Advice on being competitive for peds residency after military

[Appleman987]

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I just want some advice and some feedback on if I’m a competitive applicant or how I can become more competitive. Currently I’m active duty, I completed an AEGD with some peds experience in the AEGD. My dental school has a strong peds program so I have experience from that as well. I graduated undergrad with a chem degree 4.00 GPA, dental school with a 3.48 and in the top half of the class (barely). I still have 4 years in the navy but I’ll have experience from being stationed on a ship, I have about 1000 hours of volunteer experience from before dental school. Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks!

Edit: I guess I should say that I would also love to stay in the navy for peds but being on a ship and with peds being saturated the stars aren’t going to align for me and I was pretty much told if I want to do it I’ll probably have to get out.

 

[Saddleshoes]

Your 4 years of military experience will trump most of your competition for a Pedo program.

 

[Appleman987]

Your 4 years of military experience will trump most of your competition for a Pedo program.

Thanks for the reply, and I hope you’re right about that!

 

[Big Time Hoosier]

Are you stationed by NMCSD or Walter Reed? If so, you could probably shadow/observe the monthly craniofacial conference. I did that for a year and half. It was a good experience. You may have to use leave to do it.

Big Hoss

 

[Appleman987]

Are you stationed by NMCSD or Walter Reed? If so, you could probably shadow/observe the monthly craniofacial conference. I did that for a year and half. It was a good experience. You may have to use leave to do it.

Big Hoss

That’s a good suggestion, I could definitely try to make a trip up to Bethesda. I was also told about an ortho/peds conference that they put on at Bethesda and San Diego so I’m going to try to go there. I thought about volunteering on the weekends to work with Medicaid kids if my command allows it.

 

[averageasian]

Are you stationed by NMCSD or Walter Reed? If so, you could probably shadow/observe the monthly craniofacial conference. I did that for a year and half. It was a good experience. You may have to use leave to do it.

Big Hoss

Any command that makes you use leave for this is ridiculous.

Just use no cost TAD…..

It’s a military conference for goodness sake.

 

[Big Time Hoosier]

Any command that makes you use leave for this is ridiculous.

Just use no cost TAD…..

It’s a military conference for goodness sake.

I was able to get no-cost TAD to go, but my CO and OIC liked me. The CO who followed after the CO who approved it, was an idiot and likely wouldn’t have approved it.

Big Hoss

 

[Big Time Hoosier]

That’s a good suggestion, I could definitely try to make a trip up to Bethesda.

Reach out to the pediatric dentist to see if they’re ok with you following them around. I just shadowed the staff pediatric dentist and orthodontist when the evaluated the cleft palate kiddos in the morning. In the afternoon, all the different specialties, from ENT to plastic surgery to social work, would get together to discuss the cases. It was pretty educational for me.

I was also told about an ortho/peds conference that they put on at Bethesda and San Diego so I’m going to try to go there.

It’s just the CE course put on by the Navy. I think it’s only offered every other year. They also offer, or at least they did, a pediatric dentistry correspondence course. You read a textbook and answer questions at the end of each chapter.

Big Hoss

 

[Lemillion]

That’s a good suggestion, I could definitely try to make a trip up to Bethesda. I was also told about an ortho/peds conference that they put on at Bethesda and San Diego so I’m going to try to go there. I thought about volunteering on the weekends to work with Medicaid kids if my command allows it.

Your military experience will go a long way on your app! Peds programs in general like providers with experience. I always sensed military applicants were held in high regard (responsible, service, leadership, etc, etc).

If you're interested, there's a join pedo-ortho conference next month in Florida. Should draw a good crowd of program directors. Good topics too!

AAPD | AAO Winter Conference

www.aapd.org