In all honesty, I am extremely nervous about the whole dental admissions situation. The average overall GPA of students who matriculate in dental school varies between 3.5 and 3.9. My 3.23 doesn't fit this criteria. This low score is helped in part by the fact that my last few years of schooling are much better than the first-if I were to remove my first two years of college, I'd be sitting at a 3.65. My science GPA is about 3.5, which is competitive, and that's good. The average DAT (Dental Admissions Test) score at OU is about 19, and I earned an 18 both times I took the test. If, by some stroke of bad juju, I don't get in, I've got one more shot at the test, and it's really the only way I can drastically alter my chances (I can't really change my GPA too much at this point). I've spent alot of time observing, and I got great letters of recommendation (thanks, Gabe). Even so, I've been denied by both Las Vegas and Arizona. I've gotten a "maybe" from Buffalo (yeah, New York. Scary.), and I haven't heard anything from either Baylor or San Antonio yet. I don't expect much from them, since I am considered out-of-state everywhere except Oklahoma. This reduces my chances from about 1 in 3 to about 1 in 100.
The silver lining is, of course, Oklahoma's dental school. I have received an invitation to interview with 3 members of their faculty, each in a 30-minute, one-on-one session, on December the 4th. This is awesome, since Oklahoma is the only place I really want to be. I love the state, the school, and besides, family is here. I often feel bad for the distance I have put between my wife and her family, but without a dental school in Utah, staying there indefinitely was never an option. But to move somewhere removed from my family as well would be alot to ask of either me or her. As many already know, Lacey and I are expecting again, and to go to school in Buffalo would entail a cross-country trip with a two-year-old (and not just any two-year-old-we're talking about Coleman here. Coleman.) as well as a baby of less than a month's age. Not if we can help it.
So hopefully, Oklahoma it is. I love the land. The people are friendly. Gas is really, really cheap at the 7-11 30 seconds away. And I've got a job that pays rent on a roomy apartment that has room for our family and a few guests. It's not a bad setup.
Well, hey, it's 2:30, and I've got a projector to fix. Throw some prayers our way. I consider personal interviews to be my strength, so I'm feeling pretty good about being admitted to Oklahoma, and heaven knows we need this. I'm too old to figure out anything else I want to do.
This has been kinda fun.
