Does/did anyone feel this way too?

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Reemers said:
Ok, does anyone here ever feel like they have average intelligence and weren't born smart enough to be a doctor? I know that if i study and put my mind into something, I can do it, but sometimes I feel like i have an average brain and and average mentality. Does anyone here ever feel like they aren't smart enough to be dentists or doctors???😕​
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My girlfriend is in med school right now and you wouldn't believe how many of the people in her class have felt/have started to feel that way. It's fairly normal so I wouldn't really worry about it since the best you can do is to try your best.
 
Intelligence is relative. Go to dental school and you may feel like a *****. Work on a construction site and you'll feel like a Nobel laureate.

The point is, if you believe that you are smart enough, it doesn't matter if there are others that are smarter. Your drive to work hard will benefit you more than some brainiac who's too lazy or conceited to make the effort.
 
Reemers said:
Ok, does anyone here ever feel like they have average intelligence and weren't born smart enough to be a doctor? I know that if i study and put my mind into something, I can do it, but sometimes I feel like i have an average brain and and average mentality. Does anyone here ever feel like they aren't smart enough to be dentists or doctors???😕​
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Don't worry about that. To be a good dentist, you have to work well with people, have some common business sense, and have good hand/eye coordination. You have to be smart enough to get into dental school and get through dental school. After that, you've earned the right to be as stupid as you want.
 
dooooooooooooood!!!!! the only thing you need to become successful in AMERICA is HARD WORK!!! you dont have to be smart. you cant be lazy.
 
theres even a blind guy who became a medical doctor. can you believe that?
 
Someone said on a different post that if you're smart enough to get into dental school, you're smart enough to succeed. Prioritize your time and work hard, I don't think any of us have anything to worry about.

About the average intelligence thing though...the orthodontist I worked for said that the "most intelligent, top rated" students in his class we're so clueless on how to act with patients or react to things outside of the book, that he would've been scared to be one of their patients.

So as others have said, there's more to being a professional than super intelligence.

EDIT: I guess I just quoted KOM, but I know someone else said it in a different post.
 
yea i know.....i bet einstein would be a very bad dentist
 
his hairdoo probably make kids scream even louder
 
i realized... only intelligent ppl will always think that they can do better, and that they are not smart enough or good enough. I've met so many shall I call them stupid ppl that think they know it all.

So.... yeah... you are your worst judge... it is never good enough. (especially if you have not been accepted yet 😳 )
 
Fuji said:
Intelligence is relative. Go to dental school and you may feel like a *****. Work on a construction site and you'll feel like a Nobel laureate.
The point is, if you believe that you are smart enough, it doesn't matter if there are others that are smarter. Your drive to work hard will benefit you more than some brainiac who's too lazy or conceited to make the effort.
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Wow that sure was condescending. I takes a different kind of work ethic, intelligence, and skill to work in construction. It's hard to say someone is stupid just because they aren't pursuing a formal, academic degree.👎
 
SugarNaCl said:
I thought Einstein failed math... Bill Gates didn't finish college. I think I missed the boat somehow.
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you always miss the boat OOOOOOOOOH DISSSSSSSSS (they don't call me SAss for nothing!) 😛
 
SugarNaCl said:
I thought Einstein failed math... Bill Gates didn't finish college. I think I missed the boat somehow.
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Bill Gates may not have finished college but he did get into Harvard. I agree with the other posts about hard work. If being a dentist is what you truly want then go out and get it. Just because you are smart doesn't mean you are going to be successful and just because you are successful doesn't mean you are smart.
 
If you can get into dental school...you are smart. Yes hard work plays a big part, and it also helps to be a well-rounded person...but an ADCOMs decision is largely academic....if you are accepted, you are smart enough to be there...period. This is not to say that those who get rejected aren't smart enough either (this is where the hard work and well-rounded part comes in).
 
Yea I would have to agree with Jim...Fuji it was a bit condescending. But thanks for the apology.

I am on a public works crew in a smaller town and I have met some really intelligent people in the business. However, I have also met/worked with some guys that have no drive to succeed. One kid I worked with barely graduated high school, and was content to be a laborer for the rest of his life. If he wants to work his butt off for the rest of his life for someone else, he can have it!

For me, I only have one shot at this life so I don't wanna screw it up!

It's funny, the director of my public works department has a degree in microbiology. It's nice though, all of the guys on the crew MIGHT only have an associates degree, but he and I can relate and talk about ochem and how much it sucks!

Anyways, to the OP:

I struggle with this thought daily...one thing you can do is look at your past, look at all of your accomplishments...ask yourself if there is a reason to think this or are you just putting yourself down? If there is no reason for the feelings (which I am sure you have none) then try a little "thought stopping" technique.

There has been some very good advice on the previous posts...just hang in there and you will do fine!
 
Fuji said:
Intelligence is relative. Go to dental school and you may feel like a *****. Work on a construction site and you'll feel like a Nobel laureate.

