PHILADELPHIA — Not many dental students are hounded by paparazzi. Then there’s Ashley Hebert.

“They wait outside my apartment for when I leave in the morning, and they wait outside school for when I go home,” says the petite 26-year-old, who has almost completed her degree at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine.

Hebert has become a tabloid obsession because of her emotional turn as the queen bee on the current season of “The Bachelorette.”

There are countless stories purporting to reveal the results of her agonizing on-air pursuit of Mr. Right.

“Before all this, when I would read magazines like In Touch, I would assume the stories had a little truth to them,” she says. “Now I know they’re completely inaccurate.”

Her TV experiences this year, first as one of the semifinalists on “The Bachelor,” now as the rose-dispenser on the seventh season of “The Bachelorette,” have taken a toll on the small-town girl from northernmost Maine.

‘Trusting everybody’

“On the show you’ll see me trusting everybody,” she says. “That’s always been my default position. Now I feel like I’m jaded. I think I’ve learned a lot about people, but it’s kind of a sad thing.”

The season, which finished taping two months ago, now seems headed for a satisfying climax. On Monday’s episode, Hebert traveled for dates in the hometowns of the four remaining suitors. In the case of Ames, a native of Chadds Ford, Pa., that means a carriage ride along the Brandywine. (Nevertheless, Ashley sent Ames packing.)

But Hebert’s image still hasn’t quite recovered from the show’s turbulent start. There was her blind devotion to Bentley, an utter cad who was callously toying with her emotions just to get camera time.

Then there was the disastrous episode in which the men were asked to “roast” Ashley at a comedy club.

That resulted in nasty insult jokes like “You’re actually the first girl I’ve ever dated with a smaller chest than me” and “I thought I was signing up to be with Emily or Chantal, and then Ashley is here.”

Web critics

Hebert’s emotional responses to those public humiliations made her an Internet dartboard.

“She has the lowest self-esteem. My girlfriend says it’s lower than a floor mat,” says Melissa Locker, a recapper for the Television Without Pity website. “I mean she’s an Ivy Leaguer with a professional career. She teaches Jazzercise. She should have self-esteem coming out of her ears. Instead, she’s on the phone crying about guys who treated her badly.”

Hebert finds those perceptions offensive.

“Despite what people believe, I’m actually pretty secure in myself,” she says.

One of her biggest supporters is Chris Harrison, host of the “Bachelorette” franchise.

“She’s an intelligent, witty, very bright professional woman with great charisma and charm,” he says. “I think up until now she’s been unfairly judged because of Bentley and some other events. I’ve seen this happen before with Ali (Fedotowsky, of Season 6).”

He seems to be saying Hebert isn’t a pushover; she’s just edited to look that way.

“Look, it’s not a documentary,” Harrison says. “It’s an entertainment show, first and foremost. There’s a fine line of being overly salacious and sensational.”

Hebert frets that her image has been distorted.

‘A lot of good things’

“There’s a lot of good things happening too,” she says. “You don’t see much of that. You only see what sucks people in.”

Hebert concedes she has mishandled the Sadie Hawkins role at times.

“I don’t know that I have made a good Bachelorette. In a way, I think I’m too honest. If I’m not into somebody, I have a hard time faking it, and I think in this environment, you have to be able to do that sometimes.”

In fact, Hebert feels she is so transparent that viewers should already be able to tell what her ultimate decision will be.

“I knew where my heart was from very early on,” she says. “I wanted to give every guy a chance but by the time of the hometown dates, I was probably 95 percent sure.”

The online “Bachelorette” oracles are predicting that her choice will come down to Ben F. or J.P. But Hebert pointedly holds out a third option: She could emulate Season 3’s Jennifer Schefft and choose no one.

Whatever it is, has her final choice (the finale, which takes place in Fiji, airs Aug. 1) made her happy?

“Absolutely,” she says.

‘The Bachelorette’

Where: ABC

When: Monday, 8 p.m.