A New Voice

My whole life so far has been a push to get to the next thing.  To achieve the next goal.  I've been pushing and working to be right where I am (maybe not Alaska specifically, but you get the idea) since I decided to become a dentist back in 2007.  But that was during college, a place I wouldn't have been without good grades and the solid work ethic I developed in High School.  Which was obviously a carryover from that high-energy Middle School kid I was before that.  Don't forget the little me who was always fascinated by science and helping others!

Ok, so I guess... theoretically... I've reached the place I've been pushing for my whole life.  But what does that mean?

To me, it means this.  It's time to decide what's next.  I have thoughts and ideas about what I want to do, who I want to be, etc., but there's no carrot sitting out there for me to chase anymore.  Not an obvious one, anyway.  In some ways I feel like I'm "done" with what I wanted to accomplish.  And in a purely goal-oriented sense, I guess I am.  I didn't plan any further than this.  I wanted to be a dentist.  Poof.  Done.

Now What?

I thrive on structure and planning.  It's in my blood (all my blood cells are in perfect lines and neatly flow through their respective vessels).  Until now, most of that structure has been structured for me.  And you'd think that in the Air Force it would still be there.  It is to an extent, but I'm undecided on if the Air Force is going to be my long term plan so even that structure may not apply to me.

From birth to the end of my AEGD residency, there were goals to hit and tasks to hit them.  Now the goal is... whatever I want it to be!  It's freeing and a little scary at the same time.  My life has always revolved around some sort of curriculum or syllabus and has been divided into 9-week and 2-semester intervals.  No more!  It's summer time and for the first time ever, I don't really have a "summer break".  I worked a lot when I was younger during high school and college (even dental school) and I'm so thankful I did.  It showed me life outside of the academic bubble, and I'm fully immersed in that now.

The last few months in Alaska has sort of been me kicking up my feet and not feeling the pressure of performance from outside sources for the first time in my life.  But as those voices from the outside fall away into the past, a new voice has emerged to push me.

Mine.

Ok, weird dude. What's that about?  So without professors and instructors and mentors saying "don't do that" or "let me show you"... even "nice job!" and "good work!", I have to be that for myself now.  It's made me thankful for the training I've received because I have an internal compass of what I want to do and what I want to be.  I have to look at a filling and say "wow that's great!" or look at an impression and say "I really need to take this again", no one is doing that for me.

And it's slowly coalescing into a new vision for my life, one that's still pretty blurry (but getting clearer) right now.  As a believer in Christ, I am constantly pulled towards things and ideas that allow me to give to others more than I take.

Just an introspective post for you guys.  Remember that all the training you're going through is helping you develop your voice.

Specific questions can be sent to my email.  Comments are moderated so they take a couple weeks sometimes for me to check up on.  Have a great summer!

Life after first semester

Seeing as it's been almost 2 months since my last post, I feel I owe my blog another update. Unfortunately, not much has changed. However, I have noticed 3 important things I'd like to share that will hopefully help someone, somehow, someway. Anyway, no new Air Force stuff, so I'll jump right in.

1. Easier classes do not equal better grades

-This is pretty counterintuitive, but hear me out. Last semester I did fairly well for myself. I had a few close calls but made roughly half As and half Bs in what was touted as the 'hardest' semester. No doubt, it was VERY time consuming and quite difficult. This semester, the 'easiest' semester, is no doubt far and away less stressful and time consuming than last semester. However, at my current pace, I'll end up with darn near the same GPA as last semester. Why? I think it has to do with expectation. When we are told something is difficult, we tend to prepare for it to be so. The same is true in reverse. If we are told a class is easy, we don't try as hard (in general). So keep that in mind when you head to dental school. Just because a class is easy doesn't mean you're going to be handed the grade you want without effort. No, it's not effective to put a ton of time in an easier class, but don't walk in and not try just because of what you've heard. Not everyone will be good at the same things so just because it was easy for someone else does not mean it will be the case with you.

