Ask me anything(almost) about Temple Dental

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bing12

bing12

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I just graduated this past may. I am working in private practice now.
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Hey, I’m deciding between Temple and Minnesota. I’m hoping you can answer a couple of questions.

1. Did you feel sufficiently prepared and comfortable to dive straight into private practice? Are there certain procedures that you think were not as readily available to you due to the lack of cases or other reasons?

2. From my knowledge (correct me if I’m wrong), students do not get into clinic until the third year. Did you find this later introduction to be a weakness and did it make your transition into clinic more difficult?

3. Were you responsible for completing administrative duties such as scheduling your patients or is that handled by other staff?

4. The strength of the clinical education is consistently stressed at Temple, but what are your feelings about your experience in lectures and your preparation for national boards?

5. How is the safety around the school? In particular, for students that take the subway from center city, is that form of transportation safe between center city to the school and back?
 
SK39 said:
Hey, I’m deciding between Temple and Minnesota. I’m hoping you can answer a couple of questions.

1. Did you feel sufficiently prepared and comfortable to dive straight into private practice? Are there certain procedures that you think were not as readily available to you due to the lack of cases or other reasons?
- I do feel prepared to be in private practice now. I am not comfortable with ortho(we get basic ortho training).

2. From my knowledge (correct me if I’m wrong), students do not get into clinic until the third year. Did you find this later introduction to be a weakness and did it make your transition into clinic more difficult?
- No. It is not as big of a concern in terms of when you enter clinic, but rather what you do clinically. Our requirements for graduation in terms of procedures are higher than the avg(may not be the highest in some specialties), for example:75 extractions, 11 arches of removable, etc.

3. Were you responsible for completing administrative duties such as scheduling your patients or is that handled by other staff?
- I had to schedule most of my patients(and preferred that as well, allowed me to have flexibility in terms of what I wanted to do and when). BUT, I think as I was leaving the front office has began to schedule for some students.

4. The strength of the clinical education is consistently stressed at Temple, but what are your feelings about your experience in lectures and your preparation for national boards?
- I know some schools really like to talk about their boards passing rates. Boards are not difficult, almost everyone passes no matter what school you attend. Some of my friends studied for a few days and passed. Do not take this into consideration in terms of deciding what school to attend(imo).

5. How is the safety around the school? In particular, for students that take the subway from center city, is that form of transportation safe between center city to the school and back?
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- I did it all, I lived in the suburbs for 2 years and drove to school, then lived center city and took the subway to school. It is deff safe to and from school. I wouldnt walk around at 2am off the main street(broad street) around the school, other than that you should be fine.
 
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I haven't been accepted, but also not rejected, can I assume Im waitlisted? Do you know when they start pulling off the waitlist?
 
A few of my friends who interviewed predec told me that they heard nothing on dec 1, then got accepted mid/late dec(just an example). i am not very familiar w the waitlist or not hearing back.
 
Hi
How manageable is it dealing with the debt that you accumulated in dental school?
 
As far as who I know and graduated with, no one seems to have a huge issue paying off their debt so far. Some that I know graduated a few years before I did were very comfortable and never stressed over it. They practice around philly.
 
What kind of student population is at Temple ?
 
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If you had a choice, what made you chose Temple over other schools?
 
I didnt have that many choices, basically NYU and Maryland( didnt go to the interview, didnt really get an acceptance). felt more comfortable at Temple and cheaper than nyu
 
how manageable was the courseload in first and second year, as well as the clinical graduation requirements during upper years?
 
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Was there an open door policy with much of the faculty?
 
Did you enjoy the student life at temple? along with getting the student life in Philadelphia? good places to hang out and enjoy yourself?
 
dizzle_ausome said:
how manageable was the courseload in first and second year, as well as the clinical graduation requirements during upper years?
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- the best part of temple is prob the way they ease you into the curriculum. First semester was very light(compared to most schools). 2nd year was deff the most rigorous of all the years(studied basically everyday)..but I hear that has changed now and students are even less stressed. Graduation requirements was a bit stressful for some (including myself). My graduation requirements came down to the wire, but I did get out on time. Temple really helped many people out towards the official deadline( if you pass the deadline, not a big issue, you just take a few extra weeks/months if you need to finish it). When I was deficient in endo, the endo department changed some of the rules to allow for much easier access to them. If down on crowns, the faculty would go out of their way to try to make sure you were able to get what you needed.


JLT223 said:
Was there an open door policy with much of the faculty?
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- yes. most our faculty are pretty good, you will always get some that were not the best(thats with any school)

bodmon said:
Did you enjoy the student life at temple? along with getting the student life in Philadelphia? good places to hang out and enjoy yourself?
Click to expand...
- I ended up falling in love with philly(similar to most of my classmates as well). It is an affordable(relative to other major cities), and many great restaurants and night life was good also. There is plenty to do there.
 
Thanks bing. This is not entirely about temple, but I have a few questions for you:
How has the transition to PP been from dental school?
Do you think a 1 year gpr or AEGD would have helped ease this?
How did you find your first job out of school?
 
free99 said:
Thanks bing. This is not entirely about temple, but I have a few questions for you:
How has the transition to PP been from dental school?
Do you think a 1 year gpr or AEGD would have helped ease this?
How did you find your first job out of school?
Click to expand...

