Which dental schools to apply to?

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teethmonkey

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I need help and advice on which schools to apply to. I want to submit my applications soon. My list of schools that I am considering right now are:

Tufts
BU
Harvard
UConn
Columbia
NYU
UPenn
UMaryland
UOP
UCSF
UCLA
USC

I am trying to eliminate some schools in my consideration. My overall GPA is 3.51 and my DAT scores were 23-academic and 16-PAT...I am a MA resident. Does anyone have any input on which schools to definately eliminate and not recommend...or which schools should be on the top of my list?

I would REALLY appreciate anyone's input!
 
Your list looks pretty good, not sure about USC though. Do a search for more information on each program, you'll be in good shape no matter where you apply (23 AA is very good).
 
no USC? Any particular reason?
 
Do you have a family?

Where are you from?

Where do you want to practice?

What kind of debt are you willing to go into?

Just a few questions to help the conversation a bit. Hard to give you any advice at this point. Those are all nice schools and nice scores so you are fine that way but give us some more info. Of the list which ones are you dead set on applying to?
 
Definitely apply to all the schools I did. UPenn, Columbia, NYU and UCLA.
 
This is how i would put these particular schools on the list, my "personal list" from good to bad, considering not only reputation, but also costs, location and other little things i heard as i went through this myself.

Notes: BU vs Tufts = Tufts wins .... USC = I know nothing about
1. UCLA
2. UOP
3. UCSF
4. Columbia - ps. i would not pay as much, that is why it ties with UConn
4. UConn
6. UPenn
7. Harvard - screw the reputation of this one - not to offend anyone, this is just personal - purely personal - i would rather go to Columbia rather than Harvard
8. UMaryland
9. Tufts
10. BU
11. NYU
12. USC

just take this with grain of salt.

For me these following things mattered most to least this way:
1. Cost
2. Reputation/and how i liked the school itself - ivy or not did not matter to me, rather the reputation of education mattered
3. Location

combine these two prioritizations and you might be able to fully explain why i ranked schools the way i did. For others, who have different priorities, you will have different rankings. Since i dont know much about USC except for the fact that they are very clinically oriented, I put them on the bottom.
 
and also one last thing ... i dont know but if you go study in cali, you would have to take their boards, and i don't know about this if you wanted to practice in MA on the east coast. same goes for USC, cause I think they have different boards - somebody else should have a better view on this one... just warning u2 make sure
 
swiminh2o said:
Do you have a family?

Where are you from?

Where do you want to practice?

What kind of debt are you willing to go into?

Just a few questions to help the conversation a bit. Hard to give you any advice at this point. Those are all nice schools and nice scores so you are fine that way but give us some more info. Of the list which ones are you dead set on applying to?
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Do you have a family?
No I don't have a family.
Where are you from?
I am from Massachusetts so I will be able to get cheaper tuition at UConn but am not too crazy about living in Conn.
Where do you want to practice?
I want to practice in either California or Northeast region which is why I'm considering the schools in these areas...but I'm not sure yet where I want to live for the rest of my life. However, I heard that the future, if you work a certain time in the Northeast, you can practice in Cali without taking the boards. However, I am not certain of that fact. So either Cali of east coast is good for me.

What kind of debt are you willing to go into?
Money is obviously a factor but I am not going to rule out a great school just because it is more expensive. I want to consider all my options when I apply and then consider in the money later when I get notified of where I get in from the schools.

From the list, I am dead set on applying to Tufts, UMaryland, UOP, and UPenn. (I know a diverse bunch of schools) But i really want a school with a good clinical. And I'm not sure which schools on the list are my safety schools and which i can totally eliminate. Since I think 12 schools are too many to apply to.

Just a few questions to help the conversation a bit. Hard to give you any advice at this point. Those are all nice schools and nice scores so you are fine that way but give us some more info. Of the list which ones are you dead set on applying to?
__________________
 
teethmonkey said:
However, I heard that the future, if you work a certain time in the Northeast, you can practice in Cali without taking the boards. However, I am not certain of that fact. So either Cali of east coast is good for me.
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Yes, it is called reciprocity. If you have a valid dental license for 5 years in one state, then you are eligible for reciprocity in 44 other states after 5 years. So you could graduate from an east coast school, pass the North East Regional Board (NERB) exam and get a license in any of the 15 Northeast states covered by the NERB, and then after 5 years of work those states, apply for a license in California without having to take the California boards.
 
This would be my order of schools to apply to......

