Pathway to Dental School (part 1)

Michael Scott:	Sounds like a good dentist. What's his name?
	[long pause]
Dwight Schrute:	... Crentist.
Michael Scott:	Your dentist's name is Crentist.
Dwight Schrute:	Yeah.
Michael Scott:	Hmm... Sounds a lot like 'dentist.'
Dwight Schrute:	Maybe that's why he became a dentist.

I met Danny back in 2007. I thought two things about him the night we met 1) that I was going to marry him and 2) that he should be a dentist because he has perfect teeth. And it came to pass that we got married. And it also came to pass that Danny is a dentist!! Kind of! He starts dental school at Roseman University in South Jordan Utah in August. It has been a rather long journey getting into dental school, but we are both pleased with the way things have worked out.

Danny applied to a few dental schools in 2008, when we were dating and getting a little serious. That summer, he studied every morning and then worked stacking boxes every evening. I had a little freetime so I would record my voice into mp3 form of the book he was studying for the DAT so that he could listen to the files while he was working. I would randomly shout or say hey! are you listening! in my recordings so as to encourage his paying attention. He took the DAT and did well (a 19) which is an average score that should get ya into dental school.

This kid was busy. If he wasn't working to save money, he was studying for either his classes or the DAT. He was also training hard for a triathlon (which he got 2nd place in). As a girlfriend, I felt somewhat neglected and a little unsure of what his future plans with me entailed until one day upon pointing out to him that he was not in the business of having fun, he made it astutely clear that he was doing all these things for me, so we could have a future together.

He ended up not completing his application because he wouldn't be able to finish up his classes at byu in time. So, he was planning to reapply the next year (2009)... but decided to take more science classes to boost his gpa and then we got married!  We set off on our honeymoon cruise, moved to DC for the summer, did another year at BYU.

2010, Danny started his second application. And I learned what a painful process dental school applications are. That entire summer was dedicated to researching schools, writing a personal statement, getting transcripts together, answering crazy questions about mandexterity skills, and studying for the DAT like a crazy man.  I worked in down town salt lake  while Danny studied every day to retake that DAT (entrance exam for dental school). The level of stress in our household was a little high with every waking moment being focused on dental school. There were days where I had to convince Danny to brush his teeth because he didn't want to because it made him think about dental school.

At this point, it was September which means Danny's application was a little late getting turned in. Unless you have a perfect DAT score, perfect GPA, and a perfect resume, a late application is like dental application death, but we moved forward with the process. We kept kind of wondering if we were on the right path, if there was some other career route we should take. But Danny knew he wanted to be a dentist. We discussed every profession under the sun. The night before the DAT, Danny's buddy Scott came over and gave him a blessing. In it, he mentioned something about the results of his DAT score would let him know if he was on the right path.

D woke up the next morning and took his exam. I was biting my fingernails all day at work wondering how it was going. I was like, well, if it doesn't go well, we know there is just some other path we're suppose to go down and everything will be fine. I just felt worried because I knew how much Danny wanted dental school. That afternoon, I got a phone call from a downer sounding Dan. But then he was like I got a 21! or 20! (i can't remember, danny, please correct me!) Either way it was a great score, one that would get him into dental school.

Time progressed, and he hadn't received any interview invitations. The level of stress continued to escalate. One day, trying to be a good wife, I took matters into my own hands. I called the dean of admissions at Roseman (which was not technically a school yet, it was still being built). We had a nice 1.5 hour chat about Sir Daniel Masters which resulted in an informal interview for Danny! The dean also invited me to the interview which was funny.

We got busy with our final semester at BYU and tried to distract ourselves from the fact that D hadn't received any other interview invitations, nor a phone call dec 1st letting him know he was accepted at Roseman. We were graduating in Dec and trying to figure out what was next for us. We'd had a thought about going to China, but it seemed a little crazy because if D was invited to interviews while we were out there, it would literally cost us a fortune to send him from China. When we weighed his chances of getting in with a late application, it didn't make sense for us to set around waiting in utah. So we packed our bags and headed to China in January! It was a quick decision, but one that we are infinetly happy we made.

 In April, we received a call from Roseman inviting Danny to a formal interview. (thank goodness for google voice, seriously). Danny called them and explained we were in China and wouldn't be back until mid July. They obliged him with an interview when we returned and put him on the waiting list there in the mean time. We had previously talked a lot about what we would do if D didn't get in that year. Because D was set on being a dentist, it would have to involve something that would look good on his future dental application. I researched a few pre-dental masters degree programs and came across Barry University (which is where we are now, in miami fl). It seemed like a respectable program, and their rate of students who get accepted to dental school post graduation looked grand. So we applied.

In May, we were actually at our school teaching in China and Dan found out that he was accepted to Barry so it was nice to have a plan B. In June, we reapplied for dental school (third times a charm, right?) so we spent anytime not traveling or teaching working on D's personal statement and other application parts. This time, we only applied to Roseman since Danny had already been advised by the dean to go ahead and do so. And just to be clear, this was an application for admittance in 2012, after he would have finished the program at Barry.

In July we got home from China, and the next day he went in for his interview (the interview was to be accepted in 2011). He said it went well, but his waitlist status didn't change. We spent two weeks hanging out at Danny's parents house in limbo mode, not knowing if we were moving to Miami or if he would be able to start dental school. We left for a trip to Lake Powell. We got home on a Sunday, hadn't heard anything from Roseman (school there had already started) while we were at lake powell, so we left for miami on Monday.