Dental vs. Medical school admission

[scipart]

Hi everyone,

I was just wondering if in today's times whether it was easier to get accepted to dental school or medical school. Vote in the poll and let me know! Thanks for your time.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[ecdoesit]

I dont think there is or there should be a comparison.
Do you mean you are not going to be a MD bcos it is harder or easier to get in? If you want to get in, you will try ur best and do whatever it takes to get in.

ex. is it harder to get into ucla than jc for undergrad, i mean. Does it mean that nobody would apply to ucla?

 

[Bickle]

Interesting question. You have to take into account that there are many more med schools out there than dental schools.

 

[ecdoesit]

I dont mean to jump on u, scipart.
It is just that there are different reasons and expectations for the two field of health care. If you really want, you will get in. Do you see urself as a dentist or a physician? If your heart is in medicine, there is no way you will be happy if you go to dental sch. Hope this helps.

P.S. This is my 800th post.

 

[ItsGavinC]

In a broad sense (not taking into account specific schools nor specific circumstances), medical school without a doubt.

 

[KDBuff]

Ya'll are crazy if you think dental school is harder to get in. Sure, there are always exceptions to the rule, but med school is in general more difficult. There are fewer dental schools, but also fewer applicants. Just look at the GPA, test scores, extracurriculars needed for each, on average, and its pretty obvious. I don't understand the comparisons. I for one don't have a problem with my roommates joking that I'm going to be a "fake doctor."

 

[DrNo2000]

I agree with the person above. Every year about 40000 people take the MCAT, while only about 7000 take the DAT. UCLA for instance, has about 1500 dental school applicants each year, while thier med school gets about 8000 applications every year. Med school is so much more competitive than dental school.
Just go to www.MDapplicants.com and see the stats yourself. There are people there with ~3.8 GPA and 90+ percentile on the MCAT with great extracurricular activities who didn?t get to any good med school.

 

[grettlin2]

The path to Dental School and Medical School is different. If you are interested in Med schools, the activities you participate would not like shadowing in dental clinics, but in hospitals or others. Also, you would estimate your own capacity before you apply. For Dental schools, you can be accepted by only completing pre-requisites, but it might not work for Med Schools. For standard tests, we all know above 20 is considered good for DAT, and for MCAT, above 30 would be competitive. The applicants should study the information for their interested professions and make their own plans. They all know how competitive they are before they apply.
Also, the ranking #1 medical school would not be as hard to get in as the #154 school?

I don't actually believe Med Schools are necessary harder than Dental schools, but it depends on your own dedication. Afterall, almost 100 more medical schools than dental schools in this country although more medical school applicants.

 

[sxr71]

I think that it is good to be honest with ourselves on this. I have talked to several people who have taken both the MCAT and the DAT.

The usual correlation that I have seen is upper 20s/lower 30s on the MCAT (27-31) to mid 20s on the DAT (24-26 average).

The low end for dental school acceptance is around 15 DAT AA, while the borderline for Medical school is around 27. I would estimate that a 15 DAT is around a 22 MCAT which is way too low for acceptance to any allopathic school.

A similar (and even stronger) argument can be made for GPAs.

Also, the general belief among pre-professional advisors is that Medical School admissions committees look at everything in your record with a fine toothed comb, while the typical Dental School admissions committee will focus on more recent performance and are more forgiving of past blunders.

I think we need to choose our professions based on what we want to do with our lives. However, we should not kid ourselves when the facts present themselves so clearly.

 

[marshall]

This whole thread gave me and my future-MD girlfriend a chuckle. I would equate getting into a decent dental school with getting into the lowest tier medical school or possibly foreign medical schools.

Honestly, the MCAT is way harder and the GPAs are way higher. I know this is a little unfair but compare GPAs at schools with medical and dental schools and typically the GPA is higher for the medical school class.

My advice is get into dental school and then do well and go for OMFS.

