News
An Interview with Sahar Khazaian, 1st year dental student at Nova Southeastern
August 9, 2007
Sahar Khazaian has been one of our moderators for the organic chemistry forums. She has contributed greatly in service of science students and has been a tremendous addition to our ScienceAide team!
ScienceAide: Tell us about yourself
Sahar: I am currently a first year dental school at Nova Southeastern University, School of Dental Medicine. I graduated from UCSD with a bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry and Cell Biology in 2006. I was not quite ready to apply to dental school so I took a year off and worked for the California Children’s Dental Disease Prevention Program and was the program coordinator for one of the counties in Northern California.
ScienceAide: How did you know you wanted to become a dentist?
Sahar: My uncle’s mentorship along with my passion for art, science and preventative care led me to explore the field of dentistry. I began by interning as a dental assistant. My tasks initially included greeting and directing patients and helping with front office duties, but within a short period of time, I began to assist in all procedures. My internship effectively prepared me for dental school and made me familiar with the day-to-day work required of a dentist. I strongly believe one has to do some internship to see whether that career is a good fit or not. I also subscribe to the idea that it is only when you truly and genuinely love your career that you are able to provide the best for your patients. By being able to work in a dentist office, I was fortunate to be exposed to the daily job activities thus enabling me to understand if this was a suitable career for me. I am privileged and grateful of this experience because it allowed me to find out my true calling as there is a strong match between this career and my aspirations and interests.
ScienceAide: What activities have you been involved with that best prepared you for dental school?
Sahar: Being a member UCSD’s Pre-Dental society, which is the one the top Pre-dental programs in the nation gave me the window of opportunity to learn everything I could about the profession. As a member of the pre-dental society, I volunteered as a dental assistant at the Student-Run Free Dental Clinic Project. The three clinics, with the help of volunteer health professionals, offer their services to the underserved and homeless community in San Diego County. Volunteering at the clinics helped me understand clinic operations and raised my awareness of the community needs, and the work needed to address them. My roles in the organization were to coordinate and schedule student volunteers at the San Diego Children’s hospital and attend California Dental Association conventions to raise funds for the clinics. One of the most amazing privileges during my time at UCSD was to volunteer as a dental assistant for the Thousand Smiles Foundation in Mexico. This foundation specializes in cleft lip and palate reconstruction and also provides general dental care for those without access to care. On this trip, I viewed a cleft palate reconstruction surgery on a three month old infant which has been the highlight of my clinical experience.
ScienceAide: Tell us about your dental school:
Sahar:
1) Wonderful facilities
2) Top of the line technology
3) Faculty members are very nice, genuine and helpful and treat you as their colleague.
4) You are part of the “Health Profession Division,” meaning the school has a separate campus for Pharmacy, Optometry, Dental, Physican Assistant, Medical, Nursing and Physical Therapy students. You have the opportunity to interact with all sorts of people from different medical fields.
5) LOCATION-South Florida is beautiful. If you are coming from CA, you will have no problem adjusting. There are a lot of things to do and so many beautiful places to discover.
6) Upper classmen are very helpful
7) Overall, NOVA has a positive energetic energy.
ScienceAide: How is dental school different from under graduate school?
Sahar: Well, the individual classes are not hard but what makes it hard is that you have SO many of them so you are very tight on time and you must develop good time management skills. You cannot get behind because there are tremendous amount of information you need to learn everyday. For example, the biochem you took in undergrad is a lot harder than the biochem you take in dental school but you also have 9 other classes to manage as well.
ScienceAide: What are your aspirations after dental school?
Sahar: At this point I cannot say because I haven’t seen any patients yet nor done any procedures. But I would like to get into a specialty program, such as Pediatric Dentistry. I love kids. But then again you never know until you get your hands dirty with different procedures. Community Outreach is something UCSD PDS has instilled in me and I will always incorporate that into my career.
ScienceAide: Any advice in general how one can become a stronger applicant?
Sahar: Take lots of useful electives such as Micro, ANATOMY, physiology, Histology, Pharmacology and if you can take some waxing/carving courses. This is very important because a lot of students do well in academic courses, but in dental anatomy they struggle because they have never done waxing. It is the most important skill you need to be a good dentist. And of course, GPA and DAT are very important.
ScienceAide: Any advice for the DAT?
Sahar: SCHOLARWARE is very close to the actual test. Don’t worry about Math. You must master PAT skills because it is a lot harder than Kaplan’s. Do not attempt to read the articles on the reading comp section because it is a waste a time. You can scan it for 4-5 mins and go on to questions. I would suggest you do the FIRST and THIRD article first because they are usually scientific and it will be easier for you to read and kind of figure out what each paragraph is talking about. Then do the article that is non-scientific last.
ScienceAide: Any encouragement you would want to tell future dental students?
Sahar: Dental school is tough to get into but don’t ever give. Be persistent with your application and be confident at your interviews. Research the schools you apply to and don’t just apply blindly.