Any UoP students on here?

[Incis0r]

I have a few questions about the program that I'd like to ask- would appreciate feedback from current and/or former UoP dental students.

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[agent2362]

I graduated from UoP

 

[tooth knockn]

I graduated from UoP

How was it?

Too fast paced?

Was it financially worth it?

Did you like it?

 

[agent2362]

How was it?

Too fast paced?

Was it financially worth it?

Did you like it?

It was very fast paced especially the first and last 9 months of school. 2nd year is a bit of a calmed down year. I only went because the army paid for it. The best school for you is the cheapest one you can get into, imo. UoP is a solid dental school and I am more confident than many of my counterparts, but you even a deficient dental school (that's cheap) can be made up for with an AEGD/GPR. UoP or any other dental school for that matter is NOT worth $400k.

 

[tooth knockn]

It was very fast paced especially the first and last 9 months of school. 2nd year is a bit of a calmed down year. I only went because the army paid for it. The best school for you is the cheapest one you can get into, imo. UoP is a solid dental school and I am more confident than many of my counterparts, but you even a deficient dental school (that's cheap) can be made up for with an AEGD/GPR. UoP or any other dental school for that matter is NOT worth $400k.

Read

Good food for thought.

 

[RuffDay]

It was very fast paced especially the first and last 9 months of school. 2nd year is a bit of a calmed down year. I only went because the army paid for it. The best school for you is the cheapest one you can get into, imo. UoP is a solid dental school and I am more confident than many of my counterparts, but you even a deficient dental school (that's cheap) can be made up for with an AEGD/GPR. UoP or any other dental school for that matter is NOT worth $400k.

How much is the cost of living per month?

 

[agent2362]

Rent ranged anywhere from $1000-2000 for most in the school.

 

[Incis0r]

.

 

[gsquared]

Good questions--I'm thinking of applying there as well and would like to know.

 

[Munks]

Thank you for responding to this thread!

A few questions...

I graduated from UOP 2014.

1) Fast paced just means you have to be on top of your stuff. For some people that means organization is top of the game; for me that meant long nights in the lab and lots of out of school time putting together treatment plans, etc (I'm very meticulous in general so labwork and patient organization took a lot of time for me). Really though all it means is you have to be responsible.. almost everyone was able to party or do whatever they wanted to do on friday/saturdays, you just have to be responsible and understand when study time means study time. I would imagine coming from a science major in undergrad you would already have picked up on this pretty well, so I would not consider it a major concern. First year didactics were pretty rough, after that clinic and everything else is usually smooth sailing.

2) Class wise there are tutors from the year ahead, and in general people from your own class are supportive (though I think our class was one of the most cohesive ones using a FB group). Instructors are always available for extra help. Pre-clinic/sim lab wise, if they see you start to fail, they will put you in a remedial type program that meets every saturday something like 8-1pm for extra practice & guidance until you start to score better. While I did not have to go through this, I was in the sim lab every night till 8-9pm until I felt the hand skills were coming - and for most people they do come, just have to get that muscle memory.
-In my class, we had I want to say 3-4 held back 1st year due to hand skills, grades, etc, lost none 2nd year, and 1 more held back for a semester final year due to not getting reqs done. Clinic-wise as well, there is so much help between the clinic group leaders and assistants that failure is pretty tough to do. Again, that does not mean it is easy.. there is a good amount of work to be done, and they do expect a lot from you.

3) Class morale for every class is usually pretty high, though UOP tends to attract the kind of people that like to be challenged, like to be a leader, and like to have fun. The whole environment is pretty happy go lucky, especially when you think about how much work has to get done. I don't think anyone ever had any real blow-outs with anyone else in the class to my knowledge.

4) The first 9 months were easily the most intense. Juggling a full course load of science classes with trying to becoming a dentist hand-skill wise, like I said it was pretty regular for me to stay from 8am-8pm M-Th. Some people, esp those with families, decided to come in Saturdays instead of stay late. Others were very efficient with their time so they hardly ever had to stay late. While I was more one of the slow ones, there were always the majority of the class in the sim lab after hours.
-that being said, I was still able to go to a concert the week of finals (which btw, we had I think 7? finals in 3 days), still had time to rank Diamond I in League, and I still had time to visit my GF across the state. It's all about time management and responsibility. Work hard, play hard.

