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Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Dosa Dental Podcast.

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The focus of this podcast is to share undergraduate and dental school experiences from dental

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students and dental professionals through valuable discussions.

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Through sharing the journeys and stories of current dental students and dental professionals,

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our goals to help you find answers or guidance for your own pre-dental journeys.

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We are very excited to have Sonny Brook dental student Brandon Axelrod as our guest today.

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Brandon graduated from Cornell University with a bachelor's degree in biology and

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society, along with completed minors in nutritional science and business.

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He's now an incoming D2 student at Sonny Brook School of Dental Medicine.

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During his undergraduate years, we can definitely say Brandon was a little bit busy, founding

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and serving as president of a non-profit organization, board member of an orientation committee

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which organized orientation events for incoming Cornell University students, as well as conducting

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and publishing research.

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Now in dental school, Brandon serves as the vice president of the community engagement

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in the American Student Dental Association, also known as ASDA.

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Hey Brandon, welcome to the podcast.

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How does it feel to get that first year dental school under your belt and how are you?

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Wow, well first of all, thanks so much for having me guys.

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It seems like an excellent podcast you guys have going on, but it feels great.

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We kind of went from the full first year in the med school and we kind of, you know, at

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the tail end, we worked on some hand skills.

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We finished operative dentistry one along with dental morphology, but it feels really

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great to have that first year under my belt, I guess you could say, and looking forward

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to D2 when we start maybe seeing some pediatric patients doing some pro-galactic care.

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So there's a lot to look forward to.

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Wow, I cannot wait to dive into all those things.

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But first, why don't you tell us about yourself, like where you're from, you know, what would

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you like to do for fun?

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Yeah, for sure.

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So like you guys mentioned, my name is Brandon, I'm from Long Island, New York.

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I'm from a family of four.

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And so I went to Cornell University for undergrad and Stony Brook School of Dental Medicine

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was always the school that I was looking at, you know, not only as a close to home, but

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as an excellent reputation.

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And it kind of was in line with everything that I was looking for in a dental school.

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So let me, I guess you guys kind of mentioned some things I did in undergrad and Stony Brook

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and hopefully there's a lot of other things that will involve myself with it school.

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D1 year, there's a lot of, you know, you worry about the academics primarily.

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But I guess, let me think, what can I talk about here?

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I guess one thing that is pretty big on my application, something that's part of my personality

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and all my friends know me for it, is that ever since I was five years old, I had been

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doing magic.

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And through the years, what's happened is I stopped doing magic, but I actually picked

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the balloon twisting.

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And this is like, when I say balloon twisting, it's like extreme balloon twisting, like

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it's, I can make anything that kids ask for, from Sonic the Hedgehog to Rideable Unicorn.

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It's actually, it's really fun for me and I can literally, I welcome the challenge.

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So whenever a kid comes over and asks, you know, to make them something, I'm ready to

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go.

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And this is a full, full-fledged business that I'm able to run while being in dental

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school.

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I work every weekend, multiple parties a weekend, birthday party, block parties, barbamits

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with communions, literally anything.

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And so that's a big part of kind of, was my application and something that I'm able to

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do in dental school, and it's really fun for me.

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But besides that, I really, I like going to the gym, I like running, even put some things

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that I've been able to do, of course, while being in dental school, and they're great

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stress relievers, have to talk about some of that stuff as well.

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Hopefully that was a nice little intro.

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I guess that the ultimate goal for me is to incorporate these sorts of skills that I

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have in terms of balloon twisting into my practice.

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Not sure if I want to be a pediatricist, but regardless of whatever I pick, I'm sure

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like, you know, any age group will find that entertaining and definitely alleviate some

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of the stress of going to dentists.

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Honestly, that's like one of the most unique things I've ever heard from like any dental

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student or even like a doctor.

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Really?

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Yeah.

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And like, if you want to go to pediatrics, I think balloon twisting would be, you know,

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you'd be pretty successful, I think so.

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Yeah, if you twist a balloon after an appointment or something like that, oh my goodness.

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That'd be so...

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No, yeah.

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In the cards, I would say.

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I'm honestly between pediatrics and oral surgery, so I know they're kind of polar opposite

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ends of the scale, but like I said, I'll see kid, obviously regardless of whatever

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practice specialty, even if I do general course, I'll see kids.

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So anyway, possible that I incorporate that, that would be the ultimate goal.

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Right.

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So, everyone needs that fuel to their journey, right?

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So we wanted to ask you like that question, you know, no question that comes with your

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interviews, you know, like everything.

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So why dentistry?

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Like what motivated you to be where you are today?

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Yeah, of course.

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I actually didn't really allude to this earlier, but my whole like upbringing in life is really

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interrelated.

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So like I mentioned, I was five, I slipped and fell in the shower.

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I started doing magic.

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And the reason I started doing magic is because I slipped and fell in the shower.

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I promise it isn't related.

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I slipped and fell in the shower.

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I went face first and like into a tile, whatever the shower situation was at the house.

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And my two front teeth got pushed up into my gums and I'm bleeding and I'm crying and

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it's the whole thing.

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And my parents, of course, the first instinct is you know, rush me to the dentist and five

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girls are not like rushed to the dentist like emergency.

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He wasn't even a pediatric dentist.

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He was my dad's dentist for years.

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I'm not sure if he had seen kids really that frequently.

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But I get there and I was down in the chair and I literally was laughing so hard from

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just how great of a guy he was.

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Like it was like the like he was cracking jokes and like the fact that he was able to

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manage me in that situation is really astonishing and admirable.

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But he when he was finished, I honestly thought he was joking.

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I thought it was part of the part of the stick.

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He was like, I thought he was joking because it seemed very, very quick in my eyes and I

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felt a lot better.

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He put a gauze out of my mouth and then snapped his fingers and pulled out a red sponge ball.

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So like I learned that he knew magic and whenever he had a chance and it was infrequent, but

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whenever he had a chance, we do magic for his pediatric patients.

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And so that was like the moment where I was like, I want to do this.

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Like this is this is what I want.

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This is what I'm born to do.

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So I, every time I went to the dentist, I was obviously like the most excited patient.

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He like took a real strong liking towards me and he would show me like little magic tricks

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as I would go and I would do them for the hygienists and the secretary, the secretary

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of staff.

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And I had just a great relationship there.

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I really enjoyed going to the dentist.

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And like I mentioned, you know, as time went on, I actually stepped away from the magic

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and balloon twisting became the thing that I was into.

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I took like the most basic lessons for like a dog, a sword and like a snake, but I was

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like, that's so lame.

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I was young enough to know the kids wanted like, you know, the characters from movies

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and things like that.

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But to get back to like, you know, why dentistry, it's kind of incorporates everything that

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I've come to love.

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I really love, I first of all, I've always loved science in school.

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I really liked the idea of being artistic and that's something that of course I tried

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to relay through my personal statement and interviews that my whole kind of, it's called

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balloon artistry for a reason where I'm, you know, I fully have to create on the spot whatever

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is being requested.

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And it's just really working with people.

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And I really am looking to make that difference.

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I want to create my own style where I'm like staying informed about the lives of my patients

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and leaving lasting impressions like my dentist did.

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And it's kind of interesting.

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It's like both my side, my side hustle and dentistry kind of both involve the technical

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movements with your hands and like working with your hands.

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But they're both kind of designed to gain trust in a sense.

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And that's something that I played with in my personal statement.

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And so that's kind of my answer.

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Yeah.

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Right.

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So forget what I said about unique before.

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I think this is even more unique.

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That sounds like an amazing story.

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I'm actually amazed at how this all just kind of fits together like a puzzle.

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I mean, it doesn't get more, it doesn't get more genuine than that.

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Right.

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So I wanted to ask you, like as you went through undergrad, how did you not lose focus of your

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why?

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Like, was it something that had that has been like, motivated you since that, since it

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occurred and you just kind of ran with it?

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Or yeah, just how did you, how'd you maintain that, that fire throughout this whole process?

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Yeah.

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That's a great question.

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So I guess starting in high school, this is when I kind of like turned it up a notch

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in the sense that I knew that for undergrad, for undergrad, I needed to be like have a

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strong science background.

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And I did science research.

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So there's any high school students listening.

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I think science research is a great way to get yourself involved with the literature

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that's out there, scientific literature, and not just, you know, you know, doing well

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in chemistry and biology are great.

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Like, I think you, some, some colleges want to see that you're, you're really expanding

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upon these things.

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So I was lucky to get connected with a national, with a research fellow from the National Institute

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of Dental and Craneo-Facial Research in high school.

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And so that was a really cool project to learn kind of what academia is like within dentistry

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at an early age.

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So the early years, basically summarizing research and just having a love for science.

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And then when I'm in college, of course, there, you know, there were times where being that

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I wasn't in a dental office or seeing dental professionals very often, you know, there

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are times when you think like, maybe there would be something that I would possibly be

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interested in more.

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So maybe, maybe I was thinking more so the medicine route.

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I, as you mentioned, I was a business minor.

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I actually did a summer where I did a full on business internship in New York City just

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to see what it was like, and I was lucky to get that opportunity.

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And I quickly learned that, yeah, there's no way I want to do anything like, like, like

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hardcore investment banking.

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This is the worst thing ever.

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But personally for me, I really liked working, I really want to work with people.

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I really want to make that impact and make that difference.

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So I was right back on the train for the dental.

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And let's see, like I said, like science research, these are important things to stay

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involved with.

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I guess something that helped me too was all the clubs and the volunteering that I did.

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And again, it puts it into perspective, like there are people out there who really can

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value your help and dentistry.

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Like I'm learning more and more every day through school.

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It's like, you know, not everything's always peachy for people.

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Like I've been lucky to have a great dental experience, besides when I was, you know,

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younger, and I haven't really had any cavities or any real dental elements.

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But I'm seeing in the clinic, I'm seeing in PowerPoint slides.

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Like there are some people out there who really, really need dental treatment, like

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immensely, and like they can't function without going to the, like people neglect their teeth

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and neglect their oral health.

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And you're going to be there for them and you're going to be there, they're kind of

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their savior in that sense and really make that difference.

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So kind of escaping those things in mind.

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And it always helped, of course, that I knew from such a young age that I want to do it.

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And I really committed to it.

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But there's some points.

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You know, I could definitely, we can definitely relate to, you know, being in school only

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and not in the office, like assisting or something like that.

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You get like lost in your books and like lost in education and like you don't, when you're

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not around to practice that much, you kind of start thinking a lot.

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So like definitely like I assist, even in school, I do part-time.

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So doing that like maybe once, so we kind of like recognize that spark that I want to

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do this entire time, right?

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Excellent.

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I'm absolutely.

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I would love to see that as well, that you're assisting.

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That's great.

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That's a great thing.

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And I'm also like a business administration major, also with the bio major.

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So like, yeah, business is cool.

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But I remember doing like, I worked in like a real estate office in junior year of high

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school and I hated it.

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It was like a desk job, like five days a week.

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And I was like, I cannot do this.

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So every time I like think about dentistry, like am I still on this path?

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I just think about like that, that summer that I just sat in a desk and then we're

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like, it's assisting, we're just like, you're standing up, you're interacting with patients,

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you're helping people.

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So that's kind of how I, you know, similar to you, that's how I keep my, you know, spike

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spark.

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Yeah.

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And it's great that you can combine the aspects of business and dentistry into one.

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All the great aspects of business are involved with dentistry.

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Whereas like the desk job, like sitting in one spot, making excel sheets, you're not

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really, you're not really doing that.

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Maybe there'll be a, if you're lucky or you're involved in a practice as a business manager,

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like, yeah, there might be some of that.

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But like, you're honestly like, you're like a performer when you're doing dentistry, like

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you're out there, like you're, you're, you're kind of the, not only you, you're the expert,

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but like you're kind of the mastermind behind any sort of business or practice.

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And I think it just, for me personally, and it seems like maybe the two of you, like combining

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the business, because you're doing this podcast, it's a great initiative.

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Kind of shows that like, you know, that, that savviness in a sense.

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I think, you know, the two of you are probably set up really, really well for a career in

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dentistry.

246
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Appreciate that.

247
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So I wanted to go back into like your research.

248
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So how did that happen?

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How'd you, I know you briefly like mentioned how you got it, but you know, how was it,

250
00:13:35,040 --> 00:13:36,040
how was your experience?

251
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How'd you get in the lab?

252
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Things like that, like how long did it take to publish, you know, the whole thing.