1) Harvard
2) Columbia
3) UPenn
4) UCLA
5) UCSF
6) NYU
7) Tufts
8) UConn
9) UOP
10) UMaryland
11) BU

These are ALL good schools and if you goto any of them you will make a very fine Dentist. However, public perception is big and reputation follows you throughout life. So there I ranked them accordingly.

________________________________
NYU College of Dentistry 2008
 
why not NOVA?any particulor reason???
 
smilee said:
why not NOVA?any particulor reason???
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WHere is NOVA? I'm only considering schools in the Northeast and Cali.
 
Dentin068 said:
These are ALL good schools and if you goto any of them you will make a very fine Dentist. However, public perception is big and reputation follows you throughout life. So there I ranked them accordingly.

________________________________
NYU College of Dentistry 2008
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One wonders why you went to NYU if your so concerned with school rep, because if you're not aware, NYU has a nasty rep on this and other forums.
 
Dentin068 said:
This would be my order of schools to apply to......

1) Harvard
2) Columbia
3) UPenn
4) UCLA
5) UCSF
6) NYU
7) Tufts
8) UConn
9) UOP
10) UMaryland
11) BU

These are ALL good schools and if you goto any of them you will make a very fine Dentist. However, public perception is big and reputation follows you throughout life. So there I ranked them accordingly.

________________________________
NYU College of Dentistry 2008
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Well, Ecks - you beat me to it, but that's pretty much verbatim what I thought as well. If reputation is such a big deal, NYU is the last school I would go to. And why am I not in the least bit surprised that all the IVY's are the top rated schools on this list?

And to the original poster, is it possible for people to actually make an informed descicion for themselves anymore? Your GPA and DAT scores certainly indicate that you at least knew what you were doing up til this point. Pick up a phone and call the schools, look at their websites, visit and speak to the faculty (3 of the school are in your home state - and aside from the school in Cali, the rest aren't too far away).

But seeing as there are still people on here who think Harvard dental school has an excellent reputation, I suspect that basing you desicion on where to apply from an on-line consensus (i.e. SDN) is rather ill-advised.

Oh and by the way...YES - Tufts is awesome!!! YEAH WOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!
 
Actually I am from the New York area and in general NYU has a real good reputation around here. It is considered almost an Ivy League School. Since Dental Schools dont have rankings I couldnt tell you where NYU would stand. However, check out the rankings in other professional schools like Medicine, Law, Business etc. NYU definitely has a good rep!

______________________
NYU College of Dentistry 2008
 
Dentin068 said:
Actually I am from the New York area and in general NYU has a real good reputation around here. It is considered almost an Ivy League School. Since Dental Schools dont have rankings I couldnt tell you where NYU would stand. However, check out the rankings in other professional schools like Medicine, Law, Business etc. NYU definitely has a good rep!

______________________
NYU College of Dentistry 2008
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I agree with you here....Most people that bash NYU on these forums are losers who got kicked out....they cry that NYU is so hard, blah blah blah blah.....I dont know about you, but if NYU has the reputation of being challenging, then how does that make it a "bad" school?

NYU is a great school....its just that its way too expensive, and easy to get into compared to other schools because of its cost and its enormous class size.....as for the quality of education?? National board prep courses, Invisalign, largest patient pool in the US....and this sounds like a bad dental school??? 🙄
 
NYU does have an outstanding reputation for law school and medicine...but not dental school. It's the same thing with my undergrad school (University at Buffalo)...an unreal dental school (an I suppose an alright law and business school) but the med school is terrible. The name doesn't mean a thing. Harvard has the number 1 med school (for research), but in terms of their primary care - they barely make it into the top 50.

Either way, I still think you can get a really good education at any accredited dental school, and I strongly feel that people who end up becoming exception dental practitioners have an inherent ability to do so. I don't think a $300,000 education or an IVY diploma dictate the final product.
 
