Give advice to future dental student

[Rights]

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Hello!

I am currently a fifth year senior and I am currently applying to dental schools. Given my application, I consider myself a pretty strong applicant. I am currently taking Histology (teacher makes it easy) and I am considering taking Anatomy and Anatomy lab in the spring (with cadavers). I am also looking at getting a job as a dental lab tech so I get some experience with that stuff so its not a speed bump in dental school.

With this in mind, what advice do you have for a future dental student to succeed in dental school and the boards?

 

[dentaldawg32]

1) On the first day of orientation, tell everyone you want to specialize in either oral surgery or orthodontics. Establishing yourself as a gunner early on will make you look smart and cool (even if you lack any knowledge about the specialities besides their average salaries).

2) Whine to the professor after every test because you received an A minus. Claim that many of the questions were ambiguous or not touched upon in class. Make sure to cite textbooks from the early 80's to corroborate your complaints.

3) Tell everyone in your class you barely study, when in fact, you spend 8-12 hours a day in the library. Again, this makes you appear smarter than you actually are. Also, it makes you look apathetic and laid back i.e. cool.

4) Go to class everyday and sit in the first row. Make sure to ask a ton of irrelevant questions about obscure ****. This makes you look like you know stuff.

5) Get ridiculously drunk after every exam and try to hook up with your classmates.

 

[MarkND]

1) On the first day of orientation, tell everyone you want to specialize in either oral surgery or orthodontics. Establishing yourself as a gunner early on will make you look smart and cool (even if you lack any knowledge about the specialities besides their average salaries).

2) Whine to the professor after every test because you received an A minus. Claim that many of the questions were ambiguous or not touched upon in class. Make sure to cite textbooks from the early 80's to corroborate your complaints.

3) Tell everyone in your class you barely study, when in fact, you spend 8-12 hours a day in the library. Again, this makes you appear smarter than you actually are. Also, it makes you look apathetic and laid back i.e. cool.

4) Go to class everyday and sit in the first row. Make sure to ask a ton of irrelevant questions about obscure ****. This makes you look like you know stuff.

5) Get ridiculously drunk after every exam and try to hook up with your classmates.

I like the first and last points! This sounds really familiar....

In a serious note, just enjoy your time before starting the dental school, because the first couple of years are usually hell for most students (mostly workload and time management)… And yah, don’t tell anyone you’ll be specializing until you are in 4th year J

 

[Sauce]

I definitely agree with the fact that relaxing is a good idea. I am a first year right now. So far its pretty intense. If your going to take some classes to get ready anatomy is a good choice; however bear in mind that no matter how much anatomy you take in undergrad you will not know enough to cruise though anatomy in dental school. I took 2 pretty decent anatomy courses in undergrad (both with cadavers) and I still feel like dental school gross anatomy is very difficult. It will help you orient yourself with the body and help you with the gaps that there will be in dental school just because the haul through the material.

 

[newyorkblork]

This is only 2 months in. But these are the things I really wish I'd known before entering.

Start working out if you don't already. Get as much endurance training as you can. Start sleeping earlier, and start eating healthier. If you get a head start on this now, you'll need less nap time and be in a better mood; you'll also, most likely, need far less study time, since every minute you put in will be concentrated, rather than caffeine-driven last-minute desperation.

Get used to bullcrap. I entered d-school thinking that it was going to be a magical land where administrative problems were handled calmly and professionally, professors were somehow different and more professor-y than undergrad professors, and where every day would be building upon my future as a dentist. Lower your expectations: you're going to be squashed through science courses that will repeat your undergraduate biology classes, attendance will be required at certain lectures regardless of whether or not you actually learn well from lectures, and you will have to suffer through classes that seem entirely pointless to you. All this with a hefty price tag.

If you get yourself used to these facts now, and enter dental school with a "That's the way it is" mentality, you will spend a lot less time and energy complaining, and have a lot more time to have fun and focus on what matters, because you understand that's the way it is: get through the crap, benefit from the good stuff. Just remember that even though it sucks pretty hard, it's still a huge privilege to be here, and that just one year ago you would have traded (or perhaps did trade)a testicle to be allowed in.

Figure out how you, personally, study most efficiently. There are going to be tons of students around you who brag about the hours they spend in the library, or how they were up until 3 studying. Ignore those students. The students who spend 5p-8p studying and 8p-10p relaxing before sleeping at 11p are most likely doing just as well, if not better, than those who spend 5p-5a studying.

It's more about learning the marathon mentality than it is "If I take anatomy now will it help me in a year?" Yes, it will. Do it. But don't base your life around prepping for dschool, since the benefits, beyond the establishment of a strong biology background, seem quite marginal. If I were you, I would focus on ramping up your endurance and energy, and put good systems for your personal health in place: you will rarely get a break in dschool, and poor habits or getting sick will make a bad-but-workable place into absolute hell for you.

 

[TK2006]

This is only 2 months in. But these are the things I really wish I'd known before entering.

Start working out if you don't already. Get as much endurance training as you can. Start sleeping earlier, and start eating healthier. If you get a head start on this now, you'll need less nap time and be in a better mood; you'll also, most likely, need far less study time, since every minute you put in will be concentrated, rather than caffeine-driven last-minute desperation.

Get used to bullcrap. I entered d-school thinking that it was going to be a magical land where administrative problems were handled calmly and professionally, professors were somehow different and more professor-y than undergrad professors, and where every day would be building upon my future as a dentist. Lower your expectations: you're going to be squashed through science courses that will repeat your undergraduate biology classes, attendance will be required at certain lectures regardless of whether or not you actually learn well from lectures, and you will have to suffer through classes that seem entirely pointless to you. All this with a hefty price tag.