253
00:13:41,000 --> 00:13:46,240
So my school, and some schools might have a similar situation, but they'll post that

254
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there's certain professors who are looking for undergrad research assistance.

255
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And I highly recommend anyone interested in research to look into that.

256
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And here's a point, and I guess a misconception that you don't need to do research within

257
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biology.

258
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You don't need to do, but you don't need to be curing cancer as an undergrad.

259
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If your major is like food science, for example, like it doesn't need to be so beyond your

260
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scope that it's uncomfortable.

261
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You're taking all your time.

262
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And Frank, it should be enjoyable to some extent.

263
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It really shouldn't be, you know, you're going into dentistry unless, you know, of course

264
00:14:21,280 --> 00:14:25,280
there are people who want to do research and publish and be working at dental school, for

265
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example, within academia and want to publish.

266
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Sure.

267
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I feel like for the vast majority of people on myself included, I'm looking to involve

268
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myself in science beyond, like I said, the classes and things like that.

269
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And I want to have some of that exploration and, you know, kind of working with a PI,

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for example.

271
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But it should be something enjoyable is basically the point of what I'm saying.

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For example, one of my current roommates, he did research on frogs.

273
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Like it was totally like within their environment.

274
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It was like ecology.

275
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It was like, it was like, it was no relation to teeth, no relation to human health.

276
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And that's all dental school want to see is that you're doing something that you're passionate

277
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about and you're taking that extra step.

278
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So that's the first thing.

279
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But like I was saying, I looked at the school into which professors were looking for undergrad

280
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research assistants.

281
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I got like, I somehow was the luckiest when it comes to this because I was able to get

282
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a position within a taste bud research lab, which is like perfectly related.

283
00:15:28,840 --> 00:15:32,440
And like it goes against what I just said, but it really does not matter what you're

284
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doing in terms of research.

285
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So we did, we looked at taste buds and specifically how it's related to obesity.

286
00:15:41,120 --> 00:15:44,400
And without all the boring details, it was a really great experience.

287
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I did a good amount of both lab work.

288
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I did a lot of imaging.

289
00:15:49,760 --> 00:15:53,800
And then I was also able to contribute to the actual authorship of the paper.

290
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So it was a really, really rewarding experience.

291
00:15:57,640 --> 00:15:58,640
And let me think.

292
00:15:58,640 --> 00:15:59,640
Yeah.

293
00:15:59,640 --> 00:16:00,640
So I guess the timeline, right?

294
00:16:00,640 --> 00:16:02,760
So you asked about that.

295
00:16:02,760 --> 00:16:05,640
I started my sophomore year.

296
00:16:05,640 --> 00:16:07,560
I started sophomore spring, I believe.

297
00:16:07,560 --> 00:16:09,520
I think I wanted to get Orgo out of the way.

298
00:16:09,520 --> 00:16:14,040
I took, well, I took Orgo one during fall of sophomore year.

299
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And then I think during that second semester of sophomore year, I was like, I could fit

300
00:16:17,440 --> 00:16:19,280
in a research at this point.

301
00:16:19,280 --> 00:16:22,040
And I did it all the way up until my senior spring.

302
00:16:22,040 --> 00:16:24,400
And like I said, it was a really great experience.

303
00:16:24,400 --> 00:16:28,840
I can, if you have more questions, I'm happy to kind of talk about the details there.

304
00:16:28,840 --> 00:16:29,840
Yeah.

305
00:16:29,840 --> 00:16:32,160
So like, how exactly did you get the research?

306
00:16:32,160 --> 00:16:36,160
You know, what did you have to do in order to reach out to these advisors and kind of

307
00:16:36,160 --> 00:16:37,160
put your name out there?

308
00:16:37,160 --> 00:16:42,280
And, you know, I know it's a little discouraging sometimes even me personally, I felt it's

309
00:16:42,280 --> 00:16:46,760
a little tough to get the attention of these advisors and these, these PIs and professors.

310
00:16:46,760 --> 00:16:52,120
And so what would you, what would you, what kind of advice would you get pre-downals who

311
00:16:52,120 --> 00:16:53,880
are interested in looking to get the research?

312
00:16:53,880 --> 00:16:55,800
Yeah, that's a great, great question.

313
00:16:55,800 --> 00:16:58,000
So I think I reached out to three labs.

314
00:16:58,000 --> 00:17:02,040
And so the one who, the one hit that I had was Facebook one.

315
00:17:02,040 --> 00:17:07,680
So the way that I kind of reached out was like, they don't want to see like the longest,

316
00:17:07,680 --> 00:17:10,480
they don't want to see like a personal statement when you reach out to them.

317
00:17:10,480 --> 00:17:14,240
They, because these people are like full-time faculty, they have their grad students they're

318
00:17:14,240 --> 00:17:17,600
worrying about, they have their grants and the current public things they're working

319
00:17:17,600 --> 00:17:18,600
on.

320
00:17:18,600 --> 00:17:22,040
So you, you don't want to like, I've seen a lot of people try to reach out to professors

321
00:17:22,040 --> 00:17:25,600
with research and they write this long personal statement email and it's like, they don't really

322
00:17:25,600 --> 00:17:26,600
care about that.

323
00:17:26,600 --> 00:17:31,160
I think it's the best thing in the email to show your willingness to contribute in any

324
00:17:31,160 --> 00:17:33,000
way that you can.

325
00:17:33,000 --> 00:17:34,960
You should give them your availability upfront.

326
00:17:34,960 --> 00:17:40,400
And I think a reasonable availability for a position where you, for a lab in which you'll

327
00:17:40,400 --> 00:17:45,480
be in a position to publish is I think maybe 10 to 12 hours a week of commitment.

328
00:17:45,480 --> 00:17:49,880
A lot of schools will do like a four cron like a per course credit, like they'll give you

329
00:17:49,880 --> 00:17:52,960
like three credits of research, although they'll even pay you.

330
00:17:52,960 --> 00:17:54,880
I think it's better to do the course credit.

331
00:17:54,880 --> 00:18:00,920
Like I got every semester that I was involved, I got an age factored into my GPA, which was

332
00:18:00,920 --> 00:18:01,920
really great.

333
00:18:01,920 --> 00:18:07,080
Like why, for minimum, like I was in a position where I was looking at like I can do like

334
00:18:07,080 --> 00:18:11,760
a minimum wage sort of situation or I can do like for credit and I was like, you know

335
00:18:11,760 --> 00:18:13,000
what, I'm building my future.

336
00:18:13,000 --> 00:18:15,280
Like I want to have a higher GPA whenever possible.

337
00:18:15,280 --> 00:18:18,280
Like here's, I'm going to, I'm going to take that option.

338
00:18:18,280 --> 00:18:22,920
So like I said, tell them about your availability upfront, tell them kind of your willingness

339
00:18:22,920 --> 00:18:26,560
and maybe within a paragraph, just say like kind of some of your skills that you think

340
00:18:26,560 --> 00:18:28,040
you could bring to the table.

341
00:18:28,040 --> 00:18:31,240
If you have any prior research experience, of course, that's great.

342
00:18:31,240 --> 00:18:35,440
But I think the first email maybe should just be like, you know, would you be willing to

343
00:18:35,440 --> 00:18:40,120
meet and discuss like, of course they have, it's almost like a dual interview process

344
00:18:40,120 --> 00:18:43,640
where you have to be wanting to work in their lab and do the things they're asking you

345
00:18:43,640 --> 00:18:45,480
but they also have to deal with you.

346
00:18:45,480 --> 00:18:49,640
So like that's, that's kind of the, the two parts of that.

347
00:18:49,640 --> 00:18:52,920
So yeah, I guess the summary, right?

348
00:18:52,920 --> 00:18:57,800
The summary of what I just said is, is just your availability, your experiences and your

349
00:18:57,800 --> 00:19:03,040
willingness to work and kind of be a contributor, like an active member of a lab group.

350
00:19:03,040 --> 00:19:07,120
And just kind of see if they're willing to just meet with you, discuss.

351
00:19:07,120 --> 00:19:09,840
I think a lot of these things come through better when you're meeting with someone and

352
00:19:09,840 --> 00:19:12,880
speaking with someone that has been through email.

353
00:19:12,880 --> 00:19:16,360
So those are some of my recommendations.

354
00:19:16,360 --> 00:19:21,200
And I think you're talking about like research with the research, like you can use as credit.

355
00:19:21,200 --> 00:19:22,960
I think it's Sony Brook.

356
00:19:22,960 --> 00:19:25,240
If you have a research experience, like if you're doing research, they give you like

357
00:19:25,240 --> 00:19:28,320
credits, you don't have to take like an upper division lab course.

358
00:19:28,320 --> 00:19:29,760
So I can like get you out of it.

359
00:19:29,760 --> 00:19:30,760
So that's, that's great.

360
00:19:30,760 --> 00:19:33,080
No, I think that's the what can be done.

361
00:19:33,080 --> 00:19:37,120
I would totally recommend that because some of those upper lab courses, like no matter

362
00:19:37,120 --> 00:19:41,000
how much time you put into something, they can probably like doc you for some reason

363
00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:42,000
on the rubric.

364
00:19:42,000 --> 00:19:47,160
Like a better, like I think it's a more, it's a more.

365
00:19:47,160 --> 00:19:49,000
It's like a win-win kind of thing.

366
00:19:49,000 --> 00:19:50,000
If you can get it.

367
00:19:50,000 --> 00:19:52,200
So I just want to ask a little bit more.

368
00:19:52,200 --> 00:19:57,000
So when you first started your research, did you start out strong or did you have to like

369
00:19:57,000 --> 00:20:01,280
learn to get trained and then do you have to like learn everything, how long did it take

370
00:20:01,280 --> 00:20:06,320
to learn everything and then also start doing meaningful things, meaningful actions that

371
00:20:06,320 --> 00:20:10,200
actually you thought that were that contributed to the project itself?

372
00:20:10,200 --> 00:20:12,200
Like how long did it take to get to that point?

373
00:20:12,200 --> 00:20:13,200
I mean.

374
00:20:13,200 --> 00:20:14,200
Yeah.

375
00:20:14,200 --> 00:20:17,600
So something that I experienced and I know a lot of my friends experienced, they'll start

376
00:20:17,600 --> 00:20:23,680
you off with something that's very like mundane, like the kind of the work that no one wants

377
00:20:23,680 --> 00:20:26,600
to know that grad students want to do and that's very normal.

378
00:20:26,600 --> 00:20:29,720
And I think that's, I think that's totally okay.

379
00:20:29,720 --> 00:20:33,880
And I think people should go into research experience, expecting that and being very

380
00:20:33,880 --> 00:20:38,160
okay with that because like you should be kind of honored that they've accepted you

381
00:20:38,160 --> 00:20:39,160
into their group.

382
00:20:39,160 --> 00:20:43,480
Like a lot of these grad students go through a very similar rigorous process to get into

383
00:20:43,480 --> 00:20:44,480
these groups.

384
00:20:44,480 --> 00:20:47,160
For example, if they were, if they're doing their PhD program, as we would do if we're

385
00:20:47,160 --> 00:20:49,280
going into a dental program.

386
00:20:49,280 --> 00:20:51,920
So it's very selective.

387
00:20:51,920 --> 00:20:57,400
And you know, I think you should just be willing and okay with doing the work that's very kind

388
00:20:57,400 --> 00:20:59,440
of mundane.

389
00:20:59,440 --> 00:21:04,280
What I did though personally is I, after doing that work for a little bit, I was, I kind

390
00:21:04,280 --> 00:21:09,000
of up to my PI and I, and I was lucky to have a good relationship with them and just explained

391
00:21:09,000 --> 00:21:13,000
to him where I'm trying to go, where I'm heading, what's sort of, what's my end goal.

392
00:21:13,000 --> 00:21:16,800
And of course it was to go into dental school and I explained, like I really do want to

393
00:21:16,800 --> 00:21:20,680
be involved with myself with as many kind of skills within a lab as possible.

394
00:21:20,680 --> 00:21:25,120
And I said, you know, ultimately it would be great if I could be involved in some sort

395
00:21:25,120 --> 00:21:27,400
of publication.

396
00:21:27,400 --> 00:21:32,120
I think the PI's know that that's generally like what people are looking for.

397
00:21:32,120 --> 00:21:36,400
If they're like a pre-health major and not like a, not, not going into a PhD program.

398
00:21:36,400 --> 00:21:37,880
Like it would be helpful.

