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- Aug 5, 2006
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most informative thread alive! keep it going!
1) Name of Your Dental School
Columbia University College of Dental Medicine
2) What is your examination schedule like? Block Schedule (midterms and finals week) or several every week?
Block during 1st year, several during most weeks during 2nd year, not that many exams 3rd and 4th years.
3) What is the hardest class? Why?
Clinical Anatomy. 7 months of anatomy hell. Also, Columbia's anatomy course is much more clinically oriented and requires more thinking and understanding than anatomy courses in other schools. This is the course you'll spend by far most of your time during the 1st year.
4) What is the easiest class? Why?
those BS classes that introduces stuff like ethics, epidemiology, research basics, etc. Stupid time wasters.
5) Are your classmates generally gunners and try to sabatoge each other? If not, is the culture one where everybody tries to help everybody out?
people help each other out, but there are definitely gunners who are aiming for top notch specialties (especially since Columbia is known for preparing people who want to specialize). People don't sabotage each other though.
6) Are the class notes based primarily on textbooks? or based on lecture powerpoints made up by professors?
depends on the class. Most classes are based on lecture slides. Some classes like anatomy, you do need to read a ton of textbook to understand the material.
7) Are there any classes taken with medical students? If so, which ones?
all the basic sciences, anatomy (although we take more head/neck than med students who take lower extremities), pathology, pharm, etc etc. All the med classes are during 1st 2 years.
8) What is the grading system? Pass/Fail/Honors? Letter Grades? Percentages?
Pass/Fail/Honors
9) Is there a notetaking service for lecture available?
Yes. Mostly provided by the med students for the med classes or your class can organize one through volunteers.
10) Is class attendance mandatory?
some are mandatory (mainly dental classes). Med classes are normally not required (and quite a good fraction of the class skip those)
11) In general, are teachers approachable for questions? Or are they for the most part very busy and unreachable (research, etc...)?
Definitely approachable. Great faculty all around in the dental school (although we don't really have enough faculty helping us out in the preclinics)
12) Is there a big brother/big sister program that pairs you with an upperclassman or professor who "mentors" you?
Yes, big sib/little sib
13) What is the % first time board pass rate? What is the average score?
Not sure the exact number, but i believe it's among the highest in the country.
14) When do you take the NDBE? 1st year or second year?
after 2nd year mostly in July.
15) Do you get a block of time off before boards to study? If so, how long? If not, do you have to study simultaneously with classes?
you have pretty much all June off except you have like 1 day of class per week to force you to stay around the campus to study.
16) Do most people study in the University Library? Or does the place clear out right after school and everybody studies on their own?
people study everywhere. main campus, med center library, classrooms, home, etc etc.
17) Are patients readily available to fulfill clinical requirements or do you have to do a lot of work to get them in?
getting patients is not a problem. The problem lies in the fact that the patients sometimes don't show up to their appointment. Also, the patient pool is largely latin american, and communication is a pain at times.
18) Is it a hassle to get a chair once you get patients in? In your opinion, does your school have enough chairs?
everyone's assigned a chair.
19) What are the clinical requirements to graduate? (number of crowns, fillings, etc...) Is it reasonably attainable or pretty difficult?
i think Columbia goes by the number of cases (complex and simple cases) and not by number of crowns, fillings, etc. don't know the details.
20) Are there opportunities for different off-site dental clinic rotations? If so, what are they?
i know there are hospital rotations, but not sure about dental clinic rotations.
21) Are there opportunites for outreach trips to underserved areas or countries? If so, what are they and for how long?
i think there are opportunities through organizations such as SNDA. Dont know the details for this either.
22) Is there sufficent preparation for practice management? What career placement opportunites does your school offer?
i think there's a course on practice management, but you really learn most of the stuff during residency. According to a professor, you learn more in 1 year of residency than during 4 years of your dental school career.
23) What is the dress code at your school? Scrubs? For what years?
depends on the class. white coat for operative, scrubs in clinics, and you'll probably be wearing scrubs to anatomy lab.
Any more Maryland people out there? A D3 or D4 student would be awesome but I would love to hear from any Maryland students
Anyone from UF have any info?
Does anyone have any info for UNLV, Marquette, or Iowa?
Another bump for Maryland.. please.....!!!
13) What is the % first time board pass rate? What is the average score?
Usually 100% and we are usually in the top 5
Everytime someone bumps this thread or asks about a school I get all stoked thinking there will be some more good info. But alas this is not the case.
Everytime someone bumps this thread or asks about a school I get all stoked thinking there will be some more good info. But alas this is not the case.
what a pity, noone from UMDNJ has time to pass on any words of wisdom