one thing I would want to add to this is to do your own research on each school you are applying. When i was applying, i looked at 4 different years of "Guide to dental schools" by ADEA-i went to local medical library where i work and other national library of medicine and collected the data for each school: ave GPA in total and science, DAT scores broken down by PAT and total science and cost... for every year, i made my own rank list based on the grades and dat's (cause for me it matters and tells something about school, like whether they like strong PAT score or not, and whether "I" have that strong PAT score). Then for i compared the trends of schools over these few years (since i made rank list it was easy) and got my final rank list based on this. Then, i looked at which schools are on my top list as far as cost and whre would i want to be. and after i visited the schools i knew exactly what i wanted. You should do this too.
As far as info about me: I had 3.24 gpa and i think 3.3 science(dont remember anymore- it's listed somewhere on the forum), AA 20 and PAT 18. Tons of dental work and extracurricular, and research, and sports. I applied in September, heard from schools in october, went on interviews in november, and got accepted in December. I think i applied a little late, cause some schools that i coudl have went on intereviews contacted me in nov and i could only schedule in jan, for which i was not going to wait that long, esp that i saw these schools in undergrad time. I cancelled those schools, but got in into all schools that i actually interviewed at.
As far as NYU dental, and we are talking about dental school here - it has bad rep everywhere, both here and in real world. May be once the renovations will be done, it will become a little more stable... but now- no way. people here already pointed out all the details about it's flaws.
Good luck.
 
Well as far as I know, NYU has a strong clinical program seeing over 300,000 patients a year more than any other Dental School in the country. So it is great for private practice. By the way isnt UConn gonna shut down in a few years? Just curious. Yes NYU is renovating there first few floors these days however I would like to say other Dental Schools, dont exactly have better facilities. I like the way the school is constantly incorporating technology into its program. The downside to the school is the COST - I admit it, that it is a complete rip-off as compared to other schools. Its like I said before all the schools on that list are good schools. Im still waiting on UPenn...but until then it is NYU all the way!

___________________________________
NYU College of Dentistry 2008
 
Dentin068, what else would you want to say to bring down another school, while it is the school of your choice that has problems. I am not the type to argue or bring anyone down, just stating my opinion and facts that exist. Person reading can either ignore, or read, or read and write back their opinion, so that is all am doing and that is all you can do. The fact is NYU is renovating. The fact is that NYU drops tons of people after the first year. The fact is that average GPA and DAT scores of NYU dropped from rank #5 out of 14 schools that I compared it to, to rank #12, from year 1994 to year 2002. The fact is that UConn GPA and DAT scores increased from rank #8 in 1994 to rank #4 in 1999 and 2000 to rank #3 in 2002. This is just based on DATs and GPA scores of incoming students. Schools compared are most of the Northeast schools, from VCU,VA to MA schools. And i visited NYU, so I am not blind speaking here. Please, there is no argument here except for the facts. Yes, Dentin, if you will get into UPenn, which you still have a chance for, it's a great school, no question. I merely pointed out the fact that NYU is unstable now, and you start projecting things back. Yes, clinical pool is great, so it's good that you said that, but please it is not worth to go and bash another school without anything except anger. And the answer is no, just for your curiosity - grants are not given to schools for 1.5million who are to shut down, silly. 🙂 My 2c.
 
rsawpo said:
Dentin068, what else would you want to say to bring down another school, while it is the school of your choice that has problems. I am not the type to argue or bring anyone down, just stating my opinion and facts that exist. Person reading can either ignore, or read, or read and write back their opinion, so that is all am doing and that is all you can do. The fact is NYU is renovating. The fact is that NYU drops tons of people after the first year. The fact is that average GPA and DAT scores of NYU dropped from rank #5 out of 14 schools that I compared it to, to rank #12, from year 1994 to year 2002. The fact is that UConn GPA and DAT scores increased from rank #8 in 1994 to rank #4 in 1999 and 2000 to rank #3 in 2002. This is just based on DATs and GPA scores of incoming students. Schools compared are most of the Northeast schools, from VCU,VA to MA schools. And i visited NYU, so I am not blind speaking here. Please, there is no argument here except for the facts. Yes, Dentin, if you will get into UPenn, which you still have a chance for, it's a great school, no question. I merely pointed out the fact that NYU is unstable now, and you start projecting things back. Yes, clinical pool is great, so it's good that you said that, but please it is not worth to go and bash another school without anything except anger. And the answer is no, just for your curiosity - grants are not given to schools for 1.5million who are to shut down, silly. 🙂 My 2c.
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Why are you correlating a school's entrance stats with its quality of education? Its apples and oranges.....And also, these grants you talk about....are they research grants? If so, NYU doesnt pride itself on being research oriented, whereas UConn does...so this fact is useless......I find it funny that you pride yourself on doing so much research at your precious "medical library you work at", yet your facts for your bashing of NYU are ridiculous.....
 
