Hi everyone!
I just wrapped up my application for dental school and I wanted to share some things I've learned from this cycle to those of you who are just about to start the cycle. This isn't about how to write an award winning personal statement or how to ace the DAT, but rather about some of emotions that I have felt throughout this application cycle that some other dental applicants may empathize with.
When you first make the decision to apply to dental school, you can be quickly overwhelmed by the amount of things you need to do -- open an AADSAS account, sign up for the DAT, PAY for the DAT, study for the DAT, keep up with your coursework or work a full-time job, write a personal statement, edit the statement, revise the statement x10, decide to completely rewrite your statement, study more for the DAT and realize the day before the exam that you don't remember anything you studied for the past 4 weeks, maybe pay an extra fee to postpone the exam only to feel even more anxious and worried, you may question if dentistry if right for you, you will lurk on SDN and see people with insanely high DAT scores and wonder if they are really human, you will finally get the courage to take the exam, you will start deciding which professors to ask recommendations from, you will wonder if the professor even remembers you but you don't have many other options, you will decide which dental schools to apply to, you will question your GPA while looking at dental school admission statistics and wonder "am i good enough?", you will look at your calender and realize that time is ticking and wait...first batch? third batch?, eventually you will close your eyes and click submit but only to see another obstacle waiting: the payment due, you will inwardly cry as you type in your credit card number.
Then you can breathe for a bit. You feel some relief...the application has been submitted! Now it's up to the Dental school toothfairy-admission-gods to determine if you are worthy of an interview. Oh but wait, there are supplementary essays and even worse...supplementary application fees. You will realize you will need a 1x1 photo of yourself and try to take an awkward selfie with your camera phone and realize you look horrendous and decide to go to walgreens only to get a set of even more horrendous looking photos, you might even think: am i too ugly to be a dentist?
During this "application cycle hiatus", you will continuously refresh SDN and see if other people have received interviews. You might feel like EVERYONE has an interview but you. But you wait your turn. You will refresh your email in-box and then when you least expect it, you receive that email-- INTERVIEW! Score!
You will feel excited and nervous about your upcoming interview. You will book plane tickets and hotels, you will start doing research on the city and try to envision yourself living there, you will try to do a mock interview and try to rehearse, and then...you will wait until your interview day.
Eventually the day of your interview will come. You will be wearing a black suit and walk into a room of other blacked suited applicants, you might start comparing yourself to the other interviewees -- great smile, went to XYZ college, so interesting, non-traditional, whoa...cool hair -- and wonder
o i belong here?.
You will meet your interviewer. You will feel nervous and talk too fast. After the interview, you will replay the entire interview and wonder: OMG DID I REALLY SAY THAT? WHY?.
Eventually, you may get more interviews or perhaps none at all and you will wait until the beginning of december.
Then that day comes...the first business day of December and you are ready. You are excited. You are nervous. You anxiously sit by your phone, waiting for a call or perhaps you continuously refresh your email while simultaneously checking SDN to see if anyone has gotten an acceptance. You will be so NERVOUS. you will be so worried. you will think...i spent hundreds, perhaps even thousands of dollars on this application...what will i do if i don't get in? Eventually, the day is almost over and you receive nothing from your top choice school. you may get into a school where you thought the interview went horrendously. But nonetheless, you feel sad that you didn't hear anything from that school. You might get angry when you see others who have been accepted and wonder: what do they have that idon't have? am i right for dentistry?
You may not even hear back from any school you interviewed at and you will be angry, sad, depressed, unhappy...You may get a rejection.
After a few weeks, you might receive another interview. You debate whether to go. You may think, if I couldn't get into my top choice school or XYZ school how will I get into that school? But you might think: YOLO and keep on trudging. You may still be in college and trying to keep up with school and finding motivation might become difficult. You grades might suffer and you will wonder: wonder if my offer gets rescinded? You may be working a full-time and juggling so many other obligations and start getting behind on almost everything. You become nervous and scared about the future.
Eventually, months go by, and you feel content about the school you have been accepted to and will feel ready to go but then you might be eating cheetos in front of the couch and your phone rings. that top choice school that you didn't hear back from? Well...they are offering you a spot! You jump up and down with joy. But then you realize, do I really want to? Is this worth it?
You will be worried about financing your education, taking out those huge loans, and seeing those posts on SDN that scream "dentists don't make as much as they used to! can't find a dentist job where I live!". You will wonder: Am I making the right choice?
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But let me tell you: There is a light at the end of the tunnel. Yes, it sounds cliche but trust me, you can get through this! Personally, this application cycle was an emotional burden. And I sought out help. This isn't a plug to see a psychiatrist or block SDN from your browser but it is a post to remember to take care of yourself during the application cycle. Don't get sucked into a black hole. Seek out resources if you feel like you are going INSANE. Find a support group of friends and family. Go outside and run.
I've gotten rejections, acceptances, and no-responses. I've been sad, happy, excited, nervous, and angry. But eventually, everything worked out. And things will work out for you, too! Trust me on this. Even if you didn't get into the school you wanted or you got no acceptances at all, it will be okay. And for those of you who might be thinking: I'm not even sure I want to be a dentist anymore. Go back and think about the time you first decided to be a dentist...perhaps when you were shadowing or when you were a kid visiting your own dentist. Don't forget that moment. You can do this!
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Sorry this post is so long. If you read it all, I applaud you. But I hope this helps someone who might be feeling sad or unhappy. You can PM if you like and I can try to answer any questions you may have.
