Advice given to me for remaining competitive for specialties

[yayforcoffee]

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So I spoke on the phone today with my interviewer from UoP. Pretty much I'm way down to be a general dentist, but I wanted to ask him his advice on how to remain competitive should I become drawn to a specialty.

In short, he said that the best advice he has after over 20 years teaching at the school is to get the best grades possible for the first year; your grades from your didactic courses the first year will determine what quarter of the class you're ranked in for the next two years. Apparently the units of the clinical courses can't save you if you mess up early! So he told me to really focus during the first year, and when things transition to the clinic second year, then he said to seek out other research, extracurricular activities to round out my possible graduate application.

Just thought you guys might like to hear this. The advice might differ for the rest of the four-year programs, but I feel like it's good insight nonetheless.

 

[cybermech]

As they always say, anatomy is the hardest, so you can start to study for that ahead of time if you wish.

As for research and extra-curriculars, most really serious students spend their first summer off after 1st year doing research projects.

Beyond that, I'm curious to know what sorts of extracurriculars current "good applicants" for the specialties are doing.

 

[PDizzle]

Crush the NBDE#1


That's half the battle right there...probably more than half.

 

[cybermech]

Crush the NBDE#1


That's half the battle right there...probably more than half.

Dude, I've been talking to so many dentists and have been reading all the posts here, and I still have no idea whether or not the class of 2013 will be P/F or score-reporting. Everyone seems to be saying something different.

It's driving me nuts...

 

[PDizzle]

Dude, I've been talking to so many dentists and have been reading all the posts here, and I still have no idea whether or not the class of 2013 will be P/F or score-reporting. Everyone seems to be saying something different.

It's driving me nuts...

I feel ya...I thinks a bad idea to make the NBDE P/F. I fully understand why some of the top schools went P/F and am super glad my school is one of them but making the NBDE P/F just doesn't make sense. How are the specialty adcoms gonna decide between 2 people who came from a P/F school? LOR's?? ...lame.

 

[JamesOSU]

I feel ya...I thinks a bad idea to make the NBDE P/F. I fully understand why some of the top schools went P/F and am super glad my school is one of them but making the NBDE P/F just doesn't make sense. How are the specialty adcoms gonna decide between 2 people who came from a P/F school? LOR's?? ...lame.

I heard the ADA encouraged specialty programs to write their own tests. If that's the case, we'll get to take a P/F NBDE and a specialty GRE type test as well, yippee! But I am also seeing threads saying it will and ones saying it won't be P/F for us

 

[PDizzle]

I heard the ADA encouraged specialty programs to write their own tests. If that's the case, we'll get to take a P/F NBDE and a specialty GRE type test as well, yippee! But I am also seeing threads saying it will and ones saying it won't be P/F for us

Yeah, I heard about the specific specialty tests but that doesn't really make that much sense either. I mean, you are not expected to know that much about your chosen specialty...that's what the residency is for!

I still think the NBDE#1 score really says a lot about an applicant. To get in the 90's you need to sacrafice quite a bit of your life,..in addition to the normal sacrafice of DS.

Im curious how they are going to match residents once it goes P/F