DETROIT (4/15/2013) -- “There are 380,000 student-athletes and most of them go pro in something other than sports” is the famous line in one of the NCAA's commercials and for Titan senior Nick Schesnuk, every word of that statement is true.

Schesnuk is in his fourth year as a member of the Detroit men's lacrosse team and even then, his first year was wiped out due to an ACL injury. He was part of a team that came one game away from going to the NCAA Tournament in 2011 and a team that brought lacrosse fever to the state of Michigan when UDM took on the Wolverines in 2012 as 1,800 fans packed Ultimate Soccer Arenas.

He has played in a total of three games in his career, even scoring a goal against Mercer last season – his only career point – but for Schesnuk, he is on the team because he loves lacrosse and he is here at the University preparing for his professional career as a dentist.
“I started here because they had the seven-year dental program and it was a great opportunity to get a head start in my career a lot earlier in my age than most people,” said Schesnuk. “The opportunity to come here and play Division I lacrosse just 40 minutes away from home was just everything I was looking for in a school.”

UDM offers a special academic program which enables highly qualified applicants to earn a Doctor of Dental Surgery degree in addition to the baccalaureate degree in seven calendar years, rather than in the traditional eight years. The selected students in the Seven-Year BS/DDS Program spend most of the first three years at the McNichols Campus doing pre-dental studies in the College of Engineering and Science. The last four years are in the School of Dentistry.

Some of the admissions requirements for the program include:

• Being ranked with the top 25% of their high school senior class at the time of their application for acceptance into the Program.
• Achieved a high school ACT composite score of 26, with a minimum of 24 in each section, or a combined SAT score of 1170 in math & reading.
• Has earned for the first six semesters of high school a Grade Point Average of 3.5 overall on a 4.0 point scale, and the same for the combined mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology courses.

Once accepted, an applicant will be eligible for transfer to the Dental School phase of study following the successful completion of all aspects of the initial three years of the program. This will include completion of all required courses, the maintaining of the 3.5 minimum GPA for overall as well as for science and mathematics combined, and the attainment of adequately high enough scores on the Dental Admission Test, the national standardized examination required of all applicants for admission to professional schools of dentistry, and successful completion of an interview with the dental admissions committee.

“He works very hard and he is very dedicated to his academics and to what he wants to do in the future,” said head coach Matt Holtz. “He comes every to practice every day that he can and gets done what he can get done.”

For Schesnuk, that meant long hours in his first couple of years to maintain a GPA, which is currently a 4.0. He has been a four-year member of the Athletic Director's Honor Roll and has twice been tabbed to the MAAC All-Academic Team.

“My football coach in high school told me that in the term student-athlete, student comes first and when I came here for my recruiting visit, Coach Holtz told me to make sure I wanted to come here for school first and not for lacrosse and I really honored that statement,” said Schesnuk.