OMFS applicants

[north2southOMFS]

Nope MGH has three first year spots. Only one had matched the other two were post-match.

I gotta congratulate you guys on your interviews, you all seem to be doing very well with recieving them. I wish I knew about this board last year when I was interviewing, it would have taken some of the butterflies away while awaiting phone calls, emails, letters.......

good luck.

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[LeFort]

Anyone heard about Knoxville, San Antonio, UIC, Minnesota, Washington Hospital?

 

[tjb]

Heard from Henry Ford/Detroit Mercy today.
You can also add Washington Hospital, Tufts and Allegheny County to the list.

tjb

 

[VancouverDoc2b]

As a first year dental student I understand the motivation, drive, will, and natural ability needed to succeed in Dental School, and all the more so, to pursue a specialty. I would like to tip my hat off to those of you who have made that decision and have pursued your goal with all you have. Good luck and congratulations to all of you.

Also, tjb, I see you're doing quite well in the 'Interview Received' Department. I was just wondering if you could give me a guide as to what your credentials are. ie. class rank, nbde scores, extracurricular activities etc in order to guide me in the right direction. Thank you.

 

[watanka]

Got UIC..it was a letter

 

[OMFSResident]

Class rank: #1
GPA: 4.0
Boards : 96
Minimal research
5 weeks of externships
Good Letters of Rec
Trained in IV sedation
Horrible undergrad!

tjb

Good job TJB. I will see you at the interview when you come to AGH. I am a second year resident there.

 

[OMFSResident]

Anyone heard about Knoxville, San Antonio, UIC, Minnesota, Washington Hospital?

Knoxville is a good program. Lots of trauma. I did a one month externship down there when I was going into my third year of dental school when Dr. JW Hudson was the director. Now with Dr. Carlson the director they do alot of head and neck cancer surgery. My good friend is a third year resident there.

 

[tjb]

Latest update:

BU (BMC)
UCSF
Parkland
Loma Linda
Univ. Michigan
Univ FL-Gainesville
FL-Jacksonville
Nova
Cincinnati
Iowa
Case Western
Washington
Univ Miami
LSU NO
LSU SHREVEPORT
Cleveland-Metrohealth
MGH Harvard
Highland Hospital Oakland
Houston
Indiana
Emory
UPenn
Maryland
Louisville
Vanderbilt
Carle
UCLA
Mayo
LAC+USC
UIC
Henry Ford/Detroit Mercy
Univ. KY
Allegheny General
Medical College WI
Washington Hospital

tjb

 

[BSSO]

Anyone here extern or know much about Maryland, i've heard some mixed comments.

 

[toofache32]

Anyone here extern or know much about Maryland, i've heard some mixed comments.

One of my classmates who is at UF-Gainesville now, externed at Maryland and found first-hand that the rumors were true. He said the residents seem miserable and argue/quarrel a lot and that the staff did more operating than the residents. But I've only heard good things about the cancer fellowship.

 

[TradeSosa]

I need to coordinate some interviews so I can buy a reasonably priced plane ticket (14 days in advance). The problem is that I need to know what time the interview at Kentucky starts on Nov 9th, and whether or not the first day is a meet-and-greet (I lost my notes I took from the phone call). If anyone could help me out it would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Add U of Kentucky to the list

 

[Be'You]

got one from Medical College of Georgia today by email.

 

[TradeSosa]

Oh yeah, add UConn also

 

[tjb]

I need to coordinate some interviews so I can buy a reasonably priced plane ticket (14 days in advance). The problem is that I need to know what time the interview at Kentucky starts on Nov 9th, and whether or not the first day is a meet-and-greet (I lost my notes I took from the phone call). If anyone could help me out it would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Sorry, can't remember what Van Sickels said either. I was hoping they would send some more info soon. He said the first night we meet for dinner where he explains the program, slide show etc... the next day is the formal interview. Exact times I don't know.

tjb

 

[BSSO]

One of my classmates who is at UF-Gainesville now, externed at Maryland and found first-hand that the rumors were true. He said the residents seem miserable and argue/quarrel a lot and that the staff did more operating than the residents. But I've only heard good things about the cancer fellowship.

Thanks for the info,
i'll keep that in mind, its ashame though since the faculty are very well know in their respective feilds.

 

[BSSO]

Sorry, can't remember what Van Sickels said either. I was hoping they would send some more info soon. He said the first night we meet for dinner where he explains the program, slide show etc... the next day is the formal interview. Exact times I don't know.

tjb

I believe that he said that they would be sending out a letter with the schedule of the days events.

 

[WestCoast]

Heared from U of Pitt by call by Dr. Costello

 

[Jediwendell]

San Antonio generally notifies late and their interview is usually after the new year.

