Just finished 1st quarter of dental school - can I still specialize?

[youraverageasia]

I've been hearing you need to be at least the top 10 - 15% of your class if you want to specialize. I just finished with a 3.725 GPA. We don't get our rankings until the end of the year. Am I still competitive enough for residencies like ortho, DA, prost? I honestly doubt I can get a 4.0 from hear on out, but I'm pretty confident I can maintain a 3.7 and above.

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[Big Time Hoosier]

GPA is entirely relative from school to school and from class to class within a school. Your rank is a better predictor. That GPA could place you in the top 10% at one school and the top 30% at another. Just do your very best, because that’s all you can do. You still have a very long road ahead, years in fact. Don’t forget, there’s more to a residency application than just rank/GPA. There’s also a big difference in the competitiveness between specialties - you’ll sweat more for orthodontics than for prosthodontics. Best of luck to you.

Big Hoss

 

[LFA20]

I've been hearing you need to be at least the top 10 - 15% of your class if you want to specialize. I just finished with a 3.725 GPA. We don't get our rankings until the end of the year. Am I still competitive enough for residencies like ortho, DA, prost? I honestly doubt I can get a 4.0 from hear on out, but I'm pretty confident I can maintain a 3.7 and above.

About half of my class said the same thing you said after the first semester. Come back after end of second year and see if you still want to specialize...

But to answer your question yes you have a good shot

 

[alldemteeth]

I finished my first semester right about where you did. Graduated >3.9, don't doubt yourself.

 

[EndoGunner]

I've been hearing you need to be at least the top 10 - 15% of your class if you want to specialize. I just finished with a 3.725 GPA. We don't get our rankings until the end of the year. Am I still competitive enough for residencies like ortho, DA, prost? I honestly doubt I can get a 4.0 from hear on out, but I'm pretty confident I can maintain a 3.7 and above.

what does DA stand for?

 

[Eli Manning]

what does DA stand for?

Dental anesthesiology

 

[laundry]

Yes, you can still specialize...kids these days