Who has children?

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Jray5

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Hey guys. I'm new here and a freshman attending a cc right now. I have 24 general credits. Going to cc because my husband is in the army, I have to work with what I'm given right now. I eventually plan on getting my bachelors degree from a university and applying to dental school. I have an 18 month old daughter and I wanted to get any words of wisdom from any moms or dads out there who managed to get into dental school or are applying.

How do you juggle school, parenting, shadowing, volunteering, possibly working etc?

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Wellll.....I have a 3 year old. I am planning on applying next cycle. I am a single mom and it's hard. Tell yourself that nothing is impossible and you will be fine. When you really want something you make a way to get it. My advice is find a good day care. With the army you have to be careful because if you end up getting stationed somewhere else in the middle of your studies.
 
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Stick with it! It's hard. Really hard. I have sacrificed a ton of sleep the last few years. But I kept my goals in mind, refusing to sacrifice time with my kids.
 
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No kids for me, although we are probably going to TTC for one while I'm in dental school. But check out this blog (http://substanceandsoul.com/). I think she's just finishing up her D3 year and just had a baby a few months ago.
 
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I was post-bacc. Right as I decided to go back for pre-reqs is when we also decided it was time for our 1st. Why not make this more of a challenge, right? So that happened. Went from a comfortable career to stay-at-home dad & full-time student. I completely stopped working. Crazy cut in income, but I wasn't going to go back to school to get Bs or to struggle to juggle shadowing and volunteering. Kind of an all or nothing. I wanted in as fast as possible so I had to make the app as good as I could quickly. I know that isn't an option for everyone. But had I chosen to work, I might just be starting D1 instead of staring D3. Then we were expecting twins when I started D1. So that happened. And I'm a commuter. So it's kind of lame. As mentioned, it's a time management thing and it cuts right into sleep. I don't know how I got through the hardest years. Family is first, but school is a very, very close second.

But I'm a guy. I don't know how the mothers do it. There are 3 pregnant in my class now and a 4th year I'm near due in 6 weeks.
 
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Thank you all so much for your responses. It's nice to know others are in {kind of} the same boat as me. :) cleverthought- I can't thank you enough for sharing the blog with me. It is such an inspiration, I just spent the last hour reading all of her dental posts. Thanks again everyone!
 
Time management, help (family and daycare), and no sleep! It can be done. I am also a single mother to a four year old. Sometimes I look back and say "how did I do that?" I worked 6 days a week (night shift) then dropped my daughter off at daycare, then head straight to class. From there pick up my baby, spend quality time with her. Go to sleep (about 3-4hrs rest) then head to work (10hr shift). I did my homework at work to pass time lol. DONT GIVE UP!!
 
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Crazy how you all can juggle so much at once
 
Warshley you are an inspiration as well. Being a single mother would make the situation a million times harder, so great job. And yes it is crazy how good people are at doing all these things at once. I'm trying to wrap my mind around doing ec's and volunteering on top of it all. It will help when I am back in my home town to have help with my daughter. I've heard nothing but horrible things about most of the daycares here in my current town, that's why I'm hesitant to take her.
 
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My son was born to my girlfriend and I who are both students at the end of my junior year of undergrad. He is coming up on his first birthday right now. It is certainly a challenge to rise above and do well in school while raising a child but there are plenty that have succeeded. I had an especially challenging experience applying and studying for my DAT last summer while caring for a newborn. All your hard work will be rewarded if you have been a diligent student and receive an acceptance letter when you apply. Then the real challenge, dental school, lies ahead. Best of luck to you on your journey.
 
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Applying this cycle with a 1 year old. Luckily, I was a senior when I got pregnant, so I had already built a good GPA. Good thing, b/c the fall I got pregnant, got 3 B's from severe morning sickness (broke my 4.0 streak :(), then got 2 more B's the summer I had him. Don't ask why I thought it would be a good idea to schedule classes over my due date lol. Anyway, all I can do is expand on what others have said. Went back to school 2 months after he was born, and everything was different. I didn't want to sacrifice time with him, so I go to school during the day, spend time with him until bed, then do homework after he goes to sleep. Who needs sleep anyway :wacky:

But it will alllll be worth it! I am sacrificing now, as all of us parents are, so that we don't have to work crazy hours later making peanuts. So, he is my motivation to keep going. All I know is those nice 8-5 work days are looking soooo good right now :)
 
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@Jray5,
It takes meticulous planning to make sure you succeed at all of your goals. Once you have a good daycare and help from family everything will fall into place. Again it won't be easy but it must be done. Working 6 days a week, going to school full time, raising a child, shadowing, etc wasn't easy for me. I had to find schools that accepted CC courses and take the bare minimum of shadowing hours otherwise I would probably be reapplying this cycle. Believe me when I say getting more than four hours of sleep was over sleeping for me (did it for five years up until now).
 
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