dent-ym Posted January 1, 2012 Report Share Posted January 1, 2012 Hi there, I have a situation which some of you have already experienced and perhaps could provide a word of advice. I screwed up in the first two years of my undergraduate degree when I took many of the prerequisite courses such as: Biology, Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Physics, Biochemistry..the list goes on. The grades I obtained in those courses were very low. For the past three years I have obtained a GPA of 3.8 and above within each year. Now that I look at the requirements for Dental school I notice that they require those courses that I did so poorly in before. What should I do-should I take the courses again to show that I can do well in the prerequisites? Should I take higher level courses instead? Are the prerequisites calculated in a science GPA in Canadian Dental schools and will their low marks make me unqualified to apply despite the GPA that I have obtained for the past three years of 3.8? Thank you in advance for your provide advice and experience, it is greatly appreciated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magnesium Posted January 1, 2012 Report Share Posted January 1, 2012 You can use higher level (i.e. 200+) courses from the same "course family" to replace 100-level grades. It's kind of like upgrading those courses by taking the higher level class. I don't know which grade they'd use if you took an upper level course and then did worse than your 100-level. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zap_man99 Posted January 1, 2012 Report Share Posted January 1, 2012 well since you have done 5 years of schooling, most schools will take your best 4 and average them. Some schools will take your best 2 years (sask and western). Some schools take a science average (dalhousie). depend on your 1st or 2nd year GPA (which you should also state to help us give you better advice) you can apply to a few different schools. It would also help where youre from (home province). Most schools dont have prereq averages-only you need to pass to be considered. So i wouldnt worry about it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dent-ym Posted January 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 1, 2012 In my first year I had extenuating circumstances: First year: 1 (shameful) Second year: 1.91 (also shameful) Third year: 2.89 Fourth: 3.89 Fifth: 3.98 sixth: 3.98 ...I know the first two years are the worst and I have extenuating circumstances to explain the poor performance. When I look at the Canadian Dental school requirements I see that a lot of the schools have prerequisites for Bio/Chem/Physics/Orgo which were taken during the first two years of my education-their marks are quite bad. Which arises the question of weather I should retake the same level classes or upper year classes and email each university to see which upper year classes they deem acceptable instead of the prerequisites that they have listed. I read on sask website that they have prerequisites such as: Biology, Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Physics etc...Which i have completed but with poor grades.. Western I have read requires: Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry-which I did not do well in What about UofT don't they consider the last two years? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zap_man99 Posted January 1, 2012 Report Share Posted January 1, 2012 im pretty sure you should not retake courses as magnesium said (if anything take a higher course). On a side note, the fact that you have actually taken 6 years puts a hamper on things for some schools i believe. Because most schools do not take the best 3 years, they only drop your lowest year (so you would have an average of 3.3-which isnt good enough for UBC, alberta, dalhousie, mcgill or U of T). I really think you have a good chance at western and sask. where are you from? (you may also have a chance at U of manitoba due to A+s being a 4.5 A-s being a 4.0 and B+s being a 3.5 instead of 4.0, 3.7 and 3.3 respectively) You may have a problem applying to the states with low grades in entry level sciences if you dont take higher levels of them. (but its good that you have a positive trend in your grades). Have you calculated your GPA into %s for western and sask? Im also assuming u have a degree which you will need for western. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hchc Posted January 2, 2012 Report Share Posted January 2, 2012 In my first year I had extenuating circumstances: First year: 1 (shameful) Second year: 1.91 (also shameful) Third year: 2.89 Fourth: 3.89 Fifth: 3.98 sixth: 3.98 ...I know the first two years are the worst and I have extenuating circumstances to explain the poor performance. When I look at the Canadian Dental school requirements I see that a lot of the schools have prerequisites for Bio/Chem/Physics/Orgo which were taken during the first two years of my education-their marks are quite bad. Which arises the question of weather I should retake the same level classes or upper year classes and email each university to see which upper year classes they deem acceptable instead of the prerequisites that they have listed. I read on sask website that they have prerequisites such as: Biology, Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Physics etc...Which i have completed but with poor grades.. Western I have read requires: Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry-which I did not do well in What about UofT don't they consider the last two years? If after calculating your own agpa for the schools you want to apply to and you feel you're not going to be competitive even for schools in your own province that may give preference to in-province students I suggest you either do a masters or work in a dental related field and apply as a special candidate. Some schools like Manitoba allow you to re-take courses and they will use your highest for GPA calculations but, that's for only up to 6 credit hours. I'm not sure if there's any schools that only take the best 2 or 3 years in gpa calculations, if so you should apply there. In the states you might still be competitive as long as your overall gpa isn't too low and you have excellent references, ec, and a great DAT score. Australia is another option also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reddishh Posted January 13, 2012 Report Share Posted January 13, 2012 But sometimes they take the highest score if you retake the course, no? im pretty sure you should not retake courses as magnesium said (if anything take a higher course). On a side note, the fact that you have actually taken 6 years puts a hamper on things for some schools i believe. Because most schools do not take the best 3 years, they only drop your lowest year (so you would have an average of 3.3-which isnt good enough for UBC, alberta, dalhousie, mcgill or U of T). I really think you have a good chance at western and sask. where are you from? (you may also have a chance at U of manitoba due to A+s being a 4.5 A-s being a 4.0 and B+s being a 3.5 instead of 4.0, 3.7 and 3.3 respectively) You may have a problem applying to the states with low grades in entry level sciences if you dont take higher levels of them. (but its good that you have a positive trend in your grades). Have you calculated your GPA into %s for western and sask? Im also assuming u have a degree which you will need for western. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zap_man99 Posted January 13, 2012 Report Share Posted January 13, 2012 usually they would take the higher level course (and they will look favourably if you do a lot better in the upper level course) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reddishh Posted January 25, 2012 Report Share Posted January 25, 2012 usually they would take the higher level course (and they will look favourably if you do a lot better in the upper level course) Really? I thought most of them would take the avg. of the two. Do you mind telling me which schools take the higher level course? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zap_man99 Posted January 25, 2012 Report Share Posted January 25, 2012 Not many schools in canada take pre reqs anymore, u of a used to do this. Not sure about Manitoba. Most US schools will look at this too if I'm not mistaken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realtime9 Posted January 26, 2012 Report Share Posted January 26, 2012 Not many schools in canada take pre read anymore, u of a used to do this. Not sure about Manitoba. Most US schools will look at this too if I'm not mistaken yep I think u're correct. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reddishh Posted January 26, 2012 Report Share Posted January 26, 2012 Not many schools in canada take pre reqs anymore, u of a used to do this. Not sure about Manitoba. Most US schools will look at this too if I'm not mistaken It seems US schools also care about course load, and how tough the courses are.. But I honestly don't know how they handle it considering 1000 students apply each year Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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