5) Second year is certainly easier than first year. You are past all the major basic science classes, and now focusing more on real actual dental clinical classes (more in-depth ortho, perio, implant, etc); while the basics were introducted 1st year, you get far more indepth into this, which most people find it a lot easier to learn about something interesting like diagnosis and tx planning rather than Kreb's cycle. Also, second year in clinic is pretty introductory in the sense that you usually won't be doing RCTs, big bridges, etc that are more reserved for third years or fourth quarter 2nd years; it's more exams, perfecting diagnosis & tx planning (the majority of 1st/2nd quarters of 2nd year), basic fills, a crown or two, etc. So the actual workload in clinic is generally lighter until you get more experienced to do the more in-depth cases. Also END of 3rd year is hectic because of state licensure exams, residency applications & interviews if you so choose to go that route, etc, all while having to complete requirements for graduation. It's just more work to be done is all.

6) No idea

7) The best way to go about almost ANY dental school I would say is doing the military scholarships (if you don't have a family, etc). I was kind of a fool and thought I wanted to settle down after DS and I regret not doing the scholarship.. not that I'm in a bind now or anything but I would have rather done my 3 years and gotten over it. Although.. then I wouldn't be able to apply to ortho as a post-graduate as I am doing now.

8) Sure I plan to.. as soon as I get my loan paid off first! hah. Seriously though, everyone is so supportive, fun-loving; looking back I can't say I had a hard time with anyone, staff, teachers, or students. There will always be clinic faculty you disagree with treatment planning wise, but it was never much a hassle to just find a different faculty to work with. Very much different than the dental school nightmares you hear about from some of the older folk.

9) Yep, treated well across the board. Again there will always be the little things.. the old folk docs favoring short-skirted girls in preclin, the clinic floor faculty that will never agree with your treatment plan, etc; but all in all I have to say I had a pretty good time.


*Note: I'm sure people struggled a lot more than I, or had worse dealings with faculty, but to my knowledge many of the problems students had with teachers was the students being spoiled or used to having everything silver plated.

Phew that was long.

*Edit1: All this being said, I absolutely don't regret my decision to go to UOP, BUT I do have to agree with the poster above that said equal skills probably can be gained within AEGD/GPR/5 years of practice and that probably is the better route financially. While in my first associate, the owner docs & other associates were very impressed with my clinical knowledge and patient communication, I do know others in my class that struggled with that, so YMMV.

 

[helprosie]

I graduated from UOP 2014.

1) Fast paced just means you have to be on top of your stuff. For some people that means organization is top of the game; for me that meant long nights in the lab and lots of out of school time putting together treatment plans, etc (I'm very meticulous in general so labwork and patient organization took a lot of time for me). Really though all it means is you have to be responsible.. almost everyone was able to party or do whatever they wanted to do on friday/saturdays, you just have to be responsible and understand when study time means study time. I would imagine coming from a science major in undergrad you would already have picked up on this pretty well, so I would not consider it a major concern. First year didactics were pretty rough, after that clinic and everything else is usually smooth sailing.

2) Class wise there are tutors from the year ahead, and in general people from your own class are supportive (though I think our class was one of the most cohesive ones using a FB group). Instructors are always available for extra help. Pre-clinic/sim lab wise, if they see you start to fail, they will put you in a remedial type program that meets every saturday something like 8-1pm for extra practice & guidance until you start to score better. While I did not have to go through this, I was in the sim lab every night till 8-9pm until I felt the hand skills were coming - and for most people they do come, just have to get that muscle memory.
-In my class, we had I want to say 3-4 held back 1st year due to hand skills, grades, etc, lost none 2nd year, and 1 more held back for a semester final year due to not getting reqs done. Clinic-wise as well, there is so much help between the clinic group leaders and assistants that failure is pretty tough to do. Again, that does not mean it is easy.. there is a good amount of work to be done, and they do expect a lot from you.

