Anyone ever regret picking the cheaper school just because it's cheap?

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No regrets but sometimes I get the “grass is greener on the other side” feeling.

The other 2 dental schools I got accepted seem to have much better student vibes but COL and COA are through the roof.

Having smaller monthly payments for student loans is super under appreciated, you’ll be thanking yourself in the next 10 years.
 
Drawing dentist aren’t all the schools you’ve gotten into incredibly expensive?
 
drawingdentist said:
I think the cheapest school I got into was UNE but I have been liking MWU and NSU more so I am not sure which to choose tbh.
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@drawingdentist: none of those schools is significantly cheaper than the others or P/F, so if I were you I would choose MWU. If you're paying the exorbitant price you might as well experience the highest technology in dentistry.
 
sb.tnh said:
@drawingdentist: none of those schools is significantly cheaper than the others or P/F, so if I were you I would choose MWU. If you're paying the exorbitant price you might as well experience the highest technology in dentistry.
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Correct me if I am wrong but I calculated the cost difference between MWU (130k) and UNE (100k) to be $120,000 after 4 years
 
drawingdentist said:
Correct me if I am wrong but I calculated the cost difference between MWU (130k) and UNE (100k) to be $120,000 after 4 years
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It's been years since I applied to d-schools so I really don't know much about costs... Now we're looking at $400k vs $520k. Both amounts are horrifying to be honest. I've heard a lot of practicing dentists on DentalTown and SDN saying that dentistry is not worth it at above $400k... Sorry not much help here, but good luck with your decision!
 
The only people that are sorta thinking about this kind of stuff are unfortunately people that haven't really earned money.

If you have earned money, you would understand how much 120k is. 120k after tax is a TON of money.
 
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When you chose the realistic school over the expensive school and you realize that you're not paying $4000+ a month in loan repayment, I think you'll literally be laughing to the bank at the thought of this question
 
Did my debt counseling recently since I'm graduating in 1 month. I have HPSP so the debt counselor and I sat in awkwardness for 10 min after he explained to me what ways I can tackle my debt. No regret with HPSP but probably shouldve picked a different school lol for different reasons.
 
Greyangel6 said:
Did my debt counseling recently since I'm graduating in 1 month. I have HPSP so the debt counselor and I sat in awkwardness for 10 min after he explained to me what ways I can tackle my debt. No regret with HPSP but probably shouldve picked a different school lol for different reasons.
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Why do you think you should have picked a different school?
 
sb.tnh said:
@drawingdentist: none of those schools is significantly cheaper than the others or P/F, so if I were you I would choose MWU. If you're paying the exorbitant price you might as well experience the highest technology in dentistry.
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If you have options, why put yourself more in debt... just stick with the cheapest option. If you really wanted to get your hand on tech and practice with it, take CE courses or go make friends with dentists who have it in their offices. Why pay more than you have to. Dental school isn't going to prep you 100% for real world practice. You will learn more after dental school and gain more clinical competency once you leave school. No amount of shiny new tech in school will make you a great clinician.
 
Rainee said:
The only people that are sorta thinking about this kind of stuff are unfortunately people that haven't really earned money.

If you have earned money, you would understand how much 120k is. 120k after tax is a TON of money.
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Yeah I was thinking the same thing too tbh. I have just been getting a lot of pressure from other students who tell me go where it's comfortable and at the end of the day it's doable to pay it back. They keep telling me that I will make lots of money as a dentist, but when I calculate it and calculate monthly payments I get anxiety looking at the numbers. Makes me wonder how other people who go to these schools pay back the loans if they aren't on a military scholarship or have a spouse/parent help with the costs. It seems like most students I have talked to normalize outrageous costs and tell me that it will all be payed back and that I am overthinking this.
 
