AMA - D2 at NYUCD

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Bifenthrin

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So I'm pretty bored tonight, taking a break from studying since I had an exam earlier today. Decided I may as well do something that could be useful to someone, so ask me anything. :)

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What was the most difficult about D1/Starting dental school?
 
Adjusting to the workload was the most difficult thing for me. The combination of having to study for exams and keep up on my labwork took a few months to get used to.
 
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Once a crammer, always a crammer. I use the notes of upperclassmen to study. Cram for two or three days before the exam, depending on the amount of material I need to cover. But then again, I'm not looking to specialize so I'm not overly concerned with getting A's. I get mostly B's and I'm quite alright with it.
 
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What's your favorite thing about NYUCD? Least favorite thing about going there?
 
My favorite thing is the freedom we get in terms of attendance.. labs are mandatory, and certain lectures are, but because of the podcasting system we don't have mandatory attendance in most classes. Which I think is great because if you're a night owl (like me), the last thing you want to do is go to an 8AM lecture.

Least favorite is that my class is being experimented on. NYU has been rolling out a bunch of new stuff which I'm sure will be great in the long run, but we're the first class they're trying it with, so lots of kinks to work out, and it can be frustrating.
 
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Any regrets about NYU?
 
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Nah, no regrets. It's a great school and attending has allowed me to stay close to family. I see my parents every weekend which is great. Plus, getting to live in Manhattan is spectacular.
 
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Not going to NYU, but thought I'd ask anyway... What's your favorite part of dental school? What is one difference between dental school and undergrad that you really like? Dislike?
 
Hah... my favorite part of dental school is that I'm going to wind up being a DDS at the end of it. ;)

What I like as a difference is that there is a wider selection of people to interact with. There are actual adults here. A difference I dislike is the intensity. It can be pretty overwhelming sometimes.
 
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Considering its one of the most expensive schools to attend to, are there a lot of worries/fear of debt among students?
And if you would recommend one thing for new incoming students, what would it be?
 
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Honestly I really don't worry about the debt. After all, I've never seen a homeless dentist, or a dentist who couldn't afford to go on vacation or something. And I know a lot of dentists who graduated from NYU, some pretty recently.

If I could recommend one thing for incoming students, it's this: use your summer before you start wisely. Go see the world, seriously. Go backpacking in Europe, or travel throughout Asia, or go on a walkabout in Australia.. just get out there and do something amazing, because for the next four years, you're pretty much not going to have time to do those things, unless you plan super carefully. And even then, it won't be as much time.

I still regret wasting my last summer of freedom on lounging around in the backyard drinking beers rather than getting out there and doing something incredible, the way I did when I finished grad school. I had thought that resting would be good for two months, since I was transitioning out of a career and back into school. Boy was I wrong.
 
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I'm starting at NYU this fall so thanks for this thread.

What is NYU specifically "experimenting" with on your class?

Also, do you have any tips on adjusting to lab work? Do you go into sim lab for extra practice often?
 
They're experimenting with the curriculum a bit. Adding extra things mostly, trying out blended courses, stuff like that.

As for adjusting to lab work... you just have to do it. I spend most weekends in the sim lab practicing and catching up on work. Overall, handskills are going to be way more important than didactics in my opinion. My patients will not be asking me to check their kidney function, but they'll expect me to be able to treat them, and do it correctly.
 
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Once a crammer, always a crammer. I use the notes of upperclassmen to study. Cram for two or three days before the exam, depending on the amount of material I need to cover. But then again, I'm not looking to specialize so I'm not overly concerned with getting A's. I get mostly B's and I'm quite alright with it.

Oh man. D1 here and I am having trouble fixing my cramming/procrasinating habits (I should be studying now). I hear second year is the worst (might just be at my school) so I am overly concerned about what will happen to me next year.

I am just like you - night owl, major crammer and procrastinator. I am also not looking to specialize, so at least I have that going for me. Haha.

Have you taken the Boards, part 1 yet? I'm worried my habits will become a problem when it comes to boards, which I am supposed to take this coming summer.
 
Oh man. D1 here and I am having trouble fixing my cramming/procrasinating habits (I should be studying now). I hear second year is the worst (might just be at my school) so I am overly concerned about what will happen to me next year.

