UoP - 3 years too short? How many students specialize?

[futrdentist]

I just had a meeting with my advisor and he recommended against applying to Pacific because he didn't think it was a good idea to cram the curriculum into three years. He thinks it provides extra stress, doesn't give enough time to develop as a professional, and wouldn't give as much hands on time as other schools. He did say that he might be wrong, and hasn't kept up with the curriculum on an annual basis, so he wasn't looking to "bash" UoP, that was just his impression and the feedback he had gotten from former students who go there. Any thoughts? What's the percent of students who go on to specialize at UoP?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[crazy_sherm]

Whether 3 years is enough time really depends on what you want to get out of it. It's definitely not a school for people who want to do tons of research, though the opportunities are there and easy to obtain since not that many of us do research. Organized dentistry is a big thing though and its quite competitive to get involved, though there are ways for most people that are interested. I'm not that sure what we're missing out academically but it's not deficient in anyway that prevents us from passing boards and getting licensed. Our reputation is that of a clinically focused school, new grads are known to come out confident and relatively efficient productivity-wise compared to some of the other dental schools which are more academically focused.

As for specializing, this year's graduating class has 14 students (not counting AEGD/GPR) going onto specialty programs, so roughly 10%, which is around what most schools are at.

Here's the breakdown:

OMFS - 3
Ortho - 4
Pedo - 2
Endo - 3
Perio - 1
Pros - 1

AEGD - 8
GPR - 8

There are also 15 alumni who are a year or 2 out that decided to return to school and will enter a specialty program this fall. I'm not sure how many people applied for each specialty.

 

[juggamynugga]

One thing that I am noticing which does seem pretty nice is that since we don't have the specialty programs here on this campus, (besides ortho) the dds students get to do a lot of the stuff that might normally go to people in residency. The dean often will send us letters from recent grads saying how they feel so well prepared in comparison to some of their collegues and I think a lot of this might be due to not having all the specialties on campus. On the other hand if you feel that having specialty programs benefits you via experience, research etc then obviously not having the programs would be a negative in your view. just finished endo block though and just got assigned my first patient... can't wait till july.

ps i do personally feel ready to head down to clinic it's daunting but i do think most feel prepared so so far it's been looong days but manageable