Conversation about dental school

Started by Hashwi
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Hashwi

futuredds
10+ Year Member
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Hello all. I just wanted to get your opinion on this topic. Me and my friend(premed) were arguing today about professional schools. He says that in these professional schools like med dent law etc its all about who you not what you know. What do you guys think? Is it true? Thanks for your time!

P.S needed a break from studying so decided to put this up finally😛

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"Who you know, not what you know" can be applied to a ton of different fields, especially outside of healthcare/professional schools.

I don't choose one side over the other. There are good arguments for both and I think there are different times when one applies more than the other.
 
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It was sarcasm. 3.5 GPA and 19 DAT scores are average for matriculating dental students. Considering the fact that the majority of students in any class will get C's in an even distribution, it is safe to say that accepted students generally are in the mid-upper side of the grade spectrum, at least. This means that the overwhelming majority of people who get accepted actually have quite respectable stats.
 
Okay thanks guys. So it has more affect outside school

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I don't think it can help anyone get into dental school. After that though, I think "who you know" can always play a role in anything.
 
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Hashwi said:
Okay thanks guys. So it has more affect outside school

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Click to expand...

I would say "who you know" has a big effect, both for getting in dental school, once you graduate, and in all other career fields or attempts to get into academia!

It's not so bad that if you don't "know anybody", you won't get accepted. There are plenty of people who get accepted into programsor who make it far in life based on their own work ethic and their own skills or brilliance.

But for instance: A kid from my undergrad (school is only 8 years old, 800 students, private school) was accepted into Cambridge for next year. I asked him how this was possible, what he did to make himself stand out, and his answer was he had competitive grades and other criteria, but he ALSO had a LOR from our History professor who had connections with Cambridge. His hard work and brilliance was necessary, but if "you know somebody", utilize that, because it will help you.

But, if "what you know" is lacking, I don't know how much "who you know" would help.
 
DHallenbeck said:
I would say "who you know" has a big effect, both for getting in dental school, once you graduate, and in all other career fields or attempts to get into academia!

It's not so bad that if you don't "know anybody", you won't get accepted. There are plenty of people who get accepted into programsor who make it far in life based on their own work ethic and their own skills or brilliance.

But for instance: A kid from my undergrad (school is only 8 years old, 800 students, private school) was accepted into Cambridge for next year. I asked him how this was possible, what he did to make himself stand out, and his answer was he had competitive grades and other criteria, but he ALSO had a LOR from our History professor who had connections with Cambridge. His hard work and brilliance was necessary, but if "you know somebody", utilize that, because it will help you.

But, if "what you know" is lacking, I don't know how much "who you know" would help.
Click to expand...

+1

Once you meet the benchmark schools are looking for (3.3-3.4 GPA or above and 18-19 or above), having that "who you know factor" plays a huge role at some schools, especially when it comes to getting an interview. I was a slightly above average applicant this past cycle, but got into many programs that require higher stats. How? I applied to schools that my small liberal arts college has had success with, to schools that the dentists I shadowed went to, to schools that had pre-dental programs that I attended. Any little thing that separates you from other applicants is helpful, and I believe that "who you know factor can play a big role.

There will be a few students who get in based solely on the fact that they know someone influence in the admissions process, but I would say a majority a students use a combination of hard work and networking to get themselves into professional schools.
 
Assuming a 125+ IQ and everything else being equal:

1. dental and medical schools are rare in that there is a certain amount of difficult empirical knowledge which must be gained. Of course, after professional school social networks will have some effects on trajectories/ opportunities but because of the nature of the work (tangible skillset!) not as much as other professions.

2. trajectories for success & opportunities in most other professions (and esp. law) are definitely about who you know both in school and after. This is chiefly because the 'knowledge' gained is not so much empirical but rather a series of social constructs.

