The Iowa Admissions blog is dedicated to showing perspectives from around the university. Here, you’ll hear from Grant, a senior from Ottumwa, Iowa, who is about to graduate and go to the College of Dentistry at Iowa.
Dentistry at Iowa
One of the unique aspects The University of Iowa has to offer is its close proximity to world-class health sciences programs. This gives undergraduate students opportunities for exposure to graduate and professional experiences in various fields. A great example is The University of Iowa College of Dentistry and Dental Clinics, which offers undergraduate students unmatched exposure to the field of dentistry and gives them insight into the admissions process for dental school.
My interest in dentistry began towards the end of my junior year of high school after doing a career exploration project for a class. I had always been interested the health sciences, but hadn’t quite honed in on a specific field. After learning more about dentistry, I realized it was perfect for me because it combined the health sciences and the opportunity for me to work with my hands every day.
As I was going through the process of choosing colleges, I visited The University of Iowa. I chose to come here after a wonderful visit to campus where I felt right at home. That “feel” was the majority of my reason for choosing to come here. Once I got here is when I realized what an outstanding luxury it is to have such a fantastic dental school here on campus.
Once I got to campus in the fall of 2014 I ended up choosing Human Physiology as my undergraduate major and later added a chemistry minor. During my first few semesters of college, my coursework was composed mainly of science classes. These science classes were the pre-requisite classes that I was required to take to get into dental school. In my later semesters here at Iowa, my coursework has shifted to upper level courses in my major that I chose to take because they will help me down the road in dental school, or just simply because I thought they sounded interesting.
The summer after my junior year of college, I took the Dental Admissions Test (DAT). I took this test about a month after finals were over. Between finishing finals and taking the DAT, I spent every single day (except Memorial Day) studying, preparing, and taking practice tests. After I took the test, I submitted all of my application materials and was invited to interview at The College of Dentistry in early September. At my interview, I was very impressed with how nice and helpful everyone was. The interview was not what I expected at all. My interviewers were genuinely interested in learning more about me as a person and were not intimidating at all. When that interview day was all said and done, I was even more impressed with what an excellent program The University of Iowa College of Dentistry is.
On December 1st 2017, the national day that schools can start giving out acceptances, I was notified that I had earned a seat in the class of 2022. To say this was a huge relief would be a serious understatement. Iowa was the only school I applied to and the only program I wanted to be part of ever since I decided to pursue dentistry, so to earn a seat in their program means a tremendous amount to me.
In a few short weeks, I will be graduating and finishing my undergraduate experience. In August, I will begin dental school. I can’t wait to start taking classes and learning technical skills that I will be using every day in my career. Iowa is a phenomenal program with world-class faculty in all of the officially recognized dental specialties which will give me an opportunity to gain experience in all disciplines of dentistry. The college also just underwent a major renovation and I am really looking forward to learning in the new clinics and classrooms. Over the next four years I hope to learn as much as I can in order to be the best dentist possible for my patients. Plus, I’m pretty excited to spend four more years in Iowa City!
