Keep in mind, first year of dental school will be very different from school to school!
With that said, I'll share some of my first year experiences at Nova. Traditionally, second year of dental school is the most rigorous and challenging across the country. This is true because of the vast amount of lab work that is integrated in the second year curriculum PLUS you have the NBDE Part I to worry about.
Now, I say that Year-Two is no longer the most challenging year here at Nova and Year-One is because of the following reasons:
1) This past year, second semester, we had 33 semester credits (15 classes). Now, please correct me if I'm wrong, I believe that Nova was the only dental school in the country with that amount of course load for their first year students! It's unheard of! Even our second year dental students couldn't believe it because their first year second semester wasn't that bad!
2) Since some of us are taking the Part I board this July, now that's out of the way. Again, that lessen the stress that was traditionally added to the Year-two curriculum.
What I'm trying to say here is for us at Nova, Year-One was the most insane, rigorous, and challenging year while Year-Two is for most other dental schools.
My other first year experiences:
1) I was the Class President of my class during my first year last year. It was a great rewarding position. There are times where I was dealing some issues with classmates that I simply can't understand why I ran for this position, but I strongly would reccommend you to get involved in Student Government if that's your thing.
2) Organizations and clubs are definitely a must. I joined an international dental fraternity, PSI OMEGA, here at Nova. I also joined American Student Dental Association (ASDA), Student Osteopathic Surgery Association (SOSA) with the DO school here at Nova due to my interests in oral surgery, and I was nominated and selected to be a PRESIDENTIAL KNIGHT (a student ambassador, for the whole University not only for the dental school). Get involved = you'll get more out of your dental education.
3) I had a little trouble budgeting my money in the first semester. Once I received my financial aid check I think I had $11,000.00 to live on for August to December. Instead of paying my first year dental instruments and equipment in the amount of $5700.00 in two installments, I paid it in full right off the bat! So then I had only $6300.00 left. For student health insurance with Checkering, I had to pay $1200.00 and I paid that right off the bat as well, so my bank account is down to $5100.00!
On top of that, it was my first time in South Florida, couple of trips down to Miami and crazy nights with my then new classmates, it was very easy to blow some sizable amount of cash the first two weeks of school. Needless to say, the amount of money I had left for my first semester living expenses were VERY VERY TIGHT! I actually had to borrow $$ from my roommate for the last month of the semester to survive.
Due to my first semester inexperience, I smarted up for my second semester. I budgeted, I went out much less, and I'm still going strong. Bottom line here, you must budget and be smart about your loan money. A lot of my classmates had outside help from parents in addition to the financial aid. For those of us that are living SOLELY on borrowed money, BE SURE to budget and be conservative on your spendings.
4) Academics: Everyone studies different. I cram. I learn, but I cram! My first year grades at 3.54 aren't the best, but they're not bad by any means. If I would've studied all the time, then I probably had no problem getting my grades even higher up. If you put in the time, you'll pass. If you studied and read what you're suppose to at least once, you'll pass. If you studied and read everything that you're suppose to at least twice, you'll get (B)s. If you did everything three times, you'll get (A)s!
I remember distinctively that there are nights when I have a huge exam the very next day at 8 AM, I'd be watching the Bachelorette at 9 PM the night before when I'm suppose to be studying. Things like this can easily be avoided, but I chose not to study! That exam grade probably suffered, but it was what I chose to do that hurt my exam grade.
Dental school is only tough because of its academic load. You'll going to have 12 exam right in a row or for 3 months straight (at least two exams a week) depending on how the curriculum set up the exams. You'll have long days where you just want to go home and relax after 5:30 PM, but you'll have to work out, or eat, or take care of your children, or hang out with your partner, or whatever. It will be draining, I guarantee you!
It's a great feeling to have completed your first year of dental school. One thing for sure looking back, first year definitely had gone by like a blink of an eye.
