WHY? WHY? WHY?

[Beagle]

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Why is it that there are so few books on DATS, dental schools, or anything about dentistry? Why is it that in the U.S new's report on the top graduate and professional schools, dental school is never mentioned?
(but other things are like....Masters in English or history are talked about and ranked?)
I suppose dental school is more mentioned than optometry or podiatry so that's good.
But WHY!! Is dentistry not important?
I am sick of hearing that everyone applies to medical school and doctors this, doctors that, or lawyers--how many of those are there????

 

[Disco Stu]

I agree totally with you. If they rank programs in English and History, why not dental school? Why are dental schools snubbed?

I think there is a misconception about dentistry in general. Ever hear of the joke: "What do you call a doctor that didn't make it into medical school?" Many people think that dentistry is easy or assume that the only reason that students enter dental school is because that they couldn't get into med. school. Both myths are totally untrue.

Of course, lawyers and medical doctors are glamourized in very high regard by the media. Just check out the tv listings: ER, General Hosipital, City of Angels, Law and Order, The Practice, Judging Amy, and etc...

I guess in the heirarchy of professions, dentists are just held in less regard than doctor and lawyers by the general public. There is no reason for it. Maybe this abhorration (sp?) of dentists is due to the fact that the editors of US News and World Report just plain hate the sound of drills. 😀

I really think that its due to the fact that the dental community haven't been vocal enough about it. We just need to swap their, US News and World Report, mail boxes with complaints. If we make it known that there is a market for that kind of info, it will appear.

Speaking of jokes..What do you call 1,000,000 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?
😉

 

[gower]

Count your blessings. A higher power is looking after your best interests. "Ranking" is no way to choose a graduate or professional school since we usually never know on prescisely what criteria the ranking is based, since a high "ranked" school may not be strongest in all areas or exactly the area you are looking forward to, since it takes no account of the individual personal factors conducive to learning and living.

If I could figure out how to do it, if we must have rankings, I would include a "happy camper" score because being comfortable, at ease in a pleasant and supporting environment, with good teachers, good facilities, and good friends facilitates learning.

And instead of numerical scores, I propose icons for those who are overly "rank" conscious. In descending order: Emperor/Empress, King, Prince/Princess, Duke/Duchess and on down to Cinderella.

As for why dental schools are not ranked, isn't it obvious? Dentists are beneath everybody, an "untouchable" caste.

Dental schools are ranked but even if I remembered where the rankings could be found, I will let it lie in the undiscovered country.

From my attitude it must be clear that I am someone who did not get into dental school. If it makes you happy to believe that, go right ahead. Feeling superior to others, as I well know, is one of the joys of being human. However, I am still the Prince my mother gave birth to, above even mere MDs and Presidents.

 

[GoatBoy]

Actually, USNews and the Gorman rankings use to rank dental schools (I think about 5 years ago), however the ADA and the dental schools felt that the criteria used for these rankings was not accurate and so stopped them from making rankings about dental schools.

 

[Doggie]

Yup...

However, I think Gourman still secretly rates dental school based purely on academics. Some Dental/Med School books will contain the gourman's rating for each individual school. Last time I checked (2 months ago), Harvard Dental school was still #1.

 

[RacerDude2249]

Originally posted by gower:
•
From my attitude it must be clear that I am someone who did not get into dental school. If it makes you happy to believe that, go right ahead. Feeling superior to others, as I well know, is one of the joys of being human. However, I am still the Prince my mother gave birth to, above even mere MDs and Presidents.•

Hey Gower,

What the heck are you talking about?

Racerdude

 

[Ford67]

I dont think the general public puts dentists behind physicians and certainly not lawyers. There are a countless number of politicians and community leaders who were or are practicing dentists. I think a big problem is that dentists are associated with two things, PAIN and GREED. I also think alot of people resent the fact that dentists make more than they do and work less hours, in particularly physicians. These people tend to put down dentistry so they can justify in their own heads why they didnt go into dentistry. 😀

 

[hunk22]

The reasons why dental school sare not ranked are:-

1. Its is difficult to evaluate dental schools based on the way dentistry is taught, thuis older rankins focused more on how involved the school was in research and how the staff felt about working there. This is obviously not a good way to rank.

2. and Most imporatantly there are only 55 or so dental schools thus little importance is given to them compared to other fields.