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Friday, November 30, 2012

Early News = Bad Day

So yesterday I mentioned that December 3rd is the soonest that a school can send acceptances. Well, a school that Joe applied to had a glitch in their system, and all of the e-mails they intended to send on December 3rd were sent this morning instead.

This would be great news... if he got accepted.

He wasn't.

He was waitlisted.

I really didn't love the idea of going into this weekend wondering what would happen on December 3rd, but I was trying to be positive and be excited-anxious rather than petrified-anxious. This news makes that a lot harder.

Stupid technology.

*UPDATE*

So in my "woe is me" funk, I forgot to mention that about an hour after he got the waitlist e-mail, he received another interview invite from a school in Illinois. He hasn't gotten an interview invite in over a month, so the timing was pretty funny. I guess it's a sign to not give up hope.

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Our Pre-Dent Journey - Chapter by Chapter

Today was Joe's last Dental School interview. This is a very exciting day, because hopefully it also marks the end of shelling out ungodly amounts of money to ship him off to interviews across the country one more chapter in this Dental School journey.

Dental School, so far, has had several chapters:

Chapter 1: Katie Freaks in the Pet Food Aisle (Fall 2008)

Katie finds out by phone call in the middle of the Wal Mart pet food aisle that her boyfriend wants to become a dentist. She proceeds to panic, since he explains that dental school is four years. She really panics when he says he doesn't have the right classes for dental school and will have to quit his job and go back to school for two years prior to applying. In that moment, the former commitment-phobe realizes that this Midwestern boy has stolen her heart and she's along for the ride no matter what. She panics some more.

Chapter 2: Does He Have What it Takes? (Spring 2009)
Before Joe quits his job, he decides to take an English class at the local Junior College to see if he has it in him to be a student again. Despite reading one of the most God-awful books ever written - he decides he does, and applies to San Francisco State's Post-Baccalaureate Health Sciences Program (try saying that 10 times fast).

Chapter 3: Student Loans Start Again (Summer 2009)
Joe starts his post-bac. He commutes the first couple months, until he decides the drive is too much and he needs to move to the city. His distance from Katie increases from 1 hour to 2 hours. Katie is sad. Joe's classes are hard. He takes things like Organic Chemistry (ew). At the same time, he volunteers at dental offices and is an officer of the pre-dental club at SFSU since he needs his application to dental school to be as impressive as possible.

Chapter 4: Babies Are Postponed Another Year (Spring 2010)
Around the time Joe proposes (YAY!), Joe also breaks the news to Katie that he will need to extend his Post-Bac program another year to boost his application. Since babies can't come until mid-Dental School (at least), her first thought is, "Oh, no! Our babies will be postponed another year!" Katie, and her biological clock, are very sad. This also means that Joe will be taking more advanced classes like Anatomy, where he dissects a human cadaver.

Chapter 5: The DAT - A.K.A. The Test From Hell (Spring 2012)
Joe studies night and day for the five hour Dental School admittance exam. It's full of science, math, and a thing called perceptual ability. This photo shows his study materials.


Chapter 6: Applications Round 1 (June 1, 2012)
After three years of Post-Bac classes, assisting Dentists chair-side, working in a dental lab making mouth guards, and helping a Dental School professor with her (hopefully someday published) research paper, Joe is finally ready to apply. Joe and Katie decide he should apply to 21 of the 61 US dental schools. Their bank account cries.

Chapter 7: Applications Round 2 (July 2012)
Because it's not enough to apply once, Dental Schools also require secondary applications. Some merely request a check, while others request a check and dozens of essay questions answered. Katie and Joe's bank account cries again. Joe's sick of essay questions.

Chapter 8: Interviews (August - November 2012)
Joe is offered interviews at 7 schools, is rejected from one, and receives the silent treatment from 13 (jerks). Joe kicks butt at his interviews, but Dental Schools are fickle, and you can never really tell where you stand.


This brings us to present day. Our next chapter is on December 3rd (just 4 days away!) That's the day when Dental Schools can finally offer acceptances to students.

Needless to say, I've been eagerly awaiting this day since that phone call in the Wal Mart pet food aisle.

Literally counting down the minutes:


And So I Begin...

When I was in school, I always struggled when it came to writing the first paragraph of an essay. Starting a blog, I've come to find, is a million times harder.

So, instead of trying to be clever and launching with some wildly entertaining entry, I'll just jump in and see what happens.

Here I go...

I originally decided to write a blog because I am anxious about what life as the spouse of a dental school student will be like. (Anxiety, as you will find, is a running theme with me.) Whenever I am afraid of something I hop on Google and do my research - even though this typically backfires and makes me MORE anxious (thank you WebMD).

Anywhoo - hoping to get an idea of what to expect, I decided to Google, "Dental School Wife Blog." I pressed the search button, took a deep breath, and waited for blog after blog to appear and give me some kind of realistic expectations for the next four years.

So what did I find? Nada.

"Ridiculous," you say. "Everyone and their mom has a blog nowadays - look again!" Well, I did, and apparently dental school wives don't.

I'm sure I'm not the first or last gal who wants to find a soul sister going through this same ordeal adventure, so I might as well start a blog that chronicles my journey.

Plus, when school starts I'm going to be very lonely - at least at the beginning. This is a certainty. So a blog will keep me busy. As far as hobbies go, it's as cheap as you can get. And cheapness frugality, is a quality appreciated by my husband.

I feel silly already talking about my "blogging hobby" in my first post. After all, as a kid I'd buy diary after diary and write one or two entries before getting bored with it and giving up (until the next fancy-looking diary caught my eye at Target). That said, I am a grown-up married lady - it's pretty pathetic if my attention span now isn't better than when I was eight.

I guess we'll see...