what approach to take

[goodadvice]

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Obviously I love the GP aspect of dentistry, or I would NOT be going to DS. But I would like to specialize if possible. I start DS this fall and I've heard two different types of advice on this from the dentists I've shadowed.

1. When you start DS the idea of specializing goes out the window and all you care about is doing your best to survive, if you end up doing good enough to specialize thats great, if not, thats great too...

2. If you want to specialize, make it your sole goal, get to know the professors over your specialty department, try to do research for them, and out study everyone...

Now before you comment let me tell you about myself. In undergrad I was never the smartest person in the class, there were a lot of people with lower grades who were smarter than me but I just out worked them and ended up with a 3.9, didn't really do a dedicated study for the DAT and ended up with a 20.

while I'm attracted to the second approach i dont like the idea of being a "gunner" and (since it seems that everyone in my future class has been a dental assistant and is super smart) I'm not sure working really hard is going to cut it.

Any advice from current DS students would be much appreciated!!!

 

[zriceman]

Obviously I love the GP aspect of dentistry, or I would NOT be going to DS. But I would like to specialize if possible. I start DS this fall and I've heard two different types of advice on this from the dentists I've shadowed.

1. When you start DS the idea of specializing goes out the window and all you care about is doing your best to survive, if you end up doing good enough to specialize thats great, if not, thats great too...

2. If you want to specialize, make it your sole goal, get to know the professors over your specialty department, try to do research for them, and out study everyone...

Now before you comment let me tell you about myself. In undergrad I was never the smartest person in the class, there were a lot of people with lower grades who were smarter than me but I just out worked them and ended up with a 3.9, didn't really do a dedicated study for the DAT and ended up with a 20.

while I'm attracted to the second approach i dont like the idea of being a "gunner" and (since it seems that everyone in my future class has been a dental assistant and is super smart) I'm not sure working really hard is going to cut it.

Any advice from current DS students would be much appreciated!!!

just study as hard as you can so you dont close any doors and have no regrets. If you make it specializing, great. If you dont, no regrets, you gave it your best.

 

[flapaTron]

work hard but don't become a douchebag. 🙂