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Plans don't mean anything....
- Thread starter Jbrowndds
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Well, I believe you fill out the FAFSA and take out loans for dental school.
In the future, look for a nanny? But I know that UT Houston mainly teaches by Powerpoints, so it shouldn't be that bad if you get accepted there.
Stay focused on having a good-enough GPA, DAT, and ECs you could easily talk about (or just an awesome personality at your interviews).
I honestly wouldn't freak out at this stage.
In the future, look for a nanny? But I know that UT Houston mainly teaches by Powerpoints, so it shouldn't be that bad if you get accepted there.
Stay focused on having a good-enough GPA, DAT, and ECs you could easily talk about (or just an awesome personality at your interviews).
I honestly wouldn't freak out at this stage.
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I want to apply to university of houston. My main concern is who is going to watch my daughter. Money is easy. Being hours away from family with a two year old, that's the real challenge. I'm just starting to lose faith.
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Losing faith is what's going to hurt you in the long run. If this is really what you want, go for it! Your daughter will always be there and it'll benefit her in the long run also. Wish you the best and I'm sorry for the bad news!
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I lived with my grandparents (500 miles away from my parents) for 1-2 years as a toddler and I turned out fine...well sort of...
I think your immediate and extended families are your greatest assets. Very few predents (21-year-olds) are going have contingency plans for your situation.
I think your immediate and extended families are your greatest assets. Very few predents (21-year-olds) are going have contingency plans for your situation.
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So sorry to hear this. Is the dad out of the picture completely? What kind of family support do you have?
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Sorry to hear this. Now you have to rethink how you will do it but there is assistance for people in your situation. I know a girl that graduated high school and had a full scholarship that included graduate housing where she could live with her daughter. Her daughter attended a nearby daycare while she attended school. Somehow you will manage if you really want this.
I have 2 children and we are still trying to figure out what kind of care our children will have.
I have 2 children and we are still trying to figure out what kind of care our children will have.
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This is what I call bad planning. You carelessly had a child even though you wanted to go through the extremely time consuming process of becoming a dentist then you threw all the burden of paying for dental school and taking care of the child (or paying for a nanny which is also expensive) to your husband, excuse me, ex-husband. He's a good man for leaving you. If I did half that stuff to my husband he would be long gone in a different country so I would never see a penny from him in the form of alimony/child support and I would completely understand and sympathize with his actions.
If you still want to be a dentist then my advice is rob a bank. Kidding, talk to someone in a bank about loans or something. Why are you using this site as your soap box to vent your personal problems? Coming in with your depressing "plans don't mean anything". We can't help you with finances all we can say is if your GPA/DAT/EC are on point or not for acceptance into D school.
If you still want to be a dentist then my advice is rob a bank. Kidding, talk to someone in a bank about loans or something. Why are you using this site as your soap box to vent your personal problems? Coming in with your depressing "plans don't mean anything". We can't help you with finances all we can say is if your GPA/DAT/EC are on point or not for acceptance into D school.
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Wow, just wow. Don't be so judgemental, you don't know her full story 😛
I think she's just posting it to get advice from anyone who may have been in a similar situation. I think the point of SDN is to interact with your peers and talk about some of the stressors we all go through. If it's venting, so what? Almost everyone gets in a spot where you feel helpless and at least she's trying to figure it out instead of dropping everything altogether.
OP, I'm sorry you're in that situation. Be strong and know that any obstacle can be overcome if you believe in yourself enough to do it!
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Wow, just wow. Don't be so judgemental, you don't know her full story 😛
I think she's just posting it to get advice from anyone who may have been in a similar situation. I think the point of SDN is to interact with your peers and talk about some of the stressors we all go through. If it's venting, so what? Almost everyone gets in a spot where you feel helpless and at least she's trying to figure it out instead of dropping everything altogether.
OP, I'm sorry you're in that situation. Be strong and know that any obstacle can be overcome if you believe in yourself enough to do it!
Don't generalize. We don't all make this same type of decisions as OP. Ok yes I agree venting is fine. But at least stay on topic. Don't complain about marital or financial problems on here. Find a different forum that caters to those topics. Seriously wow just wow, you read my entire comment and just decided to judge me as being judgmental, that is seriously judgmental of you.