399
00:21:37,880 --> 00:21:40,280
You don't need to have a publication by any means, but it does help.

400
00:21:40,280 --> 00:21:43,600
I mean, it's something that you can just list on the wrist, for example, and you can talk

401
00:21:43,600 --> 00:21:45,360
about an interview.

402
00:21:45,360 --> 00:21:48,040
So my PI was very understanding of that.

403
00:21:48,040 --> 00:21:51,320
And then at that point we kind of reevaluated, looked at my schedule and he said, you know,

404
00:21:51,320 --> 00:21:53,400
here are some things that we need help with.

405
00:21:53,400 --> 00:21:55,680
Here is where you can step up, for example.

406
00:21:55,680 --> 00:21:59,240
I started doing a literature review for him where I was looking at taste genes associated

407
00:21:59,240 --> 00:22:01,120
with dental carries.

408
00:22:01,120 --> 00:22:05,600
So if it's, if it's not enough initially, you can definitely ask to step it up and a

409
00:22:05,600 --> 00:22:10,160
lot of the PI's will be receptive towards that.

410
00:22:10,160 --> 00:22:12,320
And then in terms of the learning curve.

411
00:22:12,320 --> 00:22:17,040
Yeah, at first it was tough because I was jumping into something where everyone around

412
00:22:17,040 --> 00:22:19,160
me knew everything and I knew nothing.

413
00:22:19,160 --> 00:22:24,040
And I didn't take immunology, which was huge for my project because I was looking at inflammation

414
00:22:24,040 --> 00:22:28,120
associated with obesity and kind of how it affects like the oral mucosa and things like

415
00:22:28,120 --> 00:22:29,120
that.

416
00:22:29,120 --> 00:22:32,560
So I had to learn a lot of it by myself, watching YouTube videos.

417
00:22:32,560 --> 00:22:33,560
Ninja Nerd is great.

418
00:22:33,560 --> 00:22:38,480
Something I actually used in dental school to YouTube channel.

419
00:22:38,480 --> 00:22:41,120
And kind of, I was lucky to have a grad student that I worked with.

420
00:22:41,120 --> 00:22:42,440
That was really great explaining things.

421
00:22:42,440 --> 00:22:47,040
So it does, it does take a little bit of time to get to, you know, where you should be to

422
00:22:47,040 --> 00:22:51,320
feel comfortable kind of holding a conversation with your PI or other grad students.

423
00:22:51,320 --> 00:22:52,320
But definitely ask questions.

424
00:22:52,320 --> 00:22:57,280
You should, you shouldn't feel like the relationship you should have with your PI and a grad student,

425
00:22:57,280 --> 00:22:58,920
for example, should be very calm.

426
00:22:58,920 --> 00:23:01,000
It should be very informative and educational.

427
00:23:01,000 --> 00:23:04,240
Like it shouldn't be something where you like hate being there because they yell at you

428
00:23:04,240 --> 00:23:05,720
and things like so.

429
00:23:05,720 --> 00:23:08,120
Don't put yourself in a situation like that, obviously.

430
00:23:08,120 --> 00:23:11,200
Hopefully that answers your question.

431
00:23:11,200 --> 00:23:12,200
Right.

432
00:23:12,200 --> 00:23:14,320
And I feel like a lot of pre-dentals need to consider, you know, not being in a research

433
00:23:14,320 --> 00:23:18,600
lab where they hate being in and, you know, kind of choosing something that they, they

434
00:23:18,600 --> 00:23:22,560
it's contributing to their future, what they want to do in the future.

435
00:23:22,560 --> 00:23:26,960
Or just something they enjoy, honestly, like it doesn't have to be medically or dental

436
00:23:26,960 --> 00:23:28,960
related to be honest.

437
00:23:28,960 --> 00:23:32,920
It's just something that, you know, when you go in every day, you have a clear purpose

438
00:23:32,920 --> 00:23:37,800
and you like know that this is going to help you and something that you really enjoy doing.

439
00:23:37,800 --> 00:23:42,280
So on that note, I just want to talk about, you know, the DAT and the application and

440
00:23:42,280 --> 00:23:44,120
the personal statement, things like that.

441
00:23:44,120 --> 00:23:48,760
Can you just run us through your application, you know, how you approached these different

442
00:23:48,760 --> 00:23:52,360
tasks of the DAT personal statement, rec letters, everything, essentially.

443
00:23:52,360 --> 00:23:54,000
Yeah, for sure.

444
00:23:54,000 --> 00:23:57,880
So I knew that I would, the first thing you need to know is if you're trying to take

445
00:23:57,880 --> 00:23:58,880
a gap year or not.

446
00:23:58,880 --> 00:24:02,000
And that kind of changes the schedule and the timeline.

447
00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:03,640
So I knew I didn't want to take a gap year.

448
00:24:03,640 --> 00:24:08,440
I knew I wanted to go straight from undergrad to dental school, being that I'm looking to

449
00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:13,200
specialize, I don't want to spend an extra year or two just doing something in the interim.

450
00:24:13,200 --> 00:24:14,840
I'd kind of rather just go right to school.

451
00:24:14,840 --> 00:24:17,200
So that was something I decided very early on.

452
00:24:17,200 --> 00:24:24,480
So I took my DAT in my winter break of my junior, wait, let me just make sure this is

453
00:24:24,480 --> 00:24:25,480
right.

454
00:24:25,480 --> 00:24:30,400
I took my DAT, my winter break of my junior year, I'm pretty sure.

455
00:24:30,400 --> 00:24:31,400
I think.

456
00:24:31,400 --> 00:24:34,160
I'll go back to you guys.

457
00:24:34,160 --> 00:24:39,320
But then I remember, because by the end of senior year, I kind of knew where I was going

458
00:24:39,320 --> 00:24:40,320
to school.

459
00:24:40,320 --> 00:24:45,640
I had interviews during February of senior year, I think February, March, April of senior

460
00:24:45,640 --> 00:24:46,640
year.

461
00:24:46,640 --> 00:24:48,840
So that I guess makes sense.

462
00:24:48,840 --> 00:24:51,760
Let me think.

463
00:24:51,760 --> 00:24:52,760
Personal statement.

464
00:24:52,760 --> 00:25:00,360
I started also, I think, around when I finished my DAT, because I had to have that into AdSAS.

465
00:25:00,360 --> 00:25:03,240
Well, so my school had a committee letter.

466
00:25:03,240 --> 00:25:07,760
So also by February, I had to have everything into my school.

467
00:25:07,760 --> 00:25:11,240
So I had to have a pretty good draft of my personal statement.

468
00:25:11,240 --> 00:25:18,360
But then I had from February to June or July when the portal opens to actually submit the

469
00:25:18,360 --> 00:25:19,360
personal statement.

470
00:25:19,360 --> 00:25:21,720
I think I'm watching this entire timeline.

471
00:25:21,720 --> 00:25:26,480
So forgive me if I'm wrong, but you can interrupt and tell me that doesn't make any sense.

472
00:25:26,480 --> 00:25:32,200
I think I'm probably too good at DAT like winter of junior year.

473
00:25:32,200 --> 00:25:33,200
I highly recommend that.

474
00:25:33,200 --> 00:25:34,200
Yeah, probably.

475
00:25:34,200 --> 00:25:40,600
Then you probably apply in the summer after junior year, and then you're good after that.

476
00:25:40,600 --> 00:25:44,200
Well, so I was interviewed, I guess so.

477
00:25:44,200 --> 00:25:47,200
Yeah, because I knew I was going to school junior year.

478
00:25:47,200 --> 00:25:51,040
Yeah, because I think the interviews go into the next year.

479
00:25:51,040 --> 00:25:55,720
So like, you know, you apply June, then you start hearing back like, I don't know, like

480
00:25:55,720 --> 00:26:01,400
this December, December, January, February, something like that, somewhere around there.

481
00:26:01,400 --> 00:26:02,400
Something like that.

482
00:26:02,400 --> 00:26:05,400
You're going to have to have another podcast guest.

483
00:26:05,400 --> 00:26:06,400
It's not me.

484
00:26:06,400 --> 00:26:10,280
Well, I like the dental school admissions team on here or something like that.

485
00:26:10,280 --> 00:26:14,360
Yeah, so for those, you know, pre-dentalists that don't even know what the interview process

486
00:26:14,360 --> 00:26:18,200
is, like, can you give like a little definition of what it is and like why it's an important

487
00:26:18,200 --> 00:26:20,240
part of the whole application?

488
00:26:20,240 --> 00:26:21,240
Yeah.

489
00:26:21,240 --> 00:26:27,960
So I think so I was the first COVID year, so I was fully virtual interviews.

490
00:26:27,960 --> 00:26:29,560
And I think some schools are still doing virtual.

491
00:26:29,560 --> 00:26:31,200
It actually saves a lot of money.

492
00:26:31,200 --> 00:26:33,080
It's very convenient.

493
00:26:33,080 --> 00:26:36,760
But I think the interview process is like the make or break.

494
00:26:36,760 --> 00:26:41,360
And I don't say that to like stress people out, but I think it's like actually an advantage

495
00:26:41,360 --> 00:26:43,880
for most people to have the interview process.

496
00:26:43,880 --> 00:26:47,720
So if you're lucky enough to get there, this is essentially the level like it's an even

497
00:26:47,720 --> 00:26:51,120
playing field at this point, because you've applied.

498
00:26:51,120 --> 00:26:55,840
And now you're amongst a pool of people that have in their eyes, the admissions committee's

499
00:26:55,840 --> 00:26:58,120
eyes, you know, you're all on the same page.

500
00:26:58,120 --> 00:27:03,200
You all have great grades, whatever they are, you all have a good DAT score, whether that

501
00:27:03,200 --> 00:27:10,160
be a 30 or 18 or seven, whatever it is that your equation that kind of got you there,

502
00:27:10,160 --> 00:27:11,800
you're all even at this point.

503
00:27:11,800 --> 00:27:16,240
They're not going to look back at your DAT after the interview and compare you with someone

504
00:27:16,240 --> 00:27:20,760
who got a 25 versus a 20, because they don't care about the, they've already shown that

505
00:27:20,760 --> 00:27:21,760
they care about that.

506
00:27:21,760 --> 00:27:23,600
That is now out the window.

507
00:27:23,600 --> 00:27:27,920
So this is why the interview is huge, because you're going to be with people and they're

508
00:27:27,920 --> 00:27:30,880
all going to come from different backgrounds, different schools, and it really doesn't matter

509
00:27:30,880 --> 00:27:35,720
because you, this is your time to be you, be yourself.

510
00:27:35,720 --> 00:27:41,520
And this is something that I really enjoyed because I was able to figure out early on that

511
00:27:41,520 --> 00:27:46,440
you can sway the interview process and the questions in any way that you want.

512
00:27:46,440 --> 00:27:47,960
And it's actually fun to do that.

513
00:27:47,960 --> 00:27:52,240
They'll ask you a question, you answer the question as much as you want.

514
00:27:52,240 --> 00:27:55,880
And then you just start talking about something else where you ask them a question and it's

515
00:27:55,880 --> 00:27:59,120
literally cruise control from there because they just want to see that you can have a

516
00:27:59,120 --> 00:28:00,120
conversation with someone.

517
00:28:00,120 --> 00:28:04,000
They don't really, they're going to ask you questions like, tell me about your research.

518
00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:07,920
They're going to ask you the boring questions like, like, tell me about your strengths and

519
00:28:07,920 --> 00:28:08,920
weaknesses.

520
00:28:08,920 --> 00:28:09,920
They don't really care.

521
00:28:09,920 --> 00:28:14,160
I'm sorry, but they, I've spoken with people at my school, they just want to see how you

522
00:28:14,160 --> 00:28:16,520
respond to these things.

523
00:28:16,520 --> 00:28:20,440
Another one that comes to mind is like, they'll always ask you about your hand skills.

524
00:28:20,440 --> 00:28:21,440
Right.

525
00:28:21,440 --> 00:28:23,960
Like you've heard this question you've seen on student doctor network.

526
00:28:23,960 --> 00:28:28,680
Well, the behind the scenes is that they really don't care because it's nothing translates

527
00:28:28,680 --> 00:28:29,680
to dentals.

528
00:28:29,680 --> 00:28:33,840
Everyone will learn how to use a hand piece and everyone's going to learn how to complete

529
00:28:33,840 --> 00:28:34,840
these procedures.