If you get yourself used to these facts now, and enter dental school with a "That's the way it is" mentality, you will spend a lot less time and energy complaining, and have a lot more time to have fun and focus on what matters, because you understand that's the way it is: get through the crap, benefit from the good stuff. Just remember that even though it sucks pretty hard, it's still a huge privilege to be here, and that just one year ago you would have traded (or perhaps did trade)a testicle to be allowed in.

Figure out how you, personally, study most efficiently. There are going to be tons of students around you who brag about the hours they spend in the library, or how they were up until 3 studying. Ignore those students. The students who spend 5p-8p studying and 8p-10p relaxing before sleeping at 11p are most likely doing just as well, if not better, than those who spend 5p-5a studying.

It's more about learning the marathon mentality than it is "If I take anatomy now will it help me in a year?" Yes, it will. Do it. But don't base your life around prepping for dschool, since the benefits, beyond the establishment of a strong biology background, seem quite marginal. If I were you, I would focus on ramping up your endurance and energy, and put good systems for your personal health in place: you will rarely get a break in dschool, and poor habits or getting sick will make a bad-but-workable place into absolute hell for you.

This is very solid advice. Thank you very much!👍

 

[dl9006]

This is only 2 months in. But these are the things I really wish I'd known before entering.

Start working out if you don't already. Get as much endurance training as you can. Start sleeping earlier, and start eating healthier. If you get a head start on this now, you'll need less nap time and be in a better mood; you'll also, most likely, need far less study time, since every minute you put in will be concentrated, rather than caffeine-driven last-minute desperation.

Get used to bullcrap. I entered d-school thinking that it was going to be a magical land where administrative problems were handled calmly and professionally, professors were somehow different and more professor-y than undergrad professors, and where every day would be building upon my future as a dentist. Lower your expectations: you're going to be squashed through science courses that will repeat your undergraduate biology classes, attendance will be required at certain lectures regardless of whether or not you actually learn well from lectures, and you will have to suffer through classes that seem entirely pointless to you. All this with a hefty price tag.

If you get yourself used to these facts now, and enter dental school with a "That's the way it is" mentality, you will spend a lot less time and energy complaining, and have a lot more time to have fun and focus on what matters, because you understand that's the way it is: get through the crap, benefit from the good stuff. Just remember that even though it sucks pretty hard, it's still a huge privilege to be here, and that just one year ago you would have traded (or perhaps did trade)a testicle to be allowed in.

Figure out how you, personally, study most efficiently. There are going to be tons of students around you who brag about the hours they spend in the library, or how they were up until 3 studying. Ignore those students. The students who spend 5p-8p studying and 8p-10p relaxing before sleeping at 11p are most likely doing just as well, if not better, than those who spend 5p-5a studying.

It's more about learning the marathon mentality than it is "If I take anatomy now will it help me in a year?" Yes, it will. Do it. But don't base your life around prepping for dschool, since the benefits, beyond the establishment of a strong biology background, seem quite marginal. If I were you, I would focus on ramping up your endurance and energy, and put good systems for your personal health in place: you will rarely get a break in dschool, and poor habits or getting sick will make a bad-but-workable place into absolute hell for you.

so true. i used to think that i would find all the dental classes interesting once i started.

a lot of classes are bs and a waste of time.

thank god for recorded lectures.

no need to waste time listening to monotonous tedious professors unless you have to

 

[Simiam]

This is only 2 months in. But these are the things I really wish I'd known before entering.

Start working out if you don't already. Get as much endurance training as you can. Start sleeping earlier, and start eating healthier. If you get a head start on this now, you'll need less nap time and be in a better mood; you'll also, most likely, need far less study time, since every minute you put in will be concentrated, rather than caffeine-driven last-minute desperation.

Get used to bullcrap. I entered d-school thinking that it was going to be a magical land where administrative problems were handled calmly and professionally, professors were somehow different and more professor-y than undergrad professors, and where every day would be building upon my future as a dentist. Lower your expectations: you're going to be squashed through science courses that will repeat your undergraduate biology classes, attendance will be required at certain lectures regardless of whether or not you actually learn well from lectures, and you will have to suffer through classes that seem entirely pointless to you. All this with a hefty price tag.

If you get yourself used to these facts now, and enter dental school with a "That's the way it is" mentality, you will spend a lot less time and energy complaining, and have a lot more time to have fun and focus on what matters, because you understand that's the way it is: get through the crap, benefit from the good stuff. Just remember that even though it sucks pretty hard, it's still a huge privilege to be here, and that just one year ago you would have traded (or perhaps did trade)a testicle to be allowed in.

Figure out how you, personally, study most efficiently. There are going to be tons of students around you who brag about the hours they spend in the library, or how they were up until 3 studying. Ignore those students. The students who spend 5p-8p studying and 8p-10p relaxing before sleeping at 11p are most likely doing just as well, if not better, than those who spend 5p-5a studying.

It's more about learning the marathon mentality than it is "If I take anatomy now will it help me in a year?" Yes, it will. Do it. But don't base your life around prepping for dschool, since the benefits, beyond the establishment of a strong biology background, seem quite marginal. If I were you, I would focus on ramping up your endurance and energy, and put good systems for your personal health in place: you will rarely get a break in dschool, and poor habits or getting sick will make a bad-but-workable place into absolute hell for you.

Overall, this was great advice!

Just relax. I think taking the classes prior to Dental may help very little. You have to remember that in many cases you are studying for a professor as much as you are the subject. It has been brought up in another thread, but many times tests consist of many rogue facts from the italics in the textbook or from a random slide in lecture. Dental school isn't hard. It really is a Marathon.