anyone a bu student?

[dentaldamit]

can you give me any insight to BU's program? positives, negatives, workload, typical day, surprise expenses, the laptop policy and textbooks, faculty, post-dental school like residencies, anything would help?

i'm thinking about transferring as a first year.

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[doctorsquared]

I am the husband of doctor squared. I cannot figure out how to make a second profile. I graduated from Northwestern U. Dental School in 1987. Although I went to B.U. undergrad for 1 year before transferring to a more challenging program, I enjoyed the city of Bahstin. When I applyed to dental school B.U. was about the most expensive school and had close to zero inside aid. I would have needed to take out student loans at 20% and pay them back while I was still in school. (HEAL loans). The first year expenses were high because you had to purchase your instruments.

B.U. dental school is in relatively bad area of Boston. It is not near the undergrad campus. The undergrad campus is urban and in a nice area of Boston. The day of my dental school interview I arrived at Logan and took a cab to B.U. The cab driver cursed at me all the way from Logan because he didn't want to go where B.U. was. I guess he wouldn't get a return fare. In retrospect it is an easy ride on the "T."

Why in the world would you transfer dental schools?
Just finish it!

If you don't think your training is adequate then do a good residency program or go into the military.

Where are you now? Are you bored and you want an urban environment?

 

[dentaldamit]

the reason i'm leaving usc is because the pbl program they implemented last year is not for me. i don't like the fact the learning is 'on the student'. i don't think the program will prepare me to do well on boards and, more importantly, become a good clinician. 'no lectures', 'no professors', 'no required texts' appealed to me before dental school, but now i can see how i'm going to have a grasp have basic sciences without a textbook.

do you see pbl differently?

as far as urban goes, honestly, i'd like a smaller town. i'm going to be moving away from family which freaks me out, but i've always wanted to live on the east coast and dental school is giving me the opp to do so.

 

[ItNeverEnds]

I worked at the BU Medical Center for a year and never felt safe commuting to and from the area. Regarding transportation, the "T" (subway) does not run to the BU Medical Campus. You have to take the "1" or "CT1" bus down Mass Ave. to get there. I lived in Brookline, and it took me 45 minutes - 1 hour just to get to work in the morning!

The med students that I met while working there did not seem too happy with the area, either. One told me frankly, "You don't want to walk around here at night."

 

[Yellowman]

sup dentaldamit

I wonder if I met you on campus, but anyhow, i am second year pbl. I felt compelled to reply because last year about this time for me, I too wanted so badly to transfer out of usc's pbl program. YOu should have seen me. I hated to program so much, I cursed everyday i was at school. I hated the progroam for it's worth, and I hated everyone in the program. But you know what, it grew on me. It took me about 2 semesters tho, but seriously, I wouldn't have it any other way. I say this, because b4 you give up on pbl, you should really give it a chance.....it might take time, loooong time b4 the program grows on you, if at all, but you don't just want to quit now imho. here's why

1. transferring out of BU as a first yr program to any other traditional program may be difficult. Even tho the curriculum is teh same, the time in which you take these are totally different. For example, by the end of your first year at a traditional, they might have already taken and completed biochem, dental anatomy, where as at usc, you may not even have taken it, or may only have taken a small part of it due to the fact that these are case based and that sc's on a trimester system. So you may be ahead in terms of knowledge in certain subjects whereas you may not even have taken any 'courses' at sc due to the fact that you haven't had that particular case.

2. if you want to practice in cali, staying in usc definitely will be helpful. since cali board is different that regional boards, i've heard that cali schools are definitely more geared towards helping you pass cali boards.

3. if there was one thing i liked about pbl back in my first year, it was that there was lots of free time. If and when you transfer, that'll change for sure.

4. and lastly, IMHO, transferring to BU isn't going to be that much better. If you were going to transferr to UCSF, UCLA, Harvard and such, I wouldn't stop you. Not to knock on BU (as I almost went there), but I think trnasferring there would be transferring to another USC level school. Granted you might like the traditional type of learning envt better, but honestly, i wouldn't do it for many reasons other than the ones mentioned here. PM me for more if you want.

But seirously tho, I feel you mang. but if you stick with it, you might end up liking pbl. I did.

yellowman

 

[dentaldamit]

it never ends.

whoa. when i was there it wasn't that bad. but i guess any city looks decent during the day. you probably wouldn't suggest living by campus, eh? is rent at least cheaper by the school? if so how much do you think it is?