Contemporary appraisal of factors influencing pediatric dental program directors' selection of residents

Abstract

Purpose With the increasing number of applicants and changes to information available in applications, pediatric dentistry program directors must adapt the resident selection process. The evaluation approach was significantly impacted when the National Board Dental Examination (NBDE) changed to a pass/fail grading system. The purposes of this are study to examine what criteria pediatric dentistry program directors now use to select residents, and to evaluate current criteria against those used in the past. Methods A 30‐item survey was structured similar to a previous questionnaire used in 2005. An invitation to participate was sent via email to all pediatric dentistry program directors for the 82 Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA)‐accredited programs located in the United States and Canada. Anonymous responses were analyzed. Results There were 58 responses (70.7% response rate). The overall most important factors were clinical grades, dental school class rank, dental school grade point average (GPA), and applicant's essay. The least important factors were the applicant being a graduate of the program's dental school, Advanced Dental Admission Test (ADAT) score, and applicant's fluency in a second language. The factor that had the most significant increase in importance from 2005 is the applicant's essay, followed by dental school reputation and the dental school's pediatric program reputation. Conclusions The most important factors to program directors are clinical grades, dental school class rank, dental school GPA, and applicant's essay. The applicant's essay has increased in importance since 2005.

Use of a Knowledge-Based Governance Approach to Plan a Post-COVID-19 Predoctoral Dental Curriculum

“…Each graduate program has its own process, but program directors consider many interacting factors when selecting candidates for graduate programs. The Graduate Program Directors reported they consider both GPA and class rank in the admissions process, consistent with published literature [ 23 , 24 , 25 ]. Clinical grades, dental school class rank, and dental school GPA were the three most important factors considered by pediatric dentistry program directors [ 24 ].…”

“…The Graduate Program Directors reported they consider both GPA and class rank in the admissions process, consistent with published literature [ 23 , 24 , 25 ]. Clinical grades, dental school class rank, and dental school GPA were the three most important factors considered by pediatric dentistry program directors [ 24 ]. Among endodontic program directors, dental school class rank was the second most important factor, while dental school clinical grades, endodontic grades, and basic science grades were ranked sixth through eighth in importance [ 23 ].…”

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“…Interestingly, recent work by Justema et al. noted that pediatric dentistry program directors viewed the ADAT as one of the least important aspects of an applicant's application 10 . The authors speculate that this general view of the ADAT is due, in part, to the relative novelty of the exam and a general reluctance of many specialty groups to require applicants to take the exam because of insufficient evidence of its usefulness.…”