nicely said! I totally agree.
But on the whole thing of being a minority, I don't see swarms of them in dental schools though from people I've talked to currently in professional schools.
I work with a hispanic dental hygenist currently who is currently completing her bs in dental hygeine at a texas dental school and she's told me that she has yet to see one black student but she's seen a couple of hispanics. She told me that I will definately see what it means to be a minority when I go visit. I was like damn.
I've been in different conferences where black med students from a texas med school told me how they were shocked when the walked into med school and had like only one other black person in whatever class they were in. That they really didn't have people to relate to. Their advisor too has written papers on how his life goals involve increasing the number of minority students in med school but the numbers are slowly increasing.
I've even seen the graduating classes of different dental schools on their website and not one minority person. kinda strange with all this hoopla.
From talking to these people first hand, I'm not seeing how being a minority helps cuz I'm certainly not relying on that.
-ld
dental school will be a serious Cultural shock!!! your hygienist friend is telling the truth...i went to hygiene school, i was the only black person in my class and the 2nd year hygiene students did not have a black person in thier class...my class had 3 hispanic women, 1 black woman (myself) and the rest we're white....at the time i had a 3.8 gpa, so i KNOW i got in on stats, and i'd dare someone to say i didn't...in general i have more hispanic friends than i have white, my bestfriend for the last 5 years is white( so her and i love to have this talk, and a good laugh) but being at school with no one who is like you AT all, i know boo hoo poor me
, not all but most of my classmates came from not rich familys, but really well off backgrounds, brand new cars, parents who went to europe on vacation, and um, i rode the bus to school, and my mom is an elementary drop out, my first year was HARD******(see note at bottom), you think it doesn't matter but it does, and i'm not like oh the world is out to get the black people, blah blah blah, and certainly i'm sure there are non minorities that have had it WAAAY worse than me and more than i will ever know, but at school they don't make you feel different, you just know you are....it's like being the fattest person in the room, the tallest/shortest person, the only one wearing gym shorts when everyone is formal...you know when your out of place and no one has to tell you
then now to find out that people are going to be looking at me like they just let me in... i get it i don't have to prove anything to anyone, but it's like eventually people will have to call me Doctor, and there will still be people who don't respect me and think that they just gave me my dds degree and oh freaking well, they don't pay my bills they didn't sign my diploma
i hope i get in this application cycle...my gpa...eh 3.4 scigpa 3.3 haven't taken my dat...but after reading the dat forum, yeah seems like i'll need at least a 22 to be semi competitive. i don't think a gpa of 3.4 is good for something as competitive as dental school, so i've been trying to raise it like crazy! i even thought of not applying this year because of it, and then the little, "eh what do i have to lose" kicks in so i'm going for it....so what i've been counting on is:
the fact that i have dental experience as a dental hygienist (6 yrs)
that i got into UTHSCSA twice for dental hygiene, (certificate program, then bachelors degree program)
so hopefully the UTHSCSA loves alumni
i know i'm now beating the dead horse with this...but i'm like if just one person reading this thread gains a new perspective on their future "minority" dental school classmates,
if you can look at your minority classmate and NOT think that they took the spot of some well deserving non minority...then i did good.
******with posting on these threads you have to make sure you cover your #$$ or people will attack you!!! ok so um, not all black people or minorities are as poor as i was growing up, and not all non-minorites are rich or well off,i wasn't really describing race there it was more like i had grown up on a poorer side of town, and seeing people with so many things i never had going places i'd never been, makes you feel out of place too