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There are lots of dental students who come into school with children or have children while in school. Both single parents, divorced, or married. Both males and females. It affects their education and everyone's experience is different. So yes, it's a valid topic.
By the way, financial issues are very real and important for dental students to learn about. The cost of dental school will only increase as the years go by, most likely without significantly better financial aid options. You're extremely naive to think finances should be disregarded when talking about dental school
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Actually the decision to become a dentist came after my baby and my marriage. Wow. I just posted on here because I needed advice from some who has been in my shoes. People like you who make me wonder about the future of this world. I am desperate right now because I don't want this to take me out of the game.
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Very judgmental of you tsk tsk. Most of us here are not qualified to speak on financial matters of others. So whats your advice mr white knight for the OP?
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This coming from a woman who cant even keep her family together. People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
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Okay. I tried to be nice but you need to get the hell off my post. If you can't help don't hinder. Take your half ass assumptions and gtfo. I'm not playing around right now, this is my life. I'm a first generation college student so my family thinks i should give up.
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I can't give you any advice on your personal problems, but financially, you're not out of luck.
The first ~47k/year you need to borrow for dental school is the Stafford loan, and it doesn't even require a cosigner. As long as you get into dental school, they will give you this loan.
If cost of attendance is over 47k, eg. 70k, you get the difference (23k) in Grad Plus loans. I did not have a credit card or any debt ever (my parents believed in paying everything in full with cash), so I was eligible for it. Have you ever been over 3 months late, or defaulted on any debt? (eg. car payments, credits cards, etc.) If you haven't then you'll still be eligible for Grad Plus, which will pay for all of your school costs. If you've defaulted on stuff, then you will need a cosigner.
And if you need to send your child to daycare, you can take out extra loans from the Grad Plus for that too.
The road is tougher, but it's not impossible. The average debt of someone coming out of dental school is around 200k.
The first ~47k/year you need to borrow for dental school is the Stafford loan, and it doesn't even require a cosigner. As long as you get into dental school, they will give you this loan.
If cost of attendance is over 47k, eg. 70k, you get the difference (23k) in Grad Plus loans. I did not have a credit card or any debt ever (my parents believed in paying everything in full with cash), so I was eligible for it. Have you ever been over 3 months late, or defaulted on any debt? (eg. car payments, credits cards, etc.) If you haven't then you'll still be eligible for Grad Plus, which will pay for all of your school costs. If you've defaulted on stuff, then you will need a cosigner.
And if you need to send your child to daycare, you can take out extra loans from the Grad Plus for that too.
The road is tougher, but it's not impossible. The average debt of someone coming out of dental school is around 200k.
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Exactly! This isn't going to hold me back from making a better life for my daughter and doing something I love. Sometime you just need someone who has been through it to tell you it's doable and to go for it. Thanks all for the advice, feel much better.
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I think that if you do the above that in the end you will be able to provide a better life for you daughter as a single parent. The only thing that would worry me is that your child would be seeing a nanny ~50 hours a week and you very little for 4 years. That is a big chunk of your child's life/development to be missing out on.
I don't know how you do academically but I think if you think you can handle the academic challenge of dental school along with raising your daughter, I would really encourage you to go for it. Yea you will graduate with debt, but once it is paid off you should be able to live comfortably with your daughter.
Also, have you thought about military HPSP programs to pay for school?
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dear lisa,
i hope you're not in my class. we will not get along.
-trolol
@jbrown, finish DA school first. then figure out what's next. maybe delay dschool until your kid is old enough to hold her own. or you could take her to school with you and show her how important edumacation is. just a thought
i hope you're not in my class. we will not get along.
-trolol
@jbrown, finish DA school first. then figure out what's next. maybe delay dschool until your kid is old enough to hold her own. or you could take her to school with you and show her how important edumacation is. just a thought
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I'm not actually going to dental school yet. I'm still in undergrad school. There are no universities near me so I have to move away to go to school.