 

[DcS]

Are some of you serious? It's med schools without a doubt.

Regardless, I think it's dumb questions like this that harbor ill feelings between med and dental students. Just my humble opinion of course.

 

[johndental]

Well I would say MD school is harder without a doubt. The MCAT is a harder test than DAT.

Of course I except Osteopathic/foreign school from that equation. Probably about the same as Dental school but who knows.

I think more "academic superstars" go to Med school. Lots of ivy types going to med school. Not that there arent some in Dentistry.

 

[drPheta]

I don't know who's thinkin dental is harder to get into than med school.

Med school is no doubt harder to get into. Hell! The MCAT is harder to do well on.

 

[Mo007]

The MCAT is the ultimate test to Health Professional Schools. The DAT is somewhere between the PCAT (Pharmacy) and MCAT.

The expectations of Medical School Admissions are set VERY high for an applicant - your LIFE since you was really young is evaluated to identify if you can be an MD. Its a longer road than to DDS/DMD in everyway.

Dental School Admissions may just worry about your undergrad work more - and 20-30 hours of shadowing... This may sound stupid, but who are we kidding here (Plus strong GPA and DAT scores). However, we still have some strong candidates from pre-dental who can get into Medical Schools - and I believe some are applying to both professions.

 

[scandalouslj]

Id disagree with all of you. To get into a decent Med school it is def harder, but to get into a Med school is the same if not easier. Take into account more Med schools, tons of more direct 6 or 7 year programs, and DO schools, plus the Carribean schools, and it is way easier. I have 3 friends that have gotten rejected from Dental school. But about 10 people I know got into a 7 year med program, which 4 of us turned down and 6 went. Now if all of us could get into med schools straight out of High School, and sweat our *sses off and for some, get rejected from Dental school. I think it shows that there really is no comparison, becuase of the huge number of different factors. I dont really think the MCAT is way harder, it is def way longer, whic makes it harder for some people, but I dont think that is the sole reason as it seems lots of people are saying, that it is harder to get into Med school.

 

[Yellowman]

There's nothing wrong with admitting that medical admissions is more stringent than dental. In my opinion, getting into an average allopathic program in US is much more difficult than getting into a US dental school. Just look at the stats....stats do not lie. It is not uncommon to see people getting into US dental schools with low 3.0 or even mid to high 2.0 GPA with 20 DAT avg. Someone getting into a US allopathic program with such GPA is damn near impossible, unless you have extremely high MCAT score which is NOT easy. Go visit www.MDapplicants.com and see for yourself. With low 3's or high 2's, a lot pre-med applicants either go the DO route, the carribean route, and let's face it.....the dental route.

Having said that, I do not feel any need to compare the difficulty of medical vs dental admission. They address two different field of healthcare. I can understand someone comparing the difficulty of getting into neurosurgery and orthopedics....but med to dental? Apples to oranges in my opinion....

 

[sxr71]

Originally posted by DcS
Are some of you serious? It's med schools without a doubt.

Regardless, I think it's dumb questions like this that harbor ill feelings between med and dental students. Just my humble opinion of course.

I thought this was a dumb question to the point of almost being rhetorical, but look at the number of people who got it wrong.

 

[primerz]

I applied to five dental schools, and 4 medical schools this past year. I was accepted to all five dental schools, but rejected by three of the medical schools. And I had really competitive scores. 30+ on the mcat, etc...The pool of competitors going to medical school these days is off the charts. No comparison here.

 

[JRogoff]

Originally posted by primerz
I applied to five dental schools, and 4 medical schools this past year. I was accepted to all five dental schools, but rejected by three of the medical schools. And I had really competitive scores. 30+ on the mcat, etc...The pool of competitors going to medical school these days is off the charts. No comparison here.

I don't think this is a good indicator of which type of school is "harder" to gain acceptance to. Can you say that both applications are equally strong? Possibly you have a lot of dental shaddowing and not as much medical expierence? There are many different factors to consider here.

