Tuesday, December 11, 2007
You got it Becca!
Ok, so I've added Colette's blog...can you guys send me the links to the others and I'll add them for all to enjoy?
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Dental School Updates
Friday morning (November 30th) I checked my email and opened a letter with the subject: Congratulations from the U of M School of Dentistry. I anxiously opened it and found out I have been accepted to the dental program for the class of 2012. (I don't like to think about that number because it seems so far away. It will come regardless of whether or not I'm in school.) Besides, it's a four year investment for a lifetime of benefits.
The initial email didn't actually have my name in it. So before I got too excited I decided to call the school and confirm. The admissions woman I've been working with answered right away. I told her who I was and she asked how I was doing. I said I was doing good (I know that's not proper grammar), and she responded that I should be. That's when I said, so the email is real? I was concerned it could have been a mix up of some sort. It's the real deal though, I'll receive my official letter soon and then I'll have 45 days to confirm my spot with a $1000 deposit. They said it was an exceptionally tough year and that I congratulations were definitely in order.
Before screaming to the world the good news, I wanted to hear back from Marquette first. (I knew they were sending out results to arrive in the mail on the first.) Marquette has placed me on a hold list. They are going to further debate my application and get back to me in the middle of January. Unless they make a decision earlier than that, it will have been past my deadline for Minnesota. I kind of feel like Marquette is playing with me. The interviewers were not the nicest when I went there and I think the admissions committee is toying with me to see how committed I really am. In other words, am I willing to risk losing my spot at Minnesota in order to get in there. While financially Marquette would make a lot more sense ... why would I turn down a school that's excited to have me for another that has been far less interested?
Nothing is final yet. I still have to achieve a certain grade in my biochemistry course before everything is official. (Due to the challenge of long distance learning and poor access to lecture presentations, this is actually a factor. I have two weeks until the end of the course though and then we'll know.)
Jason has been the best. This means that he won't be applying to all of the programs he would have if I weren't going to dental school. Minnesota has been good to us in so many ways albeit cold. We are confident that things will work out for him, either in obtaining a residency there or getting a good position. As excited as I am about being accepted, I am starting to realize that this is definitely not the easy way through life. However, it's a good choice for us and will open many opportunities for us to grow, learn and serve.
The initial email didn't actually have my name in it. So before I got too excited I decided to call the school and confirm. The admissions woman I've been working with answered right away. I told her who I was and she asked how I was doing. I said I was doing good (I know that's not proper grammar), and she responded that I should be. That's when I said, so the email is real? I was concerned it could have been a mix up of some sort. It's the real deal though, I'll receive my official letter soon and then I'll have 45 days to confirm my spot with a $1000 deposit. They said it was an exceptionally tough year and that I congratulations were definitely in order.
Before screaming to the world the good news, I wanted to hear back from Marquette first. (I knew they were sending out results to arrive in the mail on the first.) Marquette has placed me on a hold list. They are going to further debate my application and get back to me in the middle of January. Unless they make a decision earlier than that, it will have been past my deadline for Minnesota. I kind of feel like Marquette is playing with me. The interviewers were not the nicest when I went there and I think the admissions committee is toying with me to see how committed I really am. In other words, am I willing to risk losing my spot at Minnesota in order to get in there. While financially Marquette would make a lot more sense ... why would I turn down a school that's excited to have me for another that has been far less interested?
Nothing is final yet. I still have to achieve a certain grade in my biochemistry course before everything is official. (Due to the challenge of long distance learning and poor access to lecture presentations, this is actually a factor. I have two weeks until the end of the course though and then we'll know.)
Jason has been the best. This means that he won't be applying to all of the programs he would have if I weren't going to dental school. Minnesota has been good to us in so many ways albeit cold. We are confident that things will work out for him, either in obtaining a residency there or getting a good position. As excited as I am about being accepted, I am starting to realize that this is definitely not the easy way through life. However, it's a good choice for us and will open many opportunities for us to grow, learn and serve.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Rachel the cutie
Becca asked about a post of mine that disappeared--I don't think I've posted here for a while. Maybe you're thinking of the post on the tucsoncampbells.blogspot.com site. Anyway, I thought I'd put a couple pictures of the cute kid here, too, for your viewing pleasure.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Thanksgiving Weekend
Jason was fortunate enough to get Thanksgiving off, so the two of us headed to my parents' home in Madison. Rachel met us there and came with three of her Navy buddies. The food was great and the company even better.
