Hello! Oracle DMD here!
I haven’t been on SDN for years (as it happens when you’re no longer a student) but I wanted to drop in and talk a bit about my experience.
1st, SDN helped me immensely. I got loads of great advice and it was a place to vent and hear people vent which relieved a ton of stress.
Getting into Dental School was one of the toughest and most competitive tasks I’ve ever gone through. But the main takeaway is that should you commit to doing what it takes, you can do it. Numbers are important but they aren’t everything. The people who crushed dental school and went into specialties weren’t from “tier one” undergrads. Much like professional athletes, these folks are gifted. They were gifted in cramming and storing information, and were excellent test takers. Not necessarily better at dentistry mind you, but elite students
I went to MWU-AZ. Inaugural class. Keeping with the academic athlete theme, if Dental Schools draft academic students like the NFL Draft, I was the guy picked on the last day of the draft after people quit watching on TV. The 7th round pick from a small market school. Once I got in, I was in class with some first round elite picks. Some of them found dental school kinda easy! I was huffing and puffing and basically learning to be a D1 the hard way. Every day I was either in class, studying, or recovering for an entire year. No weekends no holidays no vacations, just 20min here and there to break from memorizing information. The first year I got smoked by the academics. It got better towards the end though, as you figure out how to study, and what works for you. You may be thinking “I KNOW how to study already”. Well maybe ya do, but D1 is like drinking out of a fire hose. Except it’s all the science you learned in undergrad ...covered in a week or two.
Midwestern was the perfect school for me. Although, I’ll discuss later downside of this kind of dental school.
This is a school that lets you become the dentist you’d like to be. You wanna get into surgery? You can get hands on surgical experience. Wanna do your own endo? Get after it! Cosmetics more your vibe? Go sell some cases! When you get done with MWU, you should be confident enough to start practicing. Unfortunately, having this kind of dental school means some people decide that a patient needs veneers when they have gum disease and decayed out molars about to break into pieces. But hey, that’s life. You’re gonna have unethical people around you, and if you asked them, they’d say there’s nothing wrong with what they’re doing.
After graduation I had a job waiting as an associate dentist in San Diego. I spent 4 years as an associate in a couple offices, and then bought my own place.
Life is good! It was all worth it. No regrets at all. I was a little cynical about dental school when I graduated but after having time to process the whole experience, I can say I whole heartedly endorse Midwestern. I have colleagues that academic studs, got into amazing dental schools with great reputations and struggled with dentistry for a long time. I came out of school and hit the ground running, feeling confident and comfortable with my scope of practice.
Hang in there, do the work, make the sacrifices, it’s all worth it. I couldn’t be happier.
I haven’t been on SDN for years (as it happens when you’re no longer a student) but I wanted to drop in and talk a bit about my experience.
1st, SDN helped me immensely. I got loads of great advice and it was a place to vent and hear people vent which relieved a ton of stress.
Getting into Dental School was one of the toughest and most competitive tasks I’ve ever gone through. But the main takeaway is that should you commit to doing what it takes, you can do it. Numbers are important but they aren’t everything. The people who crushed dental school and went into specialties weren’t from “tier one” undergrads. Much like professional athletes, these folks are gifted. They were gifted in cramming and storing information, and were excellent test takers. Not necessarily better at dentistry mind you, but elite students
I went to MWU-AZ. Inaugural class. Keeping with the academic athlete theme, if Dental Schools draft academic students like the NFL Draft, I was the guy picked on the last day of the draft after people quit watching on TV. The 7th round pick from a small market school. Once I got in, I was in class with some first round elite picks. Some of them found dental school kinda easy! I was huffing and puffing and basically learning to be a D1 the hard way. Every day I was either in class, studying, or recovering for an entire year. No weekends no holidays no vacations, just 20min here and there to break from memorizing information. The first year I got smoked by the academics. It got better towards the end though, as you figure out how to study, and what works for you. You may be thinking “I KNOW how to study already”. Well maybe ya do, but D1 is like drinking out of a fire hose. Except it’s all the science you learned in undergrad ...covered in a week or two.
Midwestern was the perfect school for me. Although, I’ll discuss later downside of this kind of dental school.
This is a school that lets you become the dentist you’d like to be. You wanna get into surgery? You can get hands on surgical experience. Wanna do your own endo? Get after it! Cosmetics more your vibe? Go sell some cases! When you get done with MWU, you should be confident enough to start practicing. Unfortunately, having this kind of dental school means some people decide that a patient needs veneers when they have gum disease and decayed out molars about to break into pieces. But hey, that’s life. You’re gonna have unethical people around you, and if you asked them, they’d say there’s nothing wrong with what they’re doing.
After graduation I had a job waiting as an associate dentist in San Diego. I spent 4 years as an associate in a couple offices, and then bought my own place.
Life is good! It was all worth it. No regrets at all. I was a little cynical about dental school when I graduated but after having time to process the whole experience, I can say I whole heartedly endorse Midwestern. I have colleagues that academic studs, got into amazing dental schools with great reputations and struggled with dentistry for a long time. I came out of school and hit the ground running, feeling confident and comfortable with my scope of practice.
Hang in there, do the work, make the sacrifices, it’s all worth it. I couldn’t be happier.