530
00:28:34,840 --> 00:28:40,360
My, I had a professor who said his favorite part of the interview process is to ask about

531
00:28:40,360 --> 00:28:46,040
the hand skills because he loves it when people make up these cockamame, explain it, these

532
00:28:46,040 --> 00:28:48,800
relations that don't make any sense.

533
00:28:48,800 --> 00:28:53,720
And then he loves watching the pre dental student try to answer and explain why it would be

534
00:28:53,720 --> 00:28:55,840
useful within the industry.

535
00:28:55,840 --> 00:28:56,840
It doesn't matter.

536
00:28:56,840 --> 00:29:01,040
He said it would be actually better if you say, I actually don't have any hand skills

537
00:29:01,040 --> 00:29:04,320
that would lead me to, to be a better practitioner one day.

538
00:29:04,320 --> 00:29:05,320
Sure.

539
00:29:05,320 --> 00:29:09,360
Like I can tell you, oh, I played viola when I was six, but like that doesn't really, like

540
00:29:09,360 --> 00:29:10,600
that's, there's no relation there.

541
00:29:10,600 --> 00:29:15,200
So if you, if you have something like let's say you are an artist or you, you know, you

542
00:29:15,200 --> 00:29:18,760
do play piano, yes, mention it, of course, like sure, that's what we want to hear that.

543
00:29:18,760 --> 00:29:20,400
That's a traditional answer.

544
00:29:20,400 --> 00:29:26,040
But like if you like took a cooking class and like you think that like sprinkling salt

545
00:29:26,040 --> 00:29:29,560
into something is like hand skills, like don't say that because it just doesn't make any

546
00:29:29,560 --> 00:29:30,560
sense.

547
00:29:30,560 --> 00:29:33,520
I hope you guys follow where I'm going with this.

548
00:29:33,520 --> 00:29:35,920
So that's some of this, this interview process.

549
00:29:35,920 --> 00:29:38,040
I'm trying to think of, should we pause there?

550
00:29:38,040 --> 00:29:40,840
I have a lot of, I have a lot of things to talk about with interviews.

551
00:29:40,840 --> 00:29:45,800
So yeah, and I think it's important to make a distinction between like what you should

552
00:29:45,800 --> 00:29:49,840
say, not say on an interview and things that are actually applicable to dentistry instead

553
00:29:49,840 --> 00:29:56,280
of just saying things that I guess anybody could do.

554
00:29:56,280 --> 00:30:00,440
But yeah, so how would you, how would you describe the interview process in like a word

555
00:30:00,440 --> 00:30:01,440
or two?

556
00:30:01,440 --> 00:30:07,520
Wow, that's really, I don't think of the word.

557
00:30:07,520 --> 00:30:14,760
I would say like, I don't know if I can do it in one word, but I could say to you that

558
00:30:14,760 --> 00:30:17,400
maybe like a couple words, I'll say a couple words.

559
00:30:17,400 --> 00:30:18,840
Give me a couple to work with.

560
00:30:18,840 --> 00:30:20,600
Okay, thank you.

561
00:30:20,600 --> 00:30:25,920
I would just say, this is, I can't know if I can do it.

562
00:30:25,920 --> 00:30:31,040
Like I said before, where you, when you kind of are asked a question, take it where you

563
00:30:31,040 --> 00:30:32,040
want.

564
00:30:32,040 --> 00:30:34,080
That's, that's, that's kind of how my experience was.

565
00:30:34,080 --> 00:30:40,200
And so like I said, they'll ask you a question, you just, just be yourself, answer the question

566
00:30:40,200 --> 00:30:44,400
and then talk about something interesting that, that, that you think they'd be interested

567
00:30:44,400 --> 00:30:45,400
in hearing about.

568
00:30:45,400 --> 00:30:46,400
Right.

569
00:30:46,400 --> 00:30:49,920
So, so were you anxious, nervous, excited before interview?

570
00:30:49,920 --> 00:30:50,920
Like how did that feel?

571
00:30:50,920 --> 00:30:52,600
How did the whole process actually go?

572
00:30:52,600 --> 00:30:53,600
Okay.

573
00:30:53,600 --> 00:30:54,600
Yeah.

574
00:30:54,600 --> 00:30:55,600
So I was not calm.

575
00:30:55,600 --> 00:31:00,560
I'm, I, I tried to come off calm and I hopefully was able to, but definitely stress, I mean,

576
00:31:00,560 --> 00:31:01,560
it is stressful, right?

577
00:31:01,560 --> 00:31:06,320
Even you can tell yourself a hundred times and you can practice your, your personal, your,

578
00:31:06,320 --> 00:31:09,880
your wide dentistry question, for example, like a hundred times and feel like you got

579
00:31:09,880 --> 00:31:10,880
it down.

580
00:31:10,880 --> 00:31:14,560
But then once you're actually sitting there and like for a lot of the pre-dentals who

581
00:31:14,560 --> 00:31:18,760
were coming up, for example, you might have in-person interviews, which I didn't have.

582
00:31:18,760 --> 00:31:22,880
You're not in the comfort of sitting in your, you know, your room and your desk chair.

583
00:31:22,880 --> 00:31:24,360
Like it is going to be stressful.

584
00:31:24,360 --> 00:31:29,520
And it's like something you, once you kind of get through that first question, you just

585
00:31:29,520 --> 00:31:31,240
take a step back.

586
00:31:31,240 --> 00:31:34,080
Like I said, realize that they're just want to have a conversation with you.

587
00:31:34,080 --> 00:31:36,400
I've never been grilled on an interview.

588
00:31:36,400 --> 00:31:40,920
I never had a question where I wasn't able to answer.

589
00:31:40,920 --> 00:31:46,200
I've had times where they would ask a question and I would say like one second, let me think

590
00:31:46,200 --> 00:31:47,280
about that.

591
00:31:47,280 --> 00:31:49,160
And they said, like take as much time as you need.

592
00:31:49,160 --> 00:31:51,320
Like it really is, they're humans.

593
00:31:51,320 --> 00:31:55,200
Like they're, at the end of the day, like they're the same dentists that you've shadowed

594
00:31:55,200 --> 00:31:57,840
and you've come to love and wrote your letters of recommendation.

595
00:31:57,840 --> 00:32:00,400
Like these are just nice people at the end of the day.

596
00:32:00,400 --> 00:32:01,600
They're not trying to grill you.

597
00:32:01,600 --> 00:32:03,960
So that's something that you just keep in mind.

598
00:32:03,960 --> 00:32:07,680
Like I said, the first question is going to be stressful, but you'll get to a groove and

599
00:32:07,680 --> 00:32:10,880
everyone's going to be okay.

600
00:32:10,880 --> 00:32:13,880
So did you know from the beginning, like which schools you want to apply to and like how'd

601
00:32:13,880 --> 00:32:15,880
you narrow them down?

602
00:32:15,880 --> 00:32:16,880
Yeah.

603
00:32:16,880 --> 00:32:22,000
So I knew, I knew a few schools I didn't want to apply to just because of costs and location

604
00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:26,840
and like even though like, of course I didn't want to go like, you know, like really far

605
00:32:26,840 --> 00:32:27,960
from home, for example.

606
00:32:27,960 --> 00:32:31,560
So I had like maybe a list of 20 that I narrowed down to like 15.

607
00:32:31,560 --> 00:32:35,200
So I think I applied around there.

608
00:32:35,200 --> 00:32:39,240
And then I knew Stony Brook was always a number kind of one of those schools.

609
00:32:39,240 --> 00:32:43,360
And if I get into Stony Brook, I really have to consider Stony Brook.

610
00:32:43,360 --> 00:32:50,320
And then there were, I kind of went from the 15, I had, I think working in our 15 schools

611
00:32:50,320 --> 00:32:54,680
that I applied to, I got interviews at nine, I got in call nine that I interviewed at.

612
00:32:54,680 --> 00:32:58,600
And then from there, I narrowed it down to four.

613
00:32:58,600 --> 00:33:01,160
And we can talk about the specifics if you want.

614
00:33:01,160 --> 00:33:05,320
But I do want to hear like some schools that I was considering and what kind of made me.

615
00:33:05,320 --> 00:33:06,320
Yeah, sure.

616
00:33:06,320 --> 00:33:09,240
So you scale like a little scale of, you know, where Stony Brook fit in your.

617
00:33:09,240 --> 00:33:10,240
Yeah.

618
00:33:10,240 --> 00:33:14,560
So basically at the end of the day, I was between Michigan, New University of Pennsylvania,

619
00:33:14,560 --> 00:33:17,000
Stony Brook and Buffalo.

620
00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:22,600
Michigan kind of was the first to go because I was thinking to myself, you know, why spend

621
00:33:22,600 --> 00:33:26,400
the extra money for a state school where I'm out of state.

622
00:33:26,400 --> 00:33:29,280
And I was lucky enough to get into Stony Brook and Buffalo.

623
00:33:29,280 --> 00:33:33,520
So while Michigan would be, would have been a great experience in terms of like the athletics

624
00:33:33,520 --> 00:33:35,640
and like kind of like that big name school.

625
00:33:35,640 --> 00:33:38,400
Like I felt I got that personally in undergrad.

626
00:33:38,400 --> 00:33:43,280
So I didn't know if I needed to spend the extra money for myself to go to Michigan.

627
00:33:43,280 --> 00:33:46,040
And I know someone who goes to Michigan, she seems to really love it.

628
00:33:46,040 --> 00:33:47,600
So it's a great school.

629
00:33:47,600 --> 00:33:51,160
And it's, you know, there's nothing, nothing wrong with going to Michigan.

630
00:33:51,160 --> 00:33:56,360
I just personally, I thought I was going to narrow down between Penn, Stony and Buffalo.

631
00:33:56,360 --> 00:34:00,600
And then Buffalo was the next to go off the list just because I figured I'm from Long

632
00:34:00,600 --> 00:34:04,960
Island, like kind of just like a real hassle to do the whole upstate thing again.

633
00:34:04,960 --> 00:34:09,200
Like I did it for undergrad from coming from Long Island up to New York.

634
00:34:09,200 --> 00:34:12,520
I felt I had that experience.

635
00:34:12,520 --> 00:34:15,680
The only thing holding me back from Stony at that point was like looking at the class

636
00:34:15,680 --> 00:34:17,440
size for anyone listening.

637
00:34:17,440 --> 00:34:21,920
Like Stony Brook has like the second smallest class size behind Harvard.

638
00:34:21,920 --> 00:34:27,000
Harvard has like 34, 35 and Stony Brook has 45 or 46 depending on the year.

639
00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:30,560
So I was thinking to myself like small class size can go one of two ways.

640
00:34:30,560 --> 00:34:34,560
I could really love everyone in my class or, you know, I might not love everyone in my

641
00:34:34,560 --> 00:34:35,560
class.

642
00:34:35,560 --> 00:34:36,920
I've actually come to love everyone in my class.

643
00:34:36,920 --> 00:34:39,760
So I'm really happy that I chose Stony Brook.

644
00:34:39,760 --> 00:34:42,720
But Buffalo was ultimately the next to go.

645
00:34:42,720 --> 00:34:47,360
Another reason Buffalo was off the list was because I didn't want to be ranked.

646
00:34:47,360 --> 00:34:48,960
And I also wanted a GPA.

647
00:34:48,960 --> 00:34:51,760
So I can talk about that quickly.

648
00:34:51,760 --> 00:34:56,640
Being that I know where I'm really strongly considering specializing at this point, I

649
00:34:56,640 --> 00:35:01,720
felt that when I was applying to residency, I didn't want my, and especially like through

650
00:35:01,720 --> 00:35:07,800
my years in school, I didn't want to know that I was like number 20 out of 95, for example,

651
00:35:07,800 --> 00:35:08,800
in Buffalo.

652
00:35:08,800 --> 00:35:13,600
Like I didn't really think that that was a healthy way to go about it for me.

653
00:35:13,600 --> 00:35:15,480
I also like feel like at Stony Brook.

654
00:35:15,480 --> 00:35:20,400
I thought that a lot of people who went there, the ranking, no ranking really helps because

655
00:35:20,400 --> 00:35:24,080
it's no, no one's really that competitive with each other because there's no reason

656
00:35:24,080 --> 00:35:26,000
to be like, there's no curve.

657
00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:29,280
Everybody can get an A if everyone does well on something.

658
00:35:29,280 --> 00:35:33,320
Whereas some of these ranked schools, you might have some of that keeping in terms of like

659
00:35:33,320 --> 00:35:35,280
study guides and things like that.

