For those who want to specialize

[Ozzie99]

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If your intention is to ultimately specialize in ortho for example, and you choose to go to a d-school that is more clinically oriented, does this make you less competitive or less prepared for a specialty like ortho?

 

[Regmata]

Thanks for typing that question in bold, it made it so much easier for me to see. Correct me if I am wrong, but don't most orthodontists do clinical work? Much more important than the school that you go to is what you do while you are in school and how well you perform on the boards.

 

[JamieMac]

Thanks for typing that question in bold, it made it so much easier for me to see. Correct me if I am wrong, but don't most orthodontists do clinical work? Much more important than the school that you go to is what you do while you are in school and how well you perform on the boards.

As valid as your point is (regarding boards and performance), I'm not sure that it answers the OP's question. Personally, I thought it was a legitimate question. Does anyone else have a response minus the facetious tone? i.e. Is there any advantage (or disadvantage) to going to a school with a strong clinical school verses one that has a stronger didactic curriculum when considering specializing? Thanks for any input.

 

[Regmata]

As valid as your point is (regarding boards and performance), I'm not sure that it answers the OP's question. Personally, I thought it was a legitimate question. Does anyone else have a response minus the facetious tone? i.e. Is there any advantage (or disadvantage) to going to a school with a strong clinical school verses one that has a stronger didactic curriculum when considering specializing? Thanks for any input.

I actually thought that I answered the question pretty well, but I suppose I can expand my answer a bit. In my opinion, since a great deal of your post-graduate work within a specialty often involves a great deal of clinical work, it is good to have a great deal of clinical experience going into a post-grad program. As for the didactic aspect, every school out there will give you the opportunity to prove yourself on paper as competent. It is up to the student to learn the material. Granted, at some schools you will have be more autonomous than you would at others. Board scores are very important for acceptance to a specialty, and it will be up to the student to adequately prepare. That being said, schools known primarily for their didactic instruction may leave you clinically disadvantaged and this is something that the student will have difficulty compensating for on their own. Schools that are clinically oriented, in theory should offer adequate preparation and tools for the student to become successful but may require more autonomous work by the student. Either way, it is personal preference.

You could also attempt to track down the whereabouts of recent graduates of programs known for clinical instruction and didactic instruction and see where they are. Although, students looking for general practice likely flock towards clinical programs and will skew the numbers a bit. Which in a way is another possible advantage to a clinical school. There may be less students gunning for a specialty, making it a bit easier to place higher within the class.

Now, if you are arguing where you are better off, Temple v. Harvard if you want to specialize...my guess is probably Harvard. There are a few elite schools that seem to send large portions of their class to the specialties.

 

[JamieMac]

Much more informative...Thanks!

 

[armorshell]

There are a few elite schools that seem to send large portions of their class to the specialties.

The real question is whether this is because of the school, or because of the students the schools accept?

I don't understand why it's considered so surprising that Harvard, who accepts only the best students, has a high specialty rate. Harvard students consistently perform well on the boards, and consistently specialize, because they're already smart, not because Harvard has some invisible edge over any other school.

Show me a school that has an average accepted GPA of 3.1 and DAT 18 that can gets a ton of students into specialty school and then maybe you'll have something...

 

[Regmata]

I think it is probably in large part due to the students that they accept. Students with extremely high stats worked very hard to get them and will probably work very hard to get their specialty. They know what they want and they are willing to do what they have to do to get it. If you have that sort of motivation, drive, and the intellectual abilities then in my opinion, you can get that specialty from any of the schools...even UoP 😉

 

[armorshell]

If you have that sort of motivation, drive, and the intellectual abilities then in my opinion, you can get that specialty from any of the schools...even UoP 😉

Haha, I think UoP is a great example to use, because there are so few people here that give a damn about specializing. People who go to a 3 year school aren't the type to choose to go to a whole bunch more. Somehow, especially on SDN, this means that "UoP is bad for specializing," even though no significant amount of people even try to specialize.

I'm sure it's like this at lots of schools, where few people apply and all those get in, whereas at the "gunner" schools like Columbia and Harvard, pretty much everyone walks through the door on the first day thinking about specializing.