OMFS chances

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Flossy Lady 05

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I know there are already a million threads on this subject but here goes. I am currently a 3rd year dental student interested in pursuing a residency at a 4 year OMFS program. I shadowed an oral surgeon in undergrad and was extremely fascinated by the specialty, however; after my first 2 years in dental school, I thought my class rank was too low to even have chance applying (28/100) so I never bothered taking the CBSE. In October I had the opportunity to rotate through my school's OMFS department and my desire to pursue a career in OMFS was reinvigorated. I am currently studying to take the CBSE in February and am going to try to do 2-3 weeks of externships in the spring but I am wondering if I will even have a chance due to my lower class rank. I would be ecstatic to even land a few interviews let alone match on my first try but I fully understand that it might take an internship to boost my application. I am just hoping to get some insight as to what, if any CBSE score will help to make up for my lower class rank and whether or not I would even be able to land an internship with my current stats. Sorry about the long post but thanks in advance for any information!

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I know there are already a million threads on this subject but here goes. I am currently a 3rd year dental student interested in pursuing a residency at a 4 year OMFS program. I shadowed an oral surgeon in undergrad and was extremely fascinated by the specialty, however; after my first 2 years in dental school, I thought my class rank was too low to even have chance applying (28/100) so I never bothered taking the CBSE. In October I had the opportunity to rotate through my school's OMFS department and my desire to pursue a career in OMFS was reinvigorated. I am currently studying to take the CBSE in February and am going to try to do 2-3 weeks of externships in the spring but I am wondering if I will even have a chance due to my lower class rank. I would be ecstatic to even land a few interviews let alone match on my first try but I fully understand that it might take an internship to boost my application. I am just hoping to get some insight as to what, if any CBSE score will help to make up for my lower class rank and whether or not I would even be able to land an internship with my current stats. Sorry about the long post but thanks in advance for any information!

Top 30% rank really isn't too bad. Especially if you can score high on the CBSE. I know plenty of people who were nowhere near top 10% but still managed to match at great programs because of their CBSE scores. I would say if you score above a 70, you have a solid chance of matching at a 4 year program. Good luck
 
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I know at least 3 residents who matched at about 35% with decent CBSEs ~70
 
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- Nail the CBSE.
- Do 4-5weeks of externships. Act normal. No need to be super memorable.
- Get some normal LORs
- Write a normal PS.


You should be fine to land some interviews.
 
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Agreed. I decided late with a similar class rank, took the CBSE in August and killed it. Got plenty of interviews, so don't get discouraged!
 
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Thanks all for your responses and words of encouragement, I really appreciate it! I have been studying for the CBSE for a few weeks now and have been using FA and UWorld, are there any other study materials you would recommend to supplement those?

Agreed. I decided late with a similar class rank, took the CBSE in August and killed it. Got plenty of interviews, so don't get discouraged!

Congratulations on the interviews, best of luck with the rest of the Match process! Would you mind if I PM'd you to get some more information on how you prepared for the CBSE and how you selected the programs you applied to?
 
Thanks all for your responses and words of encouragement, I really appreciate it! I have been studying for the CBSE for a few weeks now and have been using FA and UWorld, are there any other study materials you would recommend to supplement those?



Congratulations on the interviews, best of luck with the rest of the Match process! Would you mind if I PM'd you to get some more information on how you prepared for the CBSE and how you selected the programs you applied to?

Many threads go into depth on CBSE. First aid, UWorld, and pathoma are standard. Some use sketchy micro/path as well.
 
Thanks all for your responses and words of encouragement, I really appreciate it! I have been studying for the CBSE for a few weeks now and have been using FA and UWorld, are there any other study materials you would recommend to supplement those?



Congratulations on the interviews, best of luck with the rest of the Match process! Would you mind if I PM'd you to get some more information on how you prepared for the CBSE and how you selected the programs you applied to?

You can definitely PM me!
 
I should be available to PM now if y’all want to give it a try!

I have a feeling everyone wants to know how you prepped for the cbse and how long you spent studying for it. We'd also like to get
some sense of what killed it means. If you're willing to share that info here in the thread I think a lot of ppl would be grateful to hear from you.
 
Would anybody be able to comment on the process of applying to internships as well? I plan on applying this cycle to the MATCH, however; if I do not match I would really like to do an internship in order to boost my chances of matching the following year. Some specific things I am curious about are:
1) Do you have to apply to internships at the same time as you are applying to the categorical positions or do you wait until after the match? I would obviously prefer to match (as would everyone else) but I don't want to miss the boat on getting an internship position either by waiting too long.
2) How competitive is it to land a non-categorical spot if the match is unsuccessful?
3) What are some of the best internships out there as far as gaining solid clinical experience and improving your chances of matching the following cycle?

Sorry if these are dumb questions but I have looked all over to try and find answers to these and haven't been super successful. I am hoping to not have to worry about this,however; I am just trying to be prepared when the time comes.
 
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Reach out to programs expressing interest in their internship immediately if you find out you didn’t match so that their spots don’t fill up. From what I hear, Parkland and JPS have 2 of the best internships in the country.
 
Going to piggyback on the OP here.
I am currently a 3rd year going into 4th in the next Semester. Took the CBSE 02/2019 after a month and a half of intense studying and got 55
I've started studying for the August exam since April, and I just finished the UWORLD, first pass timed non-tutor mode, and have an average of 42%. I will be focusing on pathoma and FA from now, but I'm worried that I wont get a decent score since the discouragement from the Feb exam was real.

My question is, what are the chances of getting interviews with a low/mediocre CBSE score? I am hoping for a 70+, but what do you guys think is the minimum score I can get and be okay?
I wasnt able to find many posts with high rank and low CBSE:
Class rank is 2/80
3 wks Externships
Great LORs
decent extracurriculars

Thanks for reading

That 1st pass uworld average does not correlate well with your class ranking. I know uworld should be used to learn, but you should’ve been creeping up to 55-60% near the end.

My advice is to take a real nbme simulated form and see where you are at. If you don’t get a ~60-65 which is like a 185-190 step 1( aka failing step 1)you better hit the books again like crazy. Have you been reading the uworld explanations?
 
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