P/F Board Change and School Decision

[EdwardKim]

Hello fellow dental students!

I am a pre-dental student who applied this 2011 cycle and got into few dental schools so far.

I am having trouble picking which school I should attend due to board exam being changed into P/F system rather than score system.

I aspire to specialize in one of the specialties, and I would like to pick a school that would help me in reaching that goal.

If board exam wasn't changed to P/F, I would go to traditionally strong academic school like Conn, Columbia, Harvard, but I don't know if this will still be true after the board exam changes.

Do any of you have any information on how residency programs will evaluate applicants when the change is implemented?

If so, what kind of school will help me maximize my chances in getting into a specialty residency?

Here are the schools that I got accepted to so far: Penn, Columbia, Tufts, Conn, UCSF.

Cost is no problem, which school would most benefit me in preparing me for OMS residencies?

Thanks for reading, and I understand I am very shortsighted in my desire to specialize since I don't even know dentistry yet. But I thought it was still good to have a goal.

Have a nice day!

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[cybermech]

Hello fellow dental students!

I am a pre-dental student who applied this 2011 cycle and got into few dental schools so far.

I am having trouble picking which school I should attend due to board exam being changed into P/F system rather than score system.

I aspire to specialize in one of the specialties, and I would like to pick a school that would help me in reaching that goal.

If board exam wasn't changed to P/F, I would go to traditionally strong academic school like Conn, Columbia, Harvard, but I don't know if this will still be true after the board exam changes.

Do any of you have any information on how residency programs will evaluate applicants when the change is implemented?

If so, what kind of school will help me maximize my chances in getting into a specialty residency?

Here are the schools that I got accepted to so far: Penn, Columbia, Tufts, Conn, UCSF.

Cost is no problem, which school would most benefit me in preparing me for OMS residencies?

Thanks for reading, and I understand I am very shortsighted in my desire to specialize since I don't even know dentistry yet. But I thought it was still good to have a goal.

Have a nice day!

I'm sure Tufts would love to have you attend (selfish plug, I know)

As for what school to go to, I think there are conflicting opinions on what's more important after the boards go P/F. Generally, we understand the one of the most important factors in OMFS admission, as ranked by OMFS department heads (according to ADEA), was academic performance. If you go by this poll, then perhaps a ranked system would be to your benefit if you're an outstanding student.

However, regardless of what school you decide to go to, be prepared to do OMFS-related research, literature reviews, and a lot of networking with administration, residents, and faculty. In the end, this will probably the most important factor. On an additional note, certain schools have more ease of getting into OMFS-related research than others.

I have been told that most people who want to do OMFS really badly usually get it eventually, even if it means going back for a 1 year OMFS GPR. So, I'm sure you'll do well if you really want to do this track in 3-4 years.

 

[EdwardKim]

Thank you very much for your insightful comment.

I understood that rankings matter a lot in residency placement, but as you noticed, most of the schools I listed are P/F schools. Only Penn and Tufts are non-P/F schools, and at Penn, only top 10 are ranked so it really doesn't work as ranking system.... Rest of the 140 students are ranked 110 students are ranked as 11th.

I have heard a lot of rumors of what the residency programs will do to evaluate their applicants, and one of them was to administer a separate exam for residency placement.

I also heard that OMS residency programs will provide a test similar to USLME.... Of course this is only a rumor..

Also, I don't think it would be very accurate to accept people into residency purely due to ranking because some schools selectively take high achievers. Say, for school A, it is a relaxed, cooperative school where most students ,want a family practice rather than gunning for residency. For school b, maybe they take most students who really want to specialize and will gun for those positions. It would be much harder to rank high in school b than school a, so I feel that residency directors are definitely considering this factor.

I guess my main question is, what kind of measure are residency directors taking and what is the best way to prepare for that change?

 

[EdwardKim]

bump

 

[JBieber]

bump

 

[scifijock]

Look, these schools that are pass/fail are not going to let their students be at a disadvantage when applying for residencies since they take some much pride in getting so many of their students admitted. I don't think Harvard is ever going to have a hard time getting their students into residency programs and they are p/f. Also, the boards are moving to pass/fail, but there is talk about having another admissions test for residencies. Just go to the right school for you.

 

[armorshell]

I also heard that OMS residency programs will provide a test similar to USLME.... Of course this is only a rumor..

This is not a rumor. The NBME self-assessment test is being vetted and will likely be implemented in an altered form as an admissions exam for OMFS residencies.

 

[JBieber]

This is not a rumor. The NBME self-assessment test is being vetted and will likely be implemented in an altered form as an admissions exam for OMFS residencies.

Armor, do you think going to a school with med school classes will give students a better foundation to prepare/study for this test?

 

[armorshell]

Only if you take the full curriculum, including their version of the "Clinical medicine and diagnosis of disease" type course.


I wouldn't worry about it. There's an nigh infinite amount of prep material out there that's valuable and usable for the NBME, so no one should have difficulty getting a decent score even if you haven't "taken the class."

 

[DATlongshui]

What about other specialties such as ortho? What kind of alternative test is going to be implemented? Won't GRE sound too silly to use?--it is totally irrelevant!!

 

[scifijock]

What about other specialties such as ortho? What kind of alternative test is going to be implemented? Won't GRE sound too silly to use?--it is totally irrelevant!!

Read the above post. The NBME is the medical school boards, it may be like that not the GRE.

 

[DATlongshui]

Read the above post. The NBME is the medical school boards, it may be like that not the GRE.

I thought the NBME is the alternative for OMFS. That's why I ask about for other specialties, like orthodontics. I thought there was some rumors about GRE being used for other specialties. Can you make your comments more clear, cause I totally got confused with what you are trying to say.

 

[Charmm]

Armor, do you think going to a school with med school classes will give students a better foundation to prepare/study for this test?

JBieber, See which is the best fit for you, by all means