Here’s a little on me.
I was born and raised in India, and my family and I moved out to this land of opportunity, United States of America. So, let me say it right off the bat – DON’T CRITIQUE MY GRAMMAR! I was 15 when I moved out here to New York from quite an urban setting in India. I did go to an English-teaching institution called Navrachana Higher Secondary School. I attended East Meadow High School in 10th grade and graduated with high honors in the New York Regents. Even before you start, plunging you mind with all the labeling. Let me make you aware, before I moved to States I was an average Joe kid who was all about play and no work. I hated school. Well, not school but the studying, books, nerds. Instead of books I studied other things like Girls, Basketball, and skipping classes. I completely changed, a total 360 flip in my personality I mean I still did the “other things” as well as books and actually did my school work. I would probably say it was because I didn’t know anybody here when I first moved. Moving on, I still bombed my SATs because I suck at standardize testing and English. I would love to disclose my score here but I’m afraid you will stop visiting at this point on. Ha Ha Ha.
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I recently graduated from Stony Brook University. I don’t know where to start but I’ll start by with my interest in health care field. I didn’t know that I wanted to dentistry, but I did want to go in the health field. It wasn’t until mom and couple of my friends who were in dental school I began to see as a career choice. My dad was engineer so his engineering-talk was pretty much grilled in my head from before although he never forced me onto something, but I looked at dentistry as a collaborative profession of art, engineering, and of course who can forget the science. I begin to see dentistry as a viable career choice along with all the other perks such as job security, autonomy, hours, family-oriented profession and you name it; a total package. I did have a passion for art, so I saw the potential in the profession. So, I begin my research furthermore through student doctor forum and craved my life towards this profession.
I was pre-health about sophomore into my undergraduate. I did consider being pre-med as my elder sister was already attending Drexel medical school in her second year. On the whole, the career of dentistry was just a perfect match and tons of offering for me. My grades were decent nothing extraordinary. The only A’s my transcript was seeing was General Chemistry and Organic Chemistry I. Most of the general and introductory sciences I had nothing more than a B or B+. I wasn’t working towards my goal as I should have been. Beginning of my junior year, I was enrolled in to biochemistry. I was scared because it was one of the most challenging courses offered at my school and also biochemistry is a stepping stone class one takes in dental school. I put myself up for this challenge and thought of it I am in dental school already. Fall 2006 semester was definitely the term where I literally worked off my butt. I would live, breathe, hear, and sleep with nothing but biochemistry. Lucky for us, one of the biochem professors left on sabbaticals and his replacement was none other than a former stony brook medical school biochemistry professor teaching the undergraduate biochem course. The first exam I completely bombed. The class average was in the low 40’s. Luckily, I manage to argue few points and made 13 points over the average. I realized that I was falling short and not working hard enough although, I literally had studied uncountable caffeinated hours for that first exam.
So, I pulled up my socks and decided that I am getting nothing lower than a 80 on second exam. With a determined mind, I totally nailed my second exam and boosted my confidence and maybe I’m not that stupid after all. I realized it’s all about hard-work, working smart and time management. I can’t tell you I had poor time management skills. I would chose partying, drinking, chilling, over studying hands down. I used study for a test about a day or two before the test night. I would tell myself everything that I will never do it again, but once the exam was finished so was my thought. My father was scolded me every time and bash me regarding my poor time management ability. While I was taking biochemistry, this was the first time around where I decided to alter my studying habits a bit. I decided to give it a little more time for myself. I would start studying for the biochem exams a week early. I noticed that by the end of fifth day I had finished studying all the material and I had two whole extra days left to simply review my notes and lectures and practice previous year’s exams provided by the professors. I also realized that I had enough time to ask questions and clear doubts. In doing this, I did lose social time and becoming more geeky. The outcome outweighed all the other factors. Following similar studying patterns, my motto in college became “study hard and party harder!” I ended up getting an A in biochemistry and for that semester my GPA was a perfect, sparkling 4.0! Yes! Same goes for Spring 2007 = 4.0 (Biochem II and Upper division Genetics). Fall 2007 = 3.98! (Pharmacology I and Graduated-level Human Physiology).
For the summer of 2007, I sent out my applications June 6th on AADSAS. Enrolled for DATs = August 10th. I used all sources possible from Kalpan’s to DAT Destroyer and text books. I busted my butt for good 2 months. I even shaved my head so that I would not go out partying (it worked a little). I took my DATs and was very satisfied with my sciences, however I scored a 15 on my English Comp. session. My total science (TS) on the DAT was around 22 and my academic average (AA) was 19 in the upper 80s percentile. I applied to around 8-9 schools and only sent secondary to 7. I received my first rejection letter from Temple University, a heart-breaker. But, next four straight acceptances with a couple of interviews unattended and to-be schedule. I got accepted to all my top choices and I picked Stony Brook University School of Dental Medicine as my baby! My #1 choice!
Please feel free to email me anytime if you want more information in what I did or what my vitals were.
Filed under: Pre-dental, Uncategorized , About, Pre-dental
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