Patiently waiting for December 1st

I can’t believe that there are still two more weeks before we find out if I got in to UoP.

As the day comes closer I feel myself getting more anxious. Fortunately, school and work are keeping my mind occupied.

In Animal Bio we’re doing our fetal pig dissection and in O. Chem we just made octyl acetate, artificial orange flavoring.

As you can see, we’re doing column chromatography to separate the product from one of the reactants.

First interview!!!

Yesterday I got a call for my first interview! I am so excited! It’s for UoP, which is one of my top choices.

My O. Chem lab was cancelled due to low enrollment last night. I’m fortunate that there is another community college in the area that has an opening in their O. Chem class, so I will be going there for the rest of the semester.

My Stats

Here are my stats:

DAT-
PA: 21
QR: 18
RC: 23
Bio: 22
Gen. Chem.: 30
O. Chem.: 21
Total Science: 23
Academic Average: 23

GPA-
BCP: 3.40
Science: 3.35
Non-Science: 3.09
Total: 3.20

First Day of School

Monday night was my first night of school. Hopefully it’s my last semester of prerequisites. State and community colleges have been hit hard with budget cuts, which means that there are fewer classes for more students. I have been very fortunate that I have been able to get all of my classes when I’ve wanted to take them. I am prepared to take classes in the Spring if I have too as there are a few schools that require Biochemistry and a few others that require Anatomy & Physiology; I still haven’t taken either and I won’t if I don’t have to.

Generally, I wouldn’t advocate taking short cuts, but time really isn’t on my side. I’m 31 and by the time I start Dental School I’ll be 32. Then 3-4 years of Dental School, plus 1-6 years more if I want to do a residency or specialize. I’ll be lucky if I’m out by 40! That’s why I am only taking the minimum amount of classes I need to take. I’m crossing my fingers that I get an early interview and am notified of my admission on December 1st.

This semester I’m taking Animal Biology and the second semester of Organic Chemistry. I noticed that some Dental Schools only require one semester of Organic, but I have to take both semesters because they are the prerequisites for Biochemistry at the local 4-year college. Hopefully I won’t have to enroll, especially since I will have the lowest priority in enrolling in the class. Fortunately, three of the schools I am applying to do not require Biochemistry nor do they require Anatomy & Physiology.

Here’s to another busy semester.

Going Back to School

I graduated from Stanford in 2002, and have been working ever since. Two years ago I decided to that I wanted to become a Dentist. I started doing research on schools and I realized that I needed to take Chemistry, Biology, and Physics to meet most of my dental prerequisites. Having been an Anthropology major, I never took any of those classes.

I was unsure of how I was well I was going to do in college again, but I was ready to get back into it. I enrolled in the local community college for the fall of ’09. My first semester I took one class, Physics. I did very well, and it was definitely a confidence booster.

The next semester I took the second Physics class and my first General Chemistry class with lab. School got harder as I was working 40 hours a week going to class at night four days a week, and planning my wedding.

I got married in the middle of the semester, and we held off on going on our honeymoon until the summer. Even though I was so busy that semester, I did so well in my Chemistry class that my Chem teacher said that I didn’t have to take the final.