Here To Answer Any Questions On Omfs Residency Applications To The Usa

[Disintegration]

On 2017-06-16 at 0:23 PM, Olen said:

I am wondering if you can comment on the following programs in terms of surgical volume/varieties, atmosphere among faculties and residents and the cities/environment?:

• UNC
• UPenn
• Beth Israel/Jacobi
• St. Joseph's
• MGH

Thanks for doing this!

 

1

I interviewed at these programs and that is the only perspective that I can speak from:

UNC (6 year): Good scope of practice. Heavy on orthognathics (Dr. Turvey and Dr. Blakey are big names in this field). No Cancer here. They just added a former resident that completed a cosmetics fellowship and recently added a faculty that completed a craniofacial fellowship. So their scope seems to be expanding. Overall the faculty seemed great and there are a lot of them. Residents also seemed great and easy to get along with. Only end up doing about 1.5 years of medical school. I think residents end up being on service for about 36-38 months, which is great. Affiliated with the UNC Dental School, which is beautiful. Chapel Hill is a great area to live and personally I would prefer it to many of the bigger cities. Matter of taste though.

Here is a great breakdown a resident did of the program recently: https://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/unc-omfs.1185052/

UPenn (6 year): Also good scope of practice. TMJ surgeries are big here. They have recently added a Micovascular/Oncology fellowship trained faculty, so they seem to be expanding their scope. PD is great and very approachable. Good group of residents as well. It’s also affiliated with the UPenn dental school. Philly is a good place to live and especially if you like to eat.

BI/Jacobi (6 year): this program does not get talked about as much as it probably should, but it is a very solid program. True full scope training with dedicated faculty. There is a fair bit of commuting when going to Jacobi, but it’s not a deal breaker in any sense. Great group of residents. Probably one of the best post-interview dinners you will have. They have a history of taking a fair number of Canadians. The PD is actually Canadian himself from what I remember.

St. Joseph’s (4 year + MD option): Good program in NJ. Traditional broad scope. Cant remember if they do any cancer but I  don't think they did. They get to do a fair bit with one faculty who is plastics trained. Great group of residents and the PD is very friendly and approachable. He gives the interviewees the tour of the hospital himself. There is an MD option available at New York Medical College from what I remember. Patterson is not the best area, and not a good place to live, but most of the residents said there are a bunch of places in surrounding towns that have ample housing available.

MHG (6 year): A broad scope program affiliated with Harvard’s School of Medicine. Harvard’s prestige is made clear right from the start of the interview day when you meet up in the Ether Dome. Faculty seemed approachable for the most part. Residents also seemed cool, but we didn't interact with too many of the lower year residents. Boston is a great city in all respects.  

[Olen]

Thanks Disintegration, great info!! 

It seems that these programs are very different in terms of what surgical trg they can offer you. In your opinion, would you prefer programs that are more well rounded (i.e. does everything) vs. programs which are more focused on one area (UMaryland - cancer, vs UPenn - TMJ)? Would it change if fellowship is your end goal??

I actually have some other questions which I think may be best asked with a PM if you don't mind.

Again, super valuable information!

 

 

[1030812]

Hi Disintegration,

How would you view an applicant with both DMD and MD degrees? Do you think he might be more competitive with a MD or less competitive (because he didn't practice dentistry for 4 years)?

If your program is a 6-years track (OMFS/MD), do you think I can still apply to your program and do 4 years instead of 6 (skipping medschool portion)?

Thank you so much for doing this.

[Disintegration]

On 2017-07-05 at 11:56 PM, 1030812 said:

Hi Disintegration,

How would you view an applicant with both DMD and MD degrees? Do you think he might be more competitive with a MD or less competitive (because he didn't practice dentistry for 4 years)?

If your program is a 6-years track (OMFS/MD), do you think I can still apply to your program and do 4 years instead of 6 (skipping medschool portion)?

Thank you so much for doing this.

