College Admissions Bribery Scandals.. Possible in D School?

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doctor.doctor

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With the recent news about all the college admissions bribery scandals, I couldn't help but think if that was a possibility for dental school? It's just so unfair how the system is sometimes.
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I wouldn't think this occurs at professional school level. However, many applicants have a "legacy" status in which one or both of their parents have attended the school they apply. This will give them leverage in comparison to other applicants, but that should not discourage anyone because with a solid grade, DAT, LOR, and extracurricular, anyone who has the drive and passion can get into dental school!
 
Wouldn’t it be nice if your parents paid for you to get into a D school? That way I could relax and just skate by in undergrad. Maybe I’d have a 2.0 and never volunteer! Too bad my parents aren't rich and well connected.


America isn’t a true meritocracy. If it were then all public high schools would put students on equal footing. Everyone would have equal opportunity and time to study for the SAT too. Minorities wouldn’t need affirmative action because students from impoverished areas would already have good stats and test scores and their families would encourage them to go to college more too.
 
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Yes it’s possible but who would go to dental school if their parents were that wealthy.

Money runs this world and dental school is no exception. It's all about money.
 
doctor.doctor said:
With the recent news about all the college admissions bribery scandals, I couldn't help but think if that was a possibility for dental school? It's just so unfair how the system is sometimes.
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Go watch some documentaries on 2008 crisis, and you will realize that we were literally on the brink/collapse of western civilization as we know it....all based on GREED by wall street...
 
I am sure if your parents donate a building or makes thousands in donations you have a much higher chance of being accepted. How ironic though. This happens very often but when affirmative action is mentioned all hell breaks loose.
 
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princeafrica said:
I am sure if your parents donate a building or makes thousands in donations you have a much higher chance of being accepted. How ironic though. This happens very often but when affirmative action is mentioned all hell breaks loose.
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Exactly, a parent donating 10 million towards the new dental building and their child gets in and somehow that is not bribery lol (assuming they weren’t qualified for admission based on their own merit)
 
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ESPN907 said:
Exactly, a parent donating 10 million towards the new dental building and their child gets in and somehow that is not bribery lol (assuming they weren’t qualified for admission based on their own merit)
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Oh, it doesn't even take a donation of a whole building. The gift of a single operatory will get the job done.
 
ESPN907 said:
Exactly, a parent donating 10 million towards the new dental building and their child gets in and somehow that is not bribery lol (assuming they weren’t qualified for admission based on their own merit)
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In both cases under-qualified students are admitted. However, in your example of “legal bribery” the other qualified students are now able to benefit from that new $10 million building. We just need to establish a universal $5 million minimum “donation” per crappy student. That sounds about right to me. Can we all agree on that amount? Thanks.

Big Hoss
 
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Enough big donations, and the right financial team investing it....dental school could be free, like NYU Med. One solution for the student debt crisis. Since dental school endowments are not that large, this seems to be the answer to a host of problems. (LOL):laugh:
 
It's prevalent in dental school, especially with OS and Ortho programs. Pay to play and there's at least one spot reserved for a fortunate individual every year. Main criterias seem to be either money, looks, and/or brains.
 
TanMan said:
It's prevalent in dental school, especially with OS and Ortho programs. Pay to play and there's at least one spot reserved for a fortunate individual every year. Main criterias seem to be either money, looks, and/or brains.
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I would not generalize that for OMFS. Our residents do not fall into the money or looks categories. Brains are desirable in my book.
 
TanMan said:
It's prevalent in dental school, especially with OS and Ortho programs. Pay to play and there's at least one spot reserved for a fortunate individual every year. Main criterias seem to be either money, looks, and/or brains.
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How do you know if that's true?
 
DareForest said:
How do you know if that's true?
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You see it. People turn a blind eye to it, and if you call it out, you get your 15 minutes of fame and get blacklisted among PD's for being a troublemaker. Remember that specialist communities are a lot more closely intertwined than dental school. If you piss off one PD at an OS/ortho/specialty program, it's going to be an uphill battle trying to get into that respective specialty program.

It's a privilege (not a right) to get into a specialty program. At least in my school, whether it be perio, os, ortho, or even prosth.... it followed that very similar formula (looks, money, or brains). A lot of times, it was either looks or intelligence, because there wasn't always someone with enough money to donate a significant chunk for entry that year. For some reason, children of faculty tend not to attend residencies of where their parents are working, but they almost always get into the program of their choice.

Large "donations" (not your 500, 1k, 10k level, but at least 50-100k minimum) are given to get their child into an OMFS or ortho program regularly.
 
TanMan said:
You see it. People turn a blind eye to it, and if you call it out, you get your 15 minutes of fame and get blacklisted among PD's for being a troublemaker. Remember that specialist communities are a lot more closely intertwined than dental school. If you piss off one PD at an OS/ortho/specialty program, it's going to be an uphill battle trying to get into that respective specialty program.