I don't correlate the stats with quality of education, but it's a part of the result that leads people either wanting to go to that school or not. It's a good explanation of school's rep and education. And all i was saying is that NYU is unstable now, not bashing it, just stating the facts why i think it's does not have a good rep right now. In a few years may be, may be when the renovation is done... not now though. I have nothing against NYU, i am a NewYorker, certainly proud to have a NY license plates which i will still keep even when in dental school, but that does not mean that I won't say the way things are right now. it was not me who directed his anger on other school just because i was stating that fact about NYU's status. So please, put your guns aside.

And as far as grants, it was RWJF grant to counteract the trends of oral epidemic among poor children, elderly and minorities, given to few schools to outreach to comunities with disadvantaged background and increase the oral care of these communities - thus, care increased in dental school-affiliated community clinics and private practices, increased hours in underserved communities, better technology that has been already incorporated (such as quick recovery system)

(this is a 5 year grant that started few years back)
"courses and modules sequenced with community activities to address socioeconomic, governmental, cultural and other societal issues affecting oral health care access and delivery, b) analysis of CHC data in a Practice Management curriculum designed, in part, to profile community-based practice as a potential career path, and c) further development of the Mentor Program by appointment of CHC and URM community dentists as program faculty and establishing URM/LI student recruitment and retention as major program objectives. "

In any case, i don't need to say more - this is quite opposite of research related grant. 🙂
 
rsawpo said:
I don't correlate the stats with quality of education, but it's a part of the result that leads people either wanting to go to that school or not. It's a good explanation of school's rep and education.
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ummm...so you dont correlate stats with quality of education, yet you state that its a "good explanation of school's rep and education"??? Please revise.


rsawpo said:
And as far as grants, it was RWJF grant to counteract the trends of oral epidemic among poor children, elderly and minorities, given to few schools to outreach to comunities with disadvantaged background and increase the oral care of these communities - thus, care increased in dental school-affiliated community clinics and private practices, increased hours in underserved communities, better technology that has been already incorporated (such as quick recovery system)

(this is a 5 year grant that started few years back)
"courses and modules sequenced with community activities to address socioeconomic, governmental, cultural and other societal issues affecting oral health care access and delivery, b) analysis of CHC data in a Practice Management curriculum designed, in part, to profile community-based practice as a potential career path, and c) further development of the Mentor Program by appointment of CHC and URM community dentists as program faculty and establishing URM/LI student recruitment and retention as major program objectives. "

In any case, i don't need to say more - this is quite opposite of research related grant.
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Gimme a break...dental schools get these type of grants all the time....Temple got a similar grant, but that doesnt make it any much more of a better school than a school that didnt get it.....

THe only reason i brought up the question of the research grant is because UConn IS A RESEARCH BASED School, just llike the Ivy's, so its overall funding is gonna be the highest. However, for someone that cares dick about research (probably 99% of dental students), this is going to be insignificant for them....so you can blah blah blah all the grants you want, but it still doesnt support your argument that NYU has a bad rep and is "unstable" now.....perhaps you should tell this argument to the ADA, which just recently did an accreditation visit to NYU, and this was the result:

In fact, there were no recommendations and 25 commendations were granted to the College. To put this in some perspective, in recent years, less than one-third of dental schools have received no recommendations during an accreditation visit.

Didnt hear about this from all that "extensive" research you did? Here is a thread on this forum dedicated to this topic:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=89172
 
There is a big problem with the way people give advises - it seems to me that I should just stop helping other people, like others helped me when i was in that boat, and just read and participate in the posts that relate to dentistry itself, because, one always get bashed on just for stating their opinion if it's about a school. And all these projections... ehh. I stayed out of this for many posts, because i saw the other threads that turned that way. And now i learn yet again to stay out it, or at least not to state anything about any school, even though this is what people ask about. After all, all of us, if we survive, will become dentists. Aint matter - i'll see you as dentist few years from now. good luck, teethmonkey....
 
There is a lot of good advice on SDN, however, I usually tune out when I see a post from someone about a school they don't attend. Some people just like to be heard and its obvious when they don't know what their talking about. Anyway, to get back to the original question...You picked several excellent schools with a wide variety of philosophies and teaching styles. If you want to hear about why I loved my first year at Harvard, let me know. As for the other schools, ask someone in the class of 2005,6,or7.
 
p.s. the point about the grant was merely to answer Dentin's silly question (about shutting down) angerly projecting onto UConn just because i said that NYU is unstable now. It was not to tell about the school, but to bring the fact that his question was silly. So, please pay attention... i'm done with all this. Only agravates me and does not help others.
 
Wooow, so much hate, anger and hostilities 😱 all together, deep breaths and slowly breath out, breath in 🙂 let's pass that joint, anyone of you can borrow my Bong 😉 Brownies anyone?