I am just like you - night owl, major crammer and procrastinator. I am also not looking to specialize, so at least I have that going for me. Haha.

Have you taken the Boards, part 1 yet? I'm worried my habits will become a problem when it comes to boards, which I am supposed to take this coming summer.

D2 is the hardest, yes.

I haven't taken boards yet. At NYU we take them the summer between D2 and D3, in August. I'm not worried about how I will study for boards though... I'm going to approach it the same way I approached DAT's. Cram for two months. :p
 
Scholarships are renewed if student maintains a 3.0 or higher. How do you feel about that?
 
I love the idea of this AMA. We should get this for a handful of different schools. It might make it more organized for when people want to know specific facts about certain schools.

My question is, did you look at any other schools? What made you choose NYU?
 
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Scholarships are renewed if student maintains a 3.0 or higher. How do you feel about that?

I'm not on a scholarship, so it doesn't affect me.

It's possible to maintain a 3.0 if you try, I guess. It's getting A's that's difficult, B's are not much of an issue.
 
I applied to a few other schools, but NYU was my top pick. We have one of the best clinics in the country, we have an abundance of patients, we are the only school in the country that certifies its graduates in Invisalign... plus, I'm from Brooklyn. I started out as a commuter, but moved two months into D1 because the commute was killing me.
 
Could you perhaps give a concise timeline of your progression through lab? For instance, during fall of D1, you're learning X, spring of D1 learning Y and perfecting X, etc.? I'm asking because I'm trying to get an idea of how quickly you learn and practice/master the actual dental procedures. After all, that education is most important, no?
 
Basically in D1 you're learning operative. Class I, II, III, V caries preparations, along with amalgalm and composite and RMGI and stuff.

D2 that is continued for fall semester, and switches over to esthetics in the spring. Along with fixed and removable prosth. So crown and bridge preps, interims, complete dentures, removable partial dentures, etc. Also in D2 we covered endo and perio and implant basics.
 
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I applied to a few other schools, but NYU was my top pick. We have one of the best clinics in the country, we have an abundance of patients, we are the only school in the country that certifies its graduates in Invisalign... plus, I'm from Brooklyn. I started out as a commuter, but moved two months into D1 because the commute was killing me.

Thanks for the info! Although, I am pretty sure multiple schools certify for invisalign. In fact, during my interview at VCU they were taking the course.
 
Thanks for the info! Although, I am pretty sure multiple schools certify for invisalign. In fact, during my interview at VCU they were taking the course.

Huh. They told us that we're the only ones who are certified upon graduation.
 
For those that were not awarded entrance scholarships, do you know if there are any that's offered based on how well you in nyucd? (like based on D1 grades or smth)
 
For those that were not awarded entrance scholarships, do you know if there are any that's offered based on how well you in nyucd? (like based on D1 grades or smth)

I believe so but i'll allow Bifenthrin. Its a big class size too
 
After D1 you technically get June off, unless you failed something during the year, in which case you spend June remediating.

I don't know if they offer scholarships after the fact. I haven't heard of anyone who had that happen.
 
also a d2 here. to maintain your scholarship you need to have at least a 3.2 .

and to my knowledge they don't. so if you're offered one before entering do your best to keep it!
 
I wanted to know if your happy there? I felt compared to my other interviews students there looked unhappy and stressed.

Also, though there are other threads on this topic but on a personal view did you or any of your classmates feel the pressure of getting kicked out? I believe if you fail 2 classes in 1 semester or 3 classes for 2 years then you're out.
 
I know that if you fail more than 3 classes in D1, you cannot remediate. You either repeat the year (which I know of like 5 people doing so) or you don't get readmitted. In D2, there are certain courses that if you fail that one course, depending on how spectacularly you fail it, you may have to repeat the year.

I'm not really feeling pressure of getting kicked out. But that's because I'm fairly confident in my abilities to like... not fail.

I mean... I'm not particularly *happy*, but I wouldn't be happy anywhere at this point. D2 is a very rough year, and it's very stressful, and quite frankly I find it hard to be happy unless I am left to my own devices and allowed to use my time as I see fit. As I see fit happens not to include any studying though. So yes, being forced to study makes me pretty unhappy. But it's not NYU itself, it's the whole dental school thing in general.