 

[politicallyRite]

i see more blonde in dental school than med school. does it say something?

 

[primerz]

Originally posted by JRogoff
I don't think this is a good indicator of which type of school is "harder" to gain acceptance to. Can you say that both applications are equally strong? Possibly you have a lot of dental shaddowing and not as much medical expierence? There are many different factors to consider here.

No, I had volunteered equally in both fields.

I have a 3.98 GPA, 34 MCAT, 22 DAT score. So, academically i was also sound for both fields.

There are just so many applicants with my gpa/mcat scores these days, that if a interviewer doesn't like something about you, he can easily choose another well qualified individual.

 

[The Musketeer]

Originally posted by drPheta
I don't know who's thinkin dental is harder to get into than med school.

Med school is no doubt harder to get into. Hell! The MCAT is harder to do well on.

Yes, I do agree! I have taken both MCAT and DAT and I would rather take 10 DAT than 1 MCAT!

 

[DcS]

I think many of the people who voted that dental school is harder to get into have the dental inferiority complex. While I definitely will agree that many medical students have a superiority complex and look down on dental school, I also think that as dental students many of us have inferiority complexes when we think about med students. There is nothing wrong with admitting that medical school is more difficult to get into. If you take a serious look at the actual numbers behind it, I don't know how you can possibly justify the statement that dental school is harder to gain admission. Again, it's okay to admit med school is more competitive to get into. Hopefully, for most of us dds students we chose this profession for other reasons. But by refusing to admit the plain facts it just shows at least half of you in here can't face the reality of it.

Flame away

 

[Woodsy]

medical school is harder to get into, especially in Canada, with exception to the top ranked schools in the USA.


In Canada, I'm in one of the most prestigious and most competitive programs accepting only 100 some students from 1400 applicants. The program average is like an A- with 30% of the people getting into professional school after 3rd year and possibly more after 4th. The ones who get into med school have like 3.8-4.0 GPA with MCATs no less than 29. Dental school 3.7+ with 20+ DAT. We have already like 4 people getting into Ivy League including myself.

However,. my point is that not everyone in my program gets into med school (since most of them want to go to med school) even with such amazing stats but they can get into dental for some weird reason.

Goes to show you even in a program like mine, that is catered to getting students into professional schools, it is still harder to get into med than dental.


With that said however, I'd still rather choose dental because I like the profession more. It is more appealing to me. I can and have the stats to get into both. For med school my converted GPA is a 3.84 and I have a 33-S MCAT.

Not to mention less stress and more of a life. My dental buddies (friends who are already in dental school) and have had it a lot easier in terms of applying and workload and volunteering compared to the premeds.

 

[grettlin2]

I think I should not make any judgement unless I have the experience of applying medical school and taking MCAT.....

 

[primerz]

Trust me, I studied the dat for a month and made a 22. I had to study for the mcat for 3 months to make a 34 (which is roughly eq to a 22 dat). The MCAT is 10X harder than the dat.

 

[Woodsy]

Originally posted by primerz
Trust me, I studied the dat for a month and made a 22. I had to study for the mcat for 3 months to make a 34 (which is roughly eq to a 22 dat). The MCAT is 10X harder than the dat.

you me both buddy. I know how it is.

I still think Dental is a better profession. But medical school is way harder to get into.

 

[Serge718]

Let's face it people the MCAT is a much harder exam. The DAT is a straight forward memorization exam. There is really no thining envolved, just a matter of spitting back info. If any of you have looked at the MCAT, it's a totally different exam. There is much more reading, you have to make inferences about passages and etc... none of that on the DAT. Hell we don't even have physics, just basic algebra from 10th grade. The reading section is as straight forward as it get's on the DAT and on the MCAT you have to make inferences such as "what would the auther say in such adn such a situation". The only thing i've seen and that's because i tutor orgo for both the MCAT and the DAT is that the orgo is harder on the DAT. Then again it's not that big of a topic on the MCAT.