 

[Yah-E]

Did you send a copy of your CV directly to the program directors or is there a spot on the PASS where you can attach and/or paste your CV?

 

[BSSO]

Did you send a copy of your CV directly to the program directors or is there a spot on the PASS where you can attach and/or paste your CV?

You send in a copy of your CV to pass, however i would suggest as TJB has mentioned before to send a copy of everything that is "supposed" to be supplied by pass directly to the programs as well. I have had a hellish experience with pass and things missing from my applications, as well as programs not even recieving anything from pass on my behalf.
Even though i completed my pass application early it was still a mess, so be warned.

 

[BSSO]

Anyone else hear from UConn, and was it a phone call.

 

[toofache32]

Anyone else hear from UConn, and was it a phone call.

It was a phone call for me when I interviewed there a few years back. The funny thing is that the secretary left a message on my machine just saying to give her a call back. And when I was listening to the message, I was going through my mail for that day and got a notice that I had bounced my check for the application fee. I knew she either wanted me to call for an interview or because she wanted her money. Luckily, it was an interview and she never said anything about the check. I just took a certified check with me to the interview and gave it to her then.

 

[WestCoast]

any insight on Pitt program?

 

[tjb]

any insight on Pitt program?

Top notch program. Well rounded in all aspects, not top heavy in anything. Exposure to many craniofacial/cleft cases with Dr. Costello. Good faculty to resident ratio. All attendings are great, really appreciate and push the residents. Dr. Ochs keeps everyone on their toes. Reminds me of a coach. He is very intimidating but extremely proud of his residents. All the residents get along great. Trauma is quite impressive. OMS has great relationship with ENT and plastics. 1st year is mainly dent/alveo at dental school, vet hospital, and another hospital clinic. Residents go home fairly early on most days ~6:00.
Downside is all on service residents round everyday of week, don't get to work much with Costello since he has his craniofacial fellow in training. Another downside is that since Pitt trains dental students in IV sedation, OMS residents don't get as much experience in sedating their own patients, although it does make their work easier. Med school is 3 yrs as well.

tjb

 

[lnn2]

any insight on Pitt program?

Top notch program, top of the line, cream of the crop
The OS faculty are great. Except one resident who thinks that he's God's gift to mankind. Walk around w. a stick up his @ss. very condescending sob to fellow dental students.

 

[MAX-it]

does anyone here have an insight about Case Western program? Do they get enough trauma, reconstructions, and orthognathics?

 

[tjb]

Got an interview from Alabama today.

tjb

 

[WestCoast]

got one from columbia today

 

[MAXFAC]

MAX IT
I would like to give you an insight about our program
I'm a first year resident at CASE OMFS program, let me break it down for you:
1.Trauma: you will get killed with trauma, I didn't think I will do as much since we are level 2 trauma center BUT we are level one trauma center for children.
ENT cover 3 hospitals and hence don't wanna take trauma calls, take one week a month which is our only break of the month. No plastics residency, was shut down two years ago.
2.Orthognathics: tons of orthognathics, from full time and all oral surgeons in cleveland area bring their cases to the hospital, the chief always cuts half.
3.Craniofacial:lots of combined orthognathics/Craniofacial cases ,Rare syndromes management. comes from Craniofacial clinic at Rainbow Babies Hospital, one of our hospitals.
4.TMJ: Dr. Goldberg , who is the dean of the school too, does at least two to three cases a week, as well as Dr. Quereshy.
5.Implants:First year residents place implants you get to place at least 40 in the first year.
6.Sedations:you start sedations on your own in July of first year.
7.Reconstructionathology you do enough OKC,amelobalstomas, cysts , soft tissue lesions. Absolutely no Cancer.
Craniofacial reconstructions tons of those
Tibia Bone grafts in outpatient clinic routinely.
Tons of Alveolar Cleft grafts
Residents harvest graft
8.Cosmetics: Dr. Quereshy the program Director is facial cosmetic surgeon, fellow of american academy of cosmetic surgery and FACS , he brings tons of cases of cosmetics to the program.

Others 2 months private practice training in chief year, 2 months foreign rotation in 3rd year you get to go anywhere England, Mexico , Newzealand, Australia,to name a few.

Medical school 13 months total

Cons:
have to pass USMLE Step 1 before start on July 1st
No cancer surgery.

when you interview with us you will see the logs, hope that was helpful

 

[BSSO]

columbia was an email, what about Alabama?
and has anyone gotten their letters from KY yet.

 

[tjb]

columbia was an email, what about Alabama?
and has anyone gotten their letters from KY yet.

Alabama was an email and a phone call. I got my letter from KY on the 25th.
Has anyone heard any more about Mayo. I was told they were making their final selections early this week.