Ah well. Four years of unhappiness and stress is worth a career in dentistry, eh?
 
How are didactics tested? Is it straight from the lecture slides or do you need to read textbooks?
 
no one is happy during dental school. they work you really hard at NYU, there's no doubt about that.

and to answer the previous question, everything is from lecture. books are a waste of time in my opinion
 
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and about getting kicked out---you have to really, really not try to get kicked out. i know people who have graduated after remediating 3 courses a year from d1 and d2. as long as you study hard, put forth an effort, and ask for help if you need it..you'll be fine.

D2 is stressful at a lot of schools, so a lot of D2 students that you encountered/will encounter at NYU especially will probably be unhappy and just apathetic.
 
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Now I wanna know who you are, toothdriller. Curious who else is avoiding studying systems path and practicing for the competency. :p
 
Also yeah, books are a waste of time. The one time I have opened up one of the textbooks was to check something about collagen, because I couldn't find it online and I was confused by how the lecturer explained it. So I looked it up in our textbook for clarification.
 
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What kinds of merit scholarships does NYU give out?
 
Any advice you could personally offer for the NYUCD interview? I have mine next week and would love to have a couple of different students' perspectives on the interview.
 
Hey thanks for doing this!

I'm attending NYU in the fall as a D1, and I have a weird question. I'm researching laptops to buy for dental school, and I was going to buy a mac but I read on the NYU website that D2 requires you to use certain windows programs. Is that info outdated, or should I look into getting a windows laptop?
 
So again, I don't know stuff about scholarships lol. Didn't get one, don't know who did.

For the interview, just relax. Nothing to be nervous about. Be honest, and just have a conversation. It should flow naturally, it's not an interrogation.

Orientation week has a few mandatory classes (yes, how lame is that?) and some fun activities as well. You'll meet a bunch of your classmates during orientation.

We haven't had anything yet in D2 that requires a certain program. It might be outdated, or that class might be coming in the next few months. In any case, I have a Mac.
 
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how is the gym at nyu? just curious lol.
 
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You can also run Windows on a Mac.
776.gif

Just throwing out that it's an option.
I love that gif. But I've run bootcamp on my mac before and it's not nearly as smooth when running intensive programs, so if I have to run a native windows program then I'd rather just buy a windows laptop.
 
We have a gym? Damn, wish someone had told me. Maybe then the dental school 15 wouldn't have happened. :p
 
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I know that the class is divided, does this start in first year, and is it for lecture and labs, or just labs? Also, how do students that don't attend lectures get by using podcasts, are they live or are some lectures just unecessary?
 
You're divided for labs and for certain lectures. So for example, in D1 biochem half the class has it together, and then the other half has it at a different time, due to the lab schedule and due to the room they use for the course.

As for not attending lecture... I pretty much don't attend anything that doesn't take attendance. I'm doing just fine. Between podcasts and notes passed down from upperclassmen, there's really no need to attend most lectures.
 
You're divided for labs and for certain lectures. So for example, in D1 biochem half the class has it together, and then the other half has it at a different time, due to the lab schedule and due to the room they use for the course.

As for not attending lecture... I pretty much don't attend anything that doesn't take attendance. I'm doing just fine. Between podcasts and notes passed down from upperclassmen, there's really no need to attend most lectures.

How often would you say you physically go to NYUCD during the week? I've been doing some thinking if I have the privilege to get accepted/attend whether I want to live somewhere like Brooklyn or Hoboken and just commute to the college during the week.
 
In D1, it was pretty much 5 days a week for me. Between anatomy labs that I had Mondays and Wednesdays, and the operative dentistry lab that's Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday... no choice. Now in D2, it's 4 days a week of lab, and Fridays usually have something mandatory. -_-

Also.. in D1 I had lab until 8PM on Thursdays, and then at 8AM on Fridays. I started off commuting but it was just unrealistic with that sort of schedule. Plus there are 7 AM seminars at least once a month (sometimes more, depending on your group practice). I'd strongly suggest living walking distance from the school.
 
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Thank you for your timely response, I'll definitely keep that in mind.
 
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