The point is, if you believe that you are smart enough, it doesn't matter if there are others that are smarter. Your drive to work hard will benefit you more than some brainiac who's too lazy or conceited to make the effort.
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Interesting thread. Yeah I agree with Fuji because I've realized a similar instance in my life. When I started college I started making new friends and at the time I was still working my highschool job at Wendys. What I noticed though after I started being around different people in college and working with people at Wendy's was that I had a good measure of my intelligence. At school for the most part I felt challenged and normal and rarely ever smarter than anyone, at Wendy's I felt like Genius.
My professor used to say " That by choosing to be where we are, we have already established that we are intelligent, the only thing left is to work hard and create good time management."

"Knowledge is food for thought so I wisely swallow."
 
I feel insecure about my intelligence all the time, like I'm faking everyone out and that any success I've had so far has been luck. In fact, fear of not being smart enough is a huge part of what kept me from pursing dentistry as an undergrad (as well as debt), and now years later I finally have found the confidence to apply to dental school and have been accepted. Even though I have always gotten good grades and been able to achieve most of what I've put my mind to, I've always worried that one day it will all catch up to me and the world will realize I'm not that smart or that good at X. But I think a lot of it is due to my feeling that I can never be good enough. Also, I now realize that the main difference between people who are dentists, doctors, or X and those who are not is that the former group just decided to go for it and committed to the long road and the latter group did not. "Intelligence" plays only a minor role.
 
Thanks all I don't feel so alone now.😛
 
koochooloo said:
you always miss the boat OOOOOOOOOH DISSSSSSSSS (they don't call me SAss for nothing!) 😛
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BUUUURRRRN! You are brutal! Better watch out. I'll get my Buffalo posse after ya. We all missed the boat together. It's not a threat, its a promise. Now the new game isnt just hide your instruments around campus... it's hide your scrubs around campus too!
 
i feel just like that, like i'm not the type of person to become a dentist,

i make good grades, i feel like i can be taught anything, but i always picture the people who apply for dental/medical school as the high school valedictorian type, who just know stuff, and retain information forever, just "smart"

people see my grades and think i'm "smart" and it's more like, no i stay up late and study my butt off, and do my homework. so of course with that combination you pull off some A's

i know i'm rambling, but i feel like i'll never be the type to be Smart.
 
😎 Any1 can do it. its about applying urself.
 
SugarNaCl said:
BUUUURRRRN! You are brutal! Better watch out. I'll get my Buffalo posse after ya. We all missed the boat together. It's not a threat, its a promise. Now the new game isnt just hide your instruments around campus... it's hide your scrubs around campus too!
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HAHAHA now you wanna see me naked...o dear
 
SugarNaCl said:
LOL... it appears you are one of those people that can skew statements to make the other person look like the idiot. That is a VERY marketable and valuable skill. I need to learn!
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SMARTass strikes again! 👍
 
LoF27 said:
I feel insecure about my intelligence all the time, like I'm faking everyone out and that any success I've had so far has been luck. In fact, fear of not being smart enough is a huge part of what kept me from pursing dentistry as an undergrad (as well as debt), and now years later I finally have found the confidence to apply to dental school and have been accepted. Even though I have always gotten good grades and been able to achieve most of what I've put my mind to, I've always worried that one day it will all catch up to me and the world will realize I'm not that smart or that good at X. But I think a lot of it is due to my feeling that I can never be good enough. Also, I now realize that the main difference between people who are dentists, doctors, or X and those who are not is that the former group just decided to go for it and committed to the long road and the latter group did not. "Intelligence" plays only a minor role.
Click to expand...

Read this Nelson Mandela said it best:

Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our greatest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, fabulous, gorgeous, talented? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. You're playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that's within us. It's not just in some of us. It's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we automatically give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fears, our presence automatically liberates others.
--Nelson Mandela
 
29DATyep said:
Read this Nelson Mandela said it best:

Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our greatest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, fabulous, gorgeous, talented? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. You're playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that's within us. It's not just in some of us. It's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we automatically give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fears, our presence automatically liberates others.
--Nelson Mandela
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What a great quote...thanks!👍 👍
 
Good thread. I struggle with this issue as well. I've been in situations where I've thought (to borrow a line from the Sixth Sense) 'I see stupid people everywhere -- and they don't even know they're stupid.' But then I've been to school with folks whose effortless intelligence and retention make me feel like a pretender.

The 'work hard' and 'have good time management' mantras are indespensible. I can work hard, but find that my time management is terrible. Who has good suggestions to improve that?
 
McSexyDDS said:
people see my grades and think i'm "smart" and it's more like, no i stay up late and study my butt off, and do my homework. so of course with that combination you pull off some A's
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But knowing you have to study all night to get A's is what makes you smart.
 
Mairzydotes:

I feel the same way...and I never encountered anyone like that until I hit ochem...everyone is brilliant in there....very hard to compete with...thank God for the grading scale!

Does anyone shake really bad during their ochem tests? HAHA I can't even draw a straight line if my life depended on it!
 
CSI Dentist said:
i realized... only intelligent ppl will always think that they can do better, and that they are not smart enough or good enough. I've met so many shall I call them stupid ppl that think they know it all.

So.... yeah... you are your worst judge... it is never good enough. (especially if you have not been accepted yet 😳 )
Click to expand...

i've met plenty of dumb people thinking they're dumb, including me. anyway, it's true. i feel i will never be good enough since i have not been accepted. i think i will feel even more inadequate if i'm blessed enough to attend a dental school.



"Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration."
genius should be replaced with success.
 
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