2. Fair = unfair?

-We recently took two exams (in different classes). For the first one, a test was given that was outdated, from last years curriculum (it's been largely condensed this year for this particular class). Most of the class did terrible on it for the simple fact that we were not even taught all of the material on it! This is obviously unfair, but since our attendance had been lacking (the lectures are recorded, so we DID watch them all), the professor deemed that it was our lack of effort rather than lack of knowledge that led to the poor scores. Huh? So in other words, us not learning what was on the test had nothing to do with the fact that it wasn't taught? For the record, I made a 58%. My worst test in dental school by roughly 20% points. WOW. There was no score adjustment.

-As for the other test, we were given two versions (half got A, half B). Version A and B contained the exact same questions, just in a different order. As it turned out, version A scores had an average of 27/36 while version B scores had an average of 29/36. Logic would lead one to believe that it just so happened that those with B happened to do better out of their own accord, not due to the difficulty of the exam (because they were the SAME). Our professor, however, decided that somehow the ordering of the questions on form A led those with form A to miss an average of 2 more questions. Once again, huh? So he awarded form A people with 2 bonus points. If you're thinking "how is that fair?", you're not alone. Long story short, someone in the administration at the College of Dentistry did an analysis and found that random distribution of students had created a situation where a disproportionately high number of highly ranked students happened to get form B. Well duh, right? In the end, both versions got 2 extra points.

-The moral of this story (or stories) is that you control your fate. Study hard and do well enough so that when these crazy and weird situations arrise, they have a much lower effect on you. In the first case I was sitting at a very high B going into that test. Needless to say, I dropped quite a bit. Luckily, I ended with an 82% in the class (it only lasted half of the semester) so in the end, it didn't matter to me. Others who were counting on this test to pass the class didn't have that luxury. So even if you don't want to specialize, or just don't feel like studying all that much, find it within your self to try your best so that you don't get stuck in one of these situations. (As a side note, neither of the professors work directly for the College of Dentistry. They are professors that work in other departments that come and teach our science material.)

3. Enjoying dental school has very little to do with dental school

-This is just an option I hold, but I've found that those who have something to look forward to OUTSIDE of dental school tend to be happier in dental school. It seems that those who get caught up in 1 point here and there, a procedure in clinic, etc., tend to be the most stressed out. Relax and do your best, and it will all work out. Oh, and have something you can look forward to every night. Whether it's going home to your spouse, eating some chocolate (guilty), or playing with your dog, don't make dental school your life. It's a part of your life. The way I see it, happiness is 10% your situation, 90% your attitude.

Other than that, things are smooth sailing right now. I work as a tutor for about 7-9 hours/week, depending on the week. I'm also on the lookout for a place to move sometime in August. If I haven't said already, I currently live with my dad about 25 minutes from school. We're selling our house and he'll be getting remarried so it's time to move on! Hopefully it's also time to move closer. Being 25 minutes away from school isn't bad... until you do it every day.

For those looking for just an ounce of Air Force in this post, I'll say this. Each day that goes by I am more and more pleased with my decision to take the scholarship. I can't tell you how much I love being able to sit back and not worry about going into debt. It's nice to even be making some money to do what I want. I'm pretty frugal so I'm trying to save as much as I can just in case, but money stress is something I don't have and don't plan on having ever again. Between the scholarship, my tutoring job, and getting paid to mow a few lawns, this dental school thing is turning into a decent gig! In this economy with school getting more and more expensive, I'm more than happy to trade 4 years in the military for 20 years of paying off loans.

As always, feel free to email me (and follow me on twitter!) if you have questions about the Air Force HPSP, the DAT, dental school, or whatever. I get about 1 email per week from a new person with questions so keep them coming!

And that'll do it!

