Hi,
I've wanted to be a dentist since I was 8 and I'm on quite a long, complicated journey to it, but I feel like I'm now making headway.
I'm from England, and I did all my schooling back home. I never really worked that hard, but I did a lot of work with dentists and orthodontist and implantologists etc. I always knew what I wanted to do but I wasn't driven enough.
Anyway, after high school finished I worked for a few months and on almost a whim I applied for an American university. 4 days after I applied I got in, and a week after that I got given a scholarship. I'm in my second year now, almost my third, and my major is Dental Hygiene. (I know, not dentistry, but there's a reason for that). Due to the fact I'm not from America, and I'm only on a Visa, I can't get a student loan here. Nor can I get one back home as I'm not studying back home. So I'm majoring in Dental Hygiene, while taking Dental prerequisites. I've got quite a good GPA (3.7), I'm in the Honours college and I have an A in Inorganic Chemistry 1 and am currently on course for an A in Organic Chemistry 1. So I started on the right foot, so to say.
The thing is that I can't afford Dental School off my own back without loans etc, so the plan is to work as a dental hygienist to save up for dental school, while also studying for the DAT (I probably won't finish all the prerequisites before I graduate).
The worries I have with this plan is whether or not I would be hired as a hygienist in America? I remember reading something about how to hire a foreigner you need to basically prove they're better a better candidate than everyone else for the job. I know that field is quite saturated with workers at the moment. I just thought I would see if anyone had any advice for me in terms of how to really go about making this plan work.
Thanks.
I've wanted to be a dentist since I was 8 and I'm on quite a long, complicated journey to it, but I feel like I'm now making headway.
I'm from England, and I did all my schooling back home. I never really worked that hard, but I did a lot of work with dentists and orthodontist and implantologists etc. I always knew what I wanted to do but I wasn't driven enough.
Anyway, after high school finished I worked for a few months and on almost a whim I applied for an American university. 4 days after I applied I got in, and a week after that I got given a scholarship. I'm in my second year now, almost my third, and my major is Dental Hygiene. (I know, not dentistry, but there's a reason for that). Due to the fact I'm not from America, and I'm only on a Visa, I can't get a student loan here. Nor can I get one back home as I'm not studying back home. So I'm majoring in Dental Hygiene, while taking Dental prerequisites. I've got quite a good GPA (3.7), I'm in the Honours college and I have an A in Inorganic Chemistry 1 and am currently on course for an A in Organic Chemistry 1. So I started on the right foot, so to say.
The thing is that I can't afford Dental School off my own back without loans etc, so the plan is to work as a dental hygienist to save up for dental school, while also studying for the DAT (I probably won't finish all the prerequisites before I graduate).
The worries I have with this plan is whether or not I would be hired as a hygienist in America? I remember reading something about how to hire a foreigner you need to basically prove they're better a better candidate than everyone else for the job. I know that field is quite saturated with workers at the moment. I just thought I would see if anyone had any advice for me in terms of how to really go about making this plan work.
Thanks.