"Dental School is easier than undergrad"

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Toothout

Toothout

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To celebrate my acceptance, one of the dentists I shadowed invited me (and a recent ortho residency grad) to dinner.
He mentioned that dental school is going to be easier than undergrad. The recent grad agreed instantly.
:eyebrow:

I feel like everyone has been telling me how difficult it's going to be and now that I've been accepted people have been telling me otherwise. 😕

He attended NYU and the recent grad attended Penn for both DS and ortho.

I just wanted to share this and ask you guys what you think. Specially current DS students.
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No way haha. I have a few close people who are currently in dental school and I also have seen the amount of materials they are studying for each exam. In terms of difficulty level, I did not find them difficult at all. In fact, they were easier than what I am currently studying for my M.S. degree courses. However, the amount of work they have is just incredible. Trust me.. it's way more than undergrad.
 
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CallMeDoct said:
They said something like "it's because in DS you are tested exactly on what you studied and in undergrad not" :laugh:
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I'm not sure about that because I'm 2017 entering class as well 🙂 but what I can tell you from my own experience is that undergrad was a joke compared to my current grad program, and I'm sure dental schools will be just as difficult due to enormous amount of study materials.
 
CallMeDoct said:
To celebrate my acceptance, one of the dentists I shadowed invited me (and a recent ortho residency grad) to dinner.
He mentioned that dental school is going to be easier than undergrad. The recent grad agreed instantly.
:eyebrow:

I feel like everyone has been telling me how difficult is going to be and now that I've been accepted people have been telling me otherwise. 😕

He attended NYU and the recent grad attended Penn for both DS and ortho.

I just wanted to share this and ask you guys what you think. Specially current DS students.
Click to expand...

Yeah... Dental school isn't easier than undergrad by any means IMO.


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Might depend on the undergrad. Not all undergrads are created equal. With that said, I highly doubt there's any undergrad program that's harder than dental school.

But yeah, some undergrads will prepare people for the workload/difficulty of dental school than others
 
CallMeDoct said:
To celebrate my acceptance, one of the dentists I shadowed invited me (and a recent ortho residency grad) to dinner.
He mentioned that dental school is going to be easier than undergrad. The recent grad agreed instantly.
:eyebrow:

I feel like everyone has been telling me how difficult is going to be and now that I've been accepted people have been telling me otherwise. 😕

He attended NYU and the recent grad attended Penn for both DS and ortho.

I just wanted to share this and ask you guys what you think. Specially current DS students.
Click to expand...
Maybe he found a more efficient way of studying than he did in undergrad plus a better time management. I can see how one can say that. I have a few friends who didn't do so well in undergrad but are doing fine in dental school.
Based on things I heard, I'm expecting dental school will be not too much more challenging since most dental students do not (cannot) work (because, loans) and usually don't have other extracurricular activities/responsibilities on the side, whereas I struggled so much in undergrad because I was working close to 50 hours/week while taking 15~17 hours/semester.
 
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No. Just No. Remember who you are talking to though..this is someone who landed an Ortho spot. I guess perspective is everything; but D-school was the time when I learned what memorization really meant. When you take 15 exams within 2 weeks and live to tell the tale....When it seemed there just weren't enough hours in the day to practice in sim lab, as well as study for gross anatomy, exercise, etc.
Nothing prepares you for the 5 different opinions you will get from 5 different clinical professors about that crown prep on #30, and when your prosth course weights 6 credits on your gpa, it gets stressful.
Maybe this is all curriculum dependent. We were all graded and ranked at my program. Can't speak for P/F schools. Not trying to scare anyone, but go in prepared to work hard.
 
There is significantly more material covered in a much shorter period of time in DS. We covered the full extent of an undergrad biochem course for a single weekly examination and that was hell. But it is true that you are tested on exactly what you are taught in our program. But, we cover 300+ slides each week and the test material can come from any of the slides presented. We get 4 exam questions per lecture hour. That is only basic sciences, we also have pre-clinical courses that demand study time as well.

I don't think dental school is 'harder' in my case, but I was working, volunteering a lot, and taking purely science courses as a non-traditional student. The volume is WAY more than undergrad and you can't just spend a couple of hours crammung before an exam and expect to get an A.
 
