class ranking

[braces2005]

Hello,

I'm a first year dental student and I'm thinking about specializing. I'm a little bit confused about class ranking. Do dental speciality programs consider your class ranking in all 4 years equally or do they weigh your class ranking more in your final last two years?

I would think that your grades and class ranking in your final years will be weighed more heavily because in those final years I would have gained a better perspective on what each speciality is about.

Can someone please clarify?

Thank you

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[Motown]

Your class rank is simply a comparison of your gpa with that of your classmates (including all credit hours up until that point). Hope that helps.

 

[vorosvirag]

Hello,

I'm a first year dental student and I'm thinking about specializing. I'm a little bit confused about class ranking. Do dental speciality programs consider your class ranking in all 4 years equally or do they weigh your class ranking more in your final last two years?

They consider your class rank at the time you're applying to your specialty. For example, most people apply to a residency after their third year of dental school. So, if you have the highest GPA in your class you will apply as the #1 ranked student.

Most of the time, your class rank doesn't change that much from year to year. When you complete a PASS application, your school registrar will indicate what your rank was after year 1, what your rank was after year 2, and what your class rank was after the 3rd year.

At our program your final class rank was placed on a sheet of paper along w/ the your board scores. All of us could see those two figures. The interviewing faculty had access to the entire PASS application, including individual year class ranks. But it appears final class rank and Part I board scores were the academic indicators they care about most.

I would think that your grades and class ranking in your final years will be weighed more heavily because in those final years I would have gained a better perspective on what each speciality is about.

As mentioned above, class rank is cumulative. GPA counts every bit as much in the first year as in the last.

Yet, if you improve over the last few years you can make the argument that you got motivated once you understood what you wanted to do. However, I'd recommend not falling behind early. Keeping options open makes it easier later.

 

[braces2005]

Thank you. It puts things into perspective.

 

[dentalman]

It is usually very hard to change your rank after the first two years since everyone is in clinic.

 

[ortho07]

Best advice is to try your best all throughout dental school. When your close to the top, your rank usually changes very little.

 

[I'mFillingFine]

Best advice is to try your best all throughout dental school. When your close to the top, your rank usually changes very little.

Why do you think this? Is that a promising fact that if you can do well in first year, you can continue to do well?

Because a lot of upperclassmen are telling me that second year is SOO different from the first that people at the top of the freshman class are close to failing because they can get a prof in a bad mood when grading some of their labwork. Is this just the disgruntled dental student talking?

 

[vorosvirag]

Why do you think this? Is that a promising fact that if you can do well in first year, you can continue to do well?

Because a lot of upperclassmen are telling me that second year is SOO different from the first that people at the top of the freshman class are close to failing because they can get a prof in a bad mood when grading some of their labwork. Is this just the disgruntled dental student talking?

Where I did dental school, the first 2 years were primarily didactic. Almost all classes w/ little clinic. It was in the 3rd and 4th years when objectivity largely was thrown out the window. Most professors were reasonably fair, but there were always a handful of professors you tried to avoid at all costs.

So, in your case some of those you refer to may be purely disgruntled dentals students spreading nonsense. I would not discount everything they say, however. Go into clinic with a positive attitude, but realize someone may try to "teach you a lesson." In certain cases, those lessons come from insecure restorative faculty in the form of Bs and Cs. I've found many prosthodontists who really dislike oral surgeons and orthodontists.

 

[ortho07]

Why do you think this? Is that a promising fact that if you can do well in first year, you can continue to do well?

Because a lot of upperclassmen are telling me that second year is SOO different from the first that people at the top of the freshman class are close to failing because they can get a prof in a bad mood when grading some of their labwork. Is this just the disgruntled dental student talking?

I guess it depends but on average most people in the top 10 probably stay around the top 10. At least thats how it worked for me. I can imagine that someone who is strong didactically first year, may not have good manual dexterity to be succesful in preclin courses in second year. But I cant imagine that all of the top 10 people are like that. All you can do is just try your best.