mwsung said:
Please, I need detailed criticizm on Michigan & Pitt.
In terms of
1. neighborhood
2. reputation
3. clinic
4. living expenses
5. faculty/staff
6. board scores
7. curriculum
8. Etc.
Thank you so much.
I can be a little bit of help in terms of Michigan. I interviewed and was accepted there. I really thought about attending, so I turned my interview into a mini-vacation to get acquainted with the area...
1. ann arbor is beautiful and fairly affluent. i have a college friend in her 2nd year of med school and said the area is safe but the cost of living is surprisingly a tad higher than one would expect. (i.e. i bought a sandwich at a deli and it was $11!! what?! in the midwest, you can get a porterhouse steak for $11.)
2. michigan has a great rep as a school in general and the dental school has a pretty good rep as well....they are one of those schools "known for their research" but i thought the clinical component seemed fairly decent as well. i did write down how many fillings, crowns, bridges, full and partial dentures, etc. that the average michigan graduate has completed by graduation time...i can provide that info at a later date if you'd like (notebook w/ info is at home)
3. i thought the tour at michigan was pretty piss poor. too many people...40 of us interviewing and 12 or so people per tour group (couple of parents there as well). i don't remember the facilities well...i thought i would receive adequate clinical training though...they have those outreach programs to get you out in the community, which i like.
4. living expenses...touched on this in #1...my friend lives near the med school in a complex and i want to say she has a 2 bd and pays $1500/month...i remember her saying "it's about the same as dartmouth"...dartmouth (hanover, NH, is like a mini ann arbor...expensive and older, wealthy people live amongst the younger college kids in hanover)
5. faculty/staff was okay. nobody blew me away. my favorite guy was the IT dude.
to avoid getting myself in trouble and i don't think SDN is the appropriate place to talk about staff, especially in a negative light, i will leave it at that: nobody blew me away. the students, however, said their professors were very flexible about rescheduling exams and such.
6. they did not disclose their board scores during interview day. i asked my interviewer if he could improve one aspect of the school, what would he improve. he said the schools board scores, esp. part I. he said that many of the students want to be general dentists so they don't really put a whole lot of effort into studying. he would like to see the school offer a class/short course about Part I where the students had to pass that before they could take the real deal. THAT IS NOT TO SAY THAT IS IN THE WORKS...it was just one way he thought the school's scores could be improved.
7. administration seem to respond very readily to student feedback regarding curriculum. the D1's now are doing a new integrated type of learning where they study one system for a few weeks and then move on to another one...so far so good...perhaps a current student can offer better feedback than i can...it's been a couple months since i interviewed. i think it's cool that the D2 (D1 as well??) get to sit in the clinics with the D3-4s...any exposure is good exposure, in my opinion.
overall impression...great school. it's my second choice but the larger class size and higher price tag kept me away. love ann arbor. love michigan hockey, too.
good luck.
