Class Ranking vs Institution Name

[itx]

Hey guys,

I recently got admitted into two well respected schools, one well known for its research and placing students in specialities, the other more clinically oriented but with research opportunities availible. I got a lot from my undergrad but always felt that if I had gone to an easier one my GPA would have been much higher and made it much possible for me to have more options when it came to choosing dental schools. In an ideal world I know a lot of people would say go to the more prestigous school because they are looked more highly upon than an applicant from a less didactic schools (Penn vs Temple comes to mind).

If you had the choice between Penn (where I see myself being 65-75%tile) or Temple (where I see myself being at 80%tile or better), which route would make it easier for me to get into a OMS residency? I am assuming I would perform just the same on the boards whether I go to school A or B. Is it like applying from undergrad to DS where institution name is important but GPA is even more important? Because practically speaking a 3.0 student from Cal could get 4.0 at some Cal State, and obviously a 3.7 student regardless of institution is more competetive than a 3.0 student assuming a decent test score.

Your inputs are very much appreciated, thank you.

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[Thunderdome23]

Hey guys,

I recently got admitted into two well respected schools, one well known for its research and placing students in specialities, the other more clinically oriented but with research opportunities availible. I got a lot from my undergrad but always felt that if I had gone to an easier one my GPA would have been much higher and made it much possible for me to have more options when it came to choosing dental schools. In an ideal world I know a lot of people would say go to the more prestigous school because they are looked more highly upon than an applicant from a less didactic schools (Penn vs Temple comes to mind).

If you had the choice between Penn (where I see myself being 65-75%tile) or Temple (where I see myself being at 80%tile or better), which route would make it easier for me to get into a OMS residency? I am assuming I would perform just the same on the boards whether I go to school A or B. Is it like applying from undergrad to DS where institution name is important but GPA is even more important? Because practically speaking a 3.0 student from Cal could get 4.0 at some Cal State, and obviously a 3.7 student regardless of institution is more competetive than a 3.0 student assuming a decent test score.

Your inputs are very much appreciated, thank you.

You're thinking about this the wrong way. Go to the school that you actually LIKE, and the one in which the students seemed less stressed. OMFS residency looks more at how you show your dedication to the field rather than what school you went to. If you do well on the boards and have a good class rank and do plenty of externships in OMFS you will get in. Also, I know you think you want to do OMFS, but keep in mind, you have not performed any dental procedure yet, so how in the world can you be sure you want to do OMFS. The answer is you cannot. There is so much you don't know and while it's good to have a goal, the truth is you will find out what you really are passionate about in dentistry once you actually start doing it. I used to want to do OMFS, but after 3 years into dental school I have changed my mind. I am not saying this is what you will do, but keep an open mind when trying to plan the next 8-10 years of your training. I will advise you on one thing: figure out what you like OMFS it during dental school. If you want to do private practice, keep in mind that most of what they do is pull teeth and place implants. Do you really want to do a 4-6 year residency working 120hrs a week to do what a general dentist can do (granted maybe not the very complicated cases, but the same procedures nontheless). Generally the people who go into OMFS are people who do not like any other fields of dentistry, just some food for thought. I was once like you, but soon realized through dental school that there are so many other aspects of dentistry that interests me. As glamorous as it may seem, specializing ultimately limits what you can do. If you ever find you want to venture into something else, as a specialist you cannot by law do this, whereas a gp can...Something's to think about....Good luck.

 

[servitup]

If one is significantly cheaper, go there. The other stuff won't matter as long as you do well.

 

[ODEP PEDO]

Go with cheaper tuition

 

[1169]

Also, I know you think you want to do OMFS, but keep in mind, you have not performed any dental procedure yet, so how in the world can you be sure you want to do OMFS. The answer is you cannot. There is so much you don't know and while it's good to have a goal, the truth is you will find out what you really are passionate about in dentistry once you actually start doing it.

I'm in second year. Our school is this pressure cooker type school where everybody is gunning to be a specialist, but for me, I have NO IDEA what I want to do. So far I've taken some ortho and perio, with endo, surgery, pedo etc. still to come. How does one decide so early on in school when I haven't even taken those introductory courses yet? I feel so behind compared to other people in my class. I won't start to see any real patients until third year (not counting scaling patients in second year), at which point I should already be thinking about applications and externships etc, no?

 

[Thunderdome23]

I'm in second year. Our school is this pressure cooker type school where everybody is gunning to be a specialist, but for me, I have NO IDEA what I want to do. So far I've taken some ortho and perio, with endo, surgery, pedo etc. still to come. How does one decide so early on in school when I haven't even taken those introductory courses yet? I feel so behind compared to other people in my class. I won't start to see any real patients until third year (not counting scaling patients in second year), at which point I should already be thinking about applications and externships etc, no?

