How important is GPA in dental school

[dental crazy]

Hi guys,

I'm a second yr in dental school and my gpa is the worst I've ever had. My grades are dropping I got Cs in the major classes and I'm very depressed about it. I am so scared that with all the students I feel like I'm the only one with bad GPA while I know that a lot of my friends have around the same grades, but still I can't get over that fact. My GPA is less than 3.0/4.0 and I don't know if its okay or am I in a read bad shape. I've always been a topper in school and not doing so well in dental school and I feel kinda low about myself. Any suggesions or feedback will be greatly appreciated asap.

Thanx

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[VCUDDS]

Well if you are not thinking of doing specialty after DS then dont sweat it....Just do your best and things will start to look up again, second yr is always the worse of all the yrs bec of load. you can still bring you GPA up so just keep chugging along.

 

[rarm1]

Hi guys,

I'm a second yr in dental school and my gpa is the worst I've ever had. My grades are dropping I got Cs in the major classes and I'm very depressed about it. I am so scared that with all the students I feel like I'm the only one with bad GPA while I know that a lot of my friends have around the same grades, but still I can't get over that fact. My GPA is less than 3.0/4.0 and I don't know if its okay or am I in a read bad shape. I've always been a topper in school and not doing so well in dental school and I feel kinda low about myself. Any suggesions or feedback will be greatly appreciated asap.

Thanx

Hello,
First - just relax and try the best you can.

You graduate as a dentist whether you are first or last in class.

Grades are more important of you are applying to residency or speciality programs. We look more at class standings and extra activities - like research, volunteer work, etc,

good luck

 

[newyorkblork]

*lowly pre-dent preface*, but as far as studying and grades go, I think the answer is fairly universal: try and figure out why, specifically, you are not doing as well as you would like. Is it time management? Is it stress? Is it not understanding what's going to be on the tests?

As far as my undergraduate studies went, sometimes taking a step back and analyzing why my approach wasn't working, and adjusting accordingly, got me further than staring at my book, smacking myself, thinking "God, why don't I just get this stuff?!"

You say you were "a topper" in school previously, so you can obviously handle the work! Hang in there, assess your strategy objectively, figure out what other people are doing, change your approach, and you should see some improvement


Annnnnd of course there's always that old joke, What do you call a dental student with a C average?

Answer: your dentist.

 

[rooney09]

GPA is definately important even if you don't want to specialize. You wanna do the best because 1 of two things will happen- you will open up the door for speciality/residency if you started getting interested in it later on OR you will graduate as a competent general dentist who has made the most out of an expensive education.

 

[Buckethead]

GPA is definately important even if you don't want to specialize. You wanna do the best because 1 of two things will happen- you will open up the door for speciality/residency if you started getting interested in it later on OR you will graduate as a competent general dentist who has made the most out of an expensive education.

I disagree with your second point. You will have made the most out of the didactic, largely inapplicable aspect of your education. You could have used the time you spent studying reading books on marketing, management, finance, etc. or practicing hand skills on patients. The absolute least imporant aspect of surgical arts is the academics behind them. You can be a mechanic without being intimately familiar with every detail of your body of work. All you need to know is how to perform the operations.

Of course, knowing background regarding your body of work never hurts, but it certainly isn't as useful as being able to operate quickly and accurately. By that logic, the most important aspect (from a speed + accuracy = $$ perspective) of your dental education is not your GPA but your skill as a practitioner and businessperson.

 

[reapply2007]

Good grades are the most important thing in the world. About 4,000 dentists graduate in the US annually and the top 10-30% go into the power residencies. They are the good dentists and the rest of us are useless butt monkeys. To confirm this, just walk into your Ortho department and marvel at all of the well adjusted, happy, rich, and highly skilled dentists. Plus, they get busy like Tiger Woods. Then walk into the Restorative department and see the knuckle draggers drooling on themselves and picking their noses with endo files. Where would you rather work?

On the flip side, good grades really don't matter. Dentistry is at least as much about people skills as it is about ability. Most people lack the ability to look into ther own mouth so you can do almost whatever you want up to a certain point. Sure, you'll get graded on beauty, anatomy, and lustre by faculty but your patient just wants to eat solid food again. Spend too much time inside a self-induced study cocoon and you won't be able to talk to anyone but yourself- your pasty skin might even scare small children. Have a beer, talk to the tootless natives, pass your classes-you'll be a more successful dentist for it.

 

[iwannabadentist]

very good insight here

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=683763

 

[The Hammer]

The first thing to remember about grades is you are now one of the best and brightest in a classroom full of the best and brightest so don't stress out if you aren't at the top of the class. Also in your D2 year grades are about how well you can remember things. This will have very little to do with how successful you are as a dentist. Unless you want to specialize I would do the best that I could and try to enjoy myself as best as you can