My list of scheduled interviews so far: (will change as I hear more)

MGH/Harvard
Upenn
Vanderbilt
Alabama
Univ Michigan
Univ KY
Louisville
Pitt
Houston
Case Western
Iowa
Henry Ford
Cincinnati
Med College WI

Interviews I turned down:

Univ. FL- Gainesville
Univ. Maryland

Waiting to hear from:

Mayo
Cornell
UNC
UConn
Buffalo
Kansas City
Minnesota
Virginia

tjb

 

[MAX-it]

I heard some mixed comments about harvard/MGH. I would like to hear what you all think. Last year I met a 5th year resident at MGH and he told me that he had not placed any implants so far! I was wondering if the chief gets enough cases to operate.

 

[tjb]

Finally heard from Mayo

tjb

 

[tjb]

Heard from Virginia today.

tjb

 

[lnn2]

Heard from Virginia today.

tjb

I'm tired of knowing about places you've heard from! How about places that you haven't heard from?

 

[Yah-E]

Sup y'all:

Here at Nova OMFS, they're interviewing this Saturday. I believe they're only interviewing only 10 applicants out of all that had applied. My questions R:

Do OMFS residencies usually only have one weekend they plan on to interview their applicants? (one interview date and that's it?) Do they usually have an alternative interview date, if you can't make it to the first assigned one?

Do most OMFS residencies only invite 8, 10, or 15 potential applicants out of all that had applied to that specific residency?

I know residencies may vary on how many and how they interview, but it had made me wonder when I heard that our OMFS residency only have plans to interview 10 applicants this year and Saturday this weekend is IT! Unlike applying to dental schools, we have 4-5 months of interview period and you can pick an alternative date if the assigned date doesn't work out!

The match list for Phase II matching is due on January 14th this year, why do OMFS residencies only interview once and that's it? Why do they only interview so few applicants? Why do they interview this early (end of October) and call it done?

 

[south2northOMFS]

Sup y'all:

Here at Nova OMFS, they're interviewing this Saturday. I believe they're only interviewing only 10 applicants out of all that had applied. My questions R:

Do OMFS residencies usually only have one weekend they plan on to interview their applicants? (one interview date and that's it?) Do they usually have an alternative interview date, if you can't make it to the first assigned one??

Depends on the size, when I was interviewing last year they usually had one or two days, depending on the size of their program and amount of people they were going to interview. I think like one program had 3 three interview dates but that is rare.

Do most OMFS residencies only invite 8, 10, or 15 potential applicants out of all that had applied to that specific residency???

Again, depends on how many spots they need to fill. A program will usually interview at least ten guys for every one spot to fill. Which means at a program that takes one resident/year they will interview at least ten guys, and like parkland, a place that takes 5/year, they interview like 40 or some outrageous number. I know at shreveport here we gave out 25 offers for 2 spots to fill. Also, depends on how the programs view themselves, if it is not a real strong program they may interview more guys because they are scared of not matching a spot. And remember, most programs only get around 25-50 applications per year, and Dr. Ellis told us that there were like 1.6 applicants per spot, so the odds are pretty good you'll match. I guess it means you only have to beat out 0.6 of another dental student.

I know residencies may vary on how many and how they interview, but it had made me wonder when I heard that our OMFS residency only have plans to interview 10 applicants this year and Saturday this weekend is IT! Unlike applying to dental schools, we have 4-5 months of interview period and you can pick an alternative date if the assigned date doesn't work out!??

You can try, but often times interviews will conflict, and then you gotta chose which one to go to. Sometimes its a tough decision but thats life.

The match list for Phase II matching is due on January 14th this year, why do OMFS residencies only interview once and that's it? Why do they only interview so few applicants? Why do they interview this early (end of October) and call it done?

Hopefully they will only have to interview once, they will find some guys they like out of that bunch. Sometimes they offer more interviews later and open up more interview dates. They only interview so few applicants because its tough to interview a ton of guys and actually get to know them at all in a one day interview session. Oh and most dont start interviewing until Nov-Dec, at least that is when the bulk of mine were last year, and I went on like 15 interviews. They don't interview in January because it is so close to when the match list is due and most applicant are worn out from interviewing by then.

Hope it helps..........

 

[left2rightOMFS]

Sup
The match list for Phase II matching is due on January 14th this year, why do OMFS residencies only interview once and that's it? Why do they only interview so few applicants? Why do they interview this early (end of October) and call it done?

Oh and one more thing, the "word" on the interview circuit is that if you interview with at least 8 programs, you are pretty much statistically guaranteed to match.

I think its a load of crap, but what do I know.


Oh and Gavin, why do you keep banning me? I thought what I was writing was helpful productive stuff.

Just keep it up, I'll keep coming up with new screen names.

 

[tkim]

Oh and one more thing, the "word" on the interview circuit is that if you interview with at least 8 programs, you are pretty much statistically guaranteed to match.