660
00:35:35,280 --> 00:35:39,440
So I was like, you know who I am and I've always been a collaborative learner like I

661
00:35:39,440 --> 00:35:42,400
was between Penn and Stony Brook at this point.

662
00:35:42,400 --> 00:35:46,000
And then, and I was like, okay, let's look at the financials here and then you can was

663
00:35:46,000 --> 00:35:49,760
just way too expensive for what I was kind of considering at the end of the day, like

664
00:35:49,760 --> 00:35:51,280
we're all going to be a dentist.

665
00:35:51,280 --> 00:35:55,520
So like, you know, if you can get into your state school, I would highly recommend it.

666
00:35:55,520 --> 00:35:58,800
I don't really see why not.

667
00:35:58,800 --> 00:36:02,240
I'm sure there are arguments for, you know, going to you can over Stony Brook in terms

668
00:36:02,240 --> 00:36:09,200
of specializing maybe, but Stony Brook had 100% matri for the last few years and it's

669
00:36:09,200 --> 00:36:13,280
pretty much anyone, whatever you're trying to specialize in, you're able to get into.

670
00:36:13,280 --> 00:36:16,440
So you know, it's like, you know, let's do study bro, I'm 20 minutes from home, but

671
00:36:16,440 --> 00:36:19,600
I'm going to, I actually live closer to the school with four of the guys from my class.

672
00:36:19,600 --> 00:36:24,360
So I kind of made it feel like I was going away to college, even though I'm really close

673
00:36:24,360 --> 00:36:26,400
to home, but that was my process.

674
00:36:26,400 --> 00:36:27,400
Nice.

675
00:36:27,400 --> 00:36:28,400
Yeah.

676
00:36:28,400 --> 00:36:31,720
I mean, you know, Stony Brook is obviously like the best choice, you know, when I was

677
00:36:31,720 --> 00:36:37,040
applying like college, you know, I wanted to go to like BU, but Stony Brook was right

678
00:36:37,040 --> 00:36:39,360
here and it was like just great connections and stuff like that.

679
00:36:39,360 --> 00:36:40,960
So I just kind of chose to stay close.

680
00:36:40,960 --> 00:36:41,960
Yeah.

681
00:36:41,960 --> 00:36:46,680
So I mean, these are a lot of factors to choose when it comes to deciding on a school.

682
00:36:46,680 --> 00:36:51,240
So what are some like resources, pre-dentals can use to prepare for that interview to get

683
00:36:51,240 --> 00:36:54,280
into their schools of choice and that they really want to get into?

684
00:36:54,280 --> 00:37:00,120
I think the best resource is to go on some of these Facebook groups that exist and finding

685
00:37:00,120 --> 00:37:03,880
current students who will talk about their experiences.

686
00:37:03,880 --> 00:37:06,280
This is not something that this is totally allowed.

687
00:37:06,280 --> 00:37:10,600
Is it something that you're allowed to speak with upperclassmen and just hear kind of what

688
00:37:10,600 --> 00:37:12,600
their interview day was like?

689
00:37:12,600 --> 00:37:15,120
First of all, the question is changed every year.

690
00:37:15,120 --> 00:37:19,760
So if that was a concern, that's not something to worry about, but they can really give you

691
00:37:19,760 --> 00:37:23,120
like the real deal, like what it was like for them and like what you guys were moving

692
00:37:23,120 --> 00:37:24,120
to earlier.

693
00:37:24,120 --> 00:37:25,560
Like how did you feel on the interview?

694
00:37:25,560 --> 00:37:26,560
Did you feel pressured?

695
00:37:26,560 --> 00:37:30,200
Did you feel like there was questions that you weren't able to feel?

696
00:37:30,200 --> 00:37:32,000
Those are things, good things to know going in.

697
00:37:32,000 --> 00:37:36,600
So I think the number one resource is reaching out to students who go there and I'm sure

698
00:37:36,600 --> 00:37:41,120
there are any school you look at, there will be people willing to talk about their experiences.

699
00:37:41,120 --> 00:37:43,040
If anyone's looking to go to Storybrook, you can hit me up.

700
00:37:43,040 --> 00:37:45,440
I'm always down to talk about it.

701
00:37:45,440 --> 00:37:46,440
That's the first thing.

702
00:37:46,440 --> 00:37:49,840
One thing I would say away from is Student Doctor Network.

703
00:37:49,840 --> 00:37:53,280
It's like the worst thing that's ever been created.

704
00:37:53,280 --> 00:37:58,480
Somehow everyone on those swarms has a 35 on their DAT even though it's only at a 30.

705
00:37:58,480 --> 00:38:03,000
Everyone loves to talk anonymously on this thing.

706
00:38:03,000 --> 00:38:08,880
So I would stay away from there to really learn what the school is like.

707
00:38:08,880 --> 00:38:13,920
And of course, like if talking with the admissions committee, with the people who work there,

708
00:38:13,920 --> 00:38:17,160
they would actually probably like to see that you're taking an interest in an early point

709
00:38:17,160 --> 00:38:20,680
within your interview process and within your process of applying.

710
00:38:20,680 --> 00:38:24,400
I think some of the reason why I actually didn't hear back from some of the schools

711
00:38:24,400 --> 00:38:29,800
I did it because it seemed like I was just applying to apply, whereas if I had shown

712
00:38:29,800 --> 00:38:33,360
that long-term interest, that might have helped.

713
00:38:33,360 --> 00:38:35,320
I know that matters in undergrad decisions.

714
00:38:35,320 --> 00:38:39,880
They wanted some of the, I've talked to admissions committee years back and they said, when students

715
00:38:39,880 --> 00:38:42,840
come on tours, we really know that they're interested in applying here.

716
00:38:42,840 --> 00:38:45,400
They're not just applying here because of stats line up.

717
00:38:45,400 --> 00:38:50,240
So anything you could do to show that little bit of interest for that sustained period

718
00:38:50,240 --> 00:38:54,360
of time, I would highly recommend it.

719
00:38:54,360 --> 00:38:58,880
So you talked about how your interviews were virtual, obviously, because it was during COVID.

720
00:38:58,880 --> 00:39:02,080
So can you walk us through how the entire experience was?

721
00:39:02,080 --> 00:39:06,720
Like maybe getting the interview and then like in the waiting room, like, and then actually

722
00:39:06,720 --> 00:39:10,920
getting there and maybe some questions they asked you and how you kind of, how your own

723
00:39:10,920 --> 00:39:12,560
experience went down.

724
00:39:12,560 --> 00:39:13,560
Yeah.

725
00:39:13,560 --> 00:39:17,000
So I remember getting my first interview invite.

726
00:39:17,000 --> 00:39:18,000
I got so excited.

727
00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:20,720
It was from Rutgers and I was like so pumped.

728
00:39:20,720 --> 00:39:21,880
It was actually in person.

729
00:39:21,880 --> 00:39:27,440
So for me at that point and during the COVID, during COVID was, was really big to go in

730
00:39:27,440 --> 00:39:28,440
person.

731
00:39:28,440 --> 00:39:32,520
And I, I kind of, I remember getting there and being so excited.

732
00:39:32,520 --> 00:39:36,240
And it really is exactly what you would expect it to be.

733
00:39:36,240 --> 00:39:42,600
You kind of sit in the room, there's some intros and this was for Zoom and in person

734
00:39:42,600 --> 00:39:45,880
pretty much for everything I'm saying here, but there'll be some intros.

735
00:39:45,880 --> 00:39:47,600
They'll talk about financial aid.

736
00:39:47,600 --> 00:39:52,800
They'll, they'll do like a, the dean will come and speak, they, they want to like get

737
00:39:52,800 --> 00:39:53,800
you settled in.

738
00:39:53,800 --> 00:39:57,200
They're not going to like start like, like bombarding you with interview questions like

739
00:39:57,200 --> 00:40:00,080
right when you first get there.

740
00:40:00,080 --> 00:40:04,440
And every school of mine had a exact like a one-on-one process.

741
00:40:04,440 --> 00:40:09,720
Buffalo had like a two faculty with one student that doesn't really change like the dynamic

742
00:40:09,720 --> 00:40:10,720
of the interview.

743
00:40:10,720 --> 00:40:11,720
It was very relaxed.

744
00:40:11,720 --> 00:40:14,120
Like I said, I know Michigan, they did.

745
00:40:14,120 --> 00:40:21,480
And it's basically like, oh, and MMI, multiple mini interview.

746
00:40:21,480 --> 00:40:25,040
And they would, it was all a recorded software.

747
00:40:25,040 --> 00:40:30,640
So I would log into this thing and they would just ask me like a variety of random questions

748
00:40:30,640 --> 00:40:32,680
and my answers would be recorded.

749
00:40:32,680 --> 00:40:35,800
And one of them was like, do you think we should impose your sugar tax?

750
00:40:35,800 --> 00:40:40,080
One of them was like, one of your dental professionals who you work with is like 85

751
00:40:40,080 --> 00:40:43,800
years old and you're noticing that he's forgetting, you know, things here and there.

752
00:40:43,800 --> 00:40:45,440
Like what do you recommend to do?

753
00:40:45,440 --> 00:40:47,920
So a lot of like ethical questions.

754
00:40:47,920 --> 00:40:49,440
That was Michigan, for example.

755
00:40:49,440 --> 00:40:51,800
So that was definitely tough.

756
00:40:51,800 --> 00:40:53,560
But let me think.

757
00:40:53,560 --> 00:40:57,400
So I guess your question was specifically like kind of take you through the day.

758
00:40:57,400 --> 00:40:58,800
What was the question again?

759
00:40:58,800 --> 00:41:04,560
Yeah, like, you know, take us through the interview, like how, you know, what kind of

760
00:41:04,560 --> 00:41:08,120
questions to ask you, like how'd you respond to the answer?

761
00:41:08,120 --> 00:41:10,960
So always be prepared for a few different things.

762
00:41:10,960 --> 00:41:14,840
So the first question is always going to be tell me about yourself, like pretty much 95%

763
00:41:14,840 --> 00:41:18,240
of the time it'll be telling about yourself.

764
00:41:18,240 --> 00:41:22,160
And so when you think of this answer, you shouldn't just regard to take your personal

765
00:41:22,160 --> 00:41:23,160
statement.

766
00:41:23,160 --> 00:41:25,160
That's a lot of things that I saw my friend is trying to do.

767
00:41:25,160 --> 00:41:30,760
And I, now that I've kind of gone through the process and I was really had great interviews

768
00:41:30,760 --> 00:41:36,160
success, I would really recommend trying to step away from the things that they've already

769
00:41:36,160 --> 00:41:38,000
read about you and know about you.

770
00:41:38,000 --> 00:41:40,920
This is your chance to tell them like, yeah, I like, I love like, you know, I love like

771
00:41:40,920 --> 00:41:45,480
the New York Knicks and like, I love like, you know, if you're like intonating, like

772
00:41:45,480 --> 00:41:48,600
yeah, talk about it, like they want to hear like some of the fun stuff that you haven't

773
00:41:48,600 --> 00:41:51,920
talked about in your process.

774
00:41:51,920 --> 00:41:52,920
So that's the tell me about yourself.

775
00:41:52,920 --> 00:41:55,640
I would try to get that no more than two minutes.

776
00:41:55,640 --> 00:42:00,800
I would start talking about maybe where you're from and go from kind of a little bit about

777
00:42:00,800 --> 00:42:03,000
your family life.

778
00:42:03,000 --> 00:42:06,880
And then kind of a little bit about your school and what you do because it makes sense kind

779
00:42:06,880 --> 00:42:08,480
of when you're telling someone about yourself.

780
00:42:08,480 --> 00:42:10,800
But again, they know this about you.

781
00:42:10,800 --> 00:42:15,120
And then talk about those interests, what, you know, who you associate with like what

782
00:42:15,120 --> 00:42:19,040
your friends would say about like, so just there's there are ways to make yourself kind

783
00:42:19,040 --> 00:42:22,200
of give a different perspective on for your application.

784
00:42:22,200 --> 00:42:23,400
So that's tell me about yourself.

785
00:42:23,400 --> 00:42:25,320
You have to be prepared for that.

786
00:42:25,320 --> 00:42:27,400
Next question is the why dentistry question.

