Shouldn't dental school be easier to get into?

[OrphanageCaretaker]

Hello all, recently I went to my university's pre dental club meeting. The President was astounded as to how many people showed up, 10 people. She went on to say that this was a huge increase in the amount of pre-dental candidates as last semester, only 3 people showed up to the club. My pre-pharm friend encouraged me to show up to their pharmacy club meeting and 60 people showed up. Wow, what a difference. I also have quite the amount of pre-health friends, of which about 75% want to be pharmacists, 20% want to be MD's, and 5% want to be dentists. How is it that dental school is competitive if not more than pharmacy schools when there are far less applicants than other branches of pre-health? I know that there is exactly twice the amount of pharmacy (130) schools vs dental (65) schools but wouldn't it equate to dental students having a somewhat easier time to get into schools considering there is a smaller amount of applicants vs other pre-health? I know correlation doesn't mean causation and in my case I only sampled my universities pre dental vs prepharmacy club but for some other schools it can be the exact opposite. I don't know, I would think that more applicants equates to a more competitive environment compared to an average amount of applicants.

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[BabyShades]

Hello all, recently I went to my university's pre dental club meeting. The President was astounded as to how many people showed up, 10 people. She went on to say that this was a huge increase in the amount of pre-dental candidates as last semester, only 3 people showed up to the club. My pre-pharm friend encouraged me to show up to their pharmacy club meeting and 60 people showed up. Wow, what a difference. I also have quite the amount of pre-health friends, of which about 75% want to be pharmacists, 20% want to be MD's, and 5% want to be dentists. How is it that dental school is competitive if not more than pharmacy schools when there are far less applicants than other branches of pre-health? I know that there is exactly twice the amount of pharmacy (130) schools vs dental (65) schools but wouldn't it equate to dental students having a somewhat easier time to get into schools considering there is a smaller amount of applicants vs other pre-health? I know correlation doesn't mean causation and in my case I only sampled my universities pre dental vs prepharmacy club but for some other schools it can be the exact opposite. I don't know, I would think that more applicants equates to a more competitive environment compared to an average amount of applicants.

I agree that there are twice as much pharmacy schools than dental schools. But, you are forgetting the amount of seats in each school. The amount of seats for dental for each school average is 100 people and for pharmacy schools, it is about 150. In addition to that, the school you go to is not a good representative of the overall students in America. At least in my school, there are about 100 people in my pre-dental club and maybe about 150 for pre-pharmacy (I've been to both). Also, the reason why pharmacy isn't as competitive because you do not need to get your degree to apply. You can really apply after your freshmen year, where dental schools require a degree. This means that there are other students outside of undergraduate who are applying (special master's program, master, and phd). Looking at undergraduate is only probably 60% of the applicants of pre-dental while about 95% of pre-pharmacies are in their undergraduate. In addition to that, not EVERYONE joins their pre-health club.

 

[ICUrunning]

Like you said, correlation does not equal causation.

There is less applicants, yes, but the number of seats for dental programs is also quite considerably less than other professional fields. Most dental schools have 80-120 students in each class. Pharmacy schools have double that amount or even more. (e.g. UNC Pharmacy-162 seats, UNC Dental-84 seats)

There are ~63000 pharmacy students compared to ~5800 dental students.
http://www.aacp.org/about/pages/vitalstats.aspx
http://www.adea.org/GoDental/

For reference, only ~45% of dental applicants receive admissions into a dental school with an average of 3.5x GPA and a 19-20 DAT score. Many pharm applicants have lower GPAs and PCAT score percentile equivalent.

Due to the number of pharm schools opening up and the expansion of existing class size that schools have made, it is also much, much easier to get into pharm school now more than ever.

 

[DancingBull]

There are schools that do not require a degree for admission. Of course, you would need to be an outstanding applicant.

 

[deleted659902]

Hello all, recently I went to my university's pre dental club meeting. The President was astounded as to how many people showed up, 10 people. She went on to say that this was a huge increase in the amount of pre-dental candidates as last semester, only 3 people showed up to the club. My pre-pharm friend encouraged me to show up to their pharmacy club meeting and 60 people showed up. Wow, what a difference. I also have quite the amount of pre-health friends, of which about 75% want to be pharmacists, 20% want to be MD's, and 5% want to be dentists. How is it that dental school is competitive if not more than pharmacy schools when there are far less applicants than other branches of pre-health? I know that there is exactly twice the amount of pharmacy (130) schools vs dental (65) schools but wouldn't it equate to dental students having a somewhat easier time to get into schools considering there is a smaller amount of applicants vs other pre-health? I know correlation doesn't mean causation and in my case I only sampled my universities pre dental vs prepharmacy club but for some other schools it can be the exact opposite. I don't know, I would think that more applicants equates to a more competitive environment compared to an average amount of applicants.

The number of applicants and schools/seats available means very little when determining the competitiveness of a profession. Just look at the avg. entering class GPA for that. But honestly, who cares?

 

[cacazor]

Shouldn't x be easier to get into because x have this many more applicants that y?
well that's a fallacy anyways. dental schools hold their students to a certain standard, and pharmacy schools hold their students to a certain standard. as long as there is more than enough applicant who can meet those dental school standards (which happens every year), then the bar wouldnt be set any lower.

 

[SXCoronado]

.

 

[Screwtape]

This thread is dumb.

 

[derbear]

I know correlation doesn't mean causation and in my case I only sampled my universities pre dental vs prepharmacy club but for some other schools it can be the exact opposite.

Question answered.