anahorvath.com

Tag: future DDS

  • Preview of Semester 2, Year 1!

    Helloooo! I hope you’re all doing well. So exciting that we’re in a new year! Wishing everyone the best. This week, I just wanted to take time to give a little preview of what’s to come for semester 2 of year 1 as a dental student! So if you’re interested in the dental school content, feel free to stick around and if not, that’s totally fine too. I’ll see you next week. 🙂

    I started my second semester of my DS1 year at the University of Colorado School of Dental Medicine this past Tuesday and there’s a lot to accomplish in the next few months! I am taking 14.3 credits this semester (as opposed to to the 19.5 credits I completed last semester) and some classes I really look forward to include operative dentistry (direct restorations I), immunology and microbiology, oral radiology, and oral histology. Out of my entire course load, 5 of my classes are on a graded scale (meaning grades are received on a scale of A to F), and 4 are pass/fail I believe. For my pass/fail courses, a pass is considered anything at a 75% or above.

    I think that semester 2 is going to be exciting! I get to start truly working on my hand skills as they relate to actual dental handpieces and begin drilling on plastic teeth later in the month. I have absolutely ZERO experience drilling so this will be a fun new journey.

    From what I have heard, I will have much more free time than I did last semester, and I look forward to that, but knowing myself, I will definitely be using that time to study. This semester, I hope I can work more on giving myself time to relax and actually enjoy the things I want to do when I’m not studying or practicing anything. Last semester, I found myself feeling guilty for taking time to relax or do anything not school-related. I felt like that time should have been spent getting ahead in making my study guides or something else and that made it hard to enjoy working out or enjoy a show on Netflix even. I deserve time to rest and I think that actually acknowledging that and working on that will help me perform even better in classes, with lab work, and in our sim clinic as I get to work in that too.

    Here’s to another good semester of school! If you’re all enjoying the dental school content, please let me know and if you’re not into it, also let me know. We can always change it up. And if you have any questions, feel free to leave them as a comment or reach out on my contact page. I hope you all have a wonderful week!

  • Busy Busy!

    I have been gone for a bit here, wow. Things have been busy busy with school and I just haven’t had a chance to stick my head up and step outside the dental school bubble for a bit. Here’s how life has been lately as a dental student!

    I’m officially two months into my program. Woohoo! In that time, I’ve already taken two midterms and done pretty well, taken at least 20 or so quizzes, turned in three tooth projects, and studied so so much. I have accumulated over 150 notes too (thanks to my iPad and Notability for helping me keep track of that). I also had my white coat ceremony! That was a pretty fun weekend! Most days have been really good, but there are occasionally days where I have been incredibly tired or discouraged for one reason or another.

    Favorite thing in dental school so far? Wax lab for my dental anatomy class! While it was a bit of a learning curve at first, I have really enjoyed the little projects I get to do. So far, I have made a central incisor (one of your front top teeth!), an upper canine, and an upper first premolar. We have used different types of waxes to get acquainted with a variety of different materials and I will easily say that red wax is the number one enemy. It just has too low of a melting point for me. I also burned myself with it twice when I first started working with it. Regardless of those little complications, waxing teeth has been pretty relaxing and a great way to express myself artistically. It’s a good little dexterity challenge too!

    Least favorite thing in dental school so far? I don’t have anything negative to really say honestly. It is just so shocking how there suddenly seems to be less time in my day! 🥴 It just feels like I could use another four or five hours each day to get everything done that needs to be done. Busy busy! That’s what time management, discipline, and a good planner are for though. I have found that if I tell myself I have to get something done and it’s in my planner, that’s a commitment to myself to get that thing done. This applies to things in my personal and school life. I also just listen to my body though. If there’s some extra studying or a workout I want to get in but I am EXHAUSTED, I’ll give myself that time to take a bath or go for a walk or just go to bed. I need to take care of me too and rest is important.

    Again, sorry for dropping off the face of the earth for a bit there. Now that I’m more adjusted to my school schedule and new life, I fully intend to get back to posting more regularly again. I hope you are all doing well and I’ll be seeing you next Sunday, for real this time. 😅 Have a wonderful week!!

    busy busy
    Yay for white coat ceremony pics!! 🙂

  • First Week of Dental School!!

