Difficulty of Dental School

[Dr IWannaBe]

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Hopefully I can hear from D1-D4 students in this thread, as to how difficult d-school is. When class ends at say...5pm, are we studying from 5:01 'til Conan O'Brian comes on or what? Inquiring pre-dents wanna know. Thanx!

33 year old pre-dent! DMD in 2012!

 

[rocknightmare]

nah you only have to study until katie couric comes on

 

[Rezdawg]

You'll go through cycles...sometimes you can get by with doing an hour of work or less. Other times, you head straight to the library after class and dont come out until the next day. Of course, the latter is more predominant, but you do have down times as well...just not that often. Its important to understand though that dental school is more busy than it is difficult.

 

[Biogirl361]

yeah d school is extremely busy, you will be studying a lot and have very little down time if you want to do well. but I agree it is mostly the volume, not really the difficulty. if you have time management and can keep from getting distracted while studying, you'll be able to get it done and still have a bit of free time. That is for first and second year (I am a first year). I heard that third and fourth year gets a little lighter on the bookwork/homework, but I am sure they have other stuff to work on.

 

[WestCoast]

Hopefully I can hear from D1-D4 students in this thread, as to how difficult d-school is. When class ends at say...5pm, are we studying from 5:01 'til Conan O'Brian comes on or what? Inquiring pre-dents wanna know. Thanx!

33 year old pre-dent! DMD in 2012!

dental school is tough. it was the hardest and longest 4 yrs of my life. i am doing 2nd yr med school right now, and it is nothing compared to dental school. d school stretches you in so many ways, academically, clinically, management, etc. but everybody makes it out. good luck.

 

[phremius]

Hopefully I can hear from D1-D4 students in this thread, as to how difficult d-school is. When class ends at say...5pm, are we studying from 5:01 'til Conan O'Brian comes on or what? Inquiring pre-dents wanna know. Thanx!

33 year old pre-dent! DMD in 2012!

I'm a first year so maybe it'll change. But I'm not finding school too hard, busy yes, but I'd say easier than undergrad.

If you budget your time you have plenty of free time for TV, gym, misc. activities, etc.

 

[OMFS06]

dental school is tough. it was the hardest and longest 4 yrs of my life. i am doing 2nd yr med school right now, and it is nothing compared to dental school. d school stretches you in so many ways, academically, clinically, management, etc. but everybody makes it out. good luck.

Are you doing an OMFS program? If so, do you have to apply to medical school, do the MCAT, etc... Or just get accepted to the OMFS residency?

 

[dentalman]

We've got people in our class (and every class does) with new born babies, and they seem to do just fine. (Time management)

 

[TiggerJSA]

👍

Hopefully I can hear from D1-D4 students in this thread, as to how difficult d-school is. When class ends at say...5pm, are we studying from 5:01 'til Conan O'Brian comes on or what? Inquiring pre-dents wanna know. Thanx!

33 year old pre-dent! DMD in 2012!

Keeping with the trend, I gotta say dental school is more volume than anything. As far as how much studying you do is on an individual basis. I know my sister got through dental school partying her ass off and getting by with passing grades or better (and she's not one of those naturals). I, on the other hand, studied my ass off to do well in order to specialize and didn't have quite as much free time on my hands, but still had enough to have a good time with my friends and with the ladies . It's definitely a mental shock after coming from undergrad, but eventually, you become robotic and acclimate to your responsibilities. It's an excellent career choice BTW 👍

 

[toofache32]

dental school is tough. it was the hardest and longest 4 yrs of my life. i am doing 2nd yr med school right now, and it is nothing compared to dental school. d school stretches you in so many ways, academically, clinically, management, etc. but everybody makes it out. good luck.

True dat.

 

[ItsGavinC]

I've had a much different experience than everybody else. Dental school has been relatively easy. Lots of volume, but nothing very difficult. Clinic rocks, and I love working on patients all day.

 

[darius99]

dental school is tough. it was the hardest and longest 4 yrs of my life. i am doing 2nd yr med school right now, and it is nothing compared to dental school. d school stretches you in so many ways, academically, clinically, management, etc. but everybody makes it out. good luck.

can u repost this in the premed/med forums? i would love to see the flame war that follows (note: just kidding )

 

[Sprgrover]

Hopefully I can hear from D1-D4 students in this thread, as to how difficult d-school is. When class ends at say...5pm, are we studying from 5:01 'til Conan O'Brian comes on or what? Inquiring pre-dents wanna know. Thanx!

33 year old pre-dent! DMD in 2012!

I agree with the comments about being stretched and pulled. So far my experience at Penn is that it isn't the depth of the material that is so bad, as I have had some classes in undergrad that were much more hairy, but rather the volume of information and how quickly it is thrown at you. I generally study every night during the week, sometimes I'll take Friday's off, and usually I'm in the library on the weekends too. But, after a couple of months, I have learned which classes I can go a bit easier on the studying and which ones I really need to focus. Does that mean I stop when Conan comes on? No, not necessarily, as my life right now is about school my schedule revolves around it - I only quit for the day/evening when I feel I have a good handle on the material. I certainly don't have the free time that I did in undergrad, but I'm surviving and will make it through the wheels.

