Help. Am I a total idiot?!

[yosemitesam]

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Does anybody out there know how important the dental school you graduated from is when you try to get into a specialty program? I only applied to one school, MCG. I already own a home here in Augusta, and the tuition and fees are only like $10,000 a year and I have two kids. So this was my first and only choice for financial reasons.

I have 3.92 GPA / 3.89 science GPA and 21/19 DAT so I prolly had a decent shot at a lot of schools. I didn't really think it mattered where you went to school before as long as you liked their program. But after reading these forums it seems like it makes a huge difference. Anybody have some realistic advice for me?

 

[zweeks]

If you want to specialize, MCG may not be the BEST place to go, but remember that you can specialize at any school, at MCG you may have to work extra hard however. Schools that are more likely to send more people into specialties that intend to specialize are Harvard, Michigan, UPenn, Colombia, UConn, and a few others. That doesnt mean you can't specialize at MCG, but you will definately have to be at LEAST top ten. Any other opinions?

 

[DesiDentist]

PENN baby!!

two years ago they had 14 (fourteen) people go into Orthodontics, 8 people go into Endodontics and only 5 people go into general dentistry. This is out of 96 people in the class.

By going to PENN doesn't mean you'll get into a specialty, but it sure doesn't hurt you in anyway.

At my interview they clearly stated: "We want people who want to specialize, do research or go into academics to come to this school." They even asked me what speciality I wanted to pursue and I said, "I like working with kids, so maybe pediatric dentistry." The chair of Endodontics said, "I can see you as a Endodontist." And I said, "oh I look that bad, huh?" We had a hearty laugh.


DesiDentist