Greetings fellow Mustangs,
My name is Gabriel Casias and I graduated from Cal Poly in 2015 with a BS in Chemistry and a biology minor. After Pre-Health Advising for two years, I finally listened to my own advice and applied to dental school. :) After taking a much needed year off in between undergrad and grad school, doing a little bit of everything, I am now a first year at University of Colorado School of Dental Medicine. During my year off, I travelled, spent money, got a job scooping ice cream to make back my money and get an appreciation for why I was still going to school, dabbled in ceramics (you should take the Craft Center ceramics class!!), and got some great home time.
I just finished 6 weeks of dental school and… I’m still kicking. I felt that the science background at Cal Poly did a very good job preparing me for the rigor of graduate school. I’m staying fairly balanced and taking advantage of being back in my home state by rock climbing, running, biking, playing Spikeball at lunch, and hitting up a few Denver events (Rockies game, Octoberfest, and dueling pianos at Howl at the Moon.) First year at CU Denver is busy, but there is actually a good amount of free time. A portion of that still exists after hours of studying to do some fun things. You are in control of what you spend your time doing! Take advantage of it at Cal Poly and wherever you end up! Second year is a bit more time consuming, third year is exciting because of more clinic time, and a good portion of fourth year is spent in ACTS (rotations to rural areas to practice dentistry with about 5x as many patients seen per day than at school = more confidence and experience). As we are starting to get into the full swing of applications, interviews, and just school (for those of you not applying yet), keep in mind that YOU have the ultimate decision in whether you want to do anything in life. There are a couple of 2nd and 3rd round applicants in my class, several parents (one with 5 girls), and a recent mom who actually started dental school two years ahead of my class. There is NO normal, or textbook case. That’s the beauty of it, even for those black and white Math majors ;).
Even if I never had the privilege to meet you in person, I truly wish each and every one of you the best of luck in your future endeavors, and please enjoy a or several SloDoCo donuts for me!!
- Gabriel Casias
Feel free to email me with ANY questions and I’ll try to get back to you ASAP.
gabriel.casias@ucdenver.edu
PS—the photo of me is a celebratory drink from when my Premolar Team won the Amalgames (dental pun heyday around the Olympics time) I’m drinking from the “Cup of Carabelli” (the cusp of carabelli is an anatomical feature on the maxillary first molar)
(Note: This letter was received in 2017)
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