To All You Married Dental Students:

[Clipse]

I'm a 22-year-old applicant in my senior year of undergrad, getting ready for my first interview. This past summer I got married and am wondering if this is likely to come up during my interviews.

Some people, including my wife, have advised me not to wear my wedding ring during the interview-to avoid any questions regarding how I will balance the young married life and the rigors of dental school.

Perhaps some admission committee members feel that married applicants will not be as committed to their graduate academics. Perhaps others will see it as an example of maturity and focus.

Could anyone share their experiences? (Personally, I want to keep it on)

Feel free to pm me

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[DDSSlave]

Be yourself during the interviews. If you're married, wear your wedding ring. Whether you're married or not has nothing to do with how well you'll do in dental school.

 

[aphistis]

Wear your wedding band if you want. It won't make any difference at all in your admissions decisions, and profiling applicants by marital status is considered discriminatory. At IUSD, we're not even allowed to ask about marital status unless interviewees broach the topic first.

 

[brandiwine1160]

Honestly, I don't think that they will look at being married as a bad thing. I spoke about my husband (who was in Iraq at the time) in all of my interviews and was accepted to all the schools I interviewed at. I thought that I would be in the minority when I got to school but I was surprise to discover that over half of my class is married. Don't worry about this. Just be yourself. Don't try to hide things. It will only make you more nervous that you will slip and say the wrong thing. Good Luck on your interviews!

 

[ItsGavinC]

Marriage makes some students better, and weighs heavily on others. I couldn't imagine doing it without my wife and children.

 

[toofache32]

Marriage makes some students better, and weighs heavily on others. I couldn't imagine doing it without my wife and children.

What he said. I got married a few weeks before starting dental school. There is no way I could have done as well as I did without her help and support. It's almost like cheating.

 

[jpollei]

I'm a 22-year-old applicant in my senior year of undergrad, getting ready for my first interview. This past summer I got married and am wondering if this is likely to come up during my interviews.

Some people, including my wife, have advised me not to wear my wedding ring during the interview-to avoid any questions regarding how I will balance the young married life and the rigors of dental school.

Perhaps some admission committee members feel that married applicants will not be as committed to their graduate academics. Perhaps others will see it as an example of maturity and focus.

Could anyone share their experiences? (Personally, I want to keep it on)

Feel free to pm me

For heaven's sake, keep it on. Dental school is only 4 years. Marriage (provided you've selected the right gal) is the rest of your life. I see no reason to cover up the fact that you are married if it seems to concern someone else. As an adcom member myself, I like to see applicants that are married as to me it generally is accompanied by a certain degree of maturity and level-headedness (though at your point, your wife might not have had enough time to beat that into you yet ).

I find most people who say that being married precludes doing well in school probably have no personal experience of their own to speak from... I believe a 4.0, top 5% and 95 NBDE1 as a married guy (with two girls, too) speak against the idea that you can't do as well academically with a spouse/family. It really all boils down to you, your time management, and your priorities.

 

[dentalman]

Taking your ring off for an interview? That is absolutely ridiculous!

 

[toofache32]

Before worrying about a wedding ring, I would first worry about orange spiked hair, long shaggy hair in males, facial piercings other than earrings in females, and anything else that makes you different from the older conservative retired-military administrators you will be interviewing with. And don't wear a pimped-out purple suit.

 

[Biogirl361]

over half my class is either married, engaged or in a serious relationship - admissions doesn't take it into consideration, and taking off your ring for interviews is rediculous.

 

[maksidaa]

I say keep your ring on and stop worrying so much about what other people think. every interview i had someone would bring up being married and it was always in a positive light. alot of people that interviewed with were married and quite a few had kids too. there were also a lot of dental students that talked about how married people tend to do very well in d-school.

 

[PERFECT3435]

over half of my class mates are married. in fact, 5 out of the top ten are are either married or or in a serious relationship.

keep the ring on my man.

 

[Typo]

Married? In dental school? Are you *kidding* me???