Friday, Rachel, my parents and I went to an attraction called House on the Rock. It began as a person's uniquely architectured home and turned into something between a museum and curiosity collection. It has several mechanical bands, instruments and even an orchestra. Most of the "house" is darkly lit but has all sorts of interesting antiques. I included a picture of a dental office set up from somewhere around 1900. You wouldn't believe how many people I have tell me how they wished they could still spit into the spittoon type device on the side of the chair. This chair had one of the originals - no plumbing. How disgusting is that? You can check out their pictures (which have better lighting) at http://www.thehouseontherock.com/HOTR_Attraction_PhotoGallery.htm
That evening we went to one of Curtis' favorite haunts. My mom and dad had their first climbing and belaying experiences - they did quite well. We all enjoyed finding our inner spider and defying gravity. (Rachel opted out on account of her healing foot.)
Jason is currently preparing his residency application to submit or change as needed depending on what we hear from the schools I have applied to. This is kind of a nail biting couple of weeks coming up. On the other hand, we've been waiting for these results for years.
We are here!
Ok... so we are planted here in CT. My computer just got set up so thats my excuse for not having written before. I don't want to show you pictures yet, either, because I have yet to finish unpacking the den and my bedroom and the walls are still naked and need some adornment. That should get finished up this week and then I will post some pictures, though you must keep in mind that I will still need to do some painting. That is going to happen slowly... room by room, so we decided to unpack everything first and then deal with the painting. We've met some of our neighbors who seem really nice. They actually came and introduced themselves! I thought that was quite nice of them. One lady even brought over a cake and a couple little stuffed animals for the kids. Super nice. Anyways, we should get ourselves all unpacked soon and that will be AWESOME. The ward here is great and we feel like we are already making some friends (shocking, I know, but I lure them in to be my friends using my cute kids). Congrats to Colette and George on the birth of their adorable little Spike. And yes, we must find LE!!!
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Find LE...
LE, LE - where are you???
Ok so has anyone seen or heard from that girl because I'm about to put her picture on a milk carton!!
P.S. congrats to the Campbells for lil' baby SPIKE!! Lots of love from Texas!
Ok so has anyone seen or heard from that girl because I'm about to put her picture on a milk carton!!
P.S. congrats to the Campbells for lil' baby SPIKE!! Lots of love from Texas!
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Marquette Dental School Interview
I was going to post pictures from Rachel's corpman school graduation and the NBA Bucks game we saw last weekend but ran into some technical errors. They will be coming soon.
Until then, I'm sure you are all dying to know how my Marquette Dental School went. I think it stunk. There wasn't a lot that I could do about it. Before the interview, I didn't know how a dental school interview could possibly go wrong...now I know. I interviewed with the only two women on the admissions board. They smiled when they greeted me but that was about it. They had a chip on their shoulder about my application before we even got started. I sat in a medium sized conference room that normally sits say 12. A chair was left for me at the head of the table and I had an interviewer on each side about four feet away. My file was out in front of them and the questioning began. It started out fine - but these two were definitely all business.
They asked questions like; what I thought would be the three most challenging aspects of dental school. (Balancing school/life, achieving a solid foundation for a career and I can't remember the third I responded with.) What do you think a dental school's responsibility is to its students? I replied that they should show a real concern for their students and help them receive the essentials needed to treat patients and inspire them to continue learning for the rest of their careers. They also asked an ethics question about a friend cheating on a test and what would I do about it.
Then things started getting nasty. Q: So what were you doing between 1999 and 2005? (Clearly they didn't look at my folder as closely as they said they did.) I reported that I really was in school, I had a full load each semester and that when I transferred I know longer had control of how quickly I would graduate. Q: We see that you went to Minnesota, why are you interested in Marquette? This is where the bulk of the interview was spent. Upon reflection Jason and I are pretty sure that Marquette has an inferiority complex and takes it out on Minnesota grads. There is quite a bit of rivalry between the two schools and I got caught in the middle of a feud. They asked me specifically if I applied to Minnesota. I said yes, but I applied to a lot of schools as an applicant it would be foolish not to in such a competitive field. Then they wanted to know why I would go to Marquette instead of Minnesota. (Notice the emphasis on Minnesota, not just another dental school?) I replied that I hoped the school would prepare a better general practitioner considering there are fewer specialties offered there and more work for the students. I also talked about academic inbreeding. The thing I wanted to mention least is what they liked most. I broke down and told them that Jason was doing his internship and that we wanted to stay in the area for him to do his residency also. They appreciated that it was an honest answer.
The entire half an hour was incredibly awkward. Like I said it was all business and nothing was sugar coated. Most interviews are warm and bubbly - our school is great please come here. This was more like you meet our criteria but we are going to see if you are going to burn us and go to Minnesota instead. There were frequent awkward pauses as one interviewer switched to the other for questions. They asked if I had any questions...I did. However, after I asked the first question I knew the rest weren't going to go well. I wanted to know if there were elective courses offered if I had a special interest in prosthodontics or endo etc. They became really defensive and went into this long spiel about how hard dental school was and there was no time to offer anything like that. (Here is the funny part: I know Marquette offers an elective research class, and other schools offer elective courses with the same tight schedules.)
