Lol I'm from northwestern suburbs. It's just that in last two years there have been a lot of bad incidents in medical district. Even one happened on East campus last semester, by BSB, if you know what that building is. The medical district is completely safe place during day light, it's just during dark hours, if you go to the wrong street, you might get unlucky. Just speaking from personal experience of myself and a few friends at UIC's med school.This thread is full of preposterousness. I am very sad I took the time to read it in full.
@drsoni Definitely apply to UConn as well.
As far as everything else that's been said here, a few thoughts
- I'm not finished with my first year of school yet and there are so many people in my class who thought they wanted to specialize and no longer want to, and there are many more people who have no idea what they want to do yet
-Where the hell were all of you raised? I think maybe 3% of my high school graduating class or their families could name a single Ivy League institution besides Harvard. Seriously, some people are so bound up in prestige I feel sorry for them; their life is one giant pissing contest where they can never be satisfied because someone will always have some sort of bragging right they don't
- Undergrad performance/stats is not the end all and be all of how you'll do in school. As accurately stated earlier, it has no bearing on your hands skills, and it honestly doesn't have too much of a bearing on how you'll do in dental school. There are plenty of people with high GPAs who cheated on everything in undergrad or took a patty cake schedule with difficult classes at branch campuses/only 13-14 credits per semester, and plenty of people who don't have to work at all and can spend an entire summer leisurely preparing for the DAT with the best resources money can buy. On the other side of the same coin, there are plenty of incredibly intelligent people who aren't robots who go out twice a week in undergrad and enjoy their summers, and end up with a 3.5 and a 20 DAT but kill it in dental school because they're finally doing something that is up their alley
- UIC's dental school, Philly, Columbia, and Case Western are NOT in dangerous areas. I don't know how the hell anyone gets these impressions. Just because not everyone lives in a $400,000 house and gets private music lessons doesn't mean it's dangerous.
-Why does everyone think OMFS is somehow the pinnacle of success or competitiveness? You do know that only about 20-25% of kids who enter dental school specialize at all, and you're only competing against people who are willing to devote 4-6 more years of not having control over their time past the age of 26, right? There is actually not a large number of people applying to OMFS programs each year, and if I recall correctly at least half of them match somewhere
-For anyone who thinks you need to be a robot who does nothing to study to fulfill whatever career goal you might have, you are being counterproductive to an extreme extent. Nobody is going to want to spend 4-6 years with you if your only hobby is studying, and you attempt to connect with faculty to write you letters by brown-nosing. In order to make true connections and relationships with colleagues/superiors/patients/staff/significant others, you need to have true hobbies and passions outside the classroom.
I could go on for days. This thread has made my head spin. @drsoni best of luck with the application cycle, and let me know if you have any questions about UConn. I love it and would be happy to talk about it. Please make the decision that would be best for you personally and try not to take any advice on this site too seriously. Also, highly suggest branching out from the North Shore suburbs (assumption here but if you're from Illinois and think the Medical District is dangerous I might be on the right track). There is a lot of real America to see outside of Winnekta/Naperville/Evantson and other affluent suburbs. You may just like what you discover!
And thank you for your advice! I know exactly what you mean with people taking 13-14 credit hours with easy classes and getting 4.0s lol. Luckily, I've always taken more than 18 credit hours (well expect 2 semesters), and taken mostly all science classes. I have my Pre-Health advisor to thank for that.
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