Difficulty of Entrance into OMFS

[Habbas]

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Hi folks

I'm more frequently on the pre-dental forum for now, but I was wondering for all you dental students out there , what is the difficulty of entrance into the omfs residency?
I know as a senior in undergrad its still very soon to be looking into such things, but I would really appreciate some information from you guys
Based on my understanding basically you have to just be a TANK haha

much appreciated : )

(btw if this is a stupid question ignore it)

 

[DudeDDS]

From what I understand, you need to be probably in the top 5% of your class to even stand a chance. My class is 84 people, so 5% is less than the top 5 people.
I am making low A's and mostly B's on my tests, and I believe that will probably place me right in the middle of my class. I rarely study on the weekends, but bust my butt during the week, except Fridays.

Every single point and every single test counts in your class rank. You have to not only make sure you always make A's, but always make the highest A possible. I was an excellent student in undergrad, and I am still doing fine, but trying to be in the top 5% of my class would require me to work probably 5 times harder than I am now.

You would have to be very organized, very disciplined, and have a lot of endurance. Burn out happens FAST! And I do mean FAST! We have 11 classes with 32 tests in a semester, usually 2-3 a week. We haven't even done half of those tests yet, and our entire class is moaning and groaning about how tired and miserable they are. The material for each test is usually around 10 lectures worth of material. It's constant juggling.

Our class is very smart and very competitive. Class averages on tests are usually 88-ish. More than half of the class gets A's on tests. You always have to be doing better. You can't just settle for A's, you have to aim to get a perfect score on each test.... and at my school, they don't let that happen easily. They make it relatively easy for students to pass, but NOT easy to make a perfect score. They like to play mind games with OMFS hopefuls, I guess.

OMFS is attainable with dedication, hard work, lots of endurance. If that's your goal, go for it. it's pretty darn hard. but if you can do it, you'll be a total bad ass!! If it doesn't happen, hopefully you'll be okay with other areas of dentistry. I just don't think it's a good idea to go into d-school with all your hopes in the OMFS basket, because the odds are against you.

 

[yappy]

Wow that's amazing. I had no idea it was that competitive. My first goal is to be a dentist but I always figured when I got to dental school I would look into all there was to off... meaning I want to be a gneral dentist but am open to other things (not really OS b/c of the length). Anyways, are all the specialties of dentistry this competitive? How is endodontics?

 

[newyorkblork]

Wow that's amazing. I had no idea it was that competitive. My first goal is to be a dentist but I always figured when I got to dental school I would look into all there was to off... meaning I want to be a gneral dentist but am open to other things (not really OS b/c of the length). Anyways, are all the specialties of dentistry this competitive? How is endodontics?

We're taking a class right now that involves having the specialty directors speak to us about what it takes. Yes, it seems that all specialties are that competitive.

In addition to the extensive post on the academic rigor required for a residency, I would just like to parrot from the dentists coming in to talk to us: it requires a high GPA, but it also requires you to show a steady, dedicated "something else", as well as a steady, dedicated "this is why I'm into OMFS".

Basically, it's the same thing as applying for Dental School (or any competitive program or job): Boards and GPA ("the numbers") make up half the fight, and extracurriculars and references ("the experience")will make up the other half.

Whether or not they're equal halves is up to the residency directors to say 😉

 

[GTFOOMICT]

I guess one average test grade can ruin your changes of getting into a competitive specialty? (even if your other test grades are excellent)

Unlikely. You have so many tests and so many classes that 'mistakes' or being 'average' won't hold you up. It just means you have to fight like hell after. So that's no fun, but was the story of my dental school life.

Plus if you just want to be a specialist, not that hard. Things become tough when you get all fuzzy inside seeing yourself as ONLY a ucla orthodontist.

 

[Sauce]

I think he/she is trying to say is that there are quite a few specialties that people don't really think about. For example I don't think I ever met a predental student that was dead set on being a prosthodontist when he grew up or not too many plan on going to specialize in dental radiology or oral path. People do apply to these and I am sure it is somewhat competitive but not nearly as bad as ortho or OMS.

Also don't get too dead set on a dental school for all you predents reading this. I am glad that I had somewhat of an open mind. I am at a school now that I didn't think I would go to but found that it was the best place for me. This holds true for specialty residencies where some are a match system and you go where you match

 

[og2]

From what I understand, you need to be probably in the top 5% of your class to even stand a chance.

definitely not true. i'd say top 20%, good board scores, and lots of externships is typically sufficient for omfs. i think people tend to exaggerate how hard it is to get into omfs (and some other specialties for that matter). omfs seems to be a lot more about desire/experience rather than pure numbers. of course it's pretty common sense that it's better to be ranked higher than 20% for omfs, but i wouldn't say that is the norm.

 

[og2]

We're taking a class right now that involves having the specialty directors speak to us about what it takes. Yes, it seems that all specialties are that competitive.

thought i'd chime in 🙂 all specialties are not equally competitive by any means. there is definitely a hierarchy of difficulty with regards to the different specialties, and the difficulty levels are pretty distinct. there are a lot of threads on sdn about this that you guys may find interesting.

 

[JBieber]

definitely not true. i'd say top 20%, good board scores, and lots of externships is typically sufficient for omfs. i think people tend to exaggerate how hard it is to get into omfs (and some other specialties for that matter). omfs seems to be a lot more about desire/experience rather than pure numbers. of course it's pretty common sense that it's better to be ranked higher than 20% for omfs, but i wouldn't say that is the norm.

are you referring to 4 or 6 year programs?

 

[og2]

are you referring to 4 or 6 year programs?

either/or. not sure if there is really that much of a difference between the two. but of course i'm no authority on 4 vs 6.