I knew one of the Doctors worked in community outreach projects so I asked about that. (I wanted to know if it gave the real world experience with timing and treating patients that the school setting didn't offer.) She rolled her eyes and said she wished the admissions board wouldn't disclose her role in the school before telling me about it. Needless to say, I feigned not having anymore questions after that.
The interview with the dental students and lunch went well. No one else had a bad experience with their interviews though - they just went on about how nice their interviewers were blah blah blah. I did hear that one of the applicants has already received several denial letters. Hmmmm, that's not the type of thing you openly disclose, yet I'm glad she did. I haven't gotten any of those yet, I wonder if that's a good sign or if the schools I applied to just don't respond. I expect to hear back on how the interview actually went by the first week of December. Some friends of mine who go there mentioned that they can be pretty brutal on Wisconsin residents trying to determine whether or not they actually plan on going there. I can't say won me over after the interview but the facilities are nice and it is half the cost other schools. So there are the details for you. Hope you enjoyed them.
Until then, I'm sure you are all dying to know how my Marquette Dental School went. I think it stunk. There wasn't a lot that I could do about it. Before the interview, I didn't know how a dental school interview could possibly go wrong...now I know. I interviewed with the only two women on the admissions board. They smiled when they greeted me but that was about it. They had a chip on their shoulder about my application before we even got started. I sat in a medium sized conference room that normally sits say 12. A chair was left for me at the head of the table and I had an interviewer on each side about four feet away. My file was out in front of them and the questioning began. It started out fine - but these two were definitely all business.
They asked questions like; what I thought would be the three most challenging aspects of dental school. (Balancing school/life, achieving a solid foundation for a career and I can't remember the third I responded with.) What do you think a dental school's responsibility is to its students? I replied that they should show a real concern for their students and help them receive the essentials needed to treat patients and inspire them to continue learning for the rest of their careers. They also asked an ethics question about a friend cheating on a test and what would I do about it.
Then things started getting nasty. Q: So what were you doing between 1999 and 2005? (Clearly they didn't look at my folder as closely as they said they did.) I reported that I really was in school, I had a full load each semester and that when I transferred I know longer had control of how quickly I would graduate. Q: We see that you went to Minnesota, why are you interested in Marquette? This is where the bulk of the interview was spent. Upon reflection Jason and I are pretty sure that Marquette has an inferiority complex and takes it out on Minnesota grads. There is quite a bit of rivalry between the two schools and I got caught in the middle of a feud. They asked me specifically if I applied to Minnesota. I said yes, but I applied to a lot of schools as an applicant it would be foolish not to in such a competitive field. Then they wanted to know why I would go to Marquette instead of Minnesota. (Notice the emphasis on Minnesota, not just another dental school?) I replied that I hoped the school would prepare a better general practitioner considering there are fewer specialties offered there and more work for the students. I also talked about academic inbreeding. The thing I wanted to mention least is what they liked most. I broke down and told them that Jason was doing his internship and that we wanted to stay in the area for him to do his residency also. They appreciated that it was an honest answer.
The entire half an hour was incredibly awkward. Like I said it was all business and nothing was sugar coated. Most interviews are warm and bubbly - our school is great please come here. This was more like you meet our criteria but we are going to see if you are going to burn us and go to Minnesota instead. There were frequent awkward pauses as one interviewer switched to the other for questions. They asked if I had any questions...I did. However, after I asked the first question I knew the rest weren't going to go well. I wanted to know if there were elective courses offered if I had a special interest in prosthodontics or endo etc. They became really defensive and went into this long spiel about how hard dental school was and there was no time to offer anything like that. (Here is the funny part: I know Marquette offers an elective research class, and other schools offer elective courses with the same tight schedules.)
I knew one of the Doctors worked in community outreach projects so I asked about that. (I wanted to know if it gave the real world experience with timing and treating patients that the school setting didn't offer.) She rolled her eyes and said she wished the admissions board wouldn't disclose her role in the school before telling me about it. Needless to say, I feigned not having anymore questions after that.
The interview with the dental students and lunch went well. No one else had a bad experience with their interviews though - they just went on about how nice their interviewers were blah blah blah. I did hear that one of the applicants has already received several denial letters. Hmmmm, that's not the type of thing you openly disclose, yet I'm glad she did. I haven't gotten any of those yet, I wonder if that's a good sign or if the schools I applied to just don't respond. I expect to hear back on how the interview actually went by the first week of December. Some friends of mine who go there mentioned that they can be pretty brutal on Wisconsin residents trying to determine whether or not they actually plan on going there. I can't say won me over after the interview but the facilities are nice and it is half the cost other schools. So there are the details for you. Hope you enjoyed them.
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