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drawingdentist said:
Yeah I was thinking the same thing too tbh. I have just been getting a lot of pressure from other students who tell me go where it's comfortable and at the end of the day it's doable to pay it back. They keep telling me that I will make lots of money as a dentist, but when I calculate it and calculate monthly payments I get anxiety looking at the numbers. Makes me wonder what other people who go to these schools pay back the loans if they aren't on a military scholarship or have a spouse/parent help with the costs. It seems like most students I have talked to normalize outrageous costs and tell me that it will all be payed back and that I am overthinking this.
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I'm not saying take 100% advice from people on an online forum but....

1) Don't take advice from someone who hasn't worked a day as a dentist
2) Don't take advice from someone who has never paid "real" taxes- like 24-37% brackets. Because quite frankly...120k after taxes...is a very big sum of money.
 
drawingdentist said:
Yeah I was thinking the same thing too tbh. I have just been getting a lot of pressure from other students who tell me go where it's comfortable and at the end of the day it's doable to pay it back. They keep telling me that I will make lots of money as a dentist, but when I calculate it and calculate monthly payments I get anxiety looking at the numbers. Makes me wonder what other people who go to these schools pay back the loans if they aren't on a military scholarship or have a spouse/parent help with the costs. It seems like most students I have talked to normalize outrageous costs and tell me that it will all be payed back and that I am overthinking this.
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Most students have no idea about finances and being on their own. Don't take financial advice from them cause they either are ignorant of the real facts once they graduate with 500k+ debt or they have mom and pops footing the bill.
They prob don't realize that banks will most likely not touch you if your 500k+ student debt and are looking for another 500k+ to buy an office. It automatically limits your options of purchasing a practice and making more. It will be much harder to make money in dentistry in the future. It will be doable but will require many more sacrifices. Back then you make make a couple mistakes but if you make a mistake, it will hurt you a lot more if you have so much debt. It's getting a lot harder in this competitive environment.
 
drawingdentist said:
Correct me if I am wrong but I calculated the cost difference between MWU (130k) and UNE (100k) to be $120,000 after 4 years
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Don't forget to include tuition hikes each year, amount of interest accumulation during all 4 years, materials you might have to buy if its not included in tuition (loupes, testing fees and so on) . See how much it will grow if you have to do a GPR or AEGD residency. Once you get that down, make some amortization payment schedules. You will be suprised just how much that 120k in tuition costs will balloon over your lifetime and just how much you will end up having to pay.

Having 500k+ debt on a 120k salary (after taxes ~90k), you will not make a dent on your principle loan balance unless your dumping 60k+ a year in student loans. Most of your money will end up going in interest.

RIP avocado Toasts
 
Thank you everyone for your responses, much appreciated!! It's good to hear your thoughts, especially as dentists/dental students who have gone through this and don't have any regrets.
 
So I know that UNE is cheaper than MWU and the other schools I got into, but it's a pass/fail school. I have read somewhere on sdn where someone justified the high cost of a letter grade school over a pass/fail school, claiming that it's better to pay a bit more for a letter grade based school. Am I at a disadvantage if I decide to pick UNE, even though it's cheaper? Not sure how I will feel about specializing but does going to a pass/fail school that isn't as well known going to hinder me from the option of possibly applying to specialty programs?
 
drawingdentist said:
Not sure how I will feel about specializing but does going to a pass/fail school that isn't as well known going to hinder me from the option of possibly applying to specialty programs?
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Just plan to do well on a standardized test, either the ADAT or CBSE depending on specialty, to give program directors a metric to work with.

Big Hoss
 
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luisfigo said:
enjoy the heck out of a P/F school, do research, do well on exams if you want to specialize. Seriously, P/F sounds awesome, I would love to learn without the added pressure.
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Yeah I guess with P/F school I will have more time to work on extracurriculars, thanks for the advice!
 
Rainee said:
Regarding P/F....do well on standardized tests and reach out to faculty....pretty straightforward. Most of times getting into residency is through networking...so hint hint network well.
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Wow that really puts things into perspective, thank you. Three years is definitely a really long time. It’s been super tempting to choose the more expensive school but I am sure my future self will thank me (and all of you!!!) for it. Appreciate the advice a lot. Will make sure to network!
 
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