Dental School Focused

As I mentioned earlier, midway through my company command I had decided to pursue dental school. After jumping through all the wickets and signing all the paperwork I exited the Active Duty Army in September of 2016. Prior to my separation during terminal leave I did 3 very critical things that ultimately led to my acceptance to the #1 Dental School in the country

1) Reached out to anybody I could find who had made the transition from military to dental school

2) Networked with all potential dental schools

3) Establish my prerequisite class schedule for the next year

These three actions were critical to my success because they all fed off of each other. This was a journey that people have completed, I did not need to re-invent the wheel. I needed to pick the brains of men and women who had a somewhat similar background and end state. Eventually through friends, families and cold calls I established a small network of 5-7 dental students or dentist who had made the military/dental transition. I used these networks for a few main data points. 1) General timeline on how I could make the transition 2) Points of contacts at dental schools 3) Personal statement advice.

Ultimately I built my list of potential schools that I would eventually apply to mostly from connections derived from my assembled dental network.