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- Oct 28, 2008
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- Dental Student
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There is a big misconception applied to the whole society. But I will speak for dental schools, and particularly the dental school I'm attending. We are manipulated to feel that we need to be thankful to these dental schools for accepting us. We are made to feel that the loans we get are gracious gestures by these loan companies. They've somehow implanted this subtle but POWERFUL manipulative ideas unknowingly. But people have to remember the system does not run on compassion. It runs purely on maximizing profits. Profits can refer to financial gains or gaining reputations for further future gains. They did not accept you because they felt compassionate. The loan companies did not give you hundreds of thousands of dollars because they wanted you to fulfill your American Dream. They acted accordingly to your intrinsic value. Dental schools want applicants who will be competent enough to stay on course for 4 years without failing classes (remediation classes, extra competencies, extra help cost money for the schools) while giving them the icing on the cake with higher National Board scores and higher regional board exams for reputation gains (they like to look at these scores for their self serving satisfaction). We are somehow made to think that we are the seller and they are the buyer. We feel that we need to sell ourselves at the interview. We are selling ourselves as much as they're selling themselves. It is a trade, a fair and equal trade (as long as the parties involved deemed it fair and equal). We are giving them more liquidated form of money, while they're giving us the potential to make more money in the future. The loan companies give loans because first off, it's how they make money, and your future income potential is a good asset for their investment. And keep in mind they're charging you a lot of money on top of the money owed. There is ZERO compassion. I think it's important to clear this out of the way to explain the next point.
If the trade is fair and mutual, why are dental students not treated as mutual partners? Why is the power completely shifted towards the system? Did we sign an agreement PRIOR to entering the college that the Dean has the power to basically determine the lives of the students? Like any society we are given the illusion of representation and choice. I would find it rare to find any student in dental schools who feel that his or her voice is being represented, being heard AND discussed by the people involved in the contract. How does an entity of one side of the party wield so much power as to end the contract when THEY determine it with no real compensation? Without a diploma, x number of years of education in dental school is not practically useful, whereas the $y you give to the school through the loans are useful to the schools. It is this imbalance in the contract that results in the imbalance of the power. There is nothing in the contract that GUARANTEES your diploma. There is everything that says how your contract can be terminated without a compensation. This is an illusion of a contract.
Policies are changed constantly from year to year even during the mid year without a formal discussion with all the parties involved. Students complain. They bitch and moan how unfair some policies are. But they follow them because most students don't see it as a contract. They still see these bureaucrats as all powerful beings dictating what is "good" for them. I bet the dental schools love these Advanced Placement students from foreign countries who are culturally obedient to the authorities and are generally better producers in the clinic.
The logistics of running a dental school might be most efficient in a totalitarian fashion. If that is how they want to organize and rule their own little world, fine. But I think that teaching students to view patients as human beings and not as "class IIs" or "RPDs" while themselves viewing students as replaceable revenues seems like a hypocrisy. (If you don't particularly agree with this view, I wish I had gone to your school instead).
Thanks for reading.
If the trade is fair and mutual, why are dental students not treated as mutual partners? Why is the power completely shifted towards the system? Did we sign an agreement PRIOR to entering the college that the Dean has the power to basically determine the lives of the students? Like any society we are given the illusion of representation and choice. I would find it rare to find any student in dental schools who feel that his or her voice is being represented, being heard AND discussed by the people involved in the contract. How does an entity of one side of the party wield so much power as to end the contract when THEY determine it with no real compensation? Without a diploma, x number of years of education in dental school is not practically useful, whereas the $y you give to the school through the loans are useful to the schools. It is this imbalance in the contract that results in the imbalance of the power. There is nothing in the contract that GUARANTEES your diploma. There is everything that says how your contract can be terminated without a compensation. This is an illusion of a contract.
Policies are changed constantly from year to year even during the mid year without a formal discussion with all the parties involved. Students complain. They bitch and moan how unfair some policies are. But they follow them because most students don't see it as a contract. They still see these bureaucrats as all powerful beings dictating what is "good" for them. I bet the dental schools love these Advanced Placement students from foreign countries who are culturally obedient to the authorities and are generally better producers in the clinic.
The logistics of running a dental school might be most efficient in a totalitarian fashion. If that is how they want to organize and rule their own little world, fine. But I think that teaching students to view patients as human beings and not as "class IIs" or "RPDs" while themselves viewing students as replaceable revenues seems like a hypocrisy. (If you don't particularly agree with this view, I wish I had gone to your school instead).
Thanks for reading.
