Dental vs. Medical school admission

[WestCoast]

I would say getting into med school is definitely more difficult than dental schools. With that said, dental school itself is much much more challenging and draining than medical schools. Taking over 10 classes each term, with lab work for first 2 yrs, than taking additional 10 classes for term while seeing patients, managing patients, lab work etc. etc. takes a lot of you. Dental school is easier getting in but it definitely is more difficult finishing and very painful during the 4 yrs while in school.

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[WildcatDMD]

Quite honestly, I think I would have had an easier time getting into medical school than dental school.

I had a 3.9 GPA undergraduate, and took the princeton review class for the MCAT, didn't really ever study outside of the class, except the week before the exam, and got a 31. I then decided that I didn't really know if I wanted to live my life at my job and never have anytime to enjoy myself. So I decided not to apply to medical school.

I looked into dentistry and found my destiny. For the DAT, I took the stupid kaplan class, that was nearly useless. And when the class was over, I studied for about a week for the DAT and got an 18. I'm pretty sure that an 18 on the DAT is significantly worse than a 31 on the MCAT.

For me, the MCAT was easier since it wasn't just a bunch of memorization of freshman classes, there were passages from which you could decipher the answers to many of the questions. (So for the lazy studier, the MCAT worked out better for me)

I did get accepted to a dental school, but (i'm assuming) my fairly low DAT scores kept me from getting into more than one. Whereas, I probably would have been accepted to a few medical schools.

 

[MacGyver]

Originally posted by cali1
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.

What kind of BS logic is this? The knowledge pool that MDs are responsible for is much larger than the knowledge pool that dentists need to know.

 

[ItsGavinC]

Originally posted by MacGyver
What kind of BS logic is this? The knowledge pool that MDs are responsible for is much larger than the knowledge pool that dentists need to know.

Perhaps not a completely true statement, but not an entirely false one either.

Once again, you are making statements based on something you know nothing about--dental school.

You've never taken a dental school course, and therefore you don't know what knowledge base is required of dentists. Do we use that knowledge? The answer is typically a resounding "no". Are we still accountable for it in our exams and for the Boards? The answer is a resounding "yes".

Do dental students learn the same amount of material as our medical counterparts? No, we don't. However, as the poster mentioned, we have lab courses in conjunction with our didactic pool. It may not be more difficult material, but med students typically have much more free time than their dental counterparts. From this viewpoint, dental school is often much more demanding and difficult than medical school. While many medical schools now have classes from 8-noon or 8-2, 95% of the dental schools still have class from 8-5, and this often doesn't include additional lab sessions.

 

[MacGyver]

Originally posted by WildcatDMD
Quite honestly, I think I would have had an easier time getting into medical school than dental school.

I had a 3.9 GPA undergraduate, and took the princeton review class for the MCAT, didn't really ever study outside of the class, except the week before the exam, and got a 31. I then decided that I didn't really know if I wanted to live my life at my job and never have anytime to enjoy myself. So I decided not to apply to medical school.

I looked into dentistry and found my destiny. For the DAT, I took the stupid kaplan class, that was nearly useless. And when the class was over, I studied for about a week for the DAT and got an 18. I'm pretty sure that an 18 on the DAT is significantly worse than a 31 on the MCAT.

For me, the MCAT was easier since it wasn't just a bunch of memorization of freshman classes, there were passages from which you could decipher the answers to many of the questions. (So for the lazy studier, the MCAT worked out better for me)

I did get accepted to a dental school, but (i'm assuming) my fairly low DAT scores kept me from getting into more than one. Whereas, I probably would have been accepted to a few medical schools.

so what? personal anecdotes are worthless in comparing med vs dental. For every personal anecote you have about a dental student acing the MCAT but screwing up on the DAT, I have 2 regarding people who had a much harder time with the MCAT.

 

[ItsGavinC]

Originally posted by MacGyver
so what? personal anecdotes are worthless in comparing med vs dental. For every personal anecote you have about a dental student acing the MCAT but screwing up on the DAT, I have 2 regarding people who had a much harder time with the MCAT.

Very true, very true. The MCAT is far more difficult than the DAT, and anybody trying to make a claim otherwise probably hasn't experienced both of the exams.