I think its a load of crap, but what do I know.


Oh and Gavin, why do you keep banning me? I thought what I was writing was helpful productive stuff.

Just keep it up, I'll keep coming up with new screen names.

You have PM.

 

[UNLV OMS GUNNABE]

so tjb, as of now you have about 15 interviews lined up. How do you pay for everything? As a low estimate - average airfare $200, 2 nights at cheap hotel $150, a couple of meals and cab fare $50. So on the low end you're looking at around 400-500 bucks per interview because you can't go from one to the next I assume (because they are only on the weekends, right?). So for 15 interviews that comes to $7000, and that seems like a low estimate. How does everyone do it? Am I way off?

 

[tjb]

so tjb, as of now you have about 15 interviews lined up. How do you pay for everything? As a low estimate - average airfare $200, 2 nights at cheap hotel $150, a couple of meals and cab fare $50. So on the low end you're looking at around 400-500 bucks per interview because you can't go from one to the next I assume (because they are only on the weekends, right?). So for 15 interviews that comes to $7000, and that seems like a low estimate. How does everyone do it? Am I way off?

I know it's expensive. Six of the interviews I can drive to and stay at a hotel for 1 night. Family is also helping me out. I'm sure I will cancel a few of my interviews once I get replies back from the remaining programs on my list. As far as when interviews are scheduled, they are all different days of the week, not just weekends. Some require you to only be there for the one day, some have a dinner the night before.

tjb

 

[UNLV OMS GUNNABE]

So how much did everyone else spend when they interviewed? How many schools and how much?

 

[MAX-it]

tjb,

Did you attend the interview at Harvard/MGH last thursday. If so, how was your experience?

 

[WestCoast]

so far i must have spent around $1000 for airplane tickets alone for 4 places. i estimate around 3000 total

So how much did everyone else spend when they interviewed? How many schools and how much?

 

[WestCoast]

Which is the closest airport to columbia? JFK? or La Guardia?

 

[tjb]

tjb,

Did you attend the interview at Harvard/MGH last thursday. If so, how was your experience?

Yes I did interview at MGH on Friday. I went expecting the worst but actually left with a great respect for the program. The interviews were pleasant and relaxed, although they did put the pressure on a few times. Some of the faculty can be very intimidating. Faculty was great as well as the residents I met. It's definitely an old school program. MGH/Harvard has a history of training surgeons and adheres to their philosophy. I feel there are many rumors of MGH that just are not true. The program is tough as nails, but I'm sure produces excellent surgeons. They try to adhere to the 80hr work week, unlike many other OMS programs out there. Scope of training is very broad which is nice, not too much of one thing. The only thing I see as a negative is the cost of living in Boston. In all honesty, it's a great program and don't believe what people have told you.

Maybe BSSO can add some comments since I met him there.

tjb

 

[toofache32]

Yes I did interview at MGH on Friday. I went expecting the worst but actually left with a great respect for the program. The interviews were pleasant and relaxed, although they did put the pressure on a few times. Some of the faculty can be very intimidating. Faculty was great as well as the residents I met.

Sounds like they're pulling out the charm after not matching either spot last year.

 

[River13]

So how much did everyone else spend when they interviewed? How many schools and how much?

I interviewed at 12 places last year, drove to about 1/2, spent 2 nights at one of them only (LSU NO)- all the rest 1 nighters, got the cheapest motels around (like motel 6), and spent around 3-4K total. I took the extra 13K loan available to senior dental students through the Access Group...used it for interviews and later for WREB and moving from dental school.

The hardest part of interviews wasn't paying for it, but getting my dental school to let me take all the time off I needed, especially since I drove a lot. I pushed the limits on that though...


BTW, Harvard matched 1 of their 3 spots last year, just the other 2 went unmatched. I didn't interview there so I really can't comment. As I've stressed in previous posts though, many programs will seem "well rounded", not concentrating on one thing too much, etc. etc., but when you really look at their numbers it may say a different thing. Don't rely solely on what residents tell you or what program directors tell you---look at the cold hard numbers of procedures they did last year in every category of OMS...I found when I interviewed last year that a program could present itself as ideal, according to residents and staff, until I really looked at their stats...

 

[Doggie]

Which is the closest airport to columbia? JFK? or La Guardia?

La Guardia is the closest.......probably 20 minutes without traffic.

See you here on wednesday.

 

[OzDDS]

what is your opinion of Vanderbilt and Knoxville programs? Knoxville has an option of extending the 4 year program at UT memphis to complete an MD. Can you do the same at the UT memphis program itself? UT Mem seems to do more dento alveolar and preprosthetic and implant.. compared to Vanderbilt and Knoxville who do more congenital stuff. Is this correct or am I mistaken in this assumption?