Well, here it is. I've anticipating writing this post not for the simple fact of writing it, but because it means that I'm done with my first semester of dental school! We had 12 tests our last 2 weeks of school, and I literally studied almost non-stop for 2 weeks except for a few hours I took off on a Saturday night. It was a crazy ride and I'm just so glad it's over. One strange thing I noticed was when I think back on the semester, it's hard to remember specific events. We did virtually the same thing every week for 15 or 16 weeks and it all just seemed to blend together. It's one of those things you look back on and think "wow, that was so long ago" but at the same time it feels like it was "just yesterday". Long story short, taking 25.5 credit hours will mess with your head.

I don't think I want to specialize. So naturally, grades are fairly irrelevant. For some reason, I couldn't make my self just "give up" during finals week. My thought was this: finals week is going to end at the exact same time whether I work like crazy or just settle for average grades. Needless to say, I went for it and worked like crazy and I'm glad I did. It was a wonderful feeling being done with school AND knowing I did the best I could. I think more than anything, it's that attitude that will define who I am as a dentist and a person, not the grades. If I had pushed myself that hard and not gotten the grades I wanted, that wouldn't have been the point anyway. It really wasn't about the numbers for me, but more so about proving to myself that I could do it and pushing my limits as far as they would go to see what I was made of. Must be something left over from all those football practices in high school or something, but that competitor in me just won't die. If there is one piece of advice I could give in terms of working hard, it would be this: just do your best as often as you can stand it. It's not about being better than anyone else, or getting higher grades, or being better in clinic. It's about taking YOU as far as you can go because at the end of the day, the only person you control is yourself, so don't settle for less than your full effort. The more you make hard work part of who you are, the more it will become a habit.

Well that's enough for my lecture, haha. Here is a quick rundown of my semester with a few tips that may help you guys:

Work hard. I talked about this a LOT already, but working hard will get you where you need to go and will let you prove to yourself who you really are.

Don't be afraid to make friends. You're going to be better off working together than splitting out on your own and trying to be the best. Some people may try this, but it's much easier and fun when you've got people going through it with you.

For those on the Air Force scholarship, make sure you get your reimbursements in ASAP. Don't wait around and make sure you are getting paid back for what is required! Don't settle for paying for small things that the AF would pay you back for, get paid for ALL of it. You earned the scholarship, so take advantage of it! (Example: I almost didn't send in a reimbursement for an $80 syllabus but I decided to anyway. I thought it was "just $80" and no big deal but I'm glad I just sent it in. It's silly not to, just get reimbursed for everything that you can!)

Don't argue with teachers. Just because you think you're right (and maybe you are) you are in professional school and so treat your teachers with respect. We had a few instances of people making comments in class that just blew my mind. Be respectful of those in charge, even if you don't agree.

Remember where you came from. Don't get too down when things aren't going your way, because there are lots of people (especially these days) that would kill for the chance to trade you places. You worked hard to get into dental school and remember how badly you wanted it. Don't get selfish and pouty when things aren't perfect. You're fortunate to be where you are, and if you do your work, you'll get out and be a dentist like all your classmates. Dental school may suck at times, but life could be much much worse.

You are being looked up to whether you know it or not, so act professionally. I think this is self-explanatory.

Respect the upper-classmen because no matter how awesome you think you are, they've been where you've been. Learn from them and listen to them and respect them. Regardless of your opinion of someone in the class above you, they've done more than you have to respect that.

Understand that your classmates have come from all sorts of places. I was one of the youngest in my class and many students were 2nd and 3rd time applications. Several had kids, about half were married or engaged, and several were in their late 20's and even early 30's. You're not in undergrad anymore where everyone is within 3 years of you, you're going to be dealing with all sorts of people, so be ready and understanding of others' situations. Just keep in mind that not everyone took your path to get here and not everyone will take your path to get out.

This is going to sound a little childish, but get involved! Just do something other than school because it will make you feel more a part of your new campus and your new dental school life. If the extent of your dental school experience is studying, you're not going to be very happy. Branch out and go do things!

