your experience at your school

[jjy2103]

I am applying to
CU, UCLA, USC, UOP, NYU, BU, Tufts, Baylor, Upenn, UMICH, Uconn

i dont know anyone who is a dental student, and the only information i can go by is the school visit, and the stats..which is not so important to me.

i want to know if it is a cooperative/competitive academic environment?
helpful faculty?
helpful alumni network?

i know this is all subjective but that is what i need to hear, a first hand experience to make the best decision. i do not have any preference as to which school i want to go to at all....rankings, reputation, location....as long as it is a great learning environment.

can you share your experiences?

thanX

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[drhobie7]

I am applying to
CU, UCLA, USC, UOP, NYU, BU, Tufts, Baylor, Upenn, UMICH, Uconn

i dont know anyone who is a dental student, and the only information i can go by is the school visit, and the stats..which is not so important to me.

i want to know if it is a cooperative/competitive academic environment?
helpful faculty?
helpful alumni network?

i know this is all subjective but that is what i need to hear, a first hand experience to make the best decision. i do not have any preference as to which school i want to go to at all....rankings, reputation, location....as long as it is a great learning environment.

can you share your experiences?

thanX

Hi,
I'm a 3rd year at UCLA and I like my school a lot. It's not competitive. People are always circulating review material before exams. We have class notetakers. The same goes for lab. Everyone helps out each other. I've spent dozens of hours explaining things to classmates. We're pass/fail/honors. Most people outside UCLA don't even understand our honors system so it doesn't even matter that much outside UCLA.
I don't think you can beat Los Angeles for location, but I did grow up around here and am biased. Maybe Santa Barbara or San Diego would be better. That would be awesome if they had dental schools.
With the exception of one person, I think our faculty are outstanding. Most, but not all, are great teachers. They are all good people though.
The curriculum is exceptionally difficult, especially second year. You have 10-12 midterms and finals each quarter of 2nd year. Most everyone passes the classes.
As for clinical years, I can't really comment too much because I'm just starting that. But I have no complaints thus far.
In short, I like UCLA and would choose it again. I had a pretty simple reason for coming here: I wanted to be in Los Angeles.
I'm sure all those other schools you listed are great. If you want to live in one of those areas in particular you should choose that school. I don't know if the dental school experience really differs that significantly between schools. From what I've read on this message board it seems like we all suffer about the same. You're in class, you're in lab, you're in clinic. Life will be a mixture of good times, bad times, and in between.
There's going to be complainers at every dental school. They will be eager to share their complaints with you. It's cathartic for them. My advice is to take whatever they say with a grain of salt. Actually, do this with everyone. It's often hard to tell if the complainer has created his/her own problems or if they've been created by the school. Generally, I think it's the former.

 

[DDSSlave]

If you're applying to dental school, you need to post this in the dental forum. This forum is dedicated to postgrad residencies.

If youre not a TX resident, I would advise against applying to Baylor, a state school (Texas A&M), which takes very few out of state students.

I would look at the less expensive state schools over the private schools. If you have the option, there's really no great reason to accumulate that much debt IMO.

Another thing to consider is whether the school ranks it's students or not. This can change the dynamics of applying to specialty programs (if you're interested) in both positive and negative ways. Board exam grades become critical. Students from schools that don't rank (such as UCLA) also tend to apply to a greater number of residency programs. Maybe someone from UCLA can confirm or refute this. On the other hand, if you otherwise would have had a low rank, it may be better to go to a non-ranking school.

 

[tx oms]

If you're applying to dental school, you need to post this in the dental forum. This forum is dedicated to postgrad residencies.

Agreed

If youre not a TX resident, I would advise against applying to Baylor, a state school (Texas A&M), which takes very few out of state students.

You made the same mistake I once did--the BU they are referring to is Boston University, not Baylor.