- Transition has been great mainly due to having a great mentor and office environment. Finding the right job/opportunity is very very important. I know some classmates that quit their jobs in the first few weeks due to it being terrible(or unethical). All I know from speaking to my classmates is: TALK TO THOSE WHO HAVE GRADUATED before looking for a job, you will learn a ton.
- From speaking to many people, I honestly believe maybe 10-15% of 1 year GPR/AEGD training is worth it. Unless you are placing implants, doing a ton of molar endo, doing complex prosth, 3rd molar surgeries, then its just not worth it imo. many of my classmates who are in GPR's are not enjoying it, mostly hospital work, on call, not really getting to place implants(maybe 1 or 2), doing some 3rd molar surg(thats about it). Many are unhappy, I have met a few that are happy, but they are the ones doing all the work I have described above.

- I found it through the henry schein search. Its of no charge for the person looking for a job, they charge a dentist a fee if someone matches with their job. It was a great service, I emailed the HS contact my info she needed, you tell them what are you are looking for and any details that you would like, then they send you a list of offices in your interest, and you get to look at their information(such as demographics, what procedures they typically do, what procedures they typically refer out, compensation,etc), then you chose which you like and the company will try to get you in contact with them.
 
How do you feel about the more negative posts here lately? Regarding saturation and salary. You're in Philly, so it would be nice to hear.
 
I dont practice in philly, I am in rural PA. From what I have seen(limited) those who are having a tougher time with great jobs are in Cali. I have friends who went to practice in texas, florida, NC who are doing fairly well. My friends in philly are also doing really well( not practicing in the middle of the city, but the suburbs around it).

Everyone has a different experience.
 
How was the dynamic between you and your classmates (was it competitive)? Did a lot of your classmates want to specialize and if so, is there a good chance of specializing having done dental school at Temple? Thanks!
 
would you say that majority of your classmates enjoyed their experience at Temple? Do you have any second thoughts about not choosing another school?
 
dizzle_ausome said:
How was the dynamic between you and your classmates (was it competitive)? Did a lot of your classmates want to specialize and if so, is there a good chance of specializing having done dental school at Temple? Thanks!
Click to expand...
In my class, we all really helped out each other. I am not familiar with the other classes, but I think its more of a class basis(not a school). I think in the beginning everyone wants to do ortho/omfs,etc. A good amount of people that thought they wanted to specialize decided against it( top 10/15 in the class) for whatever reason. I know we had 6ppl match into ortho from my class(3 got into temples, which I believe has 6 positions, 3 also got into ortho at temple this year , we did hear that typically temple ortho will take 3 from each year, but dont quote me on that). No one from my class even applied to endo or perio haha, but the class after us did have some apps to those specialties. i think we had a few apply to OMFS, 1 matched, the other 2-3 are doing internships. I know about prob 6-8(guestimation) that matched into pedo( i think almost everyone who applied to pedo matched...as far as I know). I know the class applying now to specialties have been much more than my class I believe. Our class loves general dentistry(I guess).
bodmon said:
would you say that majority of your classmates enjoyed their experience at Temple? Do you have any second thoughts about not choosing another school?
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- Yea we did. I really appreciate temple when our classmates travel to ASDA events and other events then come back and say many other students are absolutely miserable at their school. No regrets at all.
 
How is the student faculty ratio in clinic? What are the clinical requirements.... How many crowns / root canals / dentures?

Thank you so much
 
appdream said:
How is the student faculty ratio in clinic? What are the clinical requirements.... How many crowns / root canals / dentures?

Thank you so much
Click to expand...

I think its about 6:1 student:faculty ratio.(on avg). sometimes it may deff be worse for the students if faculty take off(but its not that common). 15(crowns)/ im not sure what the endo requirements are anymore, they changed, 11 arches of removable
 
bing12 said:
I think its about 6:1 student:faculty ratio.(on avg). sometimes it may deff be worse for the students if faculty take off(but its not that common). 15(crowns)/ im not sure what the endo requirements are anymore, they changed, 11 arches of removable
Click to expand...
Thanks so much. This is really helpful in making my decision.
 
On buzzfeed they talked alot about doctors and things and I mean bad things then they talked about dentist.
I am just wondering in the video it said "Dentist use outdated techniques" is this true?
 
By the way I am an pre med student studying Infectious Disease.
Hopefully I can graduate and work for the Center For Disease Control (CDC).
 
Hi bing, I am waiting for my interview in temple and I am a international dentist. I really appreciate if you can tell me that does temple still have the same agenda of taking interview with about 4 minute talk in front of video camera?There is no one on one conversation right.
 
How much debt did you graduate with and how much is your starting salary?
 
Jasrahil said:
Hi bing, I am waiting for my interview in temple and I am a international dentist. I really appreciate if you can tell me that does temple still have the same agenda of taking interview with about 4 minute talk in front of video camera?There is no one on one conversation right.
Click to expand...

That is correct, no one on one interview. It is recorded, however someone will be in the room handling the camera.
 
Do you know anything about the bench test for international dentists.Are they going to make the students do the cavity preparation or something like that.
 
What was your gpa/Dat score?
 
How much was the cost of living while you were going to Temple (if you don't mind me asking)?
 
Hi bing,can you please tell me little bit about the bench test for international students in Temple.
Thanks in advance.
 
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