 

Interesting question. During interviews, I ran into maybe 1-2 people that had a DMD/DDS as well as a MD (or DO) degree. Based on talking to them it seems that they were primarily, if not only, applying to 4-year programs. Not sure what the policy on this is at my program or at other 6-year programs, to be honest. I perceive having the MD as a benefit, especially for 4y programs. With 6y programs it may get tricky depending on what their policy is. I would contact programs directly about this to get a more accurate answer.

Good luck.  

[1030812]

4 hours ago, Disintegration said:

Interesting question. During interviews, I ran into maybe 1-2 people that had a DMD/DDS as well as a MD (or DO) degree. Based on talking to them it seems that they were primarily, if not only, applying to 4-year programs. Not sure what the policy on this is at my program or at other 6-year programs, to be honest. I perceive having the MD as a benefit, especially for 4y programs. With 6y programs it may get tricky depending on what their policy is. I would contact programs directly about this to get a more accurate answer.

Good luck.  

Thank you for your answer.

Also, I'm thinking if I should practice dentistry as a part-time job during medical school to keep up with my dental knowledge/skills, would the selection committee prefer to see that?

[Disintegration]

"...what's a good number of interviews that puts me in a good position to match?"

As you can imagine, there isn't a very straightforward answer to this. So many variables are at play. But generally, I would say that 8-10+ puts you in a good position, statistically. But keep in mind that if you are bombing each of your 8-10+ interviews without knowing it, those statistics don't really matter. Don't get caught up on the number of interviews too much as a safety net. Reflect and do your best to learn from your first couple of interviews about things that worked/things that didn't, and implement changes as you move forward. 

This isn't meant to make you nervous, but I know people that matched with just 2 interview invitations and people that didn't match with 17+ invitations. It's not just a numbers game. 

[Disintegration]

Questions from private messages that I'm just getting around to now. Apologies for the delay. 

 

"...what extracirriculars would you suggest I get invloved with while in dental school consisidering how busy things can get?" 

I touched on this earileir in the thread but I'll re-itterate it here.

I did not have very many ECs and, to be honest, nether did the majority of the people in my class that applied to OMFS. ECs tend to be, based on what I hear,  more critical for ortho, endo, peds etc. With OMFS, to get that first step in the door (interview) it really is a numbers game. ECs definitly can come in handy during the interview, but they wont really be a game changer. I just had the typical dental school stuff. I'd suggest at the very minimum to get invloved with your instituion's OMFS interst club as that will also help come application time. Dont get too caught up in the ECs just because all the people around you are scrambling to pat their CV. CBSE/GPA/Rank are supreme. 

 

"I took [the CBSE] for the first time and scored a 62. Should I retake?...I really dont want to since I hear people match with high 50s/low60s all the time"

Take it again. Probably sucks to hear that but while a 62 is actually decent for a first attempt, its not where you want to be for appications. You have nothing to loose by taking it again (other than free time). When looking at your appication ask yourself how you can imporve it. Things like GPA and Rank are likely set in stone at this stage but your CBSE is where you control things. At the very minimum, I'd aim for a 70. Good luck. 

 

"Scored a 70. Would you suggest I retake it?"

Difficult one to answer to be honest. If you have the time and energy to, I'm inclinced to say yes, but a 70 is a very respectable score. It really comes down to how satisfied you are with that number and how that number looks as a part of your whole application. I know poeple that decided to retake after scorring a 70 and others that didnt. Your call. 

 

"How much input to current residents have during interviews?"

This is something that is very program dependant. Based on what i know at some porgrams the descions on who to invite is made by attendings and then rising cheifs can create their own rank list that will be taken into consideration when the overal rank list can be make. Somtimes rising cheifs can blackball applicants for whatever reason. They may even ask first year residents for opinions on externs that they are considering on inviting for an interiew and/or ranking. Again, it goes without saying that one should always play is safe and interact with all residents (regardless of year), as if they have a say.