Specialization

[sirrenda]

---

Members don't see this ad.

So lets say you get accepted to a bunch of dental schools, and you would like to go on to specialization after you get your DDS. Taking into consideration that some dental schools are pass/fail, and the NBDE is now pass/fail, Does the dental school you select effect the probability of going on to specialty school? Or is it simply your rating/e.c.?? For argument sake lets say you get accepted to an Ivy League Dental School, and State school, and a school somewhere in between. Does selecting the Ivy League school give you a higher chance of getting into specialization schools?

I am a man of statistic and facts, and I like to analyze everything prior to their occurrence. So your experience, or stats are welcome.

 

[AlbinoPolarBear]

This topic has been discussed to death, but I'll give you my take on it.

The hardest 2 specialties to enter to is OMFS and ortho, so I'm going to focus on those. other specialties are more lenient in their expectations. But for these 2, you would usually need to be top 10% of your class if you come from a state school.

If you're going for OMFS, then you would have to write an additional exam, the NBME CBSE. This solves the problem of P/F part 1 dental boards. This test is designed for medical students, so dental schools who have their students complete their first 2 years with the medical school will have an advantage in this test, but with a USMLE review book (First Aid), that deficiency can be made up if the student is willing enough.

If you're going for ortho, most of the schools want you to write the GRE. You would also need to submit your undergrad transcript and your DAT score.

Schools don't want to penalize students for going to a state school, but they do realize that the Ivy league tends to attract higher calibre students on average. Harvard has a small class of 35, and they train their students to be leaders of dentistry later on. Most specialize in whatever they want. Columbia ranks kids in thirds, and if you're top third, you can pretty much specialize in whatever you want. If you don't, then it will be a tougher hill to climb. For Penn, they rank the top 10 students, and everyone else is ranked 11th. 17 students matched into ortho last year, and only 1 of them is in the top 10.

But if you're cream of the crop, you're cream of the crop. If you can make it to an Ivy, then you'd have no problem making top 10% of your class. But general rule is, if you want it bad enough, you'll get it. A lot of people get burned out after 4 years of dental school and just wanna work and make money. Some have other obligations, such as family, and would rather want to support their family instead of going further into debt.

Stats do show that ivy league/UCLA/UCSF tends to send more kids to speciality programs, but it is because they accept on average, a class that is of higher calibre. in the end, i'm saying that the individual will decide if they will get into speciality programs, not the name of the school.

This is not like in Fortune 500 companies, where they only hire HBS and Wharton students.

 

[diasIItema]

People also don't realize that this isn't an all-or-nothing, one time deal. If you apply for OMFS and don't get matched, you can always apply again after building credentials. Most people matched do not come directly out of dental school, I believe. I personally don't want to specialize and so I turned down Harvard for my state school, but I think it would be highly imprudent to choose a school b/c you "know" you want to specialize.

Dental school is not undergrad; it's far more difficult and success is based more on effort than intelligence. That being said, you really won't have a clue what you really like until you experience it firsthand. For all you know you might fall in love with general dentistry and simply want to do CE and get experience in certain areas. If that's the case, choosing a school like Harvard with a truncated clinical education would probably not have been as wise as choosing the state school which will prepare you to be a better clinical dentist (probably cheaper as well). Or for all you know, you might not be cut out for specialization after all. It's a sobering thought, but there are people in my class who had 4.0's in hard sciences at good schools and barely passed Gross Anatomy in dental school.

 

[Contach]

You can try to beat the system, but in the end, work ethic will do you in.
There's no replacement for hard work.

 

[gracey14]

Y

 

[uthscsaalum]

I think you should crunch the numbers and try to figure out how much debt you will accumulate at the schools you are choosing from and let that be a major factor in your decision.

If you really want it and work hard enough from the day you arrive on campus you'll have a good chance of getting in.

You have to realize that if you go to a place like a state school maybe only two or three get into OMFS but only 5 or 6 are gunning for it from day one. Most just want to be general dentists or some other specialty with a shorter residency.