Avoid Texas A&M COD

[tamucod01]

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Their new clinical curriculum is a total disaster. Faculty are leaving at an alarming rate and not being replaced so students are being blocked from booking patients because there is not enough faculty to cover. The new "group practice" model forces you into a D1, 2, 3, 4 team that you are married to throughout all 4 years. 80-90% of your D3 year is dedicated to assisting your D4 partner. Texas A&M has ruined the excellent clinical experience Baylor was known for.

 

[deleted903013]

They happen to be one of the cheapest dental schools in the country if you're a Texas resident so don't avoid them if they're your cheapest option. You'll learn the most once you're out of dental school anyways.

 

[AppalachianDentalBoy]

Can you elaborate OP?

 

[flossy_p]

In all honesty OP, every school has its sucky parts / curriculum handling (as I've heard from friends from a variety of schools)
Just suck it up and do the work; if you hate your team, hate them internally but let it go fast and keep it strictly professional.
Don't complain.

Fermi555 is right anyways, just go to the cheapest school bc what you learn in dental school is like a tear drop in the Pacific Ocean (aka. infinitesimal in comparison to how much practice you'll get in the real world).

 

[Advance]

Ahh. I’ve been waiting for these threads to pop up.

 

[artist2022]

The new "group practice" model forces you into a D1, 2, 3, 4 team that you are married to throughout all 4 years.

This is exactly what we have at UCLA and I think it's great. I'm barely getting into doing cleanings on patients, and I can come in to shadow my D3 & D4 to see what needs to be done from start from finish. I can also assist them, and have them assist me as well. Also, there are projects that we do together. I think having it this way is nice so that you have someone looking out for you and you have someone to look up to?

I like it and I don't see an issue with it

Other students wanna chime in?

 

[BluntForceTrauma]

I sense a skilled attempt at thinning the application pool this cycle...
Well played, young grasshopper, well played

 

[batman12345]

I heard there were issues transitioning to the new curriculum when I interviewed there. Students and faculty were unhappy, but I’d still go there lol

 

[Marcos0789]

I sense a skilled attempt at thinning the application pool this cycle...
Well played, young grasshopper, well played

Isn't a little bit late for that? Or perhaps too early? Better to do it at the beginning of the application cycle or during first week of December, where students with multiple acceptance offers are deciding.

 

[BluntForceTrauma]

Isn't a little bit late for that? Or perhaps too early? Better to do it at the beginning of the application cycle or during first week of December, where students with multiple acceptance offers are deciding.

Sew the seeds now, that you may reap rewards later my son

 

[A_Mdent]

Just graduated from there, can verify. My class was the last before the curriculum switch and d4 was the worst year for me, it was exhausting. Most of the problems stem from the clinical administration and not the clinical professors/group leaders (at least for my year), I got sick of waiting in the dispensary line for 30 min at the start of each appt (basically making the pt wait 30 min to get started, the dispensary was super understaffed), there were not enough floor instructors so you were always waiting for work to be checked (probably not as big as an issue with the group model), the administration placed huge amounts of blame on the students even though we did not have control over much of the crap that was going on. During D3 my class had a super hard time finding patients with qualifying lesions for operative (fillings) exams since our pt pool was super low, they also had to lower some of the fixed (crowns) requirements since a bunch of us were deficient. During my time there were super great instructors both clinical and classroom, I've heard some of them are getting fed up and leaving or deciding to retire. They are building a new school that should be ready soon 2020?, and also increasing the class size 20%, I wouldn't be surprised if tuition also goes up. I feel bad for the students there currently, I would recommend to steer clear if you have other options, I would guess they will get their crap together in the future but I feel bad for the current student as it is incredibly stressful to be in that situation, at least the COA is nice. Lastly, imho i wouldn't recommend dentistry to family members if it would cost 300k+, if you haven't started its not too late to switch, you'll thank me later lol.

 

[flossy_p]

Haha yeah I kind of understand what you mean, a friend goes to NYU rn (she's graduating this year) but she's been telling me that there's some new changes in their system and administration too which she says are a bit unfortunate for the new students, but I think it's attributed to the changing NBDE board exam since they need to be up to date with it all to pass students.

Change takes time guys! There's always going to be rough patches during these periods!

 

[sleep_starterPack]

Ahh. I’ve been waiting for these threads to pop up.

I’m going to be interviewing there, can you spill the tea.