Whats a More Important Predictor?

[paolorossifan]

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The Adcoms have looked at pur DATS,PATS,Gpa.SciGpa,BCPgpa, etc....
I would hope that most will look for students who they feel will be successfull in thier program. But whats the best (or or better) predictor for dental school success? Recent studies by the ADA suggest Science gpa to have the strongest relationship to success, with AA DAT following closely. PAT did not correlate well in the study....I agree.

What do you think?

 

[IWuvTeef]

i would agree that sci gpa and AA are good indicators

 

[eran76]

I think that predicting success in dental school is frankly irrelevant. I would be far more interested in seeing the correlation between these early indicators and clinical success in practice. Measuring that is a lot harder:
# Patients, # lawsuits, $$$, personal happiness, size of practice(s), patient reviews/recommendations, quality of work done????

While I'll grant that getting through and doing well in dental school is important, we mustn’t lose sight of the fact that at the end of the day, its drills-on-teeth that separate the academics from the dentists.

 

[erbs8908]

I think that predicting success in dental school is frankly irrelevant. I would be far more interested in seeing the correlation between these early indicators and clinical success in practice. Measuring that is a lot harder:
# Patients, # lawsuits, $$$, personal happiness, size of practice(s), patient reviews/recommendations, quality of work done????

While I'll grant that getting through and doing well in dental school is important, we mustn’t lose sight of the fact that at the end of the day, its drills-on-teeth that separate the academics from the dentists.

PAT is a skill used to see if you will be a good dentist. what about BCP gpa?

 

[paolorossifan]

PAT is a skill used to see if you will be a good dentist. what about BCP gpa?

Yes...BCP is prob. most important. I was surprised it had less of a correlation to dental school success in the study.

 

[ItsGavinC]

I don't think science GPA has a much of a correlation to dental school success. Maybe in the first academic years, but once preclinical work has began there is absolutely no correlation.

 

[eran76]

Couldn't agree more Gavin. The idea of a study of success in dental school is naturally going to be skewed by the first didactic years, which are representative of neither DS3/DS4 clinical work nor clinical work once in practice. Basically you could be a great academic student, as reflected by a high SciGPA, but have concrete hands once you're in clinical. So is that success? 2 out of 4 years??? IMO... I don't think so.