 

[cali1]

I agree with most of the posters here. Medical School is harder to get into than Dental School, and that's just the way it is. This shouldn't reflect negatively on your profession, or on you. It just is. I mean, when you're in dental school, being an orthodontist is going to be harder than being a periodontist, but does that mean an orthodontist is inherently better than perio. I don't think so.
I have heard, though, that dental school is tougher than Medical school, mainly because we have to fit everything in that four or three years(UOP) while MD's have 7+ years.

 

[Yellowman]

I think many of the people who voted that dental school is harder to get into have the dental inferiority complex. While I definitely will agree that many medical students have a superiority complex and look down on dental school, I also think that as dental students many of us have inferiority complexes when we think about med students. There is nothing wrong with admitting that medical school is more difficult to get into. If you take a serious look at the actual numbers behind it, I don't know how you can possibly justify the statement that dental school is harder to gain admission. Again, it's okay to admit med school is more competitive to get into. Hopefully, for most of us dds students we chose this profession for other reasons. But by refusing to admit the plain facts it just shows at least half of you in here can't face the reality of it.

DcS hit it right on the dot!

 

[JRogoff]

Originally posted by Serge718
The reading section is as straight forward as it get's on the DAT and on the MCAT you have to make inferences such as "what would the auther say in such adn such a situation". [/QUOTE


I don't know what DAT you took, but i had a lot of questions like this on my reading section.

 

[Serge718]

I took that DAT where in the reading section they give you passages full of detail and you have to read the question and find the detail in the passage. The reading passages on the DAT are about hunting down facts. I don't know but i didn't have a single inference question on the exam, everything was stated in the passage. Look don't get all bent out of shape, i'm not downplaying the DAT, not like I got 30's across the board. I'm just saying that it is a much more straight forward exam. The hardest thing about the DAT (at least for me) was the PAT and from what I understand it is MUCH harder on the canadian DAT. Then again PAT isn't that important of a section a 17 + will be sufficent if all ur other scores are good.

 

[JRogoff]

Originally posted by Serge718
I took that DAT where in the reading section they give you passages full of detail and you have to read the question and find the detail in the passage. The reading passages on the DAT are about hunting down facts. I don't know but i didn't have a single inference question on the exam, everything was stated in the passage. Look don't get all bent out of shape, i'm not downplaying the DAT, not like I got 30's across the board. I'm just saying that it is a much more straight forward exam. The hardest thing about the DAT (at least for me) was the PAT and from what I understand it is MUCH harder on the canadian DAT. Then again PAT isn't that important of a section a 17 + will be sufficent if all ur other scores are good.

I wish i took the CDN DAT because i hated those questions. I had about half detail and half inference.

 

[busupshot83]

Medical no doubt...

It's interesting the results thus far: dentistry has more votes for being harder. I think the results are baised; if this poll was to be placed in the Allopathic/Osetopathic forums, the results would reflect what the majority of people are saying.

 

[speter33]

I can't believe some people here are suggesting that it's equaly difficult to get into a Carribean med school and a U.S. dental school. Many Carribean schools don't even require the MCAT and take many students with gpas of 2.5

 

[busupshot83]

Originally posted by speter33
I can't believe some people here are suggesting that it's equaly difficult to get into a Carribean med school and a U.S. dental school. Many Carribean schools don't even require the MCAT and take many students with gpas of 2.5

Agreed. There is no disagreement here.

 

[scandalouslj]

Not to mention less stress and more of a life. My dental buddies (friends who are already in dental school) and have had it a lot easier in terms of applying and workload and volunteering compared to the premeds. [/B]

Really? Becuase we had more stringent admission requirments at Indiana including taking extra classes such as Physiology, Anatomy, Interpersonal Communication, and 1 more class which I forgot, to apply to IU dental, which the med students didnt have to take.

