Canadians

[boyan]

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Hello,

I am interested to know why is it so hard to get accepted to a Dental School in Canada. I really don?t understand it. When I see the average GPA and DAT for the Canadian schools I get scared. Why is it SOOO competitive? Then what do you all US graduate Canadians have to go through to go back to Canada and practice there. I am curious to know the story behind this problem. Thank you.

 

[DrRob]

There is only around 7 dental schools ( I'm not sure of the exact number) in Canada - and if you apply out of province, you don't really have a good chance and a lot of qualified applicants don't get seats.
Once you graduate from a US dental school you have to take a 2 day exam called the NDEB ( 1 day is a written test; the other day is a station based bell ringer exam called the OSCE). Once both sections have been passed (98% pass rate - well I haven't heard of anyone who has failed) you register in the province you want to practice in - and this might entail taking an ethics and jurisprudence course ( 1 or 2 days long). That's it!

 

[bluekty]

Canadian schools accept only about 25~40 people each year(the numbers: depends on school). And most of schools accept 80~90% from the province (state) and rest is from somewhere else.

 

[Rampart]

The only reason that the stats are so high is that there are few spots available. Many American schools have dental classes larger than the Med+Dent class at a Canadian school. I'm at the UofA right now and the preclinical Med+Dent core class has only 155 or so students. The Dent class is 32. Because they only have to fill 32 spots here, they can be extra picky about who they let in. It's kind of cool though b/c in our dent labs, there have been 3 DDS instructors to 32 students.

The government picks up the majority of the education cost for us, so from thier standpoint it is cheaper to have fewer students.

This is what School is going to cost me
4 years tuition: $64,949
Tools: $19,650
Fees: $680
Books: $1000-2500 depending on what I buy

So in total, 4 years will cost about 87K. Without government funding that would be closer to 200K. Of course the loan system here is a little different, so you get 12K free in bursaries, and the possiblility of having part of your loan remitted on graduation.

Rampart

 

[boyan]

If you guys accept only 30 ?40 applicants each year per school it probably means that you have enough dentists. Is that so? What is the average income of a GP/specialist in canada?

 

[Rampart]

In Alberta, it seems as if the major cities (Edmonton and Calgary) have pretty much reached carrying capacity. This is probably b/c there are only 5 or so people in our class that intend to practice in a smaller town.

I think you will find it very hard to get the true average salary b/c it is so incredibly variable.

Here is the government data for
Dentists
http://roe-ab.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/lmi/2001wagesurvey/view-detail-by-region_e.cfm?Region=20&Noc=3113

Whether or not this is accurate, well.

Rampart

 

[politicallyRite]

Originally posted by Rampart

The government picks up the majority of the education cost for us, so from thier standpoint it is cheaper to have fewer students.

This is what School is going to cost me
4 years tuition: $64,949
Tools: $19,650
Fees: $680
Books: $1000-2500 depending on what I buy

Rampart

Somehow people have the impression that Canadian dental schools have low tuitions, from the figure above, it's not cheaper than many state-funded schools in the US.

 

[Hot-n-Aml]

I have struggled with this issue for many years. Being Canadian, I applied to schools within my province (Ontario) twice. Once in third year and once in fourth, and was waitlisted both times. I have a solid GPA and DAT but it wasn't good enough. I even have tons of experience in the dental field, but Ontario schools don't care about that stuff, and out-of-province schools were a slim chance for me either way.

Frustrated, I had 3 options. I could apply over and over again and hope for the best while the youthful years of my life slip by me, I could change my choice of profession which was out of the question, or cross the border.

In the end, I went with option number three and it was the best decision that I ever made. Yes it's expensive, and yes my loan payments will take longer to pay off, but the US provides an excellent and advanced education that is worth considering. So, my plan is to get my education in the US and return back home to Canada since my family/friends/life in general are all there.

Returning to Canada is very straight forward and I'm greatful for that.

So for any Canadians out there, there is hope for getting into dentistry as long as you're willing to make some adjustments and sacrifices.

Hot-n-Aml
_______________________________________________
UPitt, SDM, Class of 2007

 

[Rampart]

In a sense all Canadian schools are "state" schools. The only difference is that there are no private schools to increase to total number of positions and therefor move the admittance cuttoff farther down into the curve.

As for being cheap, lots of Canadian shcools aren't cheap (Cough: BC). What makes it at least partly affordable is that
#1: Millenium bursaries are available every year, anyone taking loans will get it, and it adds up to 12K over 4 years.
#2: Living expenses aren't that bad, students don't usually pay taxes and stuff like health care is cheap if not free
#3: The remittance program for your loans. If you can prove that you spent your loan money on essentials (eg tuition, fees, tools, books) during a post education audit, they will forgive part of your loan.
You can expect to have 10-40K remitted in the end.

So say I get remmited 20K, get 12K in bursaries and I've already gotten 8 K in scholarships this year, so thats already a "free" 40K off my 87K. But I can tell you that there is no way I would ever be able to afford UBC or UofSask.

Rampart

 

[Woodsy]

US schools seem to be easier to get into, that's why I didn't even bother applying out of province and spent most of my time applying to the Good ol' USA. Being Canadian I think their system is way too hard to get into and too competitive.

No offence to any of you but honestly if you're American and can't get into an American school b/c of grades or DATS, good luck with getting into Canada coz it is almost impossible.

Most schools want GPA's of at least 3.7 (converted Canadian scale) but they take your best two years sometimes, and relatively good DAT scores. For some reason Canada doesn't care too much about DAT scores. But you can't get into a lot of schools without taking the Canadian DATS.

 

[Dr.BadVibes]

No one said that Canadian dental schools are cheaper than US schools....Look at some state schools like Texas with only $6000/year tuition....no one can beat that!

And yes, DAT scores are not important in Canada, because we dont have GPA inflation.....However, with respect, my Toronto arrogance is gonna come out by saying that Im sure getting an A at Toronto is MUCH MUCH harder than at Lakehead in THunder Bay.

All and all, the DAT is more of a tool to weed out people that have no interest in dentistry and thus do not try. But if you have a low GPA but perfect DAT scores, you still have no prayer!