Work hard all semester. Don't say "oh I can let this test slide" because in a month, that might not be true. You have to take advantage of every test and quiz so that if something does go wrong later down the line, you're not in a hole. Lots of students didn't work hard during the semester and that killed them during finals. If for no other reason, work hard in the semester to give yourself a good cushion going into finals week.

Well that's about all for now. For those interested, I ended the semester with roughly a 3.55, giving me a 3.475 overall (counting anatomy). I'm very happy with that and it was due in large part to my work during finals week. I sent in my reimbursement package for my loupes last week and should be getting the money for that in a couple weeks. The new schedule is official, so that means no COT next year. I think I may end up doing it after I graduate.

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas and as always, feel free to e-mail me with any questions about dental school or the Air Force scholarship!

Almost there!

Can a month in dental school be totally un-memorable? Well I think I've found it and it's the month of November. This was by far the most average month I've had so far. I had no Air Force reimbursements, no truly difficult weeks, and really nothing super awesome (except my birthday!). I hate to break it to you all, but there's just not much to report from an Air Force perspective. I had some tests, did well enough, and am looking at (hopefully) a 50/50 split with A's and B's. I was seriously considering just doing enough to get B's in all my classes but my inner competitor came out last weekend and I got really motivated to study like crazy these next two weeks. I think it's a good thing because it can't ever hurt to have better grades. Besides, everyone else will be studying so it isn't like it's really going to benefit me to sit on the couch a little more. Might as well push it to the max! I've already gotten more B's than I did in 4 years of undergrad, so that was a bit discouraging, but I keep reminding myself that this is a whole different deal and it's my effort, not always my grades, that's going to make me successful.

We found out a few weeks ago that our schedules will be undergoing a massive overhaul beginning EITHER next summer or fall. For the incoming class, they will begin under the new system. As you all know (or at least now you will) my plan was to go to COT in the summer of 2011. If the new schedule takes effect this next summer, that will not be happening. We'll only have 3 weeks off, which is not enough time regardless of when COT beings and ends. So in all likelihood I may just move COT to 2014 after I graduate and stop fussing with it. I'm still disappointed I didn't just do it last year before dental school, but doing it after school has it's benefits too. I'll be a higher rank, it'll be fresher on my mind, and I won't run the risk of growing out of my clothes before active duty. Either way, it will all work out. As for the new schedule itself, the goal is to create a test block environment where we only take a few classes at a time, take their finals, and then move onto new classes; rather than taking 26 credit hours spread out over 4 months, this would mean taking about 6 hours at once for a month, and then 6 more, etc. It will hopefully lighten the burden and allow us to really sink our teeth into the material. They're also thinking about changing our clinics to make them less "requirement" oriented so there is less competition for patients and such, but I have yet to see a patient so I won't comment on this because, quite frankly, I don't know enough about it now to know how drastically it will change.

I did order my loupes yesterday, and I'm waiting on my school to write me a "proof of requirement" letter so the Air Force will reimburse for them. Our school tells us to have them, but it's not officially written anywhere so I have to have the school type up a letter so the Air Force won't think I'm asking them to buy stuff I don't need. for those interested, the Air Force (as of December 2010) covers $1,100 for loupes and $300 for a light attachment. That's a total of $1400, ad most companies have a student deal just under the (for example, my package with loupes and light run $1370). They don't really have individual prices in the package so they just write up the receipt for $1100 loupes and $270 light so I can get it all covered. For those wondering, I got the Designs for Vision black nike pounce frames with 3.5x magnification. (http://www.designsforvision.com/DentHtml/D-Frame.htm)

Finals are around the corner and I have 12 tests and 1 quiz in 9 straight school days starting this Tuesday. 5 this coming week with a quiz, and 7 next week. I'll be back after I get my grades and report on how my first semester went and let you all know how smoothly the loupes reimbursement goes. If my prior reimbursements with the Air Force are any indication, it should be no problem.