I agree, it is very difficult, and it adds an unnecessary pressure to hear everyone talking about how they want to specialize. But one must beg the question "do they really WANT to specialize or do they think they HAVE to specialize?" People in dental school, who are unexposed to how the real world works often think that specializing is the thing to do, regardless of their true passions, of which they have not developed yet if they haven't even done a single procedure on a real patient. As a homegrown gunner we have all worked hard to out compete others; it started by getting A's in undergrad, then acing the DAT, then outcompeting other applicants for a spot at a dental school, and now we all somehow think we need to specialize because it makes us feel special to do the unobtainable, or what is perceived by others as something "hard to do". However, the public has very little knowledge of dental specialist and views us all as equals for the most part. We are at a point now where the decisions we make will effect our day-to-day happiness for the rest of our lives, so it is time to STOP thinking of what others are doing/saying and start thinking for our own and deciding to pursue what we want to do when we want to do it. It is OKAY to NOT specialize and get a large variety of procedures to get good at for the rest of our lives instead of limiting ourselves to a one or two procedure limited specialty after little experience simply out of peer pressure!

 

[HupHolland]

You're thinking about this the wrong way. Go to the school that you actually LIKE, and the one in which the students seemed less stressed. OMFS residency looks more at how you show your dedication to the field rather than what school you went to. If you do well on the boards and have a good class rank and do plenty of externships in OMFS you will get in. Also, I know you think you want to do OMFS, but keep in mind, you have not performed any dental procedure yet, so how in the world can you be sure you want to do OMFS. The answer is you cannot. There is so much you don't know and while it's good to have a goal, the truth is you will find out what you really are passionate about in dentistry once you actually start doing it. I used to want to do OMFS, but after 3 years into dental school I have changed my mind. I am not saying this is what you will do, but keep an open mind when trying to plan the next 8-10 years of your training. I will advise you on one thing: figure out what you like OMFS it during dental school. If you want to do private practice, keep in mind that most of what they do is pull teeth and place implants. Do you really want to do a 4-6 year residency working 120hrs a week to do what a general dentist can do (granted maybe not the very complicated cases, but the same procedures nontheless). Generally the people who go into OMFS are people who do not like any other fields of dentistry, just some food for thought. I was once like you, but soon realized through dental school that there are so many other aspects of dentistry that interests me. As glamorous as it may seem, specializing ultimately limits what you can do. If you ever find you want to venture into something else, as a specialist you cannot by law do this, whereas a gp can...Something's to think about....Good luck.

listen to this guy.

Hup

 

[HupHolland]

I agree, it is very difficult, and it adds an unnecessary pressure to hear everyone talking about how they want to specialize. But one must beg the question "do they really WANT to specialize or do they think they HAVE to specialize?" People in dental school, who are unexposed to how the real world works often think that specializing is the thing to do, regardless of their true passions, of which they have not developed yet if they haven't even done a single procedure on a real patient. As a homegrown gunner we have all worked hard to out compete others; it started by getting A's in undergrad, then acing the DAT, then outcompeting other applicants for a spot at a dental school, and now we all somehow think we need to specialize because it makes us feel special to do the unobtainable, or what is perceived by others as something "hard to do". However, the public has very little knowledge of dental specialist and views us all as equals for the most part. We are at a point now where the decisions we make will effect our day-to-day happiness for the rest of our lives, so it is time to STOP thinking of what others are doing/saying and start thinking for our own and deciding to pursue what we want to do when we want to do it. It is OKAY to NOT specialize and get a large variety of procedures to get good at for the rest of our lives instead of limiting ourselves to a one or two procedure limited specialty after little experience simply out of peer pressure!

...and again!

 

[PickMe]

you should probably consider that penn does not rank their students. they rank only the top 10, so if you are predicting to be in the 60th %tile then it really doesnt matter. i personally think that it really benefits us that they dont rank. most of the class has relatively high GPAs, and when programs see the GPA they assume the student is close to the top of their class when in reality the student may fall in the 50th %tile or even below. but theres no way for the school that they are applying to to know where they stand, other than the fact that they have a relatively high GPA. honestly i would say go to penn if you are definite about specializing, after going through the interview process i really think it helps. i have met so many applicants from columbia, penn, harvard and relatively few from temple. i still think that they are probably equally qualified, but for who knows what reasons, they dont seem to get as many interviews, even having similar stats. with that in mind, if you are unsure about specializing then consider temple more because penn is ridiculously expensive and in my opinion not worth it if coming out as a general dentist (unless you have rich parents to pay for it, haha). good luck with your decision, either way the most important factor is how hard you work, like youve already mentioned.