign up for university courses without declaring a program and the grades will contribute, although you get diminishing returns over time with a cumulative GPA, ie at mac, vs a school with weighting for more recent grades or a second degree.

Thanks for your input.