    First week of dental school classes? ✅ What a week it has been, wow!! Lots of good things, for the most part!

    My very first day of dental school started with class from 1-4 pm, and that was it! It was a nice slow way to start things off. My first classes were a part of what my school calls the body system series and that includes three classes: physiology, microanatomy, and clinical correlations (which ties clinical work into all the basic sciences, from my understanding at least!). It was just an hour of each class on Monday. Honestly, it was a great way to start off my dental school career. Nice and easy!

    Tuesday was a tech lab orientation day where I got to wear my special navy-blue scrubs for the very first time. Very fun, very fun. I saw where I’ll be waxing up teeth this semester and got my bench all set up which I enjoyed doing. My second class on Tuesday was Intro to Community Public Health. I’m pretty excited for that class because I think it will provide some outreach opportunities and a lot of good information regarding working with the community.

    On Wednesday, I had my seminar class called Intro to Dentistry. The professor for that class was one of the two that interviewed me prior to my acceptance, which I think is pretty cool. One thing I’m looking forward to is getting to work with professors throughout my time in school. I’ll have the same professors for many different courses and I look forward to the relationships I’ll build.

    Thursday brought my first dental anatomy lecture and more microanatomy and then before I knew it, it was Friday and I was done! Friday, I had another microanatomy lecture and a loupes vendor fair. For those of you that aren’t familiar with what loupes are, they are the eyewear that dentists and hygienists will wear to better see what they’re working on. In a way, they’re like little magnifying glasses you get to wear. I haven’t ordered a pair yet, but I have a pretty good idea of what I’m going for. I feel very fortunate that my mom is in the dental field, so I have the chance to use a pair of her old loupes. I do also plan to get my own pair though, so I look forward to that little journey and shopping experience!

    First week down and many more to go! I’m all organized and ready to go! I hope you all have a great week and I’ll see you next weekend. Stay happy and stay healthy!! ❤️

  • I Survived Dental School Orientation

    dental school orientation
    GIPHY

    Well I hope you all had a wonderful week! We are officially done with my first week of dental school! Well, dental school orientation, I guess. Does this actually count as my first week of dental school or is that next week? Anyway, looking back on this week, it brought up many emotions, thoughts, and feelings.

    Some words to describe my emotional state this past week: happy, excited, nervous, scared, overwhelmed, tired, interested, motivated. I felt a lot of things this past week. Regardless of whether the things I felt were positive or negative, what I choose to do with those feelings is what matters most. Going into my first official week of dental school TOMORROW, I’m just going to take things day by day and make the best out of every situation. Things will be tough, but I’m tough too, so I know I can do it! I hope you all feel the same way about doing hard or challenging things in your lives. ❤️

    This week started with a business professional day and a lot of lectures regarding all sorts of policies and general business on campus. We had an adventure day in Idaho Springs. We listened to more presentations regarding what to expect with our first semester in lecture and lab. We got all of our technology set up, iPads and MacBooks. We walked around campus a bit to find our classes and just see what was around. It was a really busy week!

    Getting up at 5 am every day was not easy that’s for sure, but if that’s the new schedule for me, I’ll adjust real quick. This is all just a big adjustment period and I really appreciate that my university gave us this week to begin adjusting into our new normal.

    Regarding my classmates, I think I have a very energetic and bright group to be working with for the next four years! I’m excited to get to know them all and go on this wild ride with them.

    Well, with tomorrow being my first day of school, I’m going to head to bed soon now! I still can’t believe that I’m now already past dental school orientation and it’s on to the real deal now! See you next week with a week of dental school under my belt! Have a wonderful one. ❤️

  • Heading into Orientation for Dental School

    orientation for dental school

    To say that I’m excited is an understatement. The same could be said for how nervous I am. My new life starts tomorrow! I will be starting my dental journey at CU School of Dental Medicine tomorrow morning bright and early. Orientation starts!! Also, I finally have fixed the issue with images on my posts so that’s exciting!!