I would agree with the inferiority complex, Ill admit It I do have it, becuase I hear it left and right from Med students and have to defend myself all the time (but I voted that they were equally hard, becuase they are on differnt playing fields). But its pretty easy to do when they see that we do pretty much everything they do in 4 years instead of 7.

Finally a lot of people are saying all you need is a 19-20 on the Dat and a 3ish, true there are people like that, but if you look at most of those people that got in with lower GPAs most of them are Grad students who have reapplyed at least once and have a lot more research etc under their belt. The average GPA now is 19-20 Dat and 3.6 GPA at Penn and IU (Private Ivy League vs State schools) That is pretty comparable to Med schools stats which are a tad bit higher with the average being 3.7-3.8 and the average Mcat being a 32ish which is pretty close to a 21 on the DAT. But keep in mind you dont have as many people that are a lot older (changing jobs, applying from grad school, etc) coming back to apply to Med school like you have in dental school, mostly for the reason of time (4 vs 7) Many of these people have lower GPAs but have other things that get them in, such as working at a dental lab for years, or being a dental assistant.

 

[Serge718]

Originally posted by JRogoff
I wish i took the CDN DAT because i hated those questions. I had about half detail and half inference.

I did not make myself clear, I took the American DAT. I was just saying that I heard that the PAT on the CDN DAT is harder. As for the reading sections and etc... i'm sure that they are about the same.

 

[sxr71]

Originally posted by Serge718
I took that DAT where in the reading section they give you passages full of detail and you have to read the question and find the detail in the passage. The reading passages on the DAT are about hunting down facts. I don't know but i didn't have a single inference question on the exam, everything was stated in the passage. Look don't get all bent out of shape, i'm not downplaying the DAT, not like I got 30's across the board. I'm just saying that it is a much more straight forward exam. The hardest thing about the DAT (at least for me) was the PAT and from what I understand it is MUCH harder on the canadian DAT. Then again PAT isn't that important of a section a 17 + will be sufficent if all ur other scores are good.

I mostly agree with this, but there might be one inference question in each passage. So three total. On the MCAT you are advised (by Jordan and John of Examkrackers who are always right about issues pertaining to the MCAT) to not look at the passage for answers as the right answer is usually not there but the wrong answers definitely are. Once in a while you'll find a passage on the MCAT that may as well have been written in Latin - no joke. If you don't believe me ask a pre-med friend to show you AAMC practice tests 3R, 4R, 5R, 6R. These are real MCAT tests with real passages actually featured before on the MCAT and the timing and scoring are exactly like a real MCAT.

 

[preludexl]

Originally posted by KDBuff
Ya'll are crazy if you think dental school is harder to get in. Sure, there are always exceptions to the rule, but med school is in general more difficult. There are fewer dental schools, but also fewer applicants. Just look at the GPA, test scores, extracurriculars needed for each, on average, and its pretty obvious. I don't understand the comparisons. I for one don't have a problem with my roommates joking that I'm going to be a "fake doctor."

The answer is easy, it's called DENIAL. With my older bro done with med school and my gf in med school, I can belatedly say thank God I'm not in med school.

 

[preludexl]

Originally posted by primerz
Trust me, I studied the dat for a month and made a 22. I had to study for the mcat for 3 months to make a 34 (which is roughly eq to a 22 dat). The MCAT is 10X harder than the dat.

I'm suprised you did so much better on your MCAT than DAT. I dont think a 22 DAT is roughly equal to a 34 MCAT; heck that's with physics, verbal reasoning, and writing included.

 

[ncalcate]

Originally posted by preludexl
I'm suprised you did so much better on your MCAT than DAT. I dont think a 22 DAT is roughly equal to a 34 MCAT; heck that's with physics, verbal reasoning, and writing included.

From the April 2003 MCAT administration, a 34 is 92.6 to 94.7 percentile. This will vary slightly from each administration to the other, but not by much. A 34 is very tough to attain. I studied my as$ of for nearly four months to get a very similar score.

