General question about PASS

[unlvdmd]

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Does the whole application process work like dental school? I know there is a fee for each school you apply to, but do schools/hospitals send back secondaries with secondary app fees? Just curious... And what is the average number of programs people apply to? OMS specifically? Have you ever heard of anyone applying to all 90 something schools??? 😱

 

[gryffindor]

Does the whole application process work like dental school? I know there is a fee for each school you apply to, but do schools/hospitals send back secondaries with secondary app fees? Just curious... And what is the average number of programs people apply to? OMS specifically? Have you ever heard of anyone applying to all 90 something schools??? 😱

Not all programs will send you back a "secondary." It is up to you to remember to send in the secondary stuff required by the schools soon after you submit PASS. Some programs will send you a little card telling you if something is missing from your application or if your application is complete. Others can't be bothered to mail the little card so it is a good idea to call and check to see if your application is complete. Also be sure to ask if they got your board scores because many programs want an official ADA NBDE transcript and those can often get lost.

If you have the energy and the $$$, go ahead and apply to all 90 programs. If you are #1 with a 99 on the boards, applying to 90 programs is probably overkill. The number of programs you apply to is your decision. Because of the match system, there really isn't a "safe" number to apply to in order to assure acceptance.

 

[unlvdmd]

Can someone explain exaclty how match works? If you pick say Florida and your #1, but they don't choose you.. are you out? Where do you go from there?

 

[1-16-17-32]

Can someone explain exaclty how match works? If you pick say Florida and your #1, but they don't choose you.. are you out? Where do you go from there?

You can look at your rank list as a predetermined order of where you would like to go. When you applied to dental school, you might have applied to 5 places and got acceptences to all of them You then had to decide which one you wanted to go to. You can look at your rank list as being the order of the programs that you would like to go to if you got into them all. You will only find out one place that you match (or none if you don't), but it will be the program highest on your list that also accepted you into one of their spots (as long as it is not filled by other applicants that they ranked ahead of you).

 

[Extraction]

It all depends on how competetive you are.... I applied to 28 programs got 24 interview offers and went on 13.... overkill on my part. A classmate of mine with weaker stats applied to 50+ programs got about 6 interviews and matched. It doesn't hurt to over-apply, and is better than reapplying in my opinion. Realize that you need approximately 6-8 interviews to guarantee a match and interview dates may conflict with each other requiring you to make a choice on which one to go to. Most people match with either their first or second choice, and almost no one ranks lower than sixth on their rank order list. As far as the match rank it is explained on the natmatch site... but briefly if you rank Florida #1 and they rank you #20 but they don't get their 2 matches in the 1st 19 ranks, the spot is yours. If you ranked Jacksonville #2 and they ranked you #1 you still get Florida as your match. It is weighted in the candidates favor, and not a cumulative rank score or program preference. Rank according to your preference, not according to how you think the program will rank you and don't worry about it. I did not think I had a snowballs chance in hell matching at my top choice since I didn't extern there, but I thats where I am... I know of an individual who ranked their first choice a program they were sure they would match at... The person thought they wouldn't match at a better program and wanted to be able to say they got their top choice. It turned out that a program they wanted to go to more didn't match a spot and had ranked them, although low on their list. Rumor through the grapevine is that they regret it...

 

[1-16-17-32]

Realize that you need approximately 6-8 interviews to guarantee a match...

There is no such thing as guaranteeing a match. You can interview at every single ortho/endo/perio etc. program in the country and not match. Every addition program that you rank increases your chances - but no guarantees.

I know someone who had 14 interviews for a specialty program and ranked them all, but didn't match.

 

[Extraction]

There is no such thing as guaranteeing a match. You can interview at every single ortho/endo/perio etc. program in the country and not match. Every addition program that you rank increases your chances - but no guarantees.

I know someone who had 14 interviews for a specialty program and ranked them all, but didn't match.

😕 That person must not have interviewed well. I would not wish that kind of disappointment on anyone.
Some stats.... if you don't get your one of your first six ranks you are unlikely to match:

from the Natmatch site statistics I saved

2004-2005 POSITIONS Match Results by Rank on Applicant’s List Rank

Rank Number GPR AEGD OMS PED ORTHO TOTAL

1 375 104 95 140 176 890
2 69 12 26 34 38 179
3 27 2 19 25 15 88
4 10 2 12 12 12 48
5 4 1 10 5 2 22
6+ 2 0 3 4 0 9

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Sorry about the columns.... couldn't get it to format

 

[gryffindor]

Realize that you need approximately 6-8 interviews to guarantee a match...

There is no certain number of interviews you can go on to "guarnatee" a match. I know of several ortho applicants with 6 - 8 or more interviews who have not matched (myself included) and have met a number with <3 interviews, sometimes even 1 interview that matched.

To say "that person must not have interviewed well" is really an unfair and gross generalization.