Baylor=SA=Houston in academics
Houston is the only school that does "plastic" dissections in their A&P classes. Other 2 still do cadavers (pros and cons of this can be discussed)
Houston is not in the best part of downtown (kinda sketchy)
Houston has a new facility and it is nice but not a beautiful campus by any means. It's just a nice square building with modern architecture/equipment.
Classes/Clinic all in the same building.
Student's tend to be competitive (what I've heard). They have the highest GPA/DAT scores of all 3 Tx schools.
SA is putting out a new curriculum to do a more "modern" system of teaching where they focus more on the big picture. This COULD possibly result in lower pass rates for the boards that haven't caught up to this form of teaching, but SA does have a dedicated course to help with that.
Also a nice campus. Best campus of the 3 Texas schools in my opinion (but not the best food....that's Baylor)
Dental school is in a nice part of town, and the town is very pretty and green (great views)
Lots of Hispanic patients (if you speak Spanish, its a +. If you don't, this is con)
SA socializes you very well with other students through intramural games and putting you into small groups that work together for all 4 years(forgot what they were called)
SA is a fully online course. Your books are all on a computer, take tests/quizzes all online. Everything. They make you buy a $6000 computer (laptop+software) that is NOT covered by your loan money (a big deal for some. A drop in the bucket for others).
Classes and Clinic are a bus drive away.
Lots of parking (and pretty cheap) lol
There are "selectives" where you can choose to take specialized courses (implants, endo, pedo, teaching...)
A&M has the best reputation among its residents as being a top notch dental school (no shortage of patients for sure. You will have plenty to finish your requirements. Other two schools, I hear you have to shift some things around to make it work)
Lots of research done here. More than the other schools if I'm not mistaken.
Nowhere really to live because it's square in downtown Dallas. Nowhere close at least. But Dallas is generally easy to live far away and still get there.
Dentists that graduate from A&M tend to feel very confident and competent with their clinical skills more than the other two.
More minorities by % than the other two schools.
Cheapest of the schools by a couple thousand dollars
This is all I can think of for now haha. I interviewed at A&M and SA in September so I know a little more about them than Houston, but I've been there as well.
I'd also add in that A&M has the worst campus by far in case that is something you want to focus on. It is also in a relatively sketchy part of Dallas as well (Gaston ave. right near Deep Ellum).
Houston's campus is in the Medical Center, which is not sketchy at all and is a pretty nice location, but the housing does look pretty old. though they said they built some new ones.
I agree with most of what you said from my interviews though!
What stuck out to me a lot was that when i was in San Antonio the faculty and students i talked with were reaaaaalllly cool and laid back, but whenever we were walking through the school everyone else in it gave me some pretty negative vibes. Nobody seemed that happy and they were kind of brooding, i want to ask an SA student how they find their classes.
In Houston, the students all seemed very relaxed, but they also didn't seem to take their schooling very seriously, which is probably wrong because they are in dental school and have the highest GPA's like you said.
Lastly A&M was really hectic and seemed unprofessional, but the students all had a huge sense of camaraderie from what i could see. They really seemed close and as if they all got a long and the school seemed fun and enjoyable. Tie this in with the clinical experience and it's not hard to see why people like the school despite the shoddy campus and somewhat older equipment.
Honestly, if i could combine the SA facilities, with the Houston atmosphere and the A&M people/location it would be the PERFECT scenario, but since that isn't possible... Idk
Assuming you get into all three, where are you leaning?