 

[Dr IWannaBe]

I agree with the comments about being stretched and pulled. So far my experience at Penn is that it isn't the depth of the material that is so bad, as I have had some classes in undergrad that were much more hairy, but rather the volume of information and how quickly it is thrown at you. I generally study every night during the week, sometimes I'll take Friday's off, and usually I'm in the library on the weekends too. But, after a couple of months, I have learned which classes I can go a bit easier on the studying and which ones I really need to focus. Does that mean I stop when Conan comes on? No, not necessarily, as my life right now is about school my schedule revolves around it - I only quit for the day/evening when I feel I have a good handle on the material. I certainly don't have the free time that I did in undergrad, but I'm surviving and will make it through the wheels.

I appreciate the comments.

 

[Tennisgirl]

beyond studying for a few hours every night, it's the lab work that consumes most of my time. Hours pass by and you have no idea how long you can sit and obsess over your work or practice for practicals. but, like other ppl have said, dental school is such an individual experience. Take it day by day, be as efficient as possible, don't freak out, and relax a little, and time will fly 🙂

 

[DrTacoElf]

So far for me its been pretty easy. Definitely easier than undergrad. I think this semester is going to be slightly more busy now that operative is in full swing though. Personally I will only study a maximum of 3 days before exams for about 10 hours total. I dont' study for quizzes at all if I can help it.

 

[Dr IWannaBe]

So far for me its been pretty easy. Definitely easier than undergrad. I think this semester is going to be slightly more busy now that operative is in full swing though. Personally I will only study a maximum of 3 days before exams for about 10 hours total. I dont' study for quizzes at all if I can help it.

What is the avg student debt upon graduation at MCG? I'm planning to attend.

 

[mtheman]

definately agree with those who say that D-school is very tough. Sometimes I feel like there is no end to all of the studying and work. Even with all of that, I wouldn't change it for the world. If you love dentistry, then all of the work and time put into it will not matter.

 

[DrTacoElf]

What is the avg student debt upon graduation at MCG? I'm planning to attend.

not sure really but i know for loans I'm getting a maximum of like 33K per year. I think the average is around 100K upon leaving though.

 

[jk5177]

So during the holidays, I set down and calculated that if I only check hotmail once a week, that would probably free me up 2 hours a week to do anything I want to do.

I still play flag football with classmates on weekends. Chat with my roommate. But everything I do is much much focused and concentrated. No tingling with internet, or sleeping at randomly ungodly hours. I got to get my sleep so I can pay attention in class.

My weekends are pretty much gone as I use Saturday and Sunday to review and preview for the upcoming week, because during the weekdays, I'm so tired that by the time I get back home at 4,5 or whatever I can't think properly. Thinking properly is defined as recognizing what I don't know and what I need to learn.

So much of the learning is sieving through what I know and don't know, so I can narrow down the material for the week before the midterm and the midterm week. Pretty much in a 12 week quarter, there are 4 weeks that are absolutely critical- week before midterm, midterm week, week before final, and final week.

I study beforehand, get powerpoints beforehand, read up, type them out, and when midterm comes... hundreds and hundreds of pages of powerpoints are shrank to a manageable amount, then that is the material I need to cram.

So, this is my strategy for this quarter after a less-stellar/somewhat-ridiculous-last-quarter.

 

[Dr. Dai Phan]

Hello,

Dental school difficulty depends from people to people. After the first year, you quickly will know what your strengths and weakneses are and use them to your advantage. As for me, I spent 90% of my time on didactic classes and only 10% on lab work as I was very good in laboratory classes. I was able to complete the lab work in fraction of the time but had to spend more than average than my classmates on didactic courses. Until you know what your niches are, do not fall behind. If you just spent 15 minutes reading over the notes you took and understand them, you will have no problems recollecting them when study at exam time. Do not wait till the end. DP

 

[jpollei]

I've had a much different experience than everybody else. Dental school has been relatively easy. Lots of volume, but nothing very difficult. Clinic rocks, and I love working on patients all day.

Agreed. Lots of work, but nothing too difficult... perhaps that's a reflection of my general attitude about life, though.

 

[jpollei]

Duplicate post

 

[DentalNerd]

I've had a much different experience than everybody else. Dental school has been relatively easy. Lots of volume, but nothing very difficult. Clinic rocks, and I love working on patients all day.

Would you attribute this to ASDOH's modular curriculum? I would think D1 is a killer for any school that takes its Part I after the first year.

 

[superchris147]

Would you attribute this to ASDOH's modular curriculum? I would think D1 is a killer for any school that takes its Part I after the first year.

I think its difficult in pure volume. The classes arn't really that bad, especially if you only had 4 like those god forsaken med students. But when you have 12 classes sometimes the hard part isn't understanding the material but pushing yourself to study day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after . . . you get the idea. Those who are saying that its easier than undergrad, I'm assuming you're talking about the difficulty of individual classes, which I'd agree. But I've never met an undergrad with the type of schedules us dental students have. I'd say overall its difficult.