Oh, and I hear our spring semester is pretty light compared to the fall semester I'm in right now, so I've agreed to work at my old job tutoring just chemistry for 5 hours a week next semester. Should be no problem but we'll see how it goes!

Is that a light I see?

Well, the semester is almost half way over, and I can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I've had exams in all but 2 classes now (2 dental classes that have very few tests) and I'm sitting in a very good spot in all of them. I'm in the high B or low A range in all my basic sciences, and in the A range in all my dental classes. Odds are that is how it will end up in December when this craziness is over. One of the best decisions I made was to study study study like crazy the first month of school. It was a grind every day but I put myself in such a good position that I am feeling very little stress in any of my classes. I have significant cushion so that if anything crazy happens, I'll be just fine. I truly feel like the hardest part of the semester is over, because now I have a feel for all my classes and luckily I did well at the beginning and should be able to improve or stay the same if necessary.

As for the Air Force, nothing has changed since my last post. I haven't sent in any reimbursements or anything so nothing new there.

Here are a few tips I have for the first part of dental school that might be helpful for anyone applying right now and wondering what it's like:

- You will be taking an insane amount of classes. Keep in mind that none of the material is any harder than it was in undergrad, it's just much more. You must prioritize. Waiting until the day before to study for a test worked in undergrad, but here, you'll need to study well in advance. Not because it's hard, but because you have 1000 other things to study for.

- Study HARD right out of the gate. Even if you don't think you want to specialize, making good grades early will only make your life easier. It's much better getting an A on a test and having room to fall later on than getting a C and knowing you've got to keep fighting just to stay where you are.

- Have a plan for every day. When I go to bed every night, I've already looked at my schedule for the next day and I know exactly what I will be doing. Now I don't micromanage every second, but I know that "I'm going to skip physiology and study for this quiz, then go to biochemistry... etc., and once I get home at 5:30 I'm going to watch TV for a while until 6:30 and study until 11". If I give myself structure, then I'm not flying by the seat of my pants every day trying to remember what needs to get done. It makes days less stressful because I know I'm not forgetting something.

- BE A TEAM PLAYER. This is the biggest thing by far. It is critical that you get with a good group of people that you can study with and you need to be willing to share what you know in exchange for what other people know. We have systems where people will make notes for a certain class, someone will set up online flashcards for it, another person will type up questions for this or that. It's a huge burden lifted when you feel like part of a team rather than just 1 out of 56 students trying to survive.

- Have fun! You need to do fun things that bring you joy and not get so focused on school. Keep everything in perspective and remember that everything will turn out just fine. Take time to play basketball, go to concerts, go our to eat, and normal stuff. Yes, you will be much busier with school, but staying sane is just as valuable as anything.

That's all for now... probably headed off to bed and then a big day of studying tomorrow!

Getting up to speed

Well, if you've been keeping track of my other posts, you'd know that I'm a few weeks into fall semester now. Anatomy ended back in early August, and I began fall semester exactly 1 month ago. So far, everything has really been great! I've made a lot of friends in my class and we all seem to be working together and helping each other out a lot. This is making it much easier, not just from a grade standpoint, but also just from a sanity standpoint. It's much easier to get through the day when you feel like you're part of a team rather than doing this alone.

Switching gears a bit, you may recall that I scored decently on my first anatomy exam. A C on the practical and a B on the written test. I ended up getting A's on both for the final and received a high B in the class. Well, as it turns out, that first C I made still holds the record for lowest grade in dental school so far! I made a B on a quiz, an 88 on two tests, and everything else has been an A! It seems like I just needed to really get back in the swing of things and remember how this whole school thing worked... I think I've got it figured out.

One of the hardest parts about studying in dental school is feeling overwhelmed. That's no surprise really when you're in 25.5 credit hours in one semester. With so many classes comes so many tests and quizzes. You really have to sit down and make a list of what needs to get done, decide what's most important, and do that first. It can be difficult at times, but you've got to make yourself do it. Another thing about studying is that it just doesn't work to study everything when a test gets closer. You almost literally have to study each night that which you learned in class earlier in the day. It's crucial to make sure you at least understand it all early enough that you can ask questions before a test rolls around.