NOTE: I am entering d school because I personally am banking on my brain and the hand skills I will be taught. After having worked really hard to achieve a graduate education in another profession (in category #2 above) and realizing too late that I don't really have ties to anyone influential within my previous profession (day after day and night after night faced with crickets chirping when thinking about professional future in this previous profession). I am led to believe that dental and medical school and the nature of the work in the professional world afterwards to ensure some decent/ interesting/ stimulating/ profitable practicing opportunities requires more of the brain and less of the social network/ family network/ salesmanship stuff.

I fully expect that as the American economy continues to devolve into something different than it has been previously in the last several decades (due to demographic sea changes, mostly): "who you know" and "where you come from" and "who your parents are" is going to become more and more important to opportunities for young people. Basically, I believe America is going back to the feudal structure experienced by the majority in the middle ages. Imagine if the Feudal Lords reigning over the castles in this emerging Dark Ages are present day Corporate overlords with their structures for feudal reign in place...one where the typical peasant must bow in their presence and a son is lucky if he 'only' gets to receive the 'honor' from the feudal lord to do exactly what his father had done for a living before him...this is where it is and is going to keep going IMO.

Translation: as the middle class is dying and nearly dead, schooling has become and will continue to become more and more simply 1 big exercise in socialization. There are going to be very limited opportunities for upward mobility in general as trajectories and opportunities will be nearly all determined by family/ social networks i.e. "who you know". Lateral maintenance of socioeconomic fortunes is becoming the goal, i.e. just don't lose ones place in the social structure vs. assuming one is going to 'get ahead'.

A hard/ tangible skill set based in empirical knowledge gained (such as dentistry or medical surgery) which is also a part of the requisite food, clothing, shelter, information, or medical needs of society will afford more opportunity for socioeconomic mobility relative to the majority of the population of this new, emerging feudal america. A feudal america in which, as in the Dark or Middle Ages of Europe, there is a tiny percentage of the population firmly ensconced as the 'elite' aka upper class, and hordes upon hordes of lower class commoners/ peasants.

SIDENOTE: if medical school graduates who do not practice surgery regularly were to lose their ability to monopolize access to medications (chemicals by way of prescription) as a profession medicine itself would be done for. In other words it would morph into just another profession like law, etc overnight. How much do you want to bet that with Obamacare, access to prescribing medications is going to morph from being granted to physicians in general (e.g. family doctor) to certain 'classes' of medications being restricted to prescriptions written by various 'specialists' (prerequisites per the unholy corporate-big government alliance)? The axis of evil in health care: the HMOs, insurance companies and big government would love it in terms of increasing their control to access to quality care (it really is all about control on their part not quality in fact the game they love to play is trading high quality for patients into control by them). Also, I predict the average lifespan in america is going to drop like a rock...but rest assured the 'eilte' in this unholy corporate-government health care alliance will appropriately spin the presentation on the stats to create the illusion of the opposite.
 
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Knowing WHAT you need to know is absolutely necessary. But..there are lots of applicants that will know just as much stuff as you. WHO you know might smooth out your ride if you are lucky, but you still need to know the right WHAT.
 
I do believe there is some political pull. You have to have the threshold scores, but some people do get in over others based on "who they know" or other factors like diversity. Unfortunately, I don't think it's random chance that the worst performing group of students in my class are primarily 1) foreign/minorities 2) the extremely litigious girl with ADHD who gets extra time on all her tests and comes from money.

I know people accepted for next year's class that literally had ZERO EC's, below average LOR's, and average scores, yet got in on their first or second attempt. Yet, those people tend to come from money and have some influence. But the overwhelming majority of people I know in medical and dental school earned their spot.

Granted, I don't "know anybody" and don't come from money, and no one in my family is a dentist or a physician, but I was accepted to two Ivy League dental schools and had first-round interviews to every school I applied to. So the argument that it's "who you know" over "what you've accomplished" does not hold any water. Just play the application game correctly.
 
I agree with u guys for sure. Btw congrats on the acceptance

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yes of course its true, the dentist i work for when i first started shadowing him straight up told me that the best advice he could ever give me is that it doesn't matter how amazing you are at it (dentistry), it will always be about who you know.
 
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So my friend was right I'm so surprised. I didn't know it affects you that much

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