I dont want this post to be abouting gloating that i got into dental school this cycle. Instead i want this post to give people who were like me, hope in their dreams. When I decided I wanted to be a dentist during my fourth year, my gpa was already a sunken 2.5, and that most of those classes were easy econ classes. I had wanted to own a restaurant but after dropping out of school for a quarter I found out the harsh realities of the restaurant business and discovered it wasnt for me.
My boss at the restaurant had been a real jackass and had slowly dismantled my self esteem over the course of 3 months and i had lost most of my sense of my identity. I used weed as my avenue to happiness and I eventually got caught in possession of a small quantity of marajuana which is a misdemeanor in California. This woke me up from the daze that I was in as I began the long quest of rediscovering my identity. I remembered that when I was a kid I had once dreamt of being a dentist and so i reenrolled in school, hopeful that i had at last chosen a career path that i could be satisfied with and confident that i wasnt selling myself short of my potential.
*I realized that the only way I would even have a sliver of a shot was if I aced all my pre req classes and my DATs while shadowing, volunteering, while simultaneously talking to teachers for letters of rec. I'm not gonna lie, those were some of the most bitter days of grinding in my life. But I was practically a machine, staying on campus for 12 hours on the weekdays while cramming for my 4 science class workload on weekends. I did this for 5 quarters straight and stuffed nearly all my prehealth required courses in, getting at lowest an A-. Sometimes i'd wake up at night finding myself stressing ochem reactions or reciting genetics information. But with the goal of being a dentist in mind i grinded on. I started really falling in love with dentistry not when I shadowed a gp's office but when I shadowed at local low income clinics where I could really see why dentistry was so important to mankind in the first place, before the fancy veneers and root canals. This added to the burning desire to become a dentist and it really helped me survive those times, especially when I was on the brink of burnout.
*Right after winter quarter, i had 3 months to cram DATs to make the June 2010 application cycle. I did studying from 9am-9pm everyday including weekends. I worked through every practice test there was including kaplan, dat destroyer, top score, achiever, and crack DAT PAT. Right after my test, I worked on my application and personal statement and took a quick breath to see the seeds that I had planted. I managed to get my gpa to a still far below average 3.15 with a DAT score of 21/23/20 (which i was somewhat disappointed in when taking into consideration the amount of time I put in).*
Anyways, to cut the rest of the story short I got 2 interviews at NYU and UNLV and I got my acceptance from NYU yesterday in the mail. I still haven't gotten use to the mindset that I have made it and I can finally let go because for the past 2 years i had been in that struggle to make it mentality. I just want to make this post if it will help at least 1 hopeful dental student stuck in the same rut I was in grasping for straws. Pursue your dreams. If you want it bad enough you can literally do anything, and you will suprise yourself with the limits that you have put on yourself. Thanks for reading.
My boss at the restaurant had been a real jackass and had slowly dismantled my self esteem over the course of 3 months and i had lost most of my sense of my identity. I used weed as my avenue to happiness and I eventually got caught in possession of a small quantity of marajuana which is a misdemeanor in California. This woke me up from the daze that I was in as I began the long quest of rediscovering my identity. I remembered that when I was a kid I had once dreamt of being a dentist and so i reenrolled in school, hopeful that i had at last chosen a career path that i could be satisfied with and confident that i wasnt selling myself short of my potential.
*I realized that the only way I would even have a sliver of a shot was if I aced all my pre req classes and my DATs while shadowing, volunteering, while simultaneously talking to teachers for letters of rec. I'm not gonna lie, those were some of the most bitter days of grinding in my life. But I was practically a machine, staying on campus for 12 hours on the weekdays while cramming for my 4 science class workload on weekends. I did this for 5 quarters straight and stuffed nearly all my prehealth required courses in, getting at lowest an A-. Sometimes i'd wake up at night finding myself stressing ochem reactions or reciting genetics information. But with the goal of being a dentist in mind i grinded on. I started really falling in love with dentistry not when I shadowed a gp's office but when I shadowed at local low income clinics where I could really see why dentistry was so important to mankind in the first place, before the fancy veneers and root canals. This added to the burning desire to become a dentist and it really helped me survive those times, especially when I was on the brink of burnout.
*Right after winter quarter, i had 3 months to cram DATs to make the June 2010 application cycle. I did studying from 9am-9pm everyday including weekends. I worked through every practice test there was including kaplan, dat destroyer, top score, achiever, and crack DAT PAT. Right after my test, I worked on my application and personal statement and took a quick breath to see the seeds that I had planted. I managed to get my gpa to a still far below average 3.15 with a DAT score of 21/23/20 (which i was somewhat disappointed in when taking into consideration the amount of time I put in).*
Anyways, to cut the rest of the story short I got 2 interviews at NYU and UNLV and I got my acceptance from NYU yesterday in the mail. I still haven't gotten use to the mindset that I have made it and I can finally let go because for the past 2 years i had been in that struggle to make it mentality. I just want to make this post if it will help at least 1 hopeful dental student stuck in the same rut I was in grasping for straws. Pursue your dreams. If you want it bad enough you can literally do anything, and you will suprise yourself with the limits that you have put on yourself. Thanks for reading.
I've been having some tough times lately but your story really gives me hope 