As for the Air Force, not much has changed here. I've only sent in 1 more reimbursement since my books and it was paid for with no problems. They're still, by my measurement, the fastest e-mailers on the planet. It's a really pleasure to not only have a financial burden lifted, but for the people doing it to be so helpful and professional.

Well, I'm just plugging along. I'll try to update within the next month again, even though this right here is probably going to be the story until December.

Maybe something crazy will happen that I can share.

As always, don't hesitate to look around on here or e-mail me questions!

Stage 1: Complete

Well, I did it! Today I took my anatomy final and I am officially done with my first class of dental school. It was a bit weird because I've pretty much been doing nothing but anatomy for a bit over a month so it seemed to come to a very abrupt end. I don't have my scores from my test yet, but I'm almost 100% certain that I'll end with a B in the class. I needed a 98-100% to get an A, so I can bet that didn't happen. We start up again August 18th will our fall classes, so I have a small little break and I hope to let of some steam and just hang out (and maybe study ahead?) until then.

A quick word about grades for everyone...

I was the kind of guy that HATED getting B's in college and I managed to stay in the A range all but twice. In dental school your mindset has to change a little because it's just not the same game anymore. Not only are your classmates far more intelligent/hardworking than your peers in undergrad, there is more material in less time and it's often more difficult. You've made it to dental school, and now all you have to do is pass to become a dentist. If you get bent on getting A's, you'll kill yourself trying to get them. Now, with that, you need to do your VERY BEST to get good grades if your intent is to specialize. As another side note, getting a C is alright, but odds are you know much less than people making A's and B's and thus, theoretically, they'll be a better dentist. In reality though, just relax and do your best. Remember, your best is ALWAYS good enough!

My 3rd reimbursement came in the other day (for health insurance) as well as my 2nd stipend. All of my tuition/fees for the fall have been deferred and everything is still running unbelievably smoothly. I had my doubts coming into this thing, but I'm truly blown away with how great the Air Force has been. I just e-mailed out a reimbursement for my fall semester books so I'll keep you all updated on how that goes. So far, it looks like it's taking roughly 20 days to get money from a reimbursement from the time I send it to AFIT and the time the money appears in my bank account.

(AFIT stands for Air Force Institute of Technology. They are my point of contact while I'm on scholarship. In other words, they handle everything other than my stipend stuff)

Off to do a whole lot of nothing for a while!

And so it begins

Well, I've got my first 3 weeks of dental school under my belt and it has certainly been an interesting experience. One of the things that surprised me most was how young I was compared to my classmates. I came to dental school straight out of college but most (and when I say most, I mean about 45 of the 60) have taken at least 1 or 2 years off, probably half are re-applicants, and many are in their late 20's or early 30's. This really surprised me because I had always assumed it was normal to go from college to dental school. I feel very fortunate to have made it this far so early in my life.

Another thing that I've been doing is my anatomy class. We take anatomy in the summer (from about July 1 to August 5) so it's pretty crazy. We got quick lectures on arms, legs, and back, but will only be tested on material covering the thorax, abdomen, pelvis, head, and neck. Our first test was a few days ago (thorax, abdomen, pelvis) and so far I only have my results from the lab practical. It was a standard dissection lab where we rotate through and identify structures on a human body. I've never been good at this, I much prefer the more "problem solving" type learning rather than memorizing type stuff and I ended up with a C on this part. I was a bit shocked at first because it had been about 2 years since I made a C on a test. One thing I remember coming into dental school was all the students really emphasized the fact that grades are not the most important thing in school (unless you intend to specialize) and I'm still coming to terms with this. Not that it's ok to do poorly all the time, but that you just have to accept what you get and move on because when it comes to it, you'll be a dentist regardless. I hear this our most difficult class the first year so I'm sure everything will be fine. I'm glad I got that first test out of the way because now I know what worked and what didn't when trying to cram a huge amount of information in my brain for a test in just 8-10 days. Besides, I feel better about the biochemistry/neuroanatomy, etc. type classes coming up because I've never been much of a 'lab' guy. I'm ready to start doing some dentist stuff! I'm sure it will all work out, and I feel much better about the written portion of the test that we took that same day. Still waiting on the results for that part, I'll tweet that in a day or two when we get the scores. Hoping for an A!

