Presentation

Back in February Travis presented his research project for dental school and won first place at the research fair. (you can read about that HERE) After that, one of the Dr's asked Travis if he and his group would be willing to present his research at a local continuing education group. Travis was a little worried about it, mainly their ability to answer all the questions that might be thrown at them, but after asking the team, they agreed. So for the last few days Travis has been working on preparing a powerpoint and brushing up on all his research. Yesterday was the big day.

He said the presentation went well. He said one of the weirdest parts was giving a lecture to a group filled with so many who had given lectures he sat in over the course of dental school.

For their work, each team member got a plaque and a $100 gift card to Target! Below is the poster Travis made for the fair (the school prints it for them - it's 3 feet tall!) along with the plaque and gift card to offer some scale:

One interesting presentation from the day came from the director of admissions for Marquette's dental school and was all about the admissions criteria. He had spreadsheets going back to 2005 which is when Travis started, but he actually first applied for 2004. We were wait listed and had to wait a year. After yesterday Travis wonders how he got in at all! Apparently they receive 3000 applications each year to fill the 80 spots. Last year the first NINE pages of the WAIT LIST were all 4.0 students with DAT averages of 22! (I think the national average is around 18 - although the average of accepted students is higher) Makes me wonder how many pages down Travis would have been...

It really highlights the importance of the interview!! Actually, when Travis first applied in 2004 Marquette didn't have mandatory interviews. Travis chose to ask for one and went out anyway. We always suspected that had an impact come 2005 when they instituted the mandatory interview and remembered Travis because of his previous efforts. The presenter did make that point of how important the interview is, and another point was that they are more likely to accept those they know, or those who get recommendations from dentists they know. So now we're certain the money spent to send Travis voluntarily in 2004 wasn't a waste and helped his 2005 admission! THANK GOODNESS!

Just reminiscing here... I gave birth to Avery on Dec. 1 after he was 13 days overdue and the day we came home from the hospital we found Travis' acceptance letter waiting for us in the mail! All that waiting for Avery to finally arrive; all that waiting and worry about school, all answered at once! Such relief! Such a great time!