Arizona: The Mystery School

[oceansize]

I got some ??'s about Arizona so I thought I'd post something here for everyone out there who's interested.

I had an interview at Arizona a few weeks ago. It was one of the first few days they were allowed to interview because they were undergoing some reviews.

First of all, the school is not finished with construction. In fact, they barely have anything built. Because of this it was really difficult to judge anything. Also, the rest of the school was on Thanksgiving vacation so there were NO students around. I was hoping I could check out student life to see what it was going to be like, but no such luck.

The school is supposed to be very technologically advanced, when it is finished. The dental school, as well as all the other health schools there have wireless laptops that are connected on the internet 24/7. The textbooks will be on DVD. There are no clinics there are there won't be until the first class reaches their 3rd year. The school will be year round and their orientation beings in July. During the summer, students will take Public Health courses online through some distance school some place. I already have an MPH so they told me that I could do some other courses instead.

They want a diverse class including Native Americans, but I was the only woman there being interviewed. The rest of the applicants were white males. So I dunno what's going on there.

The people there seemed very nice, but a little nervous because there is a ton of preparation that they will be needing to do before July.

They sent me a letter of acceptance and the deposit is $1,000 with an addition $1,000 due a few months from now. I don't think I will be attending because I'm scared of how new the school is. Speaking of $$, the tuition was said to be around $30,000/yr with an addition $5,000 or so for supplies. They said they're trying to keep costs down because they want graduates to go on and work in community clinics or indian health services which don't offer that high of salaries compared to the private sector.

Anyways, if you have an interview there good luck. There will be this group discussion thing to gauge your team working abilities, but it is cake.

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[ItsGavinC]

Thanks oceansize! I have an interview there next week, and I'll post my thoughts following that experience.

 

[ItsGavinC]

By the way, to those interested, AZ has some extremely high interview cut-off standards for a first-year school!

Everybody has been amazed at the stats of UNLV's first class, and I think AZ's class will have stats that will probably exceed those.

 

[Zurich5]

Gavin,

Would you mind giving a synopsis of those stats real quick?

 

[ItsGavinC]

UNLV's matriculants had a 3.3 overall and a 3.18 science.

I'd look for Arizona's to have a 3.4 overall and a 3.25 science GPA. Not at all shabby for an entering class! This, of course, is just speculation.

 

[DeltronZ]

I thought arizona's secondary hit heavily upon community service. I thought that they are going to be a school based on community service rather than another nerd farm. There need to be more schools like that

 

[ItsGavinC]

Your point is understood, however you cannot assume that high GPAs and community service are mutually exclusive.

Arizona seems to be choosing those who have high GPAs *and* community interests.

 

[ItsGavinC]

I just returned from my AZ interview today. I had a spectacular time, and really enjoyed myself.

Oceansize posted most of the pertinent information. One of my interviewers was Dr. Dillenburg, the dean. He's an amazing guy, and all of the staff we met were extremely nice.

I was even 30 minutes late to the process because I had car trouble, and they seemed to let it slide.

The building that houses the school is gorgeous, and the 3rd floor (which is currently only a shell) might house the clinics. The square footage on the 3rd floor is enormous. The other option is to build a new building solely for the dental students, and the decision will be made on that in several months.

The curriculum at AZ is truly innovative. When I interviewed at UNLV earlier, I was very impressed with their planned curriculum. It turns out that UNLV just bought the curriculum that AZ invented, so the students entering UNLV next year will be on the same curriculum as AZ. The dean from LSU also bought the AZ curriculum, and will begin it in two years.

The curriculum truly focuses on making students the best possible dentists. No time will be wasted in lab by carving teeth, etc., etc.

I received an acceptance notification today also. It's been quite a day!

Feel free to ask if you have any other questions. AZ looks to be a great school, and I am *seriously* considering it!

 

[tinker bell]

Congrats, Gavin.

So, there will be no carving? That sounds great. I don't think I'll have any problems with carving. But carving is not on the board, right? Why should I do carving? Get my hand used with tooth shapes?
It sounds like you did very well at your interview. How long did it take them to review your file after the interview? 1 day?
That sounds great. Congrats again. Too bad I didn't apply to Arizona. I was worried about going to a new school and all. But laptop everywhere with wireless sounds great.

 

[ItsGavinC]

Yeah, not only is carving not on the boards, but 99.9% of dentists don't do carving.

Dean Dillenburg talked about a project he has worked on where new teeth actually grow in the designated spot -- he forsees this being the "implants" of the future in 5-10 years.

It took them a little while to review my file.

 

[gryffindor]

99.9% of dentists may not do wax-ups, and they are not on the boards, but it is kind of important to do some waxing/carving in dental school. Just enough to learn the process of how a piece of wax ultimately is transformed the shiny crown you place in your patient's mouth. Only because when your dental lab sends you back a piece of junk that doesn't fit on your crown prep at all or has huge gaping margins, you will have some familiarity with the whole process and sound intelligent when you call the lab to try and figure out what went wrong.