    Going into this week, I am very excited to get to know anything and everything I can about my new school. I’m excited to meet my classmates as well as the faculty and staff. It’ll be fun to explore the campus and see all there is! What I’m not looking forward to is waking up at 5 am! That’s something I can definitely adjust to though.

    Talking about the nervousness I’m feeling- I think that most of my anxiety/nerves come from the fact that I fear the unknown. I don’t know what to expect in a lot of ways and that’s scary! But I also know that it’s ok to feel the way I do. I know that I’ll ease my way into things. I know that change can be difficult but it will be just fine in the end.

    This orientation will be a great way for me to start making adjustments in my life. I’ll figure out when I can work out, when I need to focus on my studies, and when to do anything else that needs to be done! I know there will be a bunch of presentations this upcoming week and that there’s going to be SO much information to take in. I’ll get all my technology set up and figure out where everything is. It’ll be important to remember to just take everything one step at a time.

    Sorry for a shorter (and probably pretty dry) post today, but I’ve got a busy day tomorrow! Take care of yourselves and I’ll see you all next weekend! I’ll share everything! Have a good week!! ❤️

  • My First Interview with a Dental School!!

    Hi everyone! I hope you had a beautiful week. This week was a good one for me. I had my first exam for a class on Friday last week and I’m currently getting ready to go into my first interview with a dental school. I’m so excited to announce this and feel incredibly honored to say that I have received an invitation to interview with Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC!

    I applied to five schools overall: Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC, Texas A&M College of Dentistry, University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC College of Dentistry), Creighton University School of Dentistry, and University of Colorado School of Dental Medicine. I would be an amazing opportunity to attend any of these schools and I feel so excited and encouraged to have received even one interview. In addition to this interview, I actually also heard back from University of Colorado School of Dental Medicine, and I will be attending their interview this upcoming week as well.

    Regarding my interview with USC, that begins today at 2 pm. I will be doing a written assessment and MMI interview which I believe will involve a variety of questions regarding difficult situations and scenarios. I will be limited in the time I have to prepare my answers and then deliver them so that my answer is the most candid answer I produce. I will be very curious to see what I am asked! As far as I know, I will not be interviewed directly by their admissions committee, but they will review all of my answers. I then have an admissions presentation to watch today as well. Tomorrow I will complete my interview with USC in a group setting. I look forward to the opportunity I have with USC and regardless of the outcome, it is so encouraging for me to have had the chance to interview with a school like Herman Ostrow.

    Before I received both of my interview invites, I was really starting to doubt myself. I’ve always known that I’m smart. While I don’t always admit it, I would really consider myself an incredibly hard-working, persistent, and intelligent person. But when you apply to dental school, you’re not the only hard-working, persistent, and smart person in the room. I started to worry that maybe I’m not good enough and I started to think that maybe I would never hear back. God works in funny ways though. The night before I received my interview invitation from USC, I sat in my apartment crying as I looked back over my application status, seeing that nothing had changed. Yes, I understood that it would take awhile for me to hear back from schools or that I may never hear back. But with that being said, I had read over a forum for prospective dental students that mentioned that all the schools I applied to with the exception of University of Colorado had supposedly already been sending out interview invitations since late July. I thought that maybe I was behind. Maybe I really wasn’t good enough. And then a little glimmer of hope appeared the next day after I got back from my morning classes. I received the good news from USC.

    interview with a dental school

    If I have learned anything during this dental school application process, it is that this process is my own journey. While other people may find it helpful to others to let them know when they’ve received interview invites or even helpful to their own confidence to brag to the world about what all they’ve got going for them, then more power to them. I’m going to take this journey as my own thing. I’m going to be thankful and grateful for every opportunity I get. Of course I will support people I know that are along for the same ride; they deserve all the best!! But maybe I also deserve the best. I have worked so hard to get to the point I have and I hope I get the chance to see that hard work pay off.

    I’m gonna go give this interview with a dental school my all now and keep you all updated on how it goes now. Have a great week everyone! And to those of you also applying to dental school or even medical school or some other graduate program, keep your heads up and keep chasing your dreams. We can do this. 🙂