Yup, there are times, and sometimes very long times, when as a student that generally speaking has been a high achiever and is used to success(heck you got into d-school), dental school sucks. It seems like all the faculty are conspiring against you and your class and very often those faculty seem out of touch with reality. The administration will also seem to be against you in time like this. I've felt the same way, and frankly I bet that if you polled all dental school grads(both recent and from long ago), you'd see that the majority feel this way.
I know it's tough, but don't despair. Just remember a few key things, and very often this will also require a change in your view/attitude.
#1 if a d-school accepted you, it means that they are convinced that you can handle the work and successfully graduate ontime with your class and that you have the potential to be a successful dentist in the future
#2 in one sense, d-school is almost like the TV show survivor, except that nobody has to get kicked off. The bottomline is in one sense it is a game. What that game may very well be is satisfying the professors and what their view of a dentist is. This is what gets alot of folks and what causes the perception that you as a student is on someones bad side. Where I'm going with this, is from the 1st day you show up for orientation at a d-school, until the day you get the diploma, you are enrolled in a PROFESSIONAL school. This isn't undergrad anymore. Many "seasoned" faculty were trained in a much different era, one where dressing the stereotypical part and acting the stereotypical part went without saying, and when they see what THEY perceive as someone not showing their respect to the profession by NOT dressing/acting that way, perceptions get formed and formed early.
I can't stress this enough, and I'm all for personal freedoms, but if you want to get the best reaction from a faculty member/administration, act like a professional from DAY 1. Dress atleast what's the modern defination of business casual. Maintain a "professional" appearance grooming wise. And above all, treat the faculty members with respect, afterall while you're in d-school THEY have the letters behind their names that you want and as such, they have earned the respect that so many of them crave. This is what's so tough for so many folks to grasp, achieving this level of "oldtime" stereotypical professionalism in a modern world. Will it necessarily be how you act when your out in private practice, nope. Will it though help eliminate in many instances what can be a perceived problem, and that is respect from the faculty, YES. In this way, d-school is a big game. If you play the game by the "rules" you're much more likely to have a successful outcome.
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