787
00:42:27,400 --> 00:42:33,640
Again, don't really regurgitate a personal statement, but really be clear here because

788
00:42:33,640 --> 00:42:40,560
the statement is a chance for you to be like use like kind of tell a story to a narrative,

789
00:42:40,560 --> 00:42:43,160
you know, you're going to be integrating thoughts and feelings.

790
00:42:43,160 --> 00:42:44,800
You can be very direct here.

791
00:42:44,800 --> 00:42:49,880
And I think I would recommend that I would say in every one of these answers after my

792
00:42:49,880 --> 00:42:53,680
little intro, I would kind of talk about what I mentioned earlier about my dentist and how

793
00:42:53,680 --> 00:42:55,480
he's fueled my passion.

794
00:42:55,480 --> 00:42:59,800
But you know, you might want to say like I want to be a dentist because and then name

795
00:42:59,800 --> 00:43:00,800
three things.

796
00:43:00,800 --> 00:43:05,600
So for me, it was like working with people and kind of that combination with entrepreneurship,

797
00:43:05,600 --> 00:43:09,320
kind of the love for science that I had and the artistic nature of being a dentist.

798
00:43:09,320 --> 00:43:13,480
So that's you want to be very clear, the why dentistry question, you want to be clear and

799
00:43:13,480 --> 00:43:14,480
confident.

800
00:43:14,480 --> 00:43:15,480
That's the next thing.

801
00:43:15,480 --> 00:43:16,720
So just want to ask you real quick.

802
00:43:16,720 --> 00:43:21,600
So like, I think it kind of misconception is like people think that when they ask why

803
00:43:21,600 --> 00:43:23,880
dentistry has to be one thing.

804
00:43:23,880 --> 00:43:28,720
But like, I just kind of started learning this recently, it can be like multiple things.

805
00:43:28,720 --> 00:43:32,680
Like, you know, as I'm doing my undergrad too, I'm thinking like there's multiple reasons

806
00:43:32,680 --> 00:43:37,280
why, you know, there could be like a physical reason, like a mental reason, you know, many

807
00:43:37,280 --> 00:43:38,280
different reasons.

808
00:43:38,280 --> 00:43:42,960
I think people get caught up on there's to be one reason why, but I guess that's not

809
00:43:42,960 --> 00:43:47,040
like, no, no, you, you want to, I think it's a good idea to show that you're like aware

810
00:43:47,040 --> 00:43:51,200
that there's multiple, like there's a lot of things that go into this career.

811
00:43:51,200 --> 00:43:55,000
I would recommend, I would stay away from talking about like the lifestyle.

812
00:43:55,000 --> 00:43:57,760
I'm seeing like, like a lot of people think that's a good idea to talk about.

813
00:43:57,760 --> 00:44:01,040
Like this is why I'm considering dentistry over medicine, for example.

814
00:44:01,040 --> 00:44:05,920
But like, they know that and it's kind of taboo to talk about the lifestyle because

815
00:44:05,920 --> 00:44:09,080
like, you know, you're going through four years of dental school and then you have residency

816
00:44:09,080 --> 00:44:14,200
regardless of whatever, like he or the general all the way to any sort of specialty.

817
00:44:14,200 --> 00:44:15,800
It's not something that I would talk about.

818
00:44:15,800 --> 00:44:19,040
That's just something, there's just like a random thing that I just thought of.

819
00:44:19,040 --> 00:44:21,280
Oh yeah, it could be a lot of reasons.

820
00:44:21,280 --> 00:44:25,360
And then a third thing I was prepared for to talk about was why not medicine?

821
00:44:25,360 --> 00:44:30,400
I was asked this one time, like why do you want to go to med school, for example, because

822
00:44:30,400 --> 00:44:36,200
let's be honest, like anyone in these, in these applications could have taken the MCAT

823
00:44:36,200 --> 00:44:40,400
because the only difference is really studying like a physics section and like that's kind

824
00:44:40,400 --> 00:44:44,000
of I think the only difference between the MCAT and the DAT.

825
00:44:44,000 --> 00:44:46,200
And you were in the classes with pre-dentals.

826
00:44:46,200 --> 00:44:49,600
Everyone really did well and you know, did well in those those science classes.

827
00:44:49,600 --> 00:44:51,400
So just be prepared to answer that.

828
00:44:51,400 --> 00:44:53,000
Like I said, I had it one time.

829
00:44:53,000 --> 00:44:58,120
I just think about that for yourself, like why dentistry is something you'd prefer over

830
00:44:58,120 --> 00:44:59,120
medicine.

831
00:44:59,120 --> 00:45:01,920
So those are the three big things you need to think about in the interview.

832
00:45:01,920 --> 00:45:06,160
And like to tell me about yourself and the why dentistry always came up, why not medicine

833
00:45:06,160 --> 00:45:07,680
was just one time.

834
00:45:07,680 --> 00:45:11,160
And then if you're going to prepare a little bit more, I would think about strengths and

835
00:45:11,160 --> 00:45:12,160
weaknesses for yourself.

836
00:45:12,160 --> 00:45:15,480
I mentioned before they don't really care, but I think if you can articulate your thoughts

837
00:45:15,480 --> 00:45:19,560
nicely and succinctly, that's something that's important.

838
00:45:19,560 --> 00:45:24,360
And then the biggest thing I would have in your back pocket is like think of an ethical

839
00:45:24,360 --> 00:45:28,520
dilemma you've been in and then think of a challenge you faced.

840
00:45:28,520 --> 00:45:33,480
These are questions that you can answer regardless of what the question is.

841
00:45:33,480 --> 00:45:37,680
Like they can ask it in a different way where you can bring it up.

842
00:45:37,680 --> 00:45:41,320
These are just things that you might not have like necessarily on your application.

843
00:45:41,320 --> 00:45:45,160
They might be in some supplementals, but the challenge was a big one.

844
00:45:45,160 --> 00:45:47,080
That's something they always asked.

845
00:45:47,080 --> 00:45:48,360
For me, I was actually a transfer.

846
00:45:48,360 --> 00:45:53,880
I talked about like challenges and all that ethical dilemma, whatever, you know, whatever

847
00:45:53,880 --> 00:45:54,880
the case may be.

848
00:45:54,880 --> 00:45:58,800
I know a lot of students would talk about like, you know, not necessarily cheating,

849
00:45:58,800 --> 00:46:03,040
but like academic dishonesty, like talk about you might have an experience with that and

850
00:46:03,040 --> 00:46:05,000
whatever it may be.

851
00:46:05,000 --> 00:46:07,160
So those are like some of the big five, I would say.

852
00:46:07,160 --> 00:46:11,280
So I'll say that again, tell me about yourself, why dentistry, why not medicine, strengths

853
00:46:11,280 --> 00:46:15,440
and weaknesses slash like challenge and then like your ethical dilemma.

854
00:46:15,440 --> 00:46:16,440
Right.

855
00:46:16,440 --> 00:46:18,480
So as you mentioned, why not medicine?

856
00:46:18,480 --> 00:46:19,480
Why not medicine?

857
00:46:19,480 --> 00:46:21,280
Yeah, that's a great question.

858
00:46:21,280 --> 00:46:22,280
Thanks for asking.

859
00:46:22,280 --> 00:46:24,200
I'm actually prepared to answer it.

860
00:46:24,200 --> 00:46:26,200
So let me think, what are that?

861
00:46:26,200 --> 00:46:34,640
Well, my answer was I talked to a lot of dentists and like it really comes down to that no dentist

862
00:46:34,640 --> 00:46:37,160
has ever, it's like their job.

863
00:46:37,160 --> 00:46:41,760
And like whenever I said that during an interview, well, the one time I did and I would bring

864
00:46:41,760 --> 00:46:46,080
it up the other times, all the interviews would like laugh because it is true.

865
00:46:46,080 --> 00:46:50,160
Like every dentist really does love their job and they because you're able to make your

866
00:46:50,160 --> 00:46:55,360
practice in your career, I guess like practice in a way that you enjoy.

867
00:46:55,360 --> 00:46:59,640
So whether that be working less days per week or like kind of having a practice that it's

868
00:46:59,640 --> 00:47:02,000
not the volume of cases and isn't as high.

869
00:47:02,000 --> 00:47:06,400
Like these are some things that you can modulate in your career, whereas in medicine, like you

870
00:47:06,400 --> 00:47:08,880
don't really have as much control over those sorts of things.

871
00:47:08,880 --> 00:47:13,880
Another thing I mentioned why not medicine is because I think dentistry is like a happier

872
00:47:13,880 --> 00:47:14,880
career.

873
00:47:14,880 --> 00:47:18,960
You're able to really like fix people's ailments, attend to people's ailments.

874
00:47:18,960 --> 00:47:23,560
Like with that kind of instant gratification sort of sort of by words, like, you know,

875
00:47:23,560 --> 00:47:25,200
someone comes in with pain, you can fix it.

876
00:47:25,200 --> 00:47:28,200
Whereas medicine, it's not really like that as much.

877
00:47:28,200 --> 00:47:32,200
A lot of things are out of your control and it can lead to like some like a set or situation

878
00:47:32,200 --> 00:47:36,560
for some patients, these chronic long term illnesses.

879
00:47:36,560 --> 00:47:39,520
And so for me, that's kind of the two things I talked about.

880
00:47:39,520 --> 00:47:45,680
So how was like, how was the D1, how was your D1 year and how was the curriculum like, did

881
00:47:45,680 --> 00:47:47,120
you guys like touch handpieces yet?

882
00:47:47,120 --> 00:47:53,080
Like how was that, you know, how was the transition from undergrad to D1 year?

883
00:47:53,080 --> 00:47:54,560
Yeah.

884
00:47:54,560 --> 00:47:57,760
So Stony Brook starts you off in the medical school.

885
00:47:57,760 --> 00:48:01,680
So you're full on with the med students, you're taking oscues with them.

886
00:48:01,680 --> 00:48:07,120
Oscues like a clinical assessment where a patient comes in and they talk about like

887
00:48:07,120 --> 00:48:12,080
sort of like you kind of interview them in a sense and you ask about their symptoms and

888
00:48:12,080 --> 00:48:16,000
you look at lab values that are made up and then you have to diagnose them with something

889
00:48:16,000 --> 00:48:19,520
that you take a quiz or any slasher exam, whatever it is.

890
00:48:19,520 --> 00:48:21,480
So this is like full on medical school.

891
00:48:21,480 --> 00:48:28,360
So we took anatomy and biochem for the first two or three weeks just by themselves when

892
00:48:28,360 --> 00:48:30,840
we first got there after orientation.

893
00:48:30,840 --> 00:48:35,840
This was to give us time to adjust to school, but these classes are very intense.

894
00:48:35,840 --> 00:48:39,120
And I could talk about these in greater detail, but I'll give the overview and then you ask

895
00:48:39,120 --> 00:48:41,280
any questions that you have following.

896
00:48:41,280 --> 00:48:46,680
So anatomy and biochem and it was a gross anatomy, so we had a cadaver lab really, really

897
00:48:46,680 --> 00:48:48,480
like awesome experience.

898
00:48:48,480 --> 00:48:53,520
So if you're looking at a school that has gross anatomy, I would look into that further

899
00:48:53,520 --> 00:48:56,920
and I think that's something that is a really great experience to have.

900
00:48:56,920 --> 00:48:58,600
So those are the first two courses.

901
00:48:58,600 --> 00:49:05,440
And after that we took immunology essentially and then we took like a basic mechanisms of

902
00:49:05,440 --> 00:49:12,480
disease class where we talked about different, we talked about cancer, different blood pathologies,

903
00:49:12,480 --> 00:49:18,640
like some foundational concepts that if you, a lot of first year medical students take

904
00:49:18,640 --> 00:49:20,360
an equivalent course.

905
00:49:20,360 --> 00:49:23,600
So after that we then took some dental morphology.

906
00:49:23,600 --> 00:49:27,240
This is where you look at the shapes and structure of different teeth and you learn about dental

907
00:49:27,240 --> 00:49:29,840
specific anatomy of each tooth.

908
00:49:29,840 --> 00:49:31,680
I actually hated this class.

909
00:49:31,680 --> 00:49:33,760
I never hated a class more.

910
00:49:33,760 --> 00:49:35,720
This is a class where we had to do those wax up.

911
00:49:35,720 --> 00:49:40,600
I'm sure you guys have probably heard about it, but for those who haven't, you heat up

912
00:49:40,600 --> 00:49:46,160
like white wax and then you shape a tooth from scratch almost and it's fun for five minutes.

