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- Jul 20, 2008
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1) Name of Your Dental School: Tufts University School of Dental Medicine
2) What is your examination schedule like? Block Schedule (midterms and finals week) or several every week? Block Schedule every 3-4 weeks
3) What is the hardest class? Why? Gross Anatomy and Medicine. (Neuroscience was the hardest class in my opinion, but this class will not longer exist starting with the Class of 2014, it will be integrated into Gross Anatomy)
4) What is the easiest class? Why? 1st Semester: Nutrition. Hard to get an A but ridiculously easy to get an A-. 2nd Semester: Microbiology/Oral Health Promotion.
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? It depends on the class. Our class, the class of 2013, is competitive but everyone helps each other. There are no gunners that try to sabotage other people, and even the people at the top of the class take time out of their schedule to help people who are struggling. People in my class tend to work very hard and do very well in classes though. After the first semester, 18% of the class got above 3.5 with some people getting 4.0, and 65% of the class got above 3.0. In general though, the atmosphere at Tufts is that of cooperation and collaboration.
6) Are the class notes based primarily on textbooks? or based on lecture powerpoints made up by professors? Lecture Powerpoints and Syllabi. There are very few classes where buying a Textbook is useful, though they are essential for Gross Anatomy (Netter, Moore, possibly Rohen).
7) Are there any classes taken with medical students? No.
8) What is the grading system? Pass/Fail/Honors? Letter Grades? Percentages? This has been recently changed. It is now Letter Grades which are converted into a 4.0 GPA system instead of Percentages, with a few classes as Pass/Fail/Honors.
9) Is there a notetaking service for lecture available? No, but most of the lectures (especially the ones in Merritt Auditorium) are lecture-captured so you can watch them online.
10) Is class attendance mandatory? No.
11) In general, are teachers approachable for questions? Yes
12) Is there a big brother/big sister program that pairs you with an upperclassman or professor who "mentors" you? Yes, both. They pair you with an upperclassman, a faculty advisor, and a 3rd-year student dentist who is in clinic.
13) What is the % first time board pass rate? What is the average score? It's in that giant booklet you get at the interview.
14) When do you take the NDBE? 1st year or second year? Second Year, right before you enter clinic. This is the main thing I don't like about the Tufts curriculum, but they are changing the curriculum to take the boards after the first year. This change will probably not take effect until the Class of 2015 or 2016.
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? Not really. I believe you can take as much time as you need to study for boards, but if you take too long it will cut into your clinic time, so it would behoove you to take the boards as soon as you can, so you can enter clinic in a timely manner. There are mandatory board review sessions as well.
16) Do most people study in the University Library? Or does the place clear out right after school and everybody studies on their own? Most people study in the Library, though we have study rooms in the dental building as well. There is no shortage of study areas, though when the library closes at midnight you may have to study at your apartment.
17) Are patients readily available to fulfill clinical requirements or do you have to do a lot of work to get them in? As the last commenter had said, patients are available and students share with 4th years who need to fulfill certain requirements. 4th years have dibs over patients, which sucks for 3rd years but you'll appreciate it as a 4th year trying to graduate.
18) Is it a hassle to get a chair once you get patients in? In your opinion, does your school have enough chairs? I'm not sure, though we have more chairs now that the post-grads have moved upstairs into the Vertical Expansion.
19) What are the clinical requirements to graduate? (number of crowns, fillings, etc...) Is it reasonably attainable or pretty difficult? Seems reasonable. For details, consult that giant booklet you get at the interview.
20) Are there opportunities for different off-site dental clinic rotations? If so, what are they? Yes, there's a one-month externship 3rd year, you choose from a list of 30+ externship locations around the US and they do their best to pair you with the program you prefer. You will be given preference if you are from the state where the externship is located.
21) Are there opportunites for outreach trips to underserved areas or countries? If so, what are they and for how long? Yes, the Tufts Hispanic Dental Association does an outreach trip to Central America every year.
22) Is there sufficent preparation for practice management? What career placement opportunities does your school offer? Yes, there is a Practice Management course, as well as CE classes and seminars all the time, which students can attend for free. There are a lot of Lunch-And-Learns, where they serve free lunch in between classes and have someone come in and present about practice management and other topics relevant to dentistry. As far as career placement, I believe you're on your own, though Tufts has a huge alumni network that you can take advantage of when you're looking for an associate position.
23) What is the dress code at your school? Scrubs? For what years?In lecture, there is no dress code. In anatomy lab (1st year), scrubs, no open toed shoes. In pre-clinic/sim-lab (1st and 2nd year), lab coat or scrubs, no open toed shoes. In clinic (3rd and 4th year), business casual, no open toed shoes or shorts.
