- Joined
- Apr 3, 2021
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Throughout dental school I’ve had the pleasure of failing in many things and I would often find myself searching for some variation of “can I get into an OS residency if (insert latest setback)”. I am surrounded by exceptional people not only in my class but in the classes above me and the residents/faculty I interacted with. I think it’s very easy to assume you must be god’s gift to Oral Surgery to have a shot at getting in. I thought I’d share a few of my many failures to show that at least one resident is not.
-Objectively the worst waxing skills in dental school class including the kid who dropped out week 2.
-Failed a practical that essentially consisted of “can you walk and breathe at the same time”
-School record holder in practical retakes
-Had a few faculty evals that will help motivate me to jump out of bed in the morning even when I’m 102.
-National record holder for lowest [cbse score/hours studied]. And I retook that bad boy a couple times
-tons of Bs. And all of them stung.
It’s also worth saying I had no special circumstances like a program director as a parent, underrepresented class, illness/hardship overcome or anything exceptional of that nature. All my failures can be traced to the man in the mirror.
While it didn’t feel easy, I do not think I barely got in. Even with those failures (and tons more not listed) I had 10+ interviews and matched very high on my list. So it wasn’t a lucky opportunity that can’t be replicated.
There are many people on these forums that know more about OS, the application process, etc. But if I can help anyone in any aspect please DM me whether it’s today or 15 years from now. Especially if you need someone to say “yes it’s still possible” after a big failure. And I tried my best to refrain from giving advice because in the grand scheme of things I don’t have the credentials to offer it yet, but I will say that once I realized that OS is worth pursuing no matter what a lot of the pressure was lifted. If you want to do this to the point that 1,2,or 15 non-cat intern years isn’t too high a price then there is nothing to stress about. Put that energy towards learning from your failures and weaknesses. This got long-winded but I would have appreciated a similar post to refer back to these past couple years and I figured it might help someone.
-Objectively the worst waxing skills in dental school class including the kid who dropped out week 2.
-Failed a practical that essentially consisted of “can you walk and breathe at the same time”
-School record holder in practical retakes
-Had a few faculty evals that will help motivate me to jump out of bed in the morning even when I’m 102.
-National record holder for lowest [cbse score/hours studied]. And I retook that bad boy a couple times
-tons of Bs. And all of them stung.
It’s also worth saying I had no special circumstances like a program director as a parent, underrepresented class, illness/hardship overcome or anything exceptional of that nature. All my failures can be traced to the man in the mirror.
While it didn’t feel easy, I do not think I barely got in. Even with those failures (and tons more not listed) I had 10+ interviews and matched very high on my list. So it wasn’t a lucky opportunity that can’t be replicated.
There are many people on these forums that know more about OS, the application process, etc. But if I can help anyone in any aspect please DM me whether it’s today or 15 years from now. Especially if you need someone to say “yes it’s still possible” after a big failure. And I tried my best to refrain from giving advice because in the grand scheme of things I don’t have the credentials to offer it yet, but I will say that once I realized that OS is worth pursuing no matter what a lot of the pressure was lifted. If you want to do this to the point that 1,2,or 15 non-cat intern years isn’t too high a price then there is nothing to stress about. Put that energy towards learning from your failures and weaknesses. This got long-winded but I would have appreciated a similar post to refer back to these past couple years and I figured it might help someone.