913
00:49:46,160 --> 00:49:50,160
But then after that, it's not, it wasn't fun for me because I wouldn't agree that it.

914
00:49:50,160 --> 00:49:53,320
So that's a morphology.

915
00:49:53,320 --> 00:49:55,680
Some other classes we took was periodontics.

916
00:49:55,680 --> 00:49:59,400
So it's looking at like the relationship that the teeth have with the gums and supporting

917
00:49:59,400 --> 00:50:01,760
structures.

918
00:50:01,760 --> 00:50:06,760
And then we kind of then were, we were kind of fully in the dental school at this point.

919
00:50:06,760 --> 00:50:08,080
So this was kind of midway through.

920
00:50:08,080 --> 00:50:12,080
And this is when we were like combarded with a bunch of different classes.

921
00:50:12,080 --> 00:50:16,120
We took a community, like a public health dentistry class.

922
00:50:16,120 --> 00:50:24,560
We took whatever we took a bunch of other classes and they all went so quickly.

923
00:50:24,560 --> 00:50:26,520
And somehow I got through it all.

924
00:50:26,520 --> 00:50:29,160
And then at the, we've also done dental operaves.

925
00:50:29,160 --> 00:50:34,760
So to answer your question about the handpieces, yes, we did start working with handpieces.

926
00:50:34,760 --> 00:50:40,280
We started doing, we can basically do cavity preparations and then restoration.

927
00:50:40,280 --> 00:50:43,960
So we did both composite and amalgam.

928
00:50:43,960 --> 00:50:47,720
And it was a really fun experience because we dental school is a story because of simulation

929
00:50:47,720 --> 00:50:48,720
lab.

930
00:50:48,720 --> 00:50:53,080
So you can pull out the mannequin from the wall and you have your loops, like your glasses

931
00:50:53,080 --> 00:50:56,960
with the magnifying glasses, like make sure you sit up straight.

932
00:50:56,960 --> 00:51:00,480
And when you look through them, and so, yeah, that was a fun experience.

933
00:51:00,480 --> 00:51:01,640
And so we did a lot of assignments.

934
00:51:01,640 --> 00:51:04,360
It was very quick moving.

935
00:51:04,360 --> 00:51:08,040
And then now we're going to start operative two when we start the two year, which is like

936
00:51:08,040 --> 00:51:10,760
crowns and things like that.

937
00:51:10,760 --> 00:51:15,360
So I think I saw your Instagram page and like the picture of you in the chair with the man.

938
00:51:15,360 --> 00:51:16,360
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

939
00:51:16,360 --> 00:51:17,880
That's exactly what it looks like.

940
00:51:17,880 --> 00:51:19,160
Yeah, that's pretty cool.

941
00:51:19,160 --> 00:51:22,560
So like, how was your like your hand eye coordination?

942
00:51:22,560 --> 00:51:26,240
Have you seen it improve since you first got there?

943
00:51:26,240 --> 00:51:31,400
I mean, like your, your familiarity with teeth, like has it become, are you, are you like

944
00:51:31,400 --> 00:51:32,400
one with the tooth now?

945
00:51:32,400 --> 00:51:34,720
Or are you just still, still getting?

946
00:51:34,720 --> 00:51:37,040
I think I'm like almost there.

947
00:51:37,040 --> 00:51:39,160
So sometimes I'm getting really good.

948
00:51:39,160 --> 00:51:43,880
You don't think about this a lot, but like, so maybe for someone who doesn't know about

949
00:51:43,880 --> 00:51:47,000
it, I'll give you like what I thought originally.

950
00:51:47,000 --> 00:51:51,600
Of course I knew there were like tooth numbers, but I didn't really like put into perspective

951
00:51:51,600 --> 00:51:56,160
how important it is, how specific you are in terms of how you describe a tooth and a

952
00:51:56,160 --> 00:51:58,160
certain location on a tooth.

953
00:51:58,160 --> 00:52:02,680
And there are so many new vocabulary words that entered my mind and like my vernacular

954
00:52:02,680 --> 00:52:05,040
I'm like during the first year of school.

955
00:52:05,040 --> 00:52:10,240
And so there's like me, the old buckle proximal lingual, like, and it's like, it takes a little

956
00:52:10,240 --> 00:52:12,880
bit to like get your brain to adjust to these things.

957
00:52:12,880 --> 00:52:19,240
But now you can say like the distal buckle cup, distal buckle cusp on tooth 23 and then

958
00:52:19,240 --> 00:52:22,360
like whatever, maybe 16 or something like that.

959
00:52:22,360 --> 00:52:26,920
And then it's like, I can like think of that a little quicker than I was at first.

960
00:52:26,920 --> 00:52:30,040
So one with the tooth, like almost there.

961
00:52:30,040 --> 00:52:31,760
That's the first thing.

962
00:52:31,760 --> 00:52:38,280
And then, I don't know, it's, there is a with the hand skills, it's like, at first it was

963
00:52:38,280 --> 00:52:39,280
fun.

964
00:52:39,280 --> 00:52:40,280
It's always fun at first.

965
00:52:40,280 --> 00:52:42,880
And then you like realize, but I actually have to be really good at this.

966
00:52:42,880 --> 00:52:45,840
So then, then you, then you take a step back.

967
00:52:45,840 --> 00:52:51,760
It's, it's definitely challenging because not only are you drilling with one little drill

968
00:52:51,760 --> 00:52:56,720
on the end of your, your handpiece, but then there's like different drills for different

969
00:52:56,720 --> 00:52:57,720
things.

970
00:52:57,720 --> 00:52:59,200
And then there's different speeds of the drill.

971
00:52:59,200 --> 00:53:02,200
And it's like a very, it's a lot all at once.

972
00:53:02,200 --> 00:53:07,000
And what I found in, in least Stony Brook is there's good instruction up front.

973
00:53:07,000 --> 00:53:09,880
It's really great theoretical explanation of everything.

974
00:53:09,880 --> 00:53:11,280
This is what we're supposed to do.

975
00:53:11,280 --> 00:53:12,720
Here's what it should look like.

976
00:53:12,720 --> 00:53:16,160
But then in reality, they're like, okay, now you go and try it.

977
00:53:16,160 --> 00:53:20,040
And just by the sheer number of faculty, like you have to kind of, you're not always, you're

978
00:53:20,040 --> 00:53:22,680
not like, no one's holding your hand a little time.

979
00:53:22,680 --> 00:53:24,920
So you really have to just like figure it out.

980
00:53:24,920 --> 00:53:29,520
And it's actually, sometimes it's tough when you don't know how to do something, but like

981
00:53:29,520 --> 00:53:32,400
at the same time, it's like, okay, I'm, I'm going to try this.

982
00:53:32,400 --> 00:53:34,400
And then I know what it should look like.

983
00:53:34,400 --> 00:53:35,640
It didn't end up looking like that.

984
00:53:35,640 --> 00:53:37,400
So I'm going to try something else next time.

985
00:53:37,400 --> 00:53:41,400
And by, by going through that process, like it does help you kind of have things stick

986
00:53:41,400 --> 00:53:46,080
in your mind and you get better just by practicing and trying to drill.

987
00:53:46,080 --> 00:53:51,440
So for example, like there's something called a class two preparation where it's like the

988
00:53:51,440 --> 00:53:55,520
cavity is between two teeth that are touching.

989
00:53:55,520 --> 00:53:59,240
And then they might include the occlusal surface, which is like where your teeth bite and where

990
00:53:59,240 --> 00:54:00,960
they touch.

991
00:54:00,960 --> 00:54:05,440
And so for example, I've learned that I like to use a different drill when I go in between

992
00:54:05,440 --> 00:54:10,520
the teeth, as opposed to a drill that I can do on top of the two, the occlusal surface.

993
00:54:10,520 --> 00:54:14,640
Again, these are just preferences, but these are things you have to figure out as you go.

994
00:54:14,640 --> 00:54:15,640
And I've gotten better for sure.

995
00:54:15,640 --> 00:54:20,160
We started with these little blocks that are meant for like dental students to learn how

996
00:54:20,160 --> 00:54:22,720
to drill and they have little shapes and they're like draw.

997
00:54:22,720 --> 00:54:25,840
They're like, it's like an S and they're like, you have to stay within the lines.

998
00:54:25,840 --> 00:54:29,920
And I remember looking at this thing as if there's no way I can stay within these like

999
00:54:29,920 --> 00:54:34,720
this millimeter, like there's no way I couldn't even do this with a pencil, let alone like

1000
00:54:34,720 --> 00:54:35,720
a drill.

1001
00:54:35,720 --> 00:54:37,360
It's broken 200,000 times per second.

1002
00:54:37,360 --> 00:54:40,600
And so like, yeah, it was like a fun thing.

1003
00:54:40,600 --> 00:54:42,800
But now I feel like I could do it.

1004
00:54:42,800 --> 00:54:43,800
I'm getting better.

1005
00:54:43,800 --> 00:54:48,800
A lot of it's like knowing how to sit and like using a full-grown finger to like keep

1006
00:54:48,800 --> 00:54:50,680
your hand stable and steady.

1007
00:54:50,680 --> 00:54:52,480
These weren't things that were explained to me early on.

1008
00:54:52,480 --> 00:54:57,000
I don't know if you're familiar with these things, but I figured I would explain them.

1009
00:54:57,000 --> 00:54:59,520
But you know, if you get better with time is what I'm trying to say.

1010
00:54:59,520 --> 00:55:00,520
Yeah.

1011
00:55:00,520 --> 00:55:03,200
And I'm sure as you go on and continue on to your D2 year, I'm pretty sure you're going

1012
00:55:03,200 --> 00:55:05,240
to get much better with your hand skills.

1013
00:55:05,240 --> 00:55:13,160
I know, you know, it's like a completely different, it's a completely different like world from

1014
00:55:13,160 --> 00:55:14,160
undergrad, right?

1015
00:55:14,160 --> 00:55:16,520
Like dental school, this is what you're doing now.

1016
00:55:16,520 --> 00:55:18,960
You're using your hands all the time.

1017
00:55:18,960 --> 00:55:20,600
So like eventually, yeah, you will get better.

1018
00:55:20,600 --> 00:55:21,680
Everyone probably gets better.

1019
00:55:21,680 --> 00:55:28,440
And I'm personally, I'm excited to see how I fare in that game when it comes time, hopefully.

1020
00:55:28,440 --> 00:55:32,360
So yeah, you talked about, you know, a little bit about the D1.

1021
00:55:32,360 --> 00:55:34,080
So how is the D1 curriculum?

1022
00:55:34,080 --> 00:55:35,800
And like, how have you been able to balance your time?

1023
00:55:35,800 --> 00:55:41,800
I know probably kids have a lot of academic work, dexterity work.

1024
00:55:41,800 --> 00:55:45,520
So how have you been juggling and managing your time and maintaining your social life

1025
00:55:45,520 --> 00:55:46,920
outside of dental school?

1026
00:55:46,920 --> 00:55:47,920
Yeah.

1027
00:55:47,920 --> 00:55:51,000
So that's definitely was a struggle at first.

1028
00:55:51,000 --> 00:55:53,280
I mentioned before, like I work on the weekends.

1029
00:55:53,280 --> 00:55:56,520
So I work multiple events for the balloon twisting on the weekends.

1030
00:55:56,520 --> 00:56:00,560
And I know that I really only have mornings and then I have nights.

1031
00:56:00,560 --> 00:56:04,240
But being that I work five hours a day, five to six hours a day on Saturday, five or six

1032
00:56:04,240 --> 00:56:05,240
hours.

1033
00:56:05,240 --> 00:56:09,600
Basically, I'm a large chunk of my week has taken out and then when I'm able to work and

1034
00:56:09,600 --> 00:56:11,760
able to study, I'm exhausted.

1035
00:56:11,760 --> 00:56:13,880
So like time management, for me, I need coffee.

1036
00:56:13,880 --> 00:56:16,360
Like that's like, no matter what I'm doing, I need to drink.

1037
00:56:16,360 --> 00:56:19,360
Like I have to be like, I got to turn myself on somehow.

1038
00:56:19,360 --> 00:56:22,280
So that's, that's one of the keys for me.

1039
00:56:22,280 --> 00:56:27,440
But during the week, I, you just have to be as proactive as possible.

1040
00:56:27,440 --> 00:56:32,840
Like for example, like at first I would go into operative, which we had on Tuesdays and

1041
00:56:32,840 --> 00:56:34,680
Thursdays from one to five.