I just wrapped up my application for dental school and I wanted to share some things I've learned from this cycle to those of you who are just about to start the cycle. This isn't about how to write an award winning personal statement or how to ace the DAT, but rather about some of emotions that I have felt throughout this application cycle that some other dental applicants may empathize with.
When you first make the decision to apply to dental school, you can be quickly overwhelmed by the amount of things you need to do -- open an AADSAS account, sign up for the DAT, PAY for the DAT, study for the DAT, keep up with your coursework or work a full-time job, write a personal statement, edit the statement, revise the statement x10, decide to completely rewrite your statement, study more for the DAT and realize the day before the exam that you don't remember anything you studied for the past 4 weeks, maybe pay an extra fee to postpone the exam only to feel even more anxious and worried, you may question if dentistry if right for you, you will lurk on SDN and see people with insanely high DAT scores and wonder if they are really human, you will finally get the courage to take the exam, you will start deciding which professors to ask recommendations from, you will wonder if the professor even remembers you but you don't have many other options, you will decide which dental schools to apply to, you will question your GPA while looking at dental school admission statistics and wonder "am i good enough?", you will look at your calender and realize that time is ticking and wait...first batch? third batch?, eventually you will close your eyes and click submit but only to see another obstacle waiting: the payment due, you will inwardly cry as you type in your credit card number.
Then you can breathe for a bit. You feel some relief...the application has been submitted! Now it's up to the Dental school toothfairy-admission-gods to determine if you are worthy of an interview. Oh but wait, there are supplementary essays and even worse...supplementary application fees. You will realize you will need a 1x1 photo of yourself and try to take an awkward selfie with your camera phone and realize you look horrendous and decide to go to walgreens only to get a set of even more horrendous looking photos, you might even think: am i too ugly to be a dentist?
During this "application cycle hiatus", you will continuously refresh SDN and see if other people have received interviews. You might feel like EVERYONE has an interview but you. But you wait your turn. You will refresh your email in-box and then when you least expect it, you receive that email-- INTERVIEW! Score!
You will feel excited and nervous about your upcoming interview. You will book plane tickets and hotels, you will start doing research on the city and try to envision yourself living there, you will try to do a mock interview and try to rehearse, and then...you will wait until your interview day.
Eventually the day of your interview will come. You will be wearing a black suit and walk into a room of other blacked suited applicants, you might start comparing yourself to the other interviewees -- great smile, went to XYZ college, so interesting, non-traditional, whoa...cool hair -- and wonder
o i belong here?.You will meet your interviewer. You will feel nervous and talk too fast. After the interview, you will replay the entire interview and wonder: OMG DID I REALLY SAY THAT? WHY?.
Eventually, you may get more interviews or perhaps none at all and you will wait until the beginning of december.
Then that day comes...the first business day of December and you are ready. You are excited. You are nervous. You anxiously sit by your phone, waiting for a call or perhaps you continuously refresh your email while simultaneously checking SDN to see if anyone has gotten an acceptance. You will be so NERVOUS. you will be so worried. you will think...i spent hundreds, perhaps even thousands of dollars on this application...what will i do if i don't get in? Eventually, the day is almost over and you receive nothing from your top choice school. you may get into a school where you thought the interview went horrendously. But nonetheless, you feel sad that you didn't hear anything from that school. You might get angry when you see others who have been accepted and wonder: what do they have that idon't have? am i right for dentistry?
You may not even hear back from any school you interviewed at and you will be angry, sad, depressed, unhappy...You may get a rejection.
After a few weeks, you might receive another interview. You debate whether to go. You may think, if I couldn't get into my top choice school or XYZ school how will I get into that school? But you might think: YOLO and keep on trudging. You may still be in college and trying to keep up with school and finding motivation might become difficult. You grades might suffer and you will wonder: wonder if my offer gets rescinded? You may be working a full-time and juggling so many other obligations and start getting behind on almost everything. You become nervous and scared about the future.
Eventually, months go by, and you feel content about the school you have been accepted to and will feel ready to go but then you might be eating cheetos in front of the couch and your phone rings. that top choice school that you didn't hear back from? Well...they are offering you a spot! You jump up and down with joy. But then you realize, do I really want to? Is this worth it?
You will be worried about financing your education, taking out those huge loans, and seeing those posts on SDN that scream "dentists don't make as much as they used to! can't find a dentist job where I live!". You will wonder: Am I making the right choice?
----------------------------------
But let me tell you: There is a light at the end of the tunnel. Yes, it sounds cliche but trust me, you can get through this! Personally, this application cycle was an emotional burden. And I sought out help. This isn't a plug to see a psychiatrist or block SDN from your browser but it is a post to remember to take care of yourself during the application cycle. Don't get sucked into a black hole. Seek out resources if you feel like you are going INSANE. Find a support group of friends and family. Go outside and run.
I've gotten rejections, acceptances, and no-responses. I've been sad, happy, excited, nervous, and angry. But eventually, everything worked out. And things will work out for you, too! Trust me on this. Even if you didn't get into the school you wanted or you got no acceptances at all, it will be okay. And for those of you who might be thinking: I'm not even sure I want to be a dentist anymore. Go back and think about the time you first decided to be a dentist...perhaps when you were shadowing or when you were a kid visiting your own dentist. Don't forget that moment. You can do this!
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Sorry this post is so long. If you read it all, I applaud you. But I hope this helps someone who might be feeling sad or unhappy. You can PM if you like and I can try to answer any questions you may have.
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