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I've heard its you have to be in the top 10 percent of your class to go into orthodontics. well i have been researching it and came upon this statement by the UT austin dental school ortho specialty program

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The program currently accepts seven (7) students per year. The program is clinically-based with approximately 60 percent of the time devoted to clinical treatmen....
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7 students 😱! Is it really THAT hard to get into that specialty? Or is it just this one school that turns out to be extremely selective? :scared:
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OK 7 spots in a single school for orthodontics is actually a lot. And I think most people would agree that you need to do better than just top 10% to get into orthodontics.

Work hard. Do your research. SEARCH THE FORUM!
 
I was not aware that UT Austin had a dental school or postgraduate residencies.
 
yea, i've looked at many schools that only take 2 or 3 residents for ortho....
 
Get into a dental school first. Then, think about specialty.
 
Seven residents per year seems like a lot. I may be wrong, but the program might have spots reserved for those students who are military, wanting to teach/do research, or who are wanting to work in an underserved area upon completion of the program. It may also have something to do with the fact that they have an option Masters track and a certificate-only track. They may have spots reserved for those who are prusuing a masters. So, in reality, it may not be 7 spots...
 
At one of my interviews, the admissions director, who was also on the selection committee for the school's ortho program, told us that only the top 3 individuals -- NOT top 3% -- from any given school's class would be considered for interviews. Even at Harvard, with their class size of 35, the top 3rd individual ranks a point or two higher than 10%.

The reason he brought this up was, 4th year students from their school applying to their ortho program would at least be given a courtesy interview, given their other qualifications met standards, regardless of whether they placed in the top 3 of their class at that school.
 
At one of my interviews, the director of admissions mentioned that ortho and oral surgery were the two most competitive. Ortho needed to be in the top 10% and oral in the top 4%. She also said that there's been a shortage of pediatric dentists in the country, so that one's been a little easier to get into.
 
Eh...ortho tends to be more competitive than surgery, although they are the top 2 for sure. Typically have to be in the top 5 for consideration, although probably top 3. Pediatrics is becoming a much more popular specialty and will therefore has and will become more competitive. Not sure about prostho, but my understanding is that perio is one of the less competitive specialties.

Keep in mind that you do not need to specialize to perform the duties performed by most of the specialties. Most students enter school planning on ortho, many of them find something more interesting or simply decide that it isn't worth it to kill yourself in school for the shot at it. There are plenty of interesting, enjoyable aspects of dentistry that you will be exposed to also. So don't put all of your eggs in on basket. Especially in the interviews. In my opinion, going into an interview hell bent on ortho says that you are interested in making money, not health care and dentistry. Basically because everyone assumes that orthodontists make a ton of money and barely work despite knowing very little about the field.
 
There are about 300 spots available nationally for ortho each year. There are about 4000 students who graduate from dental school each year. Now the OP can continue to freak out.
 
ddhm said:
At one of my interviews, the admissions director, who was also on the selection committee for the school's ortho program, told us that only the top 3 individuals -- NOT top 3% -- from any given school's class would be considered for interviews. Even at Harvard, with their class size of 35, the top 3rd individual ranks a point or two higher than 10%. The reason he brought this up was, 4th year students from their school applying to their ortho program would at least be given a courtesy interview, given their other qualifications met standards, regardless of whether they placed in the top 3 of their class at that school.
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:laugh:

unless i misunderstood what you wrote, i find that hard to believe, considering that ucla had 21/88 of its students match into ortho 2 years ago. its competitive, for sure...but there is no requirement that only the top 3 from any program can get into a specialty. Most schools that i've interviewed at have listed atleast 7-10 of their students per class as having matched into ortho or omfs (these schools were, of course, big on specialty training).

its competitive, of course...but it makes sense. compare the number of students who get accepted to undergrad per school to the number accepted to dental school...for ucla its ~3400 (entering undergrad) to 88 for dental school.

as stated above...worry about getting into dental school first. you may find you don't even like ortho once you get into d-school, so don't waste your time freaking out about it now. best of luck 👍
 
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