Attention current UBC dental students or hopefuls

[Guest bcdentalgirl]

I don't know a SINGLE person out here who is applying or in the UBC DMD program.

I have questions aplenty and would love to get answers from the horse's mouth or compare notes with others.

For instance, do you know of any courses I could take now that might be relevant and good precurser to the program? I tried to get into Oral pathology, but was turned down b/c I'm not a hygienist. I'm dying to learn some preliminary stuff.

[Guest ubcdmd2005]

Don't try and do dental courses to prepare. They will teach you everything you need to know starting in your summer after 2nd year. The first two years you'll learn medicine so if you want to prepare take a physiology degree, a pharmacy degree or just courses like phys 301 or Anat 290/291. Otherwise just enjoy your undergrad because after the first 4 months of dental school everyone seems to be pretty much on the same level.

 

Any other questions??

 

Ask away!

[Guest bcdentalgirl]

Wow! I all but gave up on this thread, thanks for responding.

Ok, I'm already on the right track with my courses then.

 

More questions:

do you have any insights on the interview? What separated those interviewed and not (aside form DAT and GPA). Of the interviewed, what seemed to separate those chosen and not?

 

What was the interview like? Formal? Friendly?

 

What was your first year like? What is the average day like compared to the average day of a BSc undergrad?

 

etc. etc!!!

 

Thanks

[Guest ubcdmd2005]

Okay here goes...I really have no idea what seperated those who got in after the interview and those who didn't because I only got to be part of my own interview. As to who got an interview, 80 people get one and I think its entirely based on GPA and DAT scores. I'm not totally sure about that, they may also look at your answers to the application questions to decide who gets an interview. When I was applying people told me it was a simple, straight-forward list of the top 80 people based solely on GPA/DAT. Who knows! As for the interview, it was formal only for the fact that I was wearing a suit (as was everyone else) but the interview is with 2 or 3 interviewers who are made up of retired dentists, retired profs, and dental students. I had 3 interviewers (2 retired dentists, and 1 second year student). My interviewers were very nice despite the fact we were crammed in to the smallest little room. The one retired dentist opened the interview as I walked in the room with: "Just to let you know were not going to ask you why you want to be a dentist....we know why already....the money!" That sort of broke the ice and the rest of the interview went smoothly. The interview is nothing like you would expect. They ask you nothing about dentistry and they don't ask the hard type of ethics questions that medical applicants are asked. The interview is standardized set of questions. You are asked 7 or 8 questions from a pool of posible questions. The questions are little hypothetical situations and you are asked what you would do. Examples: 1. You are working at a department store as a manager and a customer comes in complaining that someone had overcharged her for whatever she bought. She is very angry. How would you handle the situation?

2. You are writing an exam and the person beside you is cheating and drops their cheat sheet on the ground where it falls under another student's desk. The teacher walks by and the other student gets busted for cheating and may be expelled from unviversity. You saw the whole thing happen. What if anything would you do?

 

I guess that last one is sort of ethical after all.

 

As for first year, don't expect to do much dentistry. Your with the med students for all your classes. And you learn medicine for the most part. (This continues through second year as well). Mon, Wed, Fri is PBL at 8am-10am and then a lecture or two, then lunch and then either Dentistry (Mon),DPAS(Wed), or anatomy or nothing (Fri). Tuesday and thur are either labs or lectures in the morning and then either the afternoon off or Clinical skills. Then after all the med exams are done at the end of May we get to stick around for the month of June and do dentistry for ~3 weeks. This is my first week off and I only get 8 weeks for the whole summer.

[Guest bcdentalgirl]

That's helpful. Thanks a lot

[Guest Jennifer Y]

I have a relative that teaches dentistry at UBC. You should also look at UT, Western and Alberta. Better yet, compare the programs for yourselves and do some investigation on your own before committing to UBC.

[Guest bcdentalgirl]

That's pretty much what I'm doing. Thanks for the advice.