Specializing at Stonybrook

[Stillmaticbeat]

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I was just wondering, does stonybrook have a lot of people go into specialties? And if so, which ones and how many of them do?

When I went there for my interview and asked, this question, a lot of the students seemed to be going into a gpr and then planning on specializing. I'm not against doing that, but why do they go into a gpr if they plan on specializing anyway. We all know stonybrook is a great dental school and hard to get into, but I haven't heard that it is a "feeder" school into specialization programs such as harvard, ucla, and columbia.

 

[trident007]

I was just wondering, does stonybrook have a lot of people go into specialties? And if so, which ones and how many of them do?

When I went there for my interview and asked, this question, a lot of the students seemed to be going into a gpr and then planning on specializing. I'm not against doing that, but why do they go into a gpr if they plan on specializing anyway. We all know stonybrook is a great dental school and hard to get into, but I haven't heard that it is a "feeder" school into specialization programs such as harvard, ucla, and columbia.

I don't know about specialization rates, but to be licensed in the state of NY requires a one year residency after dental school.. so that would explain the high numbers.

 

[Stillmaticbeat]

yes, but stony is touted as an excellent school, which it is! I'm going there yay. If they went straight into specialization they wouldn't have to go the gpr. Their avg board 1 scores are in the 90's, so that would only help them specialize.

 

[Aceofspades]

yes, but stony is touted as an excellent school, which it is! I'm going there yay. If they went straight into specialization they wouldn't have to go the gpr. Their avg board 1 scores are in the 90's, so that would only help them specialize.

I wonder how they rank students? With a class size less than 40 one could find themselves in the bottom half of the class very quickly. Also only 4 people can be in the top 10%.

 

[wigglytooth]

Stony Brook doesn't rank per se, but the faculty have reviews of each of our records and basically know where we stand in the class. I assume this will help get a good dean's letter (don't really know for sure). A good amount of people specialize (for the size of the class), but you have to realize that a lot of people are happy with being a GP, which reflects a personal decision and not on the quality of the school. The people who are going to a gpr before trying a specialty may feel like they want more experience in certain proceduers to make up their minds or to boost their application. For example, it is becomming the norm to do a gpr before trying for ortho because it is just that competitive.

Best I could do is find the numbers for the class of 2007 on page 13 of this pdf:
http://www.hsc.stonybrook.edu/dental/docs/Dentistry_Today_2008.pdf

When it comes down to it, if you really want to specialize, you can make it happen wherever you are. Also, you may find out that you fit perfectly for GP. Just bring everything you can to the table and be the best you can be and you'll be fine at whatever you decide to do.

 

[Streetwolf]

There are no ranks and there are no reported GPAs. There are too few people in the class to have meaningful ranks and the pass/fail clinic courses would mess up the GPA (a pass is a 2.5). They do keep track of the GPAs for the purpose of ranking the top 2 students in each class, and those two graduate with high honors (#1) and honors (#2). I think that's what they call it anyhow.

 

[Black Teeth]

For example, it is becomming the norm to do a gpr before trying for ortho because it is just that competitive.

So very true. And it's not just with ortho either. It's starting to be the trend with oral surgery and pedo too. At many of my pedo interviews, the number of people with GPR and private practice experience heavily outnumbered those who were coming straight out of dental school. At one pedo program, 9 of the 12 applicants on the day of my interview had either done a GPR or had been in private practice for a few years. Some pedo programs specifically tell applicants that they shouldn't bother applying if they have not done a GPR.

 

[NyCzPeter]

There are no ranks and there are no reported GPAs. There are too few people in the class to have meaningful ranks and the pass/fail clinic courses would mess up the GPA (a pass is a 2.5). They do keep track of the GPAs for the purpose of ranking the top 2 students in each class, and those two graduate with high honors (#1) and honors (#2). I think that's what they call it anyhow.

what do you mean there are no ranks and reported gpa? Don't adcoms for specialty programs see our gpa? Otherwise why do we even get letter grades?

 

[Streetwolf]

what do you mean there are no ranks and reported gpa? Don't adcoms for specialty programs see our gpa? Otherwise why do we even get letter grades?

I don't think you'd want them to see your GPA that has factored in all those clinical course passes (2.5 GPA).

No, they do not send out a GPA. They can still see our letter grades though.