It's all relative and it depends on your goals. There are some schools with a pass/fail system whereas others have letter grades (i.e. NYU where I currently attend). Most likely, the schools with a P/F system will have students that are less likely to get stressed compared to those at schools with a letter grade system. Hence, if you just need to pass, dental school can be "easier" than undergrad. At NYU, there are two types of students: those who want to just pass and become a general practitioner or those who want to specialize. Those who want to simply pass will generally view dental school as "easier" (it's not hard at all to pass classes... at NYU you need a min. of 70 to pass) than undergrad. For those that want to specialize... then it will be harder because obtaining A's will require MUCH more effort and studying. Hope you found this helpful and good luck!
 
CallMeDoct said:
To celebrate my acceptance, one of the dentists I shadowed invited me (and a recent ortho residency grad) to dinner.
He mentioned that dental school is going to be easier than undergrad. The recent grad agreed instantly.
:eyebrow:

I feel like everyone has been telling me how difficult it's going to be and now that I've been accepted people have been telling me otherwise. 😕

He attended NYU and the recent grad attended Penn for both DS and ortho.

I just wanted to share this and ask you guys what you think. Specially current DS students.
Click to expand...

They are making fun of you hahaha
 
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Illumident is on the dot. If you put in the time, you'll do well in dental school. There is a lot of material that is thrown at you and its that sheer amount of information that is difficult. The exams, for the most part, are pretty straight forward if you've gone over the material a few times. I tell my buddies that it's relatively easy to get a B, you just have to study. What separates everyone else is the elusive A. You can only miss a few questions and the professors make sure that you know the material well to get that A.

I came from a difficult undergrad and honestly, I can't say which one is harder. Dental school definitely has much more material but the material is mostly rogue memorization, so if that is up your alley, you should do well.
 
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ncide said:
Illumident is on the dot. If you put in the time, you'll do well in dental school. There is a lot of material that is thrown at you and its that sheer amount of information that is difficult. The exams, for the most part, are pretty straight forward if you've gone over the material a few times. I tell my buddies that it's relatively easy to get a B, you just have to study. What separates everyone else is the allusive A. You can only miss a few questions and the professors make sure that you know the material well to get that A.

I came from a difficult undergrad and honestly, I can't say which one is harder. Dental school definitely has much more material but the material is mostly rogue memorization, so if that is up your alley, you should do well.
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That actually sounds great. Is it true that a lot of the info comes from memorizing PowerPoint slides? I think most of my inefficiency in undergrad has been due to how much of the textbook I have to read to learn everything since I could never absorb all of it in lecture itself. Once I spent hours finally getting my notes down from the textbook, the memorizing was the super easy part. If dental schools are rote memorization without the "read the textbook for hours to take your notes down first," I think I'm going to enjoy dental school.
 
blablabla1 said:
That actually sounds great. Is it true that a lot of the info comes from memorizing PowerPoint slides? I think most of my inefficiency in undergrad has been due to how much of the textbook I have to read to learn everything since I could never absorb all of it in lecture itself. Once I spent hours finally getting my notes down from the textbook, the memorizing was the super easy part. If dental schools are rote memorization without the "read the textbook for hours to take your notes down first," I think I'm going to enjoy dental school.
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I can't speak about other schools, but yes, a majority of our class exams are based solely on memorizing powerpoint slides. There was only one class so far that I had where this wasn't the case (apart from the lab courses, i.e. gross anatomy and operative dentistry lab).
 
ncide said:
I can't speak about other schools, but yes, a majority of our class exams are based solely on memorizing powerpoint slides. There was only one class so far that I had where this wasn't the case (apart from the lab courses, i.e. gross anatomy and operative dentistry lab).
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You go to VCU right? I'm currently waitlisted there and it's my state school so fingers are crossed!
 
Um yeah that's a no for me. Undergrad was definitely tough and I *thought* I was prepared for the rigor in dental school. But D-school is different because there is a bit more stress since you learn so much in one lecture and sit in class or sim lab for approx 8 hrs a day.

It's not easy but it's doable!
 
It all depends on what their definition of "hard" is.

Dental school isn't particularly "hard" in that the material isn't hard to understand.... dental school is hard in that there is A LOT of material to go over. You've already built the foundation you need to study efficiently in undergrad so when you do get to dental school it's a lot easier to transition. But when you're transitioning from high school to college, the classes can be conceptually difficult to grasp since you're straying away from the typical high school classes and taking different types of courses.

Overall, it's all really subjective. IMO dental school ain't a walk in the park if that's what you're expecting lol
 
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