It's a privilege (not a right) to get into a specialty program. At least in my school, whether it be perio, os, ortho, or even prosth.... it followed that very similar formula (looks, money, or brains). A lot of times, it was either looks or intelligence, because there wasn't always someone with enough money to donate a significant chunk for entry that year. For some reason, children of faculty tend not to attend residencies of where their parents are working, but they almost always get into the program of their choice.

Large "donations" (not your 500, 1k, 10k level, but at least 50-100k minimum) are given to get their child into an OMFS or ortho program regularly.
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Wow that's crazy. How do people even bring this up? "I heard about your program and I want to make a large donation to get in"? lol

I am assuming this works only for top ranked students. If you are at the bottom of your class no donation would let you into the program.
 
An orthodontist I know donated money to a state dental school in California (enough to have a scholarship name after him). His son went to the dental school and the ortho residency that his dad donated money to.... maybe it’s coincidence
 
shaqfu2019 said:
I wouldn't think this occurs at professional school level. However, many applicants have a "legacy" status in which one or both of their parents have attended the school they apply. This will give them leverage in comparison to other applicants, but that should not discourage anyone because with a solid grade, DAT, LOR, and extracurricular, anyone who has the drive and passion can get into dental school!
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One student had applied 3 times to the same Dental School before being accepted.
His father had graduated from the same Dental School and had a practice near the Dental School for years.
The son was actually working at Wal Mart when he got accepted.
Keep the faith.
 
AnaCho said:
An orthodontist I know donated money to a state dental school in California (enough to have a scholarship name after him). His son went to the dental school and the ortho residency that his dad donated money to.... maybe it’s coincidence
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This was not at a Dental School or students but one grandfather donated enough money to have the University’s Football Field House built. During high school his grandkids always bragged about having a free ride to this University.
 
Why is anybody surprised by any of this? I will preface my statements that I gained entrance the old fashioned way. On my own merits. Well ... I did know the daughter of the orthodontist professor at the residency I was accepted to, but that's another story. 😉. I'm not condoning actual fraud like the news has brought to light. That is CRIMINAL. But "gifting" has been going on for a VERY long time in almost every industry. Universities and dental schools did this to themselves. These large public and private schools have become large business. Maybe to survive. Maybe for other reasons. Rich donor contributes CBCT machine to dental school which probably looks really good on that kid's admission ap. Schools gets expensive machine to help educate many other students. Win-win. Well ... except for that predent or dent that had better merits than the kid with the rich dad or mom.

Another example. Dental supply companies come to DS and provides free equipment/supplies to school and students. Does the school turn down these "contributions"? In the future ... the students do not have to buy these items, but they will be exposed to these items and possibly affect their buying decision in the future. What about the smaller dental company (read: poor applying student) that has better supplies, but was not able to get those supplies in front of prospective future buyers?

How about "gifting" to GP offices by Specialists? Goes both ways. I refer patients to my favorite OS. My kid gets her wissies extracted for free from that OS. Not fair for the patient with NO CONNECTIONS, but ....... that's the business world we live in.

How about the orthodontist that agrees to write a letter of rec for the daughter of a referring dentist? Any bias here? Sure there is. Is it possible that one student as the result of this "bias" did not gain entrance into that DS? You bet.

Amazon goes into city getting huge tax breaks. Does this not push out the smaller mom and pops? Is it fair? City lures large business with $$$$$$ which pushes out the little business.


Again .... I'm not condoning any illegal activity, but contributions to business or public facility that acts like a business is part of doing business. This has been going on forever right or wrong. Where I draw the line is the actual illegal fraud from changing transcripts, modifying grades, etc. etc. That's fraud. The rest is business as usual ....... right or wrong. Where do you draw the line?
 
Everyone knows that it happens on a superficial level.
The scandal is that there is a ring of college fraud led by one person/organization that everyone goes to. It just made it so easy when there's just a "guy" you can go to.

In dental education it happens for sure ( we know them and we see it), but I don't believe that dental schools are well connected enough/profitable enough for someone to set up a whole ring of just admission fraud for dental school. There's also a difference smuggling in 1 student into a class size of 3000 students versus 1 into 150 lol.
 
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If these rich parents could donate enough to get the schools to lower tuition I wouldn’t even care if their kid got in...
 
You guys are mixing up bribery vs legacy. They are 2 different things. And stop worrying about things out of your control. You guys are acting as if half the class at USC or another college bribed their way in and every person is under qualified - guess what, this is not the case. I will let you in on a little secret: Colleges are businesses and the goal of a business is to make money, otherwise you go out of business. If I'm a college and someone's parent donated a lot of money to better the institution and put more money in my pocket, I would more openly review that person's application because I would want that family to stay as close alumni with the institution. If they are unqualified they will still get rejected. Great example = Stanford where they have some ridiculous levels of legacy- something like 50%, yet still attract very bright students who are very well qualified. Stop blaming the rich for all your problems.
 
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