As for the Air Force HPSP, all of that is going well. I got a reimbursement rejected last week for not giving adequate proof of who my insurance was purchased from, but I plan to e-mail a credit card statement in a few days which should clear that up with no problem.

I finally got a regular stipend payment on the 15th of July, and it was exactly what I expected. It was $1030 (half of the monthly $2060) minus some taxes. Came out to about $930. One thing I have loved about this experience is how little I've had to do. I literally had to do nothing to get the school and the Air Force on the same page, the Air Force handled all of that for me. I have already verified that my bursar tuition/fees were covered by the Air Force and I have had absolutely no hiccups with the finances at all. More importantly, the Air Force treats me with as much respect as I treat them, and I take this relationship very seriously. It's great to have such an organized and professional group of people on your side. I couldn't be happier with my decision up to this point.

As you might have seen, I haven't done COT yet but will be going next summer. Just a reminder for anyone looking into what that's like. I'll let you know in a year!

More on that really quick. If you are selected on a 4-year scholarship, you're expected to go to COT before your 1st year unless you have a scheduling conflict with school. Well I did have a minor (it was an informal welcome dinner type thing, not nearly as critical as I had expected) conflict and got COT moved, but in hindsight, I wish I would have gone to COT this summer before school. I think I would have felt more like a part of the Air Force team and it would have been a good kickstart to dental school. I also loved having the time off, but right now, part of me wonders if waiting on COT was the best move. I'm sure it's not a big deal either way, however, it would have been nice to get paid a few thousand $ for that and feel more like a part of the Air Force.

That's all for now... I'll probably update again when anatomy is over around August 5th! School starts up again on August 18th (weird timing... I know) so I'll have a little break before my ~25 credit hours come crashing down on me.

Don't hesitate to e-mail me if anyone out there has questions about the program or dental school!

The good old college days

College was (as it is for most) a time of immense change. As I left off in my earlier post, I left high school thinking I wanted to be an architect and came into college thinking maybe an architect, engineer, or doctor. All of them sounded like quite lofty goals, and I had no idea what was coming my way...

Freshman year, my first class (ever) was engineering calculus. About 30 minutes of sitting in that class scared the heck out of me and I decided to drop it and just forget engineering. Seriously... I dropped my first college class ever. Once again, math was my barrier and I wasn't willing to jump over it. So I switched into thinking about medicine, my other idea when I came into college.

That first semester, I also took a class called "Intro to Health Professions", which is what really turned me from medicine to dentistry. I heard a dentist come in and talk about how he liked the fusion of medicine and detail work (the kind of detail work that my architecture/engineering style mind loved to do). So I started going to some Pre-Dental Club meetings and next thing you know... I was hooked.

I met an orthodontist at Pre-Dental Club named Dr. Revels and he was a life-saver for me. I shadowed him quite a bit and he ended up writing one of my letters of recommendation when I eventually applied to dental school. He also was a big reason I pursued the Air Force HPSP (check the top of the page for more details on what that is) scholarship for dental school.

I made sure to keep up my grades, and suffered only 1 B (intro to psychology... WHAT?!) so I was on the right track.

