Sorry guys----I've been studying too much. Anyway, to elaborate on my previous post.
First off----going to a Top dental school is always benefical in some situations. If you want to do research, then look towards Harvard or the like. If you want to be President, Chief of "specialty", researcher or any high position within a institution then contacts like alumni and name-brand schools can be advantageous. As much as it can help---ivy league and top schools can hurt. To become a specialist you have to have 2 things. Great boards and high class rank. Ortho is known to take the top 1-5 in the class. Endo and OMS is next in line followed by Perio. All of the specialties look at the boards in conjunction with the rank. (Some schools are changing the grading scale----but even they will keep track of who is performing the best!) Nearly every school offers advance training for nearly every specialty. Some schools like Iowa (very rare) have training for EVERY specialty available in dentistry. So---here is the scenario:
You decide to go to Harvard and you finish an incredible 30th in your class. Your grades are superb but because of the competition and surroundings you couldn't break the top 10. Now your boards are great but so are nearly everyone's around you. Lets say Harvard has 5 openings for ortho. Obviously your not in the game there. Is it possible to apply to another college for advance training? Sure----but won't they have top students of their own? Yep. Now it comes down to board scores and class rank, once again. Are you S.O.L ? No---but are you in the driver's seat? nope.
"Person X" decided on a competitive state school and finishes in the top 5 with nearly identicle board scores as you. As I said before 98% of schools have openings for specialties. Especially for their top students. Are you competitive? yep. Are you going to have a shot at a specialty---especially if your school offers that particular one? Definitely. Are you any better than the Harvard student? Probably not in fact if they went to the same school they might have been in the top 3! But the weighted-scale we all have come to know and love isn't that powerful----at the specialty level----to disregard a #5 student at any college.
If you graduate top 5 at Harvard and had great boards you obviously can write your own ticket. But if you think because you went to a certain university you're going to get a shoe-in for a specialty----you haven't done your homework. Class rank and boards (and you can through good recommendation in too) are what ultimately matter! So where do you want to compete? Where do you think you can learn the most and perform the best on the boards and still be in the top tier of your class? Do you want to be a part of the masses and just another student or be a big fish in a smaller pond? Are there schools that teach better clinicians? You bet. Are there schools known for their research curriculum? You bet. But if specialty is your passion then seek the University that is competitive and more importantly----the place where you can be most competitive.
Sorry for the rambling---limited time tonight. There are exception to every general concept----so I have no doubt there are many stories that can and will disprove this passage. It is not the extreme cases I'm referring to----just the basic principle.
Good luck and study hard.
R.R.B