2) What is your examination schedule like? Block Schedule (midterms and finals week) or several every week? Block Schedule every 3-4 weeks
3) What is the hardest class? Why? Gross Anatomy and Medicine. (Neuroscience was the hardest class in my opinion, but this class will not longer exist starting with the Class of 2014, it will be integrated into Gross Anatomy)
4) What is the easiest class? Why? 1st Semester: Nutrition. Hard to get an A but ridiculously easy to get an A-. 2nd Semester: Microbiology/Oral Health Promotion.
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? It depends on the class. Our class, the class of 2013, is competitive but everyone helps each other. There are no gunners that try to sabotage other people, and even the people at the top of the class take time out of their schedule to help people who are struggling. People in my class tend to work very hard and do very well in classes though. After the first semester, 18% of the class got above 3.5 with some people getting 4.0, and 65% of the class got above 3.0. In general though, the atmosphere at Tufts is that of cooperation and collaboration.
6) Are the class notes based primarily on textbooks? or based on lecture powerpoints made up by professors? Lecture Powerpoints and Syllabi. There are very few classes where buying a Textbook is useful, though they are essential for Gross Anatomy (Netter, Moore, possibly Rohen).
7) Are there any classes taken with medical students? No.
8) What is the grading system? Pass/Fail/Honors? Letter Grades? Percentages? This has been recently changed. It is now Letter Grades which are converted into a 4.0 GPA system instead of Percentages, with a few classes as Pass/Fail/Honors.
9) Is there a notetaking service for lecture available? No, but most of the lectures (especially the ones in Merritt Auditorium) are lecture-captured so you can watch them online.
10) Is class attendance mandatory? No.
11) In general, are teachers approachable for questions? Yes
12) Is there a big brother/big sister program that pairs you with an upperclassman or professor who "mentors" you? Yes, both. They pair you with an upperclassman, a faculty advisor, and a 3rd-year student dentist who is in clinic.
13) What is the % first time board pass rate? What is the average score? It's in that giant booklet you get at the interview.
14) When do you take the NDBE? 1st year or second year? Second Year, right before you enter clinic. This is the main thing I don't like about the Tufts curriculum, but they are changing the curriculum to take the boards after the first year. This change will probably not take effect until the Class of 2015 or 2016.
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? Not really. I believe you can take as much time as you need to study for boards, but if you take too long it will cut into your clinic time, so it would behoove you to take the boards as soon as you can, so you can enter clinic in a timely manner. There are mandatory board review sessions as well.
16) Do most people study in the University Library? Or does the place clear out right after school and everybody studies on their own? Most people study in the Library, though we have study rooms in the dental building as well. There is no shortage of study areas, though when the library closes at midnight you may have to study at your apartment.
17) Are patients readily available to fulfill clinical requirements or do you have to do a lot of work to get them in? As the last commenter had said, patients are available and students share with 4th years who need to fulfill certain requirements. 4th years have dibs over patients, which sucks for 3rd years but you'll appreciate it as a 4th year trying to graduate.
18) Is it a hassle to get a chair once you get patients in? In your opinion, does your school have enough chairs? I'm not sure, though we have more chairs now that the post-grads have moved upstairs into the Vertical Expansion.
19) What are the clinical requirements to graduate? (number of crowns, fillings, etc...) Is it reasonably attainable or pretty difficult? Seems reasonable. For details, consult that giant booklet you get at the interview.
20) Are there opportunities for different off-site dental clinic rotations? If so, what are they? Yes, there's a one-month externship 3rd year, you choose from a list of 30+ externship locations around the US and they do their best to pair you with the program you prefer. You will be given preference if you are from the state where the externship is located.
21) Are there opportunites for outreach trips to underserved areas or countries? If so, what are they and for how long? Yes, the Tufts Hispanic Dental Association does an outreach trip to Central America every year.
22) Is there sufficent preparation for practice management? What career placement opportunities does your school offer? Yes, there is a Practice Management course, as well as CE classes and seminars all the time, which students can attend for free. There are a lot of Lunch-And-Learns, where they serve free lunch in between classes and have someone come in and present about practice management and other topics relevant to dentistry. As far as career placement, I believe you're on your own, though Tufts has a huge alumni network that you can take advantage of when you're looking for an associate position.
23) What is the dress code at your school? Scrubs? For what years?In lecture, there is no dress code. In anatomy lab (1st year), scrubs, no open toed shoes. In pre-clinic/sim-lab (1st and 2nd year), lab coat or scrubs, no open toed shoes. In clinic (3rd and 4th year), business casual, no open toed shoes or shorts.
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.Seriously, do yourself a favor and mapquest/google the rotation at the palm beach health center (Blue Heron Blvd., West Palm Beach,FL) to Nova (3200 S. University Dr, Davie FL). The farthest south rotation is I think the Dept of corrections, which is known as the "Florida Welcome Center" if you'd like to find how far away that is from the campus. Also a pretty fun one to drive to was Miami Care Resource, I recommend googling it as well.