Dr.BadVibes, for a guy who's from Canada, going to Temple (not yet, anyway) you sure know a lot about NYU. Is Temple better than NYU? It's not too late to change your mind! Calling other students "loosers," using profanity "dick" won't effectively get your points accross.
Every school has pros and cons, just hope that more of the former than the latter. I'm sure you all will find out this fall, yeah, get ready for it! it's not too late to turn back now 😉
There're advantages to a smaller class size. There's a reason why Harvard has very small class size comparing to other schools. "Large patients pool" in NYU is big plus for you. You'll need it. Practice makes...close to perfect!

Teethmonkey, speaking from personal experience, these are things to keep in mind when choosing a dental school, not in any particular order:
1. What do u want to get out of the school? research, clinical experiences, post-grad (specialties), school location...what're your plans? GP, specialties....?
2. If you care about clinical exposures, ratio of instructor/students in pre-clinic, instructor/students in clinic; what're their clinical programs like? is the program emphasized toward research/academic or clincal? do students have problems getting patients? what're the school requirements for graduation.....
3. Tuition, cost of living, average national board scores, your impression of the faculties, students at the school, how well the students are treated in the school, my impression is that dental students are treated like p.o.s comparing to med students...
Last but not least, yes, it's impressive to the patients that you have a degree from Harvard/Yale/Columbia... whatever. But remember that their reputations are mainly from Law, Business, Medicine, research....but not really dentistry! if your restorations suck or the partial denture does't fit then it won't do u any good. Harvard and UCLA have high board scores (meaning the students are well prepared for the board). It helps for post-grad. But you have to compete very hard w/ other cut-throats and hardcores for class ranking. Well, the same for every school if u want to do post-grad.

You have impressive scores, although PAT is below average but good recommendations, personal essay, great interviews will make up for it. If you have money, what the heck, apply to all of them, go there for interviews, spend sometime there, talk to students who ACTUALLY go there and draw your own conclusions. If I had a choice then I'll go for Cali schools, great weather, beaches, skiing, good foods.....

Where do u plan on practicing? Moving to the West side? stay back East? If you plan to stay here, why going to school in the westcoast?

well, hope that everything makes sense to u. Congrats to the early acceptance to Class of 2009 😀
 
It depends on what you want to do when you graduate. I would first decide if you want to go to a research or clinical base school. Then make your decisions based on finances and gut feelings. All dental schools are good but you have to find the right school for yourself on academic and personal levels. This is something only you can do. I would look each school individually with an open mind and forget the name of the school.

NJDS 2007
 
rsawpo said:
There is a big problem with the way people give advises - it seems to me that I should just stop helping other people, like others helped me when i was in that boat, and just read and participate in the posts that relate to dentistry itself, because, one always get bashed on just for stating their opinion if it's about a school. And all these projections... ehh. I stayed out of this for many posts, because i saw the other threads that turned that way. And now i learn yet again to stay out it, or at least not to state anything about any school, even though this is what people ask about. After all, all of us, if we survive, will become dentists. Aint matter - i'll see you as dentist few years from now. good luck, teethmonkey....
Click to expand...

Perhaps you should stop making bold statements like NYU has a "bad rep" and that it has low stats, so one should be concerned. These ignorant comments are not really helping anyone.

Bcat said:
There is a lot of good advice on SDN, however, I usually tune out when I see a post from someone about a school they don't attend. Some people just like to be heard and its obvious when they don't know what their talking about.
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Although Im not going to NYU, the only reason I entered this conversation was to show that rsawpo's argument was completely flawed (so was dentin's ignorant remarks that UConn was shutting down). Your right that I dont attend NYU, but why do you say that its obvious that I dont know what Im talking about, when I am directly rebutting her argument with a direct link to the ADA....

lets see....ADA or Rsawpo's magical "medical library" research??? The choice is yours. Im gonna go with Rsawpo, because she is a proud New Yorker who is not going to change her license plates, so obviously, all her bashing of NYU must be true, because she must be doing it for the good of the state 🙄

lnn2 said:
Dr.BadVibes, for a guy who's from Canada, going to Temple (not yet, anyway) you sure know a lot about NYU. Is Temple better than NYU? It's not too late to change your mind! Calling other students "loosers," using profanity "dick" won't effectively get your points accross.
Every school has pros and cons, just hope that more of the former than the latter. I'm sure you all will find out this fall, yeah, get ready for it! it's not too late to turn back now
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I only called students who get kicked out of NYU and start to complain about it "losers" and I feel that it is warranted because that is what they are. About my "profanity", Im sorry if my choice of words offended any of you guys who still churn butter in the evening, but I dont see how this should overshadow the point that I was trying to make.....Other than that, as for the rest of your post lnn2, it was great, and I think new applicants should really pay attention to the criteria you stated when deciding which school is the best for them.
 
