Getting dental license in the U.S is a long journey, and how to fuel the journey is a very important aspect. I’ve seen first-hand how impactful it can be to one’s success. Therefore, I want to dive in deeper to this topic today. If you have no time for story, skip to the bottom and read the part in Bold letter of what I've learned through my story.
You may or may not hear my story before I joined UCDenver in 2017. I started preparing for NBDE and TOEFL since 2012. It was lots of money and although I started working, I had to ask for my mom’s help still. She was in the U.S at that time, recently emigrated, recently got a job, was not financially stable yet. She was working, supporting my two siblings in America and supporting me for my education as well in Vietnam. No easy task. We were hand-tight. I still don’t understand how my mom managed that because I graduated now, started working as a dentist here, and trust me, $500 for one exam would still be a burden to me. Every decision back then had to be calculated carefully – which book to buy, which course to take, etc. I recently received a message on which book to buy because all of those NBDE books are expensive. I know exactly what you were talking about! I searched Amazon and E-bay to find the cheapest secondhand book with the not-too-old version (I used version 2011-2012 when I took Part 1 in 2014). You can learn from any book. It’s not the book that matters but how well you understand the material and if you can apply what you understand in answering question. You can buy the latest version of every single book out there and still fail if all you do is trying to memorize all the points.
There is not only money for exams. You also need money for other no name steps as well. Evaluation with ECE! Registering with CAAPID to apply! Asking ECE to send copy to ADA! Asking ETS to send TOEFL score to ADA! And so much more. One wrong address can cost me about $30, $50. Multiple times can easily cost me $100 or more. The money pressure will be there. I do not want to scare you away but I want you to be mindful that this journey is fueled by either money or a lot of money. Up to this point, you have to have money sitting in your bank account for this because no bank will give you a loan for “preparing for dental school” reason. I have to stress it because one reader kept asking me about student loan while not even taking NBDE yet – I found out later – she thought she must have student loan approved before she can apply for dental schools. No! To the day you get the “Congratulation!” email from dental school, you pay everything by yourself and you do not need student loan.
Schools will not ask for financial proof when you apply nor pick you based on your financial ability. Finally the day you longing for for so many years come! You get the call or the email from the director. I don’t think a lot of people sharing what happens next so I will share my story in detail. In the next several days, I got another email from the school asking me if I will accept the position or not. I had three options – decline (if I pick another school)/ defer (one year only)/ or accept. When I chose accepting the offer, I had to send a deposit check for $4000 to confirm that I do plan to come. Of course, this deposit would go to the tuition later. It was a shock to me as I then faced a more serious question – I got accepted now where I can find enough money for dental school with my family’s current financial situation. I had no choice but to borrow money for the deposit. This is my family and my own dream come true, but at the same time, I put tons of pressure on my mom. I had some saving but it was not enough as I spent lots of time studying instead of working. We had to borrow from my aunts, uncles, cousins. Most of them also just recently emigrated to the U.S and had entry level work income. I felt like the most selfish person on Earth to depend solely on family to help me in my own success. I questioned myself if I could barely afford $4000 deposit, how I could afford tuition fee and if I could not, I would lose $4000 for nothing. It was a scary time, but we managed it.
Next step, school asked me to provide financial proof that I could afford at least one year of tuition. I was honestly thinking it would be easy to apply for loan “because I would soon become a dentist here, so bank should love me”. WRONG! I talked to several banks. Some of them need I-20 to process the application but school will not give you I-20 before you give them the proof of the loan. Only two banks accept the application without I-20 so I applied to both. With all the banks, I would need a cosigner as I was not a residence or citizen here, I had no credit history, so they could not trust me. Easy right? I have my mom – a US Citizen – and of course she had good credit history, she was working and had income. On their website, they said something like “cosigned needs to have income of $19000/yr minimum to be qualified” and my mom earned more than that. WRONG again! Both of them declined right away as the amount of money I wanted to borrow ($100000) was way too much comparing to her income (aka her ability to pay in case I cannot). I contacted the school desperately to look for a way out. They suggested me to borrow lesser amount but how I could afford the rest? My extended family was willing to cosign for me as well but their income was just like my mom’s. I turned to the internet asking for advice and help. No one could help and none of the advice worked. I did not want to ruin someone else’s chance and honestly the whole time, this acceptance was too good to be true so in the back of my mind, it was not meant for me. I gave up! I wrote a letter to the program director to apologize that I had to defer one year to figure out about the tuition. It was devastating. The moment I hit the “SEND” button, I was looking at my years of hard-work (and $4000) flying through my hand.
So how did I make it right next year? I did nothing. It was my family. I am still a selfish daughter. I mean I worked harder that year, found a new job, earned more money, saved more but it was nothing when you exchange VND to USD. My dad passed away two years earlier before all of this happened and he left the house for me so I could sell it for my education (Thanks, dad!). I could finally sell the house that year and had a bit more money (Thanks to my siblings that they did not ask for anything when they have the right to take some). My mom (remarried after I deferred) and my stepdad bought a house, their income together was much better than my mom’s alone so my stepdad agreed to help as well (Thanks mom and Sal!). My mom thought I gave up on the idea but I couldn’t. It was not only my effort but also my whole family's and I did not want to see it go in vain. I applied one more time next year secretly and the bank accepted although they gave me an insane interest rate 11.5%. I had to do what I had to do.
What I learned from my journey was:
1) You don’t need to worry about tuition from the start, but do need to think about your ability to afford it – for example if you have someone to cosign, if you have property in your home country that you can take a loan from there (my dad’s house wasn’t qualified for this) or if you and your family have enough savings to pay for school.
2) In the U.S, banks don’t care how much money you owe, they only care how much you own. I do believe what made a difference was the house. The bank evaluated that she owned a house and paid payment every month so she’s reliable. I was scared that she had mortgage loan, so bank would refuse. Everyone in America is in some sort of debt so debt is not a deal-breaker. If you are not in debt, banks won’t like you as much.
3) It will be easier when you have I-20. In order to have I-20, you will need to send school proof of finance. School doesn’t care where or who it comes from, so if you have a friend or family having about $100000 in bank account, you just need to ask them writing you a letter that they agree to sponsor. School will not hold it against the person. The person doesn’t have to give you the money. School only needs the letter to issue I-20 so you can take it to apply for loan. I suggest to ask local banks from your home country, who knows they may have a service that you and I don’t know about.
I always say that I have utter respect to all doctors going through this long difficult journey. That takes a lot of courage and commitment with no guarantee of ROI – Return of Investment. I also say that if I knew what I know now, I might give up from the beginning. If you feel like you don’t understand the steps, or some part is confusing, believe me, it’s a bless. Life will prepare you enough to take all the hardship. What you learn now will prepare you for next year, and what you learn next year will prepare you for a year after that. Life changes, and so do you. When I write this, I keep asking myself if I give out too much information and discourage someone. That is absolutely not my intention. I want to share information to encourage you to be practical and if you are facing what I faced years ago, knowing that you are not alone, and sooner or later, there will be a way out eventually.
Information is GOLD!
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