Ranking

Dental schools refused to acknowledge ranking it's schools. Therefore, U.S. News and World Report stopped ranking dental schools in the early 1990's. And I wouldn't go by those early 1990 rankings as some schools have really taken a dip as far as rankings are concerned while others have improved or shut down.

I created my own criteria as far as ranking schools. Here was my criteria.

1.) Quality of Life:- Are students happy there? How far is it from your home? What type of setting do you like, urban versus rural?

2.) Clinical Training- This is subjective but you can get an idea by talking to graduates. Schools differ as far as training is concerned. How prepared did they feel upon graduating. What type of procedures did they do? How many types of procedures did they learn.

3.) Alumni connections- How strong is the school's alumni network? How well known is your school among employers in a certain area?

4.) Location: Proximity makes a difference for the most part. Graduates tend to live in the area surrounding their dental school or the surrounding states. If you have an idea of where you want to live, I would attend a school near that area if possible.

5.) Affliated residency programs. What residencies are affiliated with the dental school? That may make a difference if you want to specialize

6.) Cost: Try to attend the cheapest dental school you can in my opinion. This is easier said than done but try to if possible.

If you plan on specializing, perhaps you can look at the average Part I board scores of each school since that score is the most detrimental in determining what programs you can get into...

In 2002, UCLA was number one with average score of 91. During the interview, they did tell me that it had something to do with the school, but mostly to do with the quality of students that they accept.

Here is a link to a site I found a while ago: http://members.tripod.com/~softballteam/best.html

I don't place much credence in the rankings, because 1) they are old and 2) as vibe has illustrated so well, ranking schools is best done on a personal basis. Nobody knows the best school for you better than yourself.

http://www.pitt.edu/~dentsci/Links/links.html

this website shows the last gourman report. 1995.