Wow rsawpo, sounds like you are the one that is really angry after reading all these posts. I had mentioned that UConn could be shutting down because once another fellow SDNer Avingupta had once mentioned it. And he is also attending Temple this fall like Dr.BadVibes🙂 Needless to say I wouldnt apply to UConn or even go there even if I got accepted. It is not anything personal against you, its just I would not want to go there. Also you should get your facts straight too, I really dont know what kind of research you are doing. It is like Dr.BadVibes said before :
"In fact, there were no recommendations and 25 commendations were granted to the College. To put this in some perspective, in recent years, less than one-third of dental schools have received no recommendations during an accreditation visit."

___________________________
NYU College of Dentistry 2008
 
Dentin068 said:
Wow rsawpo, sounds like you are the one that is really angry after reading all these posts. I had mentioned that UConn could be shutting down because once another fellow SDNer Avingupta had once mentioned it. And he is also attending Temple this fall like Dr.BadVibes🙂 Needless to say I wouldnt apply to UConn or even go there even if I got accepted. It is not anything personal against you, its just I would not want to go there. Also you should get your facts straight too, I really dont know what kind of research you are doing. It is like Dr.BadVibes said before :
"In fact, there were no recommendations and 25 commendations were granted to the College. To put this in some perspective, in recent years, less than one-third of dental schools have received no recommendations during an accreditation visit."

___________________________
NYU College of Dentistry 2008
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Hey dentin dude...I am avingupta...I just changed my name...I thought that was obvious....and about when I said Uconn was shutting down, that was a total joke and it was VERY obvious in my post that I was being sarcastic...why would you believe me when I said that???
 
Oooooops. Oh well that was bad then man. 😱 Well your posts have been helpful for me in the past. Anyhow, I still think that UConn sucks as a Dental School!

______________________________
NYU College of Dentistry 2008
 
Dentin068 said:
Oooooops. Oh well that was bad then man. 😱 Well your posts have been helpful for me in the past. Anyhow, I still think that UConn sucks as a Dental School!

______________________________
NYU College of Dentistry 2008
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UConn definitely does not suck as a dental school.....UConn offers everything that an Ivy League claims to offer, but at like 1/8 the cost....
 
Man...this crap again. I am getting so sick of repeating myself over and over and over. The kids that were kicked out deserved it. Yes the material is hard and there is a ton of it, but when you come drunk to an exam or study the day before...what do you expect. Then you have those that fail and say "I studied so much and so hard" but you ask their roommate they were playing computer games and studied during their computer break. The curves we had this year were unreal, I mean truly unreal. Having a 7 point curve was not uncommon. They need the students here bec its a private school and it is to there benefit to keep every person till the end.

And as for not having research...please read a little about the school before you post factless agruements. Here is a list of the NEW research in the past year. And there is a ton more but its way too much to post. This school is one of the top funded research schools.

-NYUCD receives $2 million in NIH funding for osteoporosis research

-$8.5 million dollar epidemilogical study: Oral health

-Phase I drug study to treat rare dermatological disorders

-NYUCD participates in federally funded breast cancer research project

-Federally funded nantechnology development research

-NYUCD receives $120,000 grant for composite restoration study

-$5.9 Million Awarded to NYUCD to Develop a Design Prototype to Extend the Life of Ceramic Crowns

-NYUCD Awarded $1 Million?Plus Grant to Identify Genetic Markers in Cariogenic Bacteria

-NHLBI Awards $663,250 Grant to NYUCD to Bioengineer Heart Muscle

-$400,000 HRSA Award to Expand the Number of Pediatric Dentistry Residents

-$1 Million Gift From Dr.Jonathan and Maxine Ferencz Establishes the Jonathan and Maxine Ferencz Advanced Education Program in Prosthodontics

-NYUCD Awarded $488,000 to Improve Head and Neck Cancer Treatments and Reduce Side Effects

-Support From Senator Clinton Brings NYUCD $250,000 in Federal Funds for Facilities Renovation

And please take a look at the research the professors are doing:

http://www.nyu.edu/dental/research/faculty/
 
Dentin068 said:
Oooooops. Oh well that was bad then man. 😱 Well your posts have been helpful for me in the past. Anyhow, I still think that UConn sucks as a Dental School!

