The life. What year has the worst courseload typically?

[SoG]

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I know this varies by individuals and by schools.
I would like to know the overall picture of the life in dental schools for each year and how busy the life is. What year in a dental school will be easiest or hardest?
I also wonder if there's a possibility of keeping a part-time work.

Thank you

 

[jackbauer!]

I'm only a D1 at UMaryland, but by talking to upperclassmen about the which year is the "hardest" I typically got the same answer: every year is a different kind of stress.

At our school, we take boards summer after first year so this year is packed with basic sciences, pre-clinical/dental courses, and the other BS courses.

Second year is a lot of lab work. If you hate doing lab work, you'll find 2nd year challenging.

Third year you're in the clinic working on patients. This can be very stressful at first. You're not working on a dry, perfect typodont anymore.

Fourth year you're frantically trying to meet clinical requirements. If you go to a school that has an inefficient clinic and high graduation requirements (like _._._.), then I can imagine you will be basically hating life.

Personally, I'm finding D1 at Maryland challenging, but certainly not impossible.

Hope that helped, jb!🙂

 

[armorshell]

UOP hardest year = D1 hands down

 

[silver7285]

Every year has it's stresses, but when I look back D1 is the hardest. Everything is thrown at you at once and the hours spent studying are endless.

Some people do have a tough D2 year, but they find that out early and either get help or walk away.

D3 year is a strange experience for the first time working on real people, but you finally start to feel like a dentist and you can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Except for your board exams D4 year was actually enjoyable. The instructors start to treat you like real people and you know your time is almost up.

I agree with the statement that every year has different stresses, however each year got better for me.

 

[SuperC]

So far school has not been that bad, but this semester (D2, Spring) is starting to look pretty bad.
-C

 

[Streetwolf]

I think D1 is the hardest in terms of studying but D2 is otherwise the hardest here at SB since you're in class from 8-6 many days of the week. That leaves you little time for out of class work. Plus you take the boards at the end of D2.

 

[Wayne Coronado]

I know this varies by individuals and by schools.
I would like to know the overall picture of the life in dental schools for each year and how busy the life is. What year in a dental school will be easiest or hardest?
I also wonder if there's a possibility of keeping a part-time work.

Thank you

At Kentucky, my experience was that D2.5-D3.5 was the toughest stretch. We started seeing our first patients at the start of the spring semester (DSII), were in the thick of general path (among others), and plenty of monkeying around in the lab. Then came Part I in the summertime. Then right back to it with Pharm, Opath, more labs, more patients in the fall. Things really calmed down in the spring (DSIII) and I essentially had jack to do aside from seeing patients and knocking out a few easy classes from there on out (it seriously took some getting used to). 4th year was like an extended vacation aside from showing up to clinic and taking Part II. I had plenty of leisure time for other activities . The topic of part-time work was recently covered and might be of encouragement (or discouragement), so use the search 👍

 

[2quik]

D1@ creighton is awesome. Today, I couldnt figure out whether to sh-it, sleep or study first, after my 8-5 day (which is mon-fri).

 

[ChilliCheeseDog]

D1@ creighton is awesome. Today, I couldnt figure out whether to sh-it, sleep or study first, after my 8-5 day (which is mon-fri).

yeah thats a tough choice...personally I'm almost always inclined to deuce it up before sleeping or eating......eating def. before sleeping....but sometimes i eat in bed and then drop anchor in bed while I sleep....i also study class notes on my laptop in the shower and pee in the sink sometimes...oh, and I also tend to black out at weddings and sleep in hotel lobbies with homeless guys.........these are a few of my favorite things......when I tire of studying I go sasquatch hunting and hang out with Bear Grills in the outback and eat live snake heads for breakfast....I also stay up late and post ******ed stuff on SDN if the mood strikes me....i now see a pretty serious game of halo looming in the future before I cry myself to bed and dream about beer.....👎

diggity diggity

 

[mochafreak]

D1@ creighton is awesome. Today, I couldnt figure out whether to sh-it, sleep or study first, after my 8-5 day (which is mon-fri).

Ah, just wait until 2nd year...at least you still have a lunch break on Fridays (and when we have patients on Fridays we get to come in early to set up the op). Wednesday we were allowed to work through lunch break as well... 😉

 

[dr.rex]

i would say that the first year at case is a joke so far, but it looks like the second years are pretty stressed out.

 

[utahdentist2be]

i would say that the first year at case is a joke so far, but it looks like the second years are pretty stressed out.

That's interesting that you say that, because I was just talking with some people the other day that were saying how high-strung the first years are. But it is true, the second semester of second year is turning out to be pretty busy. Nothing in particular that is more difficult than anything else we've done, but busy nonetheless.

 

[blankguy]

Looks like I'm going to be in class and studying 24/7 for the first 2 years. I don't know how 3rd and 4th year are going to be since it seems to be a different animal. I'm going to find out why dentistry is such an exclusive profession and why dentist get paid so much the hard way.

 

[jackbauer!]

Looks like I'm going to be in class and studying 24/7 for the first 2 years. I don't know how 3rd and 4th year are going to be since it seems to be a different animal. I'm going to find out why dentistry is such an exclusive profession and why dentist get paid so much the hard way.

boy, i sure hope not. make lots of friends and take part in as many socials as possible. dental school would be miserable otherwise.

jb!🙂

 

[blankguy]

boy, i sure hope not. make lots of friends and take part in as many socials as possible. dental school would be miserable otherwise.

jb!🙂

I may be exaggerating but I feel that if I want to do well then that is the attitude that I am going to have. Sure you can have a life outside of dental school but depending on how much time I spend it could adversely affect my performance in school.

 

[Shunwei]

boy, i sure hope not. make lots of friends and take part in as many socials as possible. dental school would be miserable otherwise.

jb!🙂

I agree. This is why I chose to go to a school with a P/F system. I want to work hard but I also want to balance out my life with fun as well.

 

[tinker bell]

D2 year

 

[kato999]

i probably got the least amount of golfing done the 1st year at AZ so i would say that was the toughest year. 😎

 

[toofshucker]

Everyone at Temple says D2 is the hardest, but I thought D1 was harder. I am a lot less stressed out this year. Still a ton to do, but I feel like I know what to do now.

 

[SuperC]

Now that we are a month in, D2 spring is no fun



1. Introduction to Oral Surgery (Part I)
2. Oral Medicine and Pharmacotherapeutics in Dentistry
3. Oral Pathology
4. Prosthodontic Treatment of the Edentulous Patients
5. Periodontic Treatment Planning and Disease Control
6. Introduction to Clinical Diagnosis and Treatment Planning
7. Preclinical Fixed Prosthodontics III
8. Basic Endodontic Therapy
9. Disorders of the Body System