 

[MacGyver]

Originally posted by ItsGavinC
Perhaps not a completely true statement, but not an entirely false one either.

Once again, you are making statements based on something you know nothing about--dental school. You've never taken a dental school course, and therefore you don't know what knowledge base is required of dentists.

Hypocrite. You've said the same thing in the past regarding dental school supposedly being "harder" than med school.

Do we use that knowledge? The answer is typically a resounding "no". Are we still accountable for it in our exams and for the Boards? The answer is a resounding "yes".

The idea spouted by the poster above is that dentists learn the same material as docs, in a shorter time span. Lets put this idea to the test. Post a link to a real dental exam regarding, say, the cardiovascular system. I'll post a link to a medical school test regarding the CV system. I promise you they are not similar at all. Dentists get more exposure on the oral/mandibular/palate areas (as they should), but in every other anatomical/pathological category, med students are responsible for far more material.

Do dental students learn the same amount of material as our medical counterparts? No, we don't.

Thats my whole point. Med students have to learn more than dental students, therefore to say that dental school is harder because you are cramming 7 years worth of material into 4 (as the poster above was suggesting) is a total crock of ****.

The problem with that logic is that dental students DO NOT study the same material in the same detail as med students do, therefore you cant go off a simple number of years comparison.

However, as the poster mentioned, we have lab courses in conjunction with our didactic pool. It may not be more difficult, but med students typically have much more free time than their dental counterparts.

How do you define free time? Is study time not included in "free" time? If it is NOT included, then I agree with you. If it is, then I disagree with you.

Hell, I had less "free time" in high school than med school if you dont count the many hours studying in med school.(high school was 8-4 pm M-F, whereas the first year of med school was only 8-noon). You see why thats a meaningless comparison.

 

[RaiderNation]

Hey MacGyver...you must be pretty obsessed with yourself (as well as have too much time on your hands) to have a signature like that.

 

[MacGyver]

Originally posted by RaiderNation
Hey MacGyver...you must be pretty obsessed with yourself (as well as have too much time on your hands) to have a signature like that.

Based on the whole 2 seconds it took me to cut and paste the sig?

nice logic, genius.

 

[RaiderNation]

Originally posted by MacGyver
Based on the whole 2 seconds it took me to cut and paste the sig?

nice logic, genius.

I'm sorry....uh oh...did I just offend.....god????!!!!

 

[scandalouslj]

Actually Gavins Comment was totally correct and was not hypocritical at all if you rad the whole statement and dont take pieces out. At some dental schools, such as Columbia, Dental students take classes with the med students so they are responsible for the same things, and then have to go to lab after the med students get out of class. Secondly if you want to argue Mac, such as putting a test up to compare, you really cant compare since every school has a different curriculum and requires their students to learn different things in different detail. In med school alone I doubt Harvard and St. James curriculum and tests are the same, but either way both of the Students that go to those schools will be called Doctors.

 

[gryffindor]

Originally posted by MacGyver
The idea spouted by the poster above is that dentists learn the same material as docs, in a shorter time span. Lets put this idea to the test. Post a link to a real dental exam regarding, say, the cardiovascular system. I'll post a link to a medical school test regarding the CV system. I promise you they are not similar at all. Dentists get more exposure on the oral/mandibular/palate areas (as they should), but in every other anatomical/pathological category, med students are responsible for far more material.

Anyone have a link to a UCONN dental school CV exam? Then MacGyer could compare it to the UCONN medical school CV exam and see that they are THE SAME EXACT EXAM. The students at UCONN and many other dental school (Columbia, Harvard, and more) go through the exact same basic science curriculum and take the same exams sitting right next the the med students throughout their first two years. However, add to that the dental lab courses they take at the same time during those two years(which are incredibly time consuming) and I can see why Gavin said the med students have more free time.

I took the same Anatomy, Histo, Micro, and Path courses and exams as my medical school roommate did. However she complained non-stop about how arduous it was to take 1 exam per week, even though they got out at 12 EVERYDAY. I took the same exam at the same time with her, and had to study for all my weekly dental quizzes and hand in countless time consuming lab projects in the same week, while attending school 8 - 5 EVERYDAY.

We all work hard in med or dental school; they just pack more into the dental curriculum in the first three years.