1042
00:56:34,680 --> 00:56:35,880
And I would drill and drill.

1043
00:56:35,880 --> 00:56:38,800
And then I would be like, Oh, I'll come back on the weekend and I'll finish this.

1044
00:56:38,800 --> 00:56:43,320
I suppose to just staying there where I have all my instruments set up, like everything's

1045
00:56:43,320 --> 00:56:44,320
already there.

1046
00:56:44,320 --> 00:56:48,640
You'll find that it takes a long time to like set up everything, put the rubber dam on.

1047
00:56:48,640 --> 00:56:52,920
So like try to just be as proactive as you can in the moment.

1048
00:56:52,920 --> 00:56:56,720
Another thing is, is like, sometimes you don't need to pay attention and lecture as much

1049
00:56:56,720 --> 00:57:00,160
as you could actually be doing something else in lecture, where you could be doing two things

1050
00:57:00,160 --> 00:57:03,160
at once, like having a split screen open on your computer.

1051
00:57:03,160 --> 00:57:07,160
One side, like taking any sort of notes that the professor says that aren't on the slides.

1052
00:57:07,160 --> 00:57:09,200
And the other side, you could be doing on key decks.

1053
00:57:09,200 --> 00:57:11,960
For example, I'd be happy to talk about on key two.

1054
00:57:11,960 --> 00:57:15,200
I really love on key.

1055
00:57:15,200 --> 00:57:18,400
And like I always know that I want to have time to go to the gym.

1056
00:57:18,400 --> 00:57:20,520
So that's something that I really factor in.

1057
00:57:20,520 --> 00:57:25,320
And I told myself before I go into dental school, like, like my body is like something

1058
00:57:25,320 --> 00:57:28,920
that I really like my overall health is something that's really important to me.

1059
00:57:28,920 --> 00:57:33,000
And especially in dentistry, it's a career that's like physically demanding, not only

1060
00:57:33,000 --> 00:57:36,200
like on your back and you're not doing a lot of movement throughout the day, like you're

1061
00:57:36,200 --> 00:57:37,200
kind of sitting still.

1062
00:57:37,200 --> 00:57:41,040
Like that's why I always a lot of time to go to the gym and be active.

1063
00:57:41,040 --> 00:57:42,880
I'm lucky that I live like two minutes from my gym.

1064
00:57:42,880 --> 00:57:46,680
So I'm able to like, even if it's like a 45 minute workout, like sure, I'd love to be

1065
00:57:46,680 --> 00:57:47,680
there for an hour and a half.

1066
00:57:47,680 --> 00:57:50,880
But like, whatever it is I get to do, like I'm happy with it.

1067
00:57:50,880 --> 00:57:54,920
Like if it's going for a run around the block, yeah, I'll make time for it.

1068
00:57:54,920 --> 00:57:59,480
Because at the end of the day, like compounded, like even if you take three to five hours

1069
00:57:59,480 --> 00:58:03,960
a week to be like active, it really won't make too much of a difference as long as you're

1070
00:58:03,960 --> 00:58:05,280
just staying on top of your stuff.

1071
00:58:05,280 --> 00:58:08,480
Of course, if you're crunched, like you're your time crunch, like, yeah, you can't like

1072
00:58:08,480 --> 00:58:11,640
you're gonna have to make sacrifices, of course.

1073
00:58:11,640 --> 00:58:13,800
So those are some priorities for me.

1074
00:58:13,800 --> 00:58:18,000
In terms of like socializing, it's good that I would recommend living with people in your

1075
00:58:18,000 --> 00:58:22,000
classes as possible, because you kind of like come home after a long day and you can like,

1076
00:58:22,000 --> 00:58:26,000
you know, you can have like, you can just like talk and have fun in your house and then

1077
00:58:26,000 --> 00:58:29,000
like, then everyone gets to work because they're all dental students, like they all know that

1078
00:58:29,000 --> 00:58:30,000
they have to study.

1079
00:58:30,000 --> 00:58:31,000
It's not like undergrad.

1080
00:58:31,000 --> 00:58:34,000
Undergrad, I felt like there were a lot of people around me that like, didn't like wait

1081
00:58:34,000 --> 00:58:35,640
until the last minute for everything.

1082
00:58:35,640 --> 00:58:38,760
I was always someone who like wanted to be generally on top of things.

1083
00:58:38,760 --> 00:58:44,600
Of course, like not all the time, but like to my best of my ability.

1084
00:58:44,600 --> 00:58:48,520
And so like, I think if you want to have a social life in dental school, you absolutely

1085
00:58:48,520 --> 00:58:53,960
can like, you know, you might hear that you might not be able to, it's totally possible.

1086
00:58:53,960 --> 00:58:58,640
I would say like, conservatively, like you have two days, two days out of the month to

1087
00:58:58,640 --> 00:59:03,200
like, not study, not think about school, you can go like to New York City, you can do whatever

1088
00:59:03,200 --> 00:59:04,200
you want.

1089
00:59:04,200 --> 00:59:07,000
And you probably make more too, if you're able to stand up your stuff.

1090
00:59:07,000 --> 00:59:11,240
Yeah, so you mentioned you'd like to do Anki helps you stay on top of things.

1091
00:59:11,240 --> 00:59:14,400
I've heard a lot of people like not use Anki, people that use it.

1092
00:59:14,400 --> 00:59:16,280
So how did you kind of make that distinction?

1093
00:59:16,280 --> 00:59:17,280
Like I want to use this.

1094
00:59:17,280 --> 00:59:19,400
I want to be able to do something like, and when did you start doing that?

1095
00:59:19,400 --> 00:59:22,400
Yeah, so in the med school.

1096
00:59:22,400 --> 00:59:26,560
So a lot of the medical students, regardless of what school they're at, they all have to

1097
00:59:26,560 --> 00:59:28,400
take the step one exam.

1098
00:59:28,400 --> 00:59:33,480
So there are pre made Anki decks for the step one exam that would coincide exactly with

1099
00:59:33,480 --> 00:59:35,400
the stuff that we're learning class.

1100
00:59:35,400 --> 00:59:39,720
So being that they had the decks made for me already during that first like, you know,

1101
00:59:39,720 --> 00:59:44,280
six, seven, eight months in the med school, I knew that once I started using it, I felt

1102
00:59:44,280 --> 00:59:47,920
that really effective, and it's based on spatial repetition.

1103
00:59:47,920 --> 00:59:52,240
So it's not just regular flashcards, it will present you flashcards that you struggled

1104
00:59:52,240 --> 00:59:56,720
with in the past in a way that somehow burns it into your brain.

1105
00:59:56,720 --> 00:59:59,720
So being that they were pre made for me early on was helpful.

1106
00:59:59,720 --> 01:00:05,480
And then as we got to dental school, I didn't have these like databases with Anki cards,

1107
01:00:05,480 --> 01:00:09,920
but essentially like my friends and I all, you know, I would make a deck for something

1108
01:00:09,920 --> 01:00:13,360
my other friends would make a deck for another class and we would just share the decks amongst

1109
01:00:13,360 --> 01:00:14,360
ourselves.

1110
01:00:14,360 --> 01:00:17,000
And it really is like a, it's a really weird process, but it works.

1111
01:00:17,000 --> 01:00:21,600
Like if you get through the Anki deck, even if you do it one time, you'll retain it, you

1112
01:00:21,600 --> 01:00:25,160
know, for, for the day or two after, but if you get through the deck a few times, like

1113
01:00:25,160 --> 01:00:27,440
you will retain it for like an extended period of time.

1114
01:00:27,440 --> 01:00:29,840
And I think it's, it's something you should at least look into.

1115
01:00:29,840 --> 01:00:31,880
It's a little intimidating for the program.

1116
01:00:31,880 --> 01:00:35,240
It's not like very user friendly, but there's tutorials on YouTube.

1117
01:00:35,240 --> 01:00:38,760
There's definitely upperclassmen or whatever school you go to that you don't do.

1118
01:00:38,760 --> 01:00:41,080
So I would recommend it.

1119
01:00:41,080 --> 01:00:45,560
Nice. So you mentioned you have a business.

1120
01:00:45,560 --> 01:00:47,240
Is that the balloon business you're talking about?

1121
01:00:47,240 --> 01:00:48,240
Yeah. Yeah.

1122
01:00:48,240 --> 01:00:49,240
Yeah. Great.

1123
01:00:49,240 --> 01:00:51,960
Do you have like, I looked in your Instagram, do you have another, do you have like another

1124
01:00:51,960 --> 01:00:54,400
affiliation with other business organizations on that?

1125
01:00:54,400 --> 01:00:55,400
Yeah.

1126
01:00:55,400 --> 01:00:56,800
So I actually, okay.

1127
01:00:56,800 --> 01:01:02,160
So it's the students of dentistry on Instagram and we run three different pages.

1128
01:01:02,160 --> 01:01:05,440
So students of dentistry, elite dentists and top dental practices.

1129
01:01:05,440 --> 01:01:11,020
And here we feature dental students doing their thing and sharing their stories.

1130
01:01:11,020 --> 01:01:17,680
And we share this on our Instagram pages, on our pages, and we have over 250,000 net

1131
01:01:17,680 --> 01:01:18,680
followers.

1132
01:01:18,680 --> 01:01:20,560
So it's a really great place to begin.

1133
01:01:20,560 --> 01:01:23,920
So if there's anyone out there listening and you're looking to share your experiences

1134
01:01:23,920 --> 01:01:27,920
in dental school, maybe start your own personal page where you share your experiences, we'd

1135
01:01:27,920 --> 01:01:29,400
be happy to feature you there.

1136
01:01:29,400 --> 01:01:33,520
And I do this with two other students who are Stony Brook alum.

1137
01:01:33,520 --> 01:01:37,800
They're both in their residence right now, one at Ortho at Stony Brook, another one at

1138
01:01:37,800 --> 01:01:40,400
OlmFS at NYU.

1139
01:01:40,400 --> 01:01:44,160
And so this is something I'm able to fit in as well.

1140
01:01:44,160 --> 01:01:48,560
We hold like weekly Zoom sessions, informative information sessions and connect students

1141
01:01:48,560 --> 01:01:49,720
with mentors at schools.

1142
01:01:49,720 --> 01:01:52,520
So it's really, it's really fun for me.

1143
01:01:52,520 --> 01:01:54,120
I enjoy this sort of stuff.

1144
01:01:54,120 --> 01:01:56,720
So Brandon, thanks for all your insights today.

1145
01:01:56,720 --> 01:02:01,400
How can pre-dentals reach out to you, you know, if they have any questions or concerns

1146
01:02:01,400 --> 01:02:04,320
or just want to know how dental school is like?

1147
01:02:04,320 --> 01:02:05,320
Yeah.

1148
01:02:05,320 --> 01:02:10,320
So my goal is to reach out to me on Instagram, so my Instagram handle is Brandon Axelrods

1149
01:02:10,320 --> 01:02:11,320
Axelrods-A-X-E-L-R-O-D.

1150
01:02:11,320 --> 01:02:15,920
And I'm sure you can put maybe some of this in the show description or anything like that.

1151
01:02:15,920 --> 01:02:16,920
But that's the best way.

1152
01:02:16,920 --> 01:02:20,240
And I'm always willing to answer questions no matter what the question is.

1153
01:02:20,240 --> 01:02:22,040
And I really want to thank you guys for having me.

1154
01:02:22,040 --> 01:02:23,440
This was really, really fun.

1155
01:02:23,440 --> 01:02:24,440
Yeah.

1156
01:02:24,440 --> 01:02:27,120
So that kind of concludes our episode of the Dostodental Podcast.

1157
01:02:27,120 --> 01:02:29,320
Thank you, Brandon, for joining me and sharing your experiences.

1158
01:02:29,320 --> 01:02:32,720
D1, your insight was definitely valuable and I hope our pre-dental listeners will feel

1159
01:02:32,720 --> 01:02:33,720
the same.

1160
01:02:33,720 --> 01:02:36,680
Everyone, please feel free to reach out to Brandon at his socials if you have any further

1161
01:02:36,680 --> 01:02:37,680
questions.

1162
01:02:37,680 --> 01:02:38,880
Lastly, I thank everyone for listening.

1163
01:02:38,880 --> 01:02:42,040
And if you enjoyed today's episode, please be sure to follow us on Instagram and Spotify.

1164
01:02:42,040 --> 01:03:05,120
And we'll see you next time for another Dostodental.