Sophomore year, I hit the dentistry thing at full speed. I was elected as the Vice President of Communications of my fraternity and Secretary of the Pre-Dental Club. I also managed all A's through fairly rigorous science courses. My main focus this year was expanding myself. I tried to not just focus on grades but also on volunteering, leadership, etc. I kept up with my shadowing (for those that don't know what this means, check out the 'Pre-Dental Process' tab up top) and made sure I was taking the right classes. I started to understand the amount of work it was going to take to get into dental school and I soon found out that studying was going to be an every day thing. As I'll explain later, it certainly paid off.

Another thing I started doing during this year was taking summer, december, and may intersession classes. I didn't always NEED them (in one case, with Organic Chemistry 1, I actually did need it ASAP and took it summer between Soph and Junior yr.) but I took them just because I had to have them eventually and it gave me something to do. This eventually let me graduate early, which I'll discuss later.

Overall, this was sort of my 'plug away' year. I expanded my horizons and got involved with lots of different things and hit them all at full steam. I had managed to come away with all but 1 A freshman year and nailed a 4.0 both semesters of my sophomore year. As I would find out shortly, however, grades and leadership weren't enough to get into dental school... during my Junior year, I met the giant DAT monster.

Junior year, my classes were even harder... but I was more prepared to handle them. Despite this, I wound up with another B (Biochemistry) and ran for office again in my fraternity (this time, a relative downgrade to 'parking chair'... which was no fun at all) and in Pre-Dental Club (an upgrade here, to president!). So with my leadership rocking along and my grades holding steady, I faced a foe that tested me to the core.

In October of my Junior year (before I was elected to my new offices in December) I took a practice DAT for free with Kaplan. There are lots of these available, check out 'Pre-Dental' for links in your area. I scored a meager 15 but it was enough to convince me that I had the base knowledge required to shoot for an early try... my goal was to study over Christmas break and take it just before I went back to school in late January. A lofty goal indeed. For a breakdown of the DAT and how to prepare for it, go up top to the 'DAT' section.

Long story short, I did well enough to be pretty happy with my score (that is, after I freaked out 3 days before I was supposed to take the test, moved it back a week, got sick, had my car die the morning of the test... you know... the usual).

So there I was. Grades where I wanted them, lots of leadership and shadowing, and a solid DAT score. Now for the hard part... actually getting in to dental school.

Side note: I actually discovered that I could graduate early from all of the summer/intersession classes I took. Fantastic! This would end up cutting my Senior year into a Senior semester.

Summer between Junior and Senior year... this was when all the applying went down. I applied to USC, OU, Marquette, Nova Southeastern, and Creighton. I had very good reasons for each (in a way...) and I was happy with my choices. I pretty much spent the summer working and getting all my application stuff together as well as getting my letters of recommendation together...

Oh, and this was the time I started seriously looking into the Air Force HPSP.

Senior Year... Um actually, this turned out to be more like a half year, like I said earlier. This was the tail end of me being president of the Pre-Dental Club which was a great experience. I took my capstone class, as well as some other classes, and finished up with my college journey! But what about dental school?...

In October, I got an interview request from both Nova and USC... I pushed my Nova interview from mid-October to Dec 18 (in hopes that OU would take me on December 1) and I had no choice but to go out to USC when they offered so I got a nice little mid-semester trip to LA! OU got in touch with me in November and I went to that interview in early November.

On December 1, I got an e-mail from the OU College of Dentistry telling me I was accepted to dental school! My brain let out this massive sigh of relief that it had been holding back for the last 3 years and I promptly withdrew my application from all other schools once my deposit at OU was paid a few weeks later.

Around the end of my semester, I got a job as a high school math and chemistry tutor with a lady that is friends with my dad. I must say, it was the luckiest thing that happened to me because I was looking at possibly waiting tables again for a whole 6 months from January to July... and I just wasn't too excited about it.

(I also got accepted to the 4 year Air Force HPSP in early February 2010... I know that's not really Senior year, but we'll count it.)

So I'm accepted to dental school, accepted to the Air Force HPSP, and tutoring about 20 hours a week...

And that is where I am now... so read on and see what's going on with me right now!