______________________________
NYU College of Dentistry 2008
Click to expand...


Don't be talking **** about UConn.
 
There's a lot of sexual tension on this thread...

Why is everyone fighting about who's school is better? Y'all need to hold each other and make out.

It's ridiculous for anyone to say that every school on your list is a great school and worth applying to. Maybe they are, but I guarantee that no one on this forum has attended all 14 of those schools. It's all hearsay unless you go to the school you're talking about. For example, there's a lot of Ivy on your list. A lot of people on this forum have opinions of Ivy league schools. Maybe you're from Harvard so I'm preaching to the choir, but most of these folks didn't go Ivy and yet they're expert enough to tell you that there is no difference and it shouldn't be a consideration. How do they know that? I went to an okay Ivy undergrad and it got my foot in many, many doors. It doesn't do your job, but it might help you get a job. Does it matter for dental schools? It matters to some people but not to others. It won't matter to most of your fellow dentists after school. Because most dentists went through the exact same curriculum and used the exact same textbooks. Sturdevant anybody? Someone filled me in on this when I was applying to schools, so I ended up going to the cheapest dental school close to my family I could find. After two years it was still so expensive I chose to take a military scholarship. Name didn't matter for me for dental school (mine's not even on your list). It might help you specialize someday, it might not. It might get you more patients someday, it probably won't (being nice is usually enough). But if name matters to you, that's cool and everybody should be cool with that. Personally, I think it will open doors. Don't let other people tell you where to spend your money.

Follow this advice and you'll pick a good school: Ask people from school X what they think about school X. Don't ask people from school X what they think about school Y. Don't even listen. When I want good Chinese food I ask a Chinese person to take me to a Chinese restaurant. I don't ask some French dude to take me somewhere he's never eaten. I will not get yummy Lo Mein that way. Also when someone tells you they visited somewhere that's meaningless. If you visited my house once that would not make you an expert on my family. So don't judge a school by the age of their preclinics or how pretty their classrooms are. My school has brand new preclinics. Meaningless. When the new third years came in last year they were all scared as hell. I haven't seen that much shaking since Chris Rock played that crack addict in New Jack City. Until you're working in a real mouth everything else is distant approximation. So what's important then? A good quality patient pool is key. Good instructors are key. A school that wants to see you graduate is key. A school that wants to see you pass licensing exams is key. Ask about faculty turnover. Ask how schools are compensating for loss of GME funding.

There's an unspoken rule in dentistry: Don't criticize other dentist's work. Even if you think it's bad, you keep that kind of opinion to yourself. You don't know what conditions they had to work under. In the same line of reasoning why would you criticize someone else's dental school? I think it's cool to criticize my own work and my own dental school, but that's as far as I go. And no matter where you go to school or what you specialize in, don't act like an elitest. Even the mighty oral surgeon counts on the general dentist for referrals.
 
I will never say NYUCD is the best bec what is the best for me may not be the best for you. Plus I can not say NYUCD is the best bec I only interviewed at three schools. I just want to lay to rest some misconceptions about this place...thats all
 
Man, great philosophy, I hope when I get into dental school, thats the kind of attitude I'm gonna strive to have.

rock on man! 👍
HD
 
captaintripps said:
Don't be talking **** about UConn.
Click to expand...

I wouldnt be talkin **** about UConn if rsawpo handnt put down NYU. And its like Brocnizer2007 said: "And as for not having research...please read a little about the school before you post factless agruements. Here is a list of the NEW research in the past year. And there is a ton more but its way too much to post. This school is one of the top funded research schools."

_______________________________
NYU College of Dentistry 2008
 
One word of advice.....INSURANCE!

You have applied to some hefty schools, requiring good GPA's and good DAT scores. The requirements are stiffer in general if you are applying to an out-of-state-school. Your AA of 23 is great, your PAT 16 is average, your 3.5 GPA is good. Some of these schools will not consider you because of this. Apply to some schools that you are pretty much guaranteed acceptance with your numbers.

A good rule of application is to realize you will probably get interviews at half the schools you apply to, and get accepted at half the schools you interview at. Apply to enough schools that you get accepted and possibly have a choice.
 
