Five days after we got back from Hawaii Wyatt found out that he go into Dental School!! So we celebrated by going to Cafe Rio!
I just want to summarize the whole dental school process for us. First thing I have to say is that I am so PROUD of Wyatt. He is one of the most hard working people in the world. He also thinks ahead which is why he has been successful.
So Wyatt started researching about dental school in 2011. He got a research job, volunteered at the hospital, and started shadowing dentists all in preparation for the dental school application. We also made a 1 day trip to CO to get our car registered in CO so that IF he got in to CU dental School we would get in state tuition (always thinking ahead...) Starting January 2012 he started studying for the DAT. He decided that he did not want to take a DAT prep course, he felt that he had the discipline to study on his own. He bought the books and studied Mon-Fri after classes until 9 or 10 pm. He never complained, never whined, and never missed a day (I married a winner). One thing that I love the most about Wyatt is he always keeps everything balanced. Throughout his college career he has never studied on the weekend. He just makes sure he gets everything done during the week so we can have fun on the weekend. He studied until May and took the DAT May 16th. You can read more about the DAT from
this post.
Well the hard work paid off and he did AMAZING on the DAT. We talked with a few mentors and they said he only needed to apply to 4 schools. So immediately after the DAT was done he worked on his dental school application. By the end of June it was submitted to 5 schools. He applied to Colorado, Midwestern, University of Pacific (in CA), Oregon, and Louisville.
Now was the waiting game. We didn't hear anything until September. Midwestern emailed to schedule an interview in October and then a few days later CU emailed Wyatt and said that they wanted to set up an interview with Wyatt in two weeks! We were surprised at how quick the interview was going to be BUT it was perfect because we had already bought tickets to go to CO that same weekend because Bryce was coming home from his mission-what a tender mercy!
So Wyatt went to both of those interviews and he felt like they went well. You can read about the CO interview
here and the Midwestern interview
here.
Than before we knew it we were in Hawaii and then on December 1st Midwestern called and said he was accepted and on December 3rd CO called and said he was accepted. It was an easy choice CO (Wyatt honestly only wanted to apply to CO because that is the only place he wanted to go...). We never heard from the other schools but we realized that was a tender mercy! Since we only had to go to two interviews (one was paid for and the other we drove to) we saved SO much money. Normally it would cost $5,000 to apply for Dental School and we spent probably less than $1000. What a HUGE blessing.
We decided CU dental school for a few reasons.
1. In State Tuition (we will save over $100,000)
2. Close to family, especially because we want to start a family
3. Medical center campus- there are two hospitals next to the dental school that I could work at-Children's Hospital and the VA
4. We love the Rockies, outdoors, all 4 seasons (plus I don't think I could ever get my native born Coloradoan out of Colorado)
Most importantly we feel so blessed. Although Wyatt has worked very hard to accomplish this we both acknowledge that we have been very blessed. We both feel strongly that our Heavenly Father has blessed us and because of Him and His will everything has come together. We are so grateful and are overwhelmed with how blessed we have been.
We made it to the Grand Canyon set up camp, made a fire and ate s'mores. That next morning I woke up with immense pain in my lower stomach again. I decided to walk to the bathroom because the pain was getting worse. I was in the bathroom for what seemed like forever. As I walked out of the bathroom I was sweating with a hot flash and chills. I saw Wyatt and fell into his arms. I told him I felt like I was going to pass out. Next thing I knew I was on the ground, I did indeed pass out! I had horrific pain and could not stand up straight. 
So we missed out on the Grand Canyon but Wyatt still had his interview Monday. So Saturday night we stayed in Flagstaff and headed down to Glendale Sunday morning. Wyatt had his interview on Monday morning, I hung out at the hotel and then when he finished the interview we immediately drove 12 hours back to Provo. WOW! What a trip. As we left the Grand Canyon Wyatt said sarcastically "We are NEVER going back to the grand Canyon!"
