Fourth Year Frenzy!

These past couple of weeks have been quite hectic, yet very exciting.  I have always heard the rumors of how crazy fourth year can be, and now I am beginning to understand.  Our community outreach rotations have been an incredible experience.  Working with your own assistant and seeing back-to-back-to-back patients allows for a very productive, yet educational experience.  It allows us the chance use new materials and witness different techniques; the best part is that we are then able to return to the school with many questions to discuss with faculty.  On top of these outreach rotations, many of us are in the process of submitting applications for graduate programs.  I have had so many phenomenal experiences while in dental school that I have a hard time deciding which to reference in my personal statement.  Our dental service trips to Honduras in 2010 and 2011 have been quite influential, but then again, so have my day-to-day experiences treating patients in the comprehensive care clinics at school.  Who knows?  Maybe the 2-week Indian Health Services dental externship that a classmate and I are doing in Tuba City, Arizona in August will be something to write about.  I suppose I will just need to wait and see, although I don’t think I will hold out long enough on my personal statement to write about it.

Luke Daining is a D4 and president of the Christian Dental Association, one of our many student groups. For more information, see: http://www.dent.umich.edu/academicaffairs/studentservices/studentorganizations/cda