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Cliche but it's true - what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. You'll have your good days and bad days, but write down your goals and aspirations and keep your focus. Things will work out as long as you keep going. Many churches have day care programs and many of them are very affordable. Once you're accepted, dental schools will make sure you get the necessary loans to get through school. You might have to take out more personal loans than others, but it will pay off. Keep it up and good luck. Naysayers will tell you this and that, but at the end of the day, your life is what YOU make of it.
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Thank you so much for the words of encouragement. Much needed.
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Let me preface this post by saying that I would like to comment on reality and not "dreams of possibility."
1) I think your hopes of being a dentist are a very fair reality to consider.
2) It may...MAY be better to adjust your goals to simply matriculating to dental school, and then just "surviving." I say this because in the end, you are doing this for your family (your child). The concept of killing yourself to try and specialize may not be a reasonable option, particularly if you're going to raise your child at the same time. IN REALITY, it matters very little what your class rank is as long as you graduate. In the end, you'll still have the DDS (or DMD) behind your name, making you a practicing dentist. 5 years down the road, hell, even 2 or 3 years, no one will care whether you graduated in the top 10% or the bottom 10%.
3) Judging from your avatar, I'm going to assume that you are a minority. So...you are a black female single parent. I am willing to bet that with a little searching, you could find scholarships and/or grants galore that would greatly offset your educational costs, particularly for graduate/professional enrolees. Like UCSF said, flip this into a positive for you. Let your situation work for you as much as possible. Additionally, I also think the HPSP programs could be a great option for you to consider. A brief military career after graduating d-school may work in your favor, particularly if you are a single parent. Military families tend to support and protect their own, you know?
I think the most important thing is to get your head back in the game. You've obviously been dealt a traumatic hand, but the sooner you can get back to planning for your future, the sooner you can make your path towards your goals. AND DON'T TAKE ANY SHORTCUTS. Your story will make for a great personal statement and will be an awesome interview topic, but your application will not be reviewed by people, it will be done by committees. People may sympathize with your story, but committees will care very little about "pity" and will be more concerned with whether or not you can make it through dental school. DO NOT GIVE THEM AN OPPORTUNITY TO DOUBT YOUR RESOLVE.
Temper yourself and gather your bearings. The road ahead of you is obviously not going to be easy, but it also most likely won't be impossible either. And once you get in, your fellow dental students will most likely back you 110%. In the end, it'll make a hell of an inspirational story for your kid.
1) I think your hopes of being a dentist are a very fair reality to consider.
2) It may...MAY be better to adjust your goals to simply matriculating to dental school, and then just "surviving." I say this because in the end, you are doing this for your family (your child). The concept of killing yourself to try and specialize may not be a reasonable option, particularly if you're going to raise your child at the same time. IN REALITY, it matters very little what your class rank is as long as you graduate. In the end, you'll still have the DDS (or DMD) behind your name, making you a practicing dentist. 5 years down the road, hell, even 2 or 3 years, no one will care whether you graduated in the top 10% or the bottom 10%.
3) Judging from your avatar, I'm going to assume that you are a minority. So...you are a black female single parent. I am willing to bet that with a little searching, you could find scholarships and/or grants galore that would greatly offset your educational costs, particularly for graduate/professional enrolees. Like UCSF said, flip this into a positive for you. Let your situation work for you as much as possible. Additionally, I also think the HPSP programs could be a great option for you to consider. A brief military career after graduating d-school may work in your favor, particularly if you are a single parent. Military families tend to support and protect their own, you know?
I think the most important thing is to get your head back in the game. You've obviously been dealt a traumatic hand, but the sooner you can get back to planning for your future, the sooner you can make your path towards your goals. AND DON'T TAKE ANY SHORTCUTS. Your story will make for a great personal statement and will be an awesome interview topic, but your application will not be reviewed by people, it will be done by committees. People may sympathize with your story, but committees will care very little about "pity" and will be more concerned with whether or not you can make it through dental school. DO NOT GIVE THEM AN OPPORTUNITY TO DOUBT YOUR RESOLVE.
Temper yourself and gather your bearings. The road ahead of you is obviously not going to be easy, but it also most likely won't be impossible either. And once you get in, your fellow dental students will most likely back you 110%. In the end, it'll make a hell of an inspirational story for your kid.