Gavin - what is the "innovative curriculum" that Arizona is implementing? Is it the whole all-your-books-on-one-DVD thing? Or is there more? Just curious to know.

 

[ItsGavinC]

Griffin,

What you say is true! The dean said we will do a couple of them, perhaps. As a side note, ASDOH will have a dental lab on site who will do all of the work for the students.

The curriculum is very integrated. It's a true mixture of PBL, along with traditional didactic methods, with one major execption: there won't be any tenured faculty at ASDOH (but they will have 16 "staff" faculty), and experts on certain subjects will be brought in to teach the courses or modules.

Dr. Dillenburg (the dean) is faculty at Harvard, and has some amazing connections. He has contracted the best and brightest in the field of dentistry to teach these courses, so students at ASDOH will have a constant flow of very interesting courses/professors available to them. That means not having to listen to a professor who has used the same set of slides and handouts for the last 15 years. Several of those contracted to teach courses/4-week modules, are actually deans at other dental schools. In all, I recall him mentioning 4 deans from other schools that will be teaching courses at ASDOH, along with top minds in the field of research, invention, and clinical practice. When he was listing the "staff" and those who have thus far been contracted to each courses, it read like a dentistry all-star team.
By the way, those deans committed to teach a module at ASDOH, because they are so excited about the curriculum. Many of them *want* to implement the curriculum at their schools, but it won't work with tenured faculty. The base of the curriculum is that the students will be taught from those who invented or perfected procedures. Just because somebody, let's say a leading endodontist, teaches a module one year, does *not* mean he will be invited back to teach it again the following year. It all depends on the state of dentistry, and who is making leaps and bounds in the field.

Yes, the textbooks are on DVD, however the guy who created the VitalBook for the initial 6 dental schools that are using it, has completely rewritten the format and selection. That gentlemen is on the curriculum board, and he vows that the ASDOH DVD will be far superior to the ones that other schools are using, and that the ASDOH DVD will *not* be available to the other schools. It's being written (or re-written?) especially for the flexible curriculum at ASDOH.

ASDOH will also offer some courses that currently aren't standard at dental schools. For example, genetics. The staff believes that genetics will play a greater role in dental care in the near future, and that all of their graduates should have a thorough understanding of the science.

 

[ItsGavinC]

Also, by this time next year, I can gurantee that Arizona will NOT be the mystery school. Nearly everybody will have an opinion about the school.

 

[oceansize]

When I was there, they told us that they got around 1,200 applications this year. I'm not sure how many secondaries they received.

 

[s.mutans]

Gavin,

From your posts, I feel like I really missed out on a great experience. One of those future faculty members visited us last week and he was very excited in teaching at ASDOH. He also gave a passionate description of the school's future. He is the head of the Dental Health Foundation here in CA. When I cancelled my interview, I spoke with Nancy and discussed my interest in the school and its potential. I was already quite impressed with the hearsays about AZ. I regret not attending the interview.

COST? What is the tuition and cost of living at ASDOH?

 

[oceansize]

They said that the tuition will be around $30,000/yr with additional fees of around $5,000.

Living costs here are relatively cheap. The school is located in Mesa, AZ. 1 BR apts here range from $500-800/month. A lot of the apts around the school offer free rent (1 or 2 months free) promotions when signing a 1 year lease.

 

[Brand]

Keep in mind that the school is trying to sell itself. By talking to students and graduates at the University of Michigan I learned the weakest aspect of their program. At the interview it was this aspect that they "sold" the hardest. From talking with fellow interviewees I heard many of them say how "impressive" they believed this aspect to be. It was an excellent sales job.

 

[zweeks]

What did you find the biggest weakness to be at UM??

 

[Brand]

The clinic. At the interview they were talking about a "vertically integrated clinic" which seemed to impress everyone. Basically, it is just a catch phrase to fascinated people. I've talked to many dentists(well, actually only 4) who have been graduated out of U of M for about 5 years or so. Everyone said their clinic experience was sub par. They had a VERY difficult time right out of school.

Don't get me wrong, UofM is an awesome school! They already have my $1500 and I am sooo looking forward to next August. They also have opportunities available to get the experience the dentists I talked to lacked. Their summer programs are very effective and you will definately be prepared if you take advantage of them. None of the dentists I talked to took advantage of these programs and all wished they had. My point was just to demonstrate that Dental schools try to sell themselves as much as possible. If they only have 16 faculty they may try to make it sound better by saying, "We may only have 16 faculty, but none of them are tenured. All of them love what they do so much they came back to school to teach it! They are the best of the best!"

Again, please no one get me wrong about Michigan. They are my number 1 choice! I was just pointing out how they took a possible negative about their program and turned it into a plus. Quite ingenious if you ask me. If you want anymore specific info on them, just PM me. I would recommend them to anyone.