Dude, have I ever mentioned ANYTHING, i say anything, about NYU's research? No. So, why are you bringing up what i said about NYU, if i only talked about it's rep? I have not even brought up research about UConn - why do you switch the plates around, like I am attacking NYU. I only commented about NYU because others did before me, and of a sudden, just because i said it was unstable, you start at me here and the school that i am going to go to. I would have never brought up anything about NYU, if it was not started - and if others can say their point of view, why can't I?
And i learned my lesson - I won't even state my opinion or what I know about any school, not even mine, until i am actually studying there. U should too. And stop unreasonably pointing fingers here, please- a little more maturity... just close it and move on... it does not help the initial poster (teethmonkey) - he'll make his own judgement on every school by asking those in school already, and learning things his own way.
 
dickie said:
One word of advice.....INSURANCE!

You have applied to some hefty schools, requiring good GPA's and good DAT scores. The requirements are stiffer in general if you are applying to an out-of-state-school. Your AA of 23 is great, your PAT 16 is average, your 3.5 GPA is good. Some of these schools will not consider you because of this. Apply to some schools that you are pretty much guaranteed acceptance with your numbers.

A good rule of application is to realize you will probably get interviews at half the schools you apply to, and get accepted at half the schools you interview at. Apply to enough schools that you get accepted and possibly have a choice.
Click to expand...

PAT 16 is below the average acceptance 17

Great advice man 👍 gotta cover your bases first, otherwise you'll be in for a big reality shock applying for those so-called Ivy, top 10, 20 schools! I've got a bunch of Ivies growing in the back of my yard, have to cut them down everyday 😀 some of them are poison ivies 😀

Where's Teethmonkey anyway 😕 People pissing off left and right voicing their advices/opinions to u. Thanks for the feedback :idea: punk
 
Yeah man, where are you teethmonkey?

Guys, I think we scared him off. He's probably off applying to optometry school. Check the optometry forums for a list of 12 schools. We just lost a future dentist.

General advice for all of you entering first years: Don't take yourself too seriously. You need a sense of humor in a profession where people throw up on you.
 
Wow, I didn't know I would cause such tension amongst everyone. First off, I want to say I really appreciate the positive and sometimes negative comments about the schools I listed..and I only wanted people's opinions and not for everyone to fight each other. And to respond to someone's comment before, I only asked this question to get a general feel for schools..and obviously I'm not basing my decision solely on what people in this forum say. However, I am fairly new to this whole dental applications thing and thought that people who were more experienced or went through the process would be of help (i know opinions are subjective...but nevertheless...people's opinion of their own school is very valuable). I mean isn't that what forums are for?

Anyways..really..there's no need of any fists flying in the air. I appreciate everyone's help and I was only gone for a while because I didnt' check this forum that often..but was concentrating on actually doing my apps.

However, I want to say thanks for those who genuinely responded in order to give advice and not to criticize other posters.
 
To answer the original question...

If you want to be a resident, look at the schools affiliated with the residencies that interest you. It always helps to be personally acquainted with graduate faculty and residents. And don't pay more just for a name...residency programs can see right through it. Many prefer their own (such as the ortho program at UNC - a great residency who annually takes ~4 of 6 new residents from their dental program)

If you want to be a good general dentist, there may be some wisdom in attending school in the state you hope to practice in if you know at this point. Each state/regional board is different, and until the Dept. of Education/ADA/CODA condense boards to one nationalized exam, the best bet to passing is to be practicing what you will be tested on as a student. Obviously some schools have a reputation as research institutions, some as clinical schools, and a few both. I feel mine (UNC) is a good mix of both. How each school approaches their teaching is a big determinant of which camp they fall in above. Also, look at cost...if I can pay $8000/yr in tuition vs $50,000/yr, am I a better dentist because I'm paying more for it? If two schools will educate you equally, it doesn't take a finace degree to tell you where the better program might be.

One thing I will recommend is to NOT put too much emphasis on Part I of boards...you're not gonna take a multiple choice micro exam at work for the rest of your life, so is it more important to spend all yout time in classes the first two years and get a 95 instead of an 85 on boards (85 is about the national average), or to go somewhere you get patients your first or second year and practice what you'll be doing for the rest of your career? Personally, I opted for the second, though I know people at my school who got high 90's on their boards despite not being in basic science classes for two years.

Boards Part II results are probably a better indicator of what quality dentists a school produces.

Last, just cause a lot of people apply to the school doesn't qualify it as good. I know guys here who were top in the nation (literally) the year they took the DAT (28's, 29's the like), had 4.0's coming in, etc, and they'll be the first to tell you numbers mean nothing! You've got to feel comfortable with the program. Take this all for what it's worth...
 
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