Improving GPA

[litaluta]

hey guys : )

I am on my third year and my GPA will be between 6.1-6.5 depending on what results I get. if I get into dent course, with my GPA I cannot apply for commonwealth supported place. so can someone please help me by telling me what are my options to improve my gpa? doing honours? doing another bachelor degree? doing masters?

I really appreciate your help guys : )

[Pup]

hey guys : )

I am on my third year and my GPA will be between 6.1-6.5 depending on what results I get. if I get into dent course, with my GPA I cannot apply for commonwealth supported place. so can someone please help me by telling me what are my options to improve my gpa? doing honours? doing another bachelor degree? doing masters?

I really appreciate your help guys : )

6.1-6.5 GPA (not sure if yours is unweighted or weighted) would be good enough, provided that you get a high GAMSAT etc. >65.
Not sure about honours, but from what I've heard on AN, so far, it is very tough. I think maintaining your GPA in a postgraduate masters degree is harder than as you would in an undergraduate degree. I think you should focus on maintaining your GPA in your third year and prepare to do very well in the GAMSAT. If you willing to go interstate  to the University of Sydney, they only use GPA as a hurdle (5 or 5.5 is minimum) and GAMSAT score is used for ranking applicants.

[litaluta]

Thank you Pup for your response. So if I get high gamsat score as you said,can I still apply for unimelb dent?

is there any link that explains commonwealth supported place? I don't know the rules in general!

[Hehetymen]

With a GPA of 6.5 you'd need a GAMSAT of around 70 I think to get CSP at UoM. If you applied to UWA or USyd tho, the scores are lower (around low 6 GPA, low 60s GAMSAT) but you have to do an interview. I think the only thing you can do to improve your GPA is honours. Some unis give bonus points for PhDs (accept it as a GPA of 7 for that year) but idk about dent.

[MelonBar]

Yes UoM dent offers are 50/50 gpa/gamsat so with a high enough gamsat you can offset the gpa and vice versa. CSPs are given preferentially to ppl with higher gpa/gamsat combos before FFPs are fed to the rest that make it above the cutoff. I don't think they publish cutoff scores but if your gpa > 6 and gamsat > 60 I'd apply anyway and see what happens, esp if you would consider an FFP offer.

The gpa/gamsat requirements are lower for the other dental schools eg sydney like pup said and UWA so if you'd consider going interstate i'd lodge applications at those places as well.

if you really want to raise your gpa, yes you can do an honours year which becomes your 'third year' when it comes to gpa calculation - so if you choose this route it will have a huge impact on your weighted gpa (50%!) so i'd tread carefully because it could make you less competitive.

[Turtle]

Yes UoM dent offers are 50/50 gpa/gamsat so with a high enough gamsat you can offset the gpa and vice versa. CSPs are given preferentially to ppl with higher gpa/gamsat combos before FFPs are fed to the rest that make it above the cutoff. I don't think they publish cutoff scores but if your gpa > 6 and gamsat > 60 I'd apply anyway and see what happens, esp if you would consider an FFP offer.

The gpa/gamsat requirements are lower for the other dental schools eg sydney like pup said and UWA so if you'd consider going interstate i'd lodge applications at those places as well.

if you really want to raise your gpa, yes you can do an honours year which becomes your 'third year' when it comes to gpa calculation - so if you choose this route it will have a huge impact on your weighted gpa (50%!) so i'd tread carefully because it could make you less competitive.

I second the notion of being careful with an honours year. I am not doing honours almost mainly because I don't want to risk bringing down my GPA. However, I am happy with my GPA, so my situation is slightly different to yours in that you aren't completely happy with your GPA. Just trying to help you through the thought process 

[simpak]

Honours won't influence your Gpa for Melbourne if you're a current student at the time of application but will drop your first year marks. Omg I am sick of repeating this and because it's changed misconceptions are huge. Would we be better with an honours q&a post that is uom centric?? Id be happy to make an faq type post if people want it and are confused by it? It being how to apply, how it affects your gpa, how it works etc.

[litaluta]

I knew from other post in this forum that honours would drop first year mark, I was hopping to see which option (doing another bachelor,master...) will help me better to get better GPA. and I guess studding hard for GAMSAT to get above 70% mark is the best solution at the time,considering honours for instance its not an easy thing

But It will be great if there be a post that explains honours clearly for those who consider doing it :x

[simpak]

Your GPA is good so I agree that improving your gamsat should be a priority.