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How important are dental school rankings when choosing a dental school?
Dental School Rankings?
- Thread starter Arti Mistry
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Which schools are in question?
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Dental schools haven't been ranked in over a decade. Go to the cheapest school that accepts you.
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hm... Can you buy prestige? or Should you buy prestige? To each its own. Unless, I got a military scholarship, then I'd make the most out of it. Sorry, just being practical. No offense to anyone.
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There is no rankings for Dental Schools. All that matters is that you pass the boards.
Prestige might be important in medicine (because you're being hired by a hospital) but normally not in dentistry.
Prestige might be important in medicine (because you're being hired by a hospital) but normally not in dentistry.
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So as far as applying for a specialty program goes, ranks still don't matter?
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Again, there are no ranks. However, there is plenty of data showing higher percentages of students specializing from schools like harvard, columbia, penn, etc. This could be due to more competitive students from the get go- if just about everyone accepted to harvard has a 3.8+ and 23+ AA, those kids would be equivalent to the top 10% of most other schools; so it would make sense that almost all of them specialize if they choose to. Or maybe the name does make that much of a difference (for harvard I imagine it does). Or maybe its a combination, but I don't think anyone has the answer for sure. If you are dead-set on specializing and smart enough to get accepted to several D schools, I'm sure you will be able to specialize no matter where you go.
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Most Ivy league dental school borrows alot of their dental curriculum from the medical colleges. As far as I can tell, Harvard pushes very hard for their students to specialize, and they do. Their curriculum is geared towards matching into top specialty programs, not very clinically inclined. Not too sure about other Ivy league dental programs.
Your class rank DO matter in specialty, but your school prestige really doesnt factor in too much if at all.. Your scores on other exams (because NBDE is p/f) matter quite a bit.
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I talked to a past adcom recently who says that the student ultimately gets his or herself into the specialty, not a school. He is a current dentist in private practice and said if he were to hire any new associates, he only judges personality because it is a people profession. Patients don't know what constitutes good dental work often times, and it has been said you learn the most the first couple of years out of school anyway. That being said, even if schools were ranked, the difference between the "best" and the "worst" is very very small. Even talking with my OMFS a couple of years ago, he just suggested my state school whether want to specialize or not. Ivy dental sounds really good to your parents, and yeah it may make you feel good about yourself, but he claimed that all adcoms/ program directors across the country know dental school name carries very very little weight and does not translate to how good your people skills are.
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Thank you very much!! Very helpful information! I appreciate it everyone!
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Harvard AA mean 23; range 20-25; science gpa mean 3.8; range 3.3-4.0; overall gpa: mean 3.8; range 3.5-4.2.
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/2014-range-of-gpa-dat-cut-off-scores.1074256/
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Like most people have already stated, there are no "official" rankings - at least none that are anywhere near universal. Here's what you need to assess when determining where to go, in no particular order:
1) Can I afford this school, and will it leave me in a lot more debt than other comparable schools?
2) Does the location work for me? (Do you like the city? Do you prefer rural? Will you enjoy the climate, or at least be able to tolerate it?)
3a) If looking to specialize, does this school offer any of the specialties I'm interested in?
3b) If looking to specialize, what percentage of students at this school get accepted to specialty programs? (Do they have a good track record [Harvard] or not?)
4) What's the grading system, and do I like that? (Do you prefer Pass/Fail? Do you like being ranked?)
5) What kind of curriculum do they offer, and does that work for me? (Some schools do almost 2 straight years of didactic courses before you pick up a handpiece, some integrate the lab and "actual dentist stuff" sooner than others. Also, some schools have exam blocks of, say, two weeks straight where you take 8-10 exams in those two weeks, and others have the exams staggered)
6) Does the school have a group practice, and is that even important to me? (Some schools manage your schedule for you when you start working with patients, while others you have to build and manage your schedule on your own - which do you prefer or does it not matter?)
7) How big is the class size, and does that matter to me? (Some schools have 180+ students, while others have as little as 35 or less students - do you like the intimacy of knowing everybody or do you like the variety of a big class?)
I'm sure there are other important factors that I've overlooked. What else??
1) Can I afford this school, and will it leave me in a lot more debt than other comparable schools?
2) Does the location work for me? (Do you like the city? Do you prefer rural? Will you enjoy the climate, or at least be able to tolerate it?)
3a) If looking to specialize, does this school offer any of the specialties I'm interested in?
3b) If looking to specialize, what percentage of students at this school get accepted to specialty programs? (Do they have a good track record [Harvard] or not?)
4) What's the grading system, and do I like that? (Do you prefer Pass/Fail? Do you like being ranked?)
5) What kind of curriculum do they offer, and does that work for me? (Some schools do almost 2 straight years of didactic courses before you pick up a handpiece, some integrate the lab and "actual dentist stuff" sooner than others. Also, some schools have exam blocks of, say, two weeks straight where you take 8-10 exams in those two weeks, and others have the exams staggered)
6) Does the school have a group practice, and is that even important to me? (Some schools manage your schedule for you when you start working with patients, while others you have to build and manage your schedule on your own - which do you prefer or does it not matter?)
7) How big is the class size, and does that matter to me? (Some schools have 180+ students, while others have as little as 35 or less students - do you like the intimacy of knowing everybody or do you like the variety of a big class?)
I'm sure there are other important factors that I've overlooked. What else??
