What matters the most: grades or board scores in regard to getting accepted into a residency program. Or is it based on who you know?
I think it is all three. I will tell you why I say this. At a dental school whose name I won't mention, there was a girl who was near the bottom of her class, and she was one of four students selected for ortho residency. Mind you, she hadn't yet passed her final set of boards, but she had one thing going for her: her dad helped build the ortho clinic. So, how do you tell her she isn't going to get ortho? The other students selected were near the top of their class and had been the entire four years. This sort of thing goes on all the time. People get into dental, med, pharm, and any other school there is using personal relationships based on money, family, and a host of other reasons. There is no reason why a dental residency should be any different. To think that personal relationships don't play some role in the selection process is simply unrealistic.
I agree with Maxann (bet you never thought that would happen). Life, in general, as well as dentistry has a large component based on personal relationships. Once this is accepted, it is easier to deal with seemingly unfair situations. With that said, I would say board scores and grades are far more important for ortho, OMFS and endo. Pedo and GPR have a large interview component, and lots of middle students get in on their personality which gels with the director.