3) Class morale for every class is usually pretty high, though UOP tends to attract the kind of people that like to be challenged, like to be a leader, and like to have fun. The whole environment is pretty happy go lucky, especially when you think about how much work has to get done. I don't think anyone ever had any real blow-outs with anyone else in the class to my knowledge.

4) The first 9 months were easily the most intense. Juggling a full course load of science classes with trying to becoming a dentist hand-skill wise, like I said it was pretty regular for me to stay from 8am-8pm M-Th. Some people, esp those with families, decided to come in Saturdays instead of stay late. Others were very efficient with their time so they hardly ever had to stay late. While I was more one of the slow ones, there were always the majority of the class in the sim lab after hours.
-that being said, I still went to a concert two days before finals, I still had time to get ranked high in League, and I still had time to visit my GF across the state. It's all about time management, and again, responsibility. Work hard, play hard.

5) Second year is pretty easy all things considered. You are past all the major basic science classes, and now focusing more on clinical classes (more indepth ortho, perio, implant, etc); while the basics were introducted 1st year, you get far more indepth into this, which most people find it a lot easier to learn about something interesting like diagnosis and tx planning rather than Kreb's cycle. Also, second year in clinic is pretty introductory in the sense that you won't be doing RCTs, huge bridges, etc that are more reserved for third years or fourth quarter 2nd year; it's more exams, perfecting diagnosis & tx planning, basic fills, maybe a crown or two, etc. So the actual workload in clinic is generally lighter until you get more experienced to do the more in-depth cases. ALSO, end of 3rd year is hectic because of state licensure exams, residency applications & interviews if you so choose to go that route, etc, all while having to complete requirements for graduation. It's just more work to be done is all.

6) No idea

7) The best way to go about almost ANY dental school I would say is doing the military scholarships (if you don't have a family, etc). I was kind of a fool and thought I wanted to settle down after DS and I regret not doing the scholarship.. not that I'm in a bind now or anything but I would have rather done my 3 years and gotten over it. Although.. then I wouldn't be able to apply to ortho as a post-graduate as I am doing now.

8) Sure I plan to.. as soon as I get my loan paid off first! hah. Seriously though, everyone is so supportive, fun-loving; looking back I can't say I had a hard time with anyone, staff, teachers, or students. There will always be clinic faculty you disagree with treatment planning wise, but it was never much a hassle to just find a different faculty to work with. Very much different than the dental school nightmares you hear about from some of the older folk.

9) Yep, treated well across the board. Again there will always be the little things.. the old folk docs favoring short-skirted girls in preclin, the clinic floor faculty that will never agree with your treatment plan, etc; but all in all I have to say I had a pretty good time.


*Note: I'm sure people struggled a lot more than I, or had worse dealings with faculty, but to my knowledge many of the problems students had with teachers was the students being spoiled or used to having everything silver plated.

Phew that was long.

*Edit1: All this being said, I absolutely don't regret my decision to go to UOP, BUT I do have to agree with the poster above that said equal skills can be gained within AEGD/GPR/5 years of practice and that probably is the better route financially. While in my first associate, the owner docs & other associates were very impressed with my clinical knowledge and patient communication, I do know others in my class that struggled with that, so YMMV.

How much was your debt and how long did it take you to pay back the debt?

 

[Munks]

I graduated with just north of 300k loans. Lucked out with family help to lower that number and now have a very manageable monthly amount.

If I did not have help, I probably would have sucked it up with a $5k/mo payment for 10 years, or lower + save for practice; hard to say. The best route nowadays IMO is going with HPSP or NHSC scholarships.. tuition paid for + housing stipend is far worth the 3-4 year service back. Unless you really have the charisma and knowledge to open your own practice right away.

 

[grisha smith]

Rent ranged anywhere from $1000-2000 for most in the school.

Where would u suggest best to live ( I’m class of 2021) , based on how late u stayed in school where is the safer area to rent apartments