So the real question is where does a 22 on the DAT measure up percentile wise?

 

[Woodsy]

22 DAT ranges anywhere from 92-97% tile depending on the year and which section. In the Canadian DAT I know that to get a 22 on the academic it was like 97th percentile or soemthing.

 

[primerz]

I got a 34 because I studied around 8-10 hours a day for about 3 months for the test (took the summer off). The only trouble I had was with the verbal reasoning. My scores broke down as follows

8 V
13 PS
13 BS

That eight verbal probably killed me

For the DAT I studied like 4-5 hours a day for a month. It was not a tough test at all.

 

[Dentalist]

Originally posted by primerz
I got a 34 because I studied around 8-10 hours a day for about 3 months for the test (took the summer off). The only trouble I had was with the verbal reasoning. My scores broke down as follows

8 V
13 PS
13 BS

That eight verbal probably killed me

For the DAT I studied like 4-5 hours a day for a month. It was not a tough test at all.

primerz = mcataz?

 

[DcS]

Originally posted by ncalcate
From the April 2003 MCAT administration, a 34 is 92.6 to 94.7 percentile. This will vary slightly from each administration to the other, but not by much. A 34 is very tough to attain. I studied my as$ of for nearly four months to get a very similar score.

So the real question is where does a 22 on the DAT measure up percentile wise?

You can't use that reasoning. A score that attains th 95% on the MCAT can't be said to be equivalent to a score that's 95% on the DAT. That would only be true if the same pool of students were taking both. I would say many more people take the mcat and it's more competitive so it's harder to get into those percentages.

 

[groundhog]

Primerz's report makes for a good acecdote but fails as a logical proof.

A1: For comparison purposes, the portions of the MCAT vs DAT tests which relate best are MCAT PS/BS and the DAT GC/OC/BIO. We know what Primerz got on MCAT PS/BS but are not informed of Primerz's DAT GC/OC/BIO scores.


B1: The results that Primerz obtained on each test are not mutually independent events. Studying for and taking one test will have a resulting impact on studying for and taking a different test if both tests cover overlapping material.

 

[preludexl]

Originally posted by groundhog
Primerz's report makes for a good acecdote but fails as a logical proof.

A1: For comparison purposes, the portions of the MCAT vs DAT tests which relate best are MCAT PS/BS and the DAT GC/OC/BIO. We know what Primerz got on MCAT PS/BS but are not informed of Primerz's DAT GC/OC/BIO scores.


B1: The results that Primerz obtained on each test are not mutually independent events. Studying for and taking one test will have a resulting impact on studying for and taking a different test if both tests cover overlapping material.

Why didnt you just say, "you can't compare the two unless you take one test without preparing for the other with similar test subjects." Egad, man. You are going to scare your patients sh1tless with your verbage.

 

[Calculus1]

Dental school is def. easier to get into than medicine, however, dentists make more money on average than physicians(this info just came out within the last year). As a result of this, the demand for dental school and what the market will bear with dwindling faculty numbers(d school) it's going to be damn near impossible to get in in the next ten years. In Texas the GPA aves of accepteds for Dschool and Mschool are .01 apart in the 2003 admissions cycle (D school went up about .2pts from 2001 and 2002) . This is a trend that will likely continue because people are not going to want to work more hours and make less money. I wouldn't be surprised if the DAT starts looking more like the MCAT in the future.

 

[johndental]

Agree that DAT may get harder in future.

However, there is no comparison between getting in the two in terms of gpa. In cali for instance the medical schools have similiar gpa stats to the dental schools but the medical schools have more students from higher quality undergrad insitutions ( lots of stanford types at med school more so than dental ).

GPA is relative and where you went to school although I agree that its getting tougher to get into Dental school but overall there arent as many academic superstars.

Med schools get more of the "cream of the crop" of health professional applicants though there are always enough in Dental school to make it hard to specialize these days.

GPA is relative.