I just finished my first year, and my class rank is probably in the bottom 25% primarily because I had to remediate one of the simulation labs. My didactics are pretty strong, and I did above average in indirect operative. I think this primarily attributable to the COVID-19 restrictions and limited lab time we had. There are definitely some “hand gods,” but I think I’m pretty much average to slightly above average with hand skills.

I was always a top notch student, I was in the top of my high school and college classes, but in dental school, I feel like I’m barely scraping by. I feel somewhat unsuccessful in an academic sense, but I’m content with just doing general dentistry (I really thought about specializing in perio or path, but I just don’t have the grades/dental school is enough of an academic challenge for me).

Did anyone have a similar experience in terms of struggling a lot in dental school compared to college? How did you push through school without comparing yourself to your classmates? And, do you find your class rank had any correlation with your success in your career?

This is something I’m curious about, especially because patients don’t know/care about your grades let alone where you went to school, thus it’s never really brought up during appointments haha.

Thank you all!