Texas Dental Schools -- GPA Question

[DCRedskinsRule]

If this was already a thread somewhere on this forum, I'm sorry but in my minimal research I couldn't find the answer.

I know that different students go to dental schools for different purposes i.e. to open a practice, work for military, specialize, service abroad...etc. A DDS is very versatile which is awesome .

But when you talk to someone about getting into any sort of Post-Doc residency, they always say to make sure that you're at least in the top 15 % (top 10% is the more common answer). I know that each class will have its fair share of gunners...but in dental school (esp the ones in TX), are there actually students who get 4.0's (or even close)? I can't fathom someone being able to handle the workload so easily and demonstrate mastery of EVERYTHING for 4 years.

Before all of you criticize me and tell me "hey, you just got in, don't get ahead of yourself, try surviving the first week before you talk about specializing"...that's not my purpose. My sister recently graduated law school and at her ceremony the Latin awards (Summa Cum Laude etc) had a much lower GPA cut-off than most undergrads that I know of and when I asked her about it, she said it was because it's basically impossible to get that high of a GPA in law school.

I just wondered if the same held true for Dental Schools to where instead of a 3.8 or something getting you into the top 10%, it was more around a 3.6

Thanks in advance for reading my BS and answering the question.

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[ldsmbhc]

A lot of schools do not use a 4.0 system. Some are on a pass/fail grading system and others are on a percentage system. My school takes the percentage you get for each course and weighs it according to the credit hours to figure out your GPA (for example GPA=93.7%). This is probably because there are a lot of students that get over 90% in all of their classes and it makes it easier to discriminate.

I know each school has a different philosophy in Texas as far as what is considered an average grade. In my opinion, this is one reason why class rank is more of an accurate number to go by as far as specializing is concerned.

 

[DCRedskinsRule]

A lot of schools do not use a 4.0 system. Some are on a pass/fail grading system and others are on a percentage system. My school takes the percentage you get for each course and weighs it according to the credit hours to figure out your GPA (for example GPA=93.7%). This is probably because there are a lot of students that get over 90% in all of their classes and it makes it easier to discriminate.

I know each school has a different philosophy in Texas as far as what is considered an average grade. In my opinion, this is one reason why class rank is more of an accurate number to go by as far as specializing is concerned.

That's basically what I was thinking. You pretty much addressed my question that the numerical calculation for GPA is not as important in terms of comparison as class rank is.

Thanks for the post. Made a lot of sense.

 

[DCRedskinsRule]

Anyone else have any thoughts?

 

[mamelons]

If this was already a thread somewhere on this forum, I'm sorry but in my minimal research I couldn't find the answer.

I know that different students go to dental schools for different purposes i.e. to open a practice, work for military, specialize, service abroad...etc. A DDS is very versatile which is awesome .

But when you talk to someone about getting into any sort of Post-Doc residency, they always say to make sure that you're at least in the top 15 % (top 10% is the more common answer). I know that each class will have its fair share of gunners...but in dental school (esp the ones in TX), are there actually students who get 4.0's (or even close)? I can't fathom someone being able to handle the workload so easily and demonstrate mastery of EVERYTHING for 4 years.

Before all of you criticize me and tell me "hey, you just got in, don't get ahead of yourself, try surviving the first week before you talk about specializing"...that's not my purpose. My sister recently graduated law school and at her ceremony the Latin awards (Summa Cum Laude etc) had a much lower GPA cut-off than most undergrads that I know of and when I asked her about it, she said it was because it's basically impossible to get that high of a GPA in law school.

I just wondered if the same held true for Dental Schools to where instead of a 3.8 or something getting you into the top 10%, it was more around a 3.6

Thanks in advance for reading my BS and answering the question.

I do not know how my class measures up to previous classes at San Antonio because we do not have our rankings from first year yet, and many people will not discuss stuff like that anyways. However, I heard from a couple of people that in the class ahead of me there were 14 students who had 4.0s at the end of first year. I am not sure how true this is, as it is just word of mouth, and if it is true, I am not sure how that number has changed, if at all. I imagine there are people who have around 3.75-3.8 when it's all said and done, but not very many. I would imagine the grades are much more spread out after students have didactics, pre-clinic, and clinic courses under their belt. You will find out that some people who do outstanding in didactics first year may struggle with hand skills the next, and vis versa. You will have some students who perform well in both. You will also have some students who might struggle the first two years, but are great when dealing with patients, and end up doing very well their last two years. I know it will vary from school to school, and you will probably never know the whole story until graduation. I imagine it will very from class to class as far as summa, magna, and cum laude. I may be wrong, but I don't think many schools have a set GPA to receive such honors. I think it is more like the top 5% will graduate summa, the next 5% will graduate magna, and the next 5% will graduate cum laude. This is just a hypothetical example, but I think this is how the people who graduate with honors and the GPAs are different from year to year. I don't know if that answers your question or not, or whether it was just a whole bunch of nonsense, but I hope that helps.

 

[CrazyatBCD]

I had a 3.7 and made it just fine into a Texas Dental School. Try to remember schools look at more than just your GPA. They also look at your DAT scores as well as your courseload. In my case, I took a ton of the dental school courses proactively, so I was actually a lot better prepared than those 4.0 students for dental school.

 

[Tstarfish]

Well all classes are different and all schools are different, but here at Baylor I know for a fact from a little bird that no one finished with a 4.0 in the current first year class. Due to our grading scale (93-100 is an A), lots of people can get those 90 but the full A is very hard to get always. Rumer has it that in clinic most everyone gets B's so I am aiming to finish with a 3.75 and I am hoping to specialize at some point. Hope this helps some!! Just my little bit of knowlege.