Does GPA matter?

[DoctorSaab]

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I was just curious to ask you dental students how much GPA matters in dental school? Thanks 🙂

Please just don't say ALOT lol. Explain. 😀

 

[MarkFitzsimmons]

If you want to specialize, it matters extremely much. Often, you need to be near the top of your class to get placed in a specialty program.

Also, if you are near the bottom of your class, it may make it hard to get an associate position and may effect your pay.

 

[aphistis]

Originally posted by MarkFitzsimmons
Also, if you are near the bottom of your class, it may make it hard to get an associate position and may effect your pay.

Can you support this?

 

[thisisit]

I have never heard of a dentist not getting an associateship for being at the bottom of the class rank. You are called a doctor as long as you graduate, #1 or the last one in your class. I for one will never ask a potential associate about their GPA or board sores. As long as the state of Illinois has found him competent to be licensed, it's all kosher.

Now if you want to specialize, that's a whole different story. My guess :

85% GPA
10% Boards
5% other garbage you do

So if you want to be a low life GP like me, just do the best you can and graduate. Take your boards, get licensed, and then have 3 specialist work in your office while another 3 kiss up to you to refer them patients. (JK if any specialist reading this)

 

[boyan]

How do they call a person who has graduated the dental school as last in his class?










































Answer: Doctor

 

[MarkFitzsimmons]

Originally posted by aphistis
Can you support this?

I said that on speculation, hence the word may. I'm not entirely convinced that there isn't some truth to it. If the hiring dentist has a few applicant to choose from, all evenly matched in other regard, he may look at that GPA and use it to correlate how hard working that individual is.

 

[PashaJ]

GPA matters a lot if you're not an outgoing person. If you stay in the middle of the pack, do well on the boards and be on great terms with your professors and instructors I think you have a great shot at getting into a post grad program (except Ortho, OMS and Endo) at your own school and a decent shot outside as long as you apply to places where others wouldn't.

 

[thisisit]

Originally posted by MarkFitzsimmons
I said that on speculation, hence the word may. I'm not entirely convinced that there isn't some truth to it. If the hiring dentist has a few applicant to choose from, all evenly matched in other regard, he may look at that GPA and use it to correlate how hard working that individual is.

Come to Illinois, i'll get you a job any day. There is a shortage of dentists here.

 

[aphistis]

Originally posted by MarkFitzsimmons
I said that on speculation, hence the word may. I'm not entirely convinced that there isn't some truth to it. If the hiring dentist has a few applicant to choose from, all evenly matched in other regard, he may look at that GPA and use it to correlate how hard working that individual is.

You could have just said "no." 😉

 

[gryffindor]

Originally posted by MarkFitzsimmons
If the hiring dentist has a few applicant to choose from, all evenly matched in other regard, he may look at that GPA and use it to correlate how hard working that individual is.

In class, our assoc. dean was giving us some suggestions on how to design our resumes before sending them out to post-grad residencies and potential employers. Her thoughts were that if your GPA is <3.0, don't even put it on there. How is the hiring dentist going to know your GPA if you don't have it on the resume you gave him?

Your GPA means squat when getting a job. Heck, my clinic grades are not straight As b/c the grade is based mostly on how well you can bs with the profs and how much they think they can trust you to not bother them while they are discussing country club memberships. But I know what I am doing to the extent that I've been taught and can easily learn more if I felt like it. (Our clinic system at my school has me turned off from the notion of learning anything more to better myself until I graduate and get out of here.) Also, I am not the most stunning restorative dental student in my class. However, I would bet that my GPA is higher than some of my more clinically talented classmates only b/c I spent the time memorizing useless facts in classes like public health dentistry and histology, while they chose to take the C in those classes and be satisfied. GPA should be one of the last things the hiring dentist ought to consider if he's looking for the right associate.

For the original question, GPA (more importantly, class rank) only really matters if you are going to apply to the ultra-competitive specialties of endo & ortho & OMS. These programs use numbers as a way of weeding out applicants b/c they have too many people applying. If you are set on being a general dentist, do your best but don't stress if you didn't get the A. To do a GPR, the higher your numbers, the more likely you'll get the interview. But the worst thing that could happens in general dentistry if you don't get into a GPR is you have to go out and get a job and earn money. Not a bad outcome in my opinion.

 

[MarkFitzsimmons]

I stand corrected.

 

[discolphie]

thisisit,

just wondering if you practice in chicago? or in the surrounding suburbs?

 

[River13]

Rank is far more important to most Post-Doc programs than GPA. At one school #1 in the class may have a 3.6, while at another the #1 may have a 4.0. Maybe one school just gives out more A's...what really matters if you want to have the best chances to specialize, is how you rank relative to everyone else in your class...so if you have a 2.6 but you're in the top 5%, you're sitting pretty...

 

[anamod]

In my mind rank and gpa mean nothing I just want to graduate and pass my boards. My class is ultra competitive, I have a 3.0 and that puts me in the bottom 25% of my class.

 

[ItsGavinC]

Originally posted by anamod
I have a 3.0 and that puts me in the bottom 25% of my class.

Exactly ditto for me. In fact, my educated guess is that I'm in the bottom 20% of the class with a 3.0.