BU vs Michigan vs UCLA (foreign dentist Advanced Standing)

[greenfields]

Hello everyone! Here is a different situation, I'm a foreign dentist / advanced standing candidate asking for help with school choices!


School 1: Boston University (DMD Advanced Standing)
Pros:

• 24 months only
• Cheaper by ~$20K than UMich/UCLA (total cost including living)
• Heavy focus on digital dentistry
• Recent renovation of facilities
• Boston is a great city

Cons:

• Late program start and end dates (July)
• Only has 12 months of clinic work (starts only in second year), significantly less clinical experience?
• Large class of international dentists (~85)
• Not integrated with traditional four-year-program students (is this a pro or con?)
• Cold

School 2: UMich (ITDP)
Pros:

• Highly-ranked dental school (but that could just be for research)
• Recent renovations of facilities
• 20 ITDP students, Integrated into final years of traditional four-year program
• Ann Arbor seems to be a nice college town

Cons:

• Longest duration (28 months)
• Presence of residency programs may limit DDS clinical experience
• More expensive than BU, similar cost to UCLA
• More cutthroat due to more competitive admissions??
• Cold

School 3: UCLA (PPID)
Pros:

• Best weather
• I have some relatives there, the settling-in period may be easier
• 25 PPID students, Integrated into final years of traditional four-year program
• Pass-fail system means less pressure
• 25 months only

Cons:

• Old facilities
• More expensive than BU, similar cost to UMich
• Presence of residency programs may limit DDS clinical experience

More background info:
- As an international dentist with not-inadequate clinical experience, the main goal is to get the dental license
- These all refer to Advanced Standing programs, not traditional 4-year programs
- Not planning to specialize
- I am willing to travel to any of these places
- (UCLA hasn't actually started interview invites yet, this one was included as a thought exercise)

Summary: I suppose that cost should be the biggest factor, but a $20K difference seems relatively small, making the other factors more relevant.

Thanks very much in advance for your thoughts! I'm a long-time lurker who has learned a lot from SDN!

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[macsak]

Hello everyone! Here is a different situation, I'm a foreign dentist / advanced standing candidate asking for help with school choices!


School 1: Boston University (DMD Advanced Standing)
Pros:

• 24 months only
• Cheaper by ~$20K than UMich/UCLA (total cost including living)
• Heavy focus on digital dentistry
• Recent renovation of facilities
• Boston is a great city

Cons:

• Late program start and end dates (July)
• Only has 12 months of clinic work (starts only in second year), significantly less clinical experience?
• Large class of international dentists (~85)
• Not integrated with traditional four-year-program students (is this a pro or con?)
• Cold

School 2: UMich (ITDP)
Pros:

• Highly-ranked dental school (but that could just be for research)
• Recent renovations of facilities
• 20 ITDP students, Integrated into final years of traditional four-year program
• Ann Arbor seems to be a nice college town

Cons:

• Longest duration (28 months)
• Presence of residency programs may limit DDS clinical experience
• More expensive than BU, similar cost to UCLA
• More cutthroat due to more competitive admissions??
• Cold

School 3: UCLA (PPID)
Pros:

• Best weather
• I have some relatives there, the settling-in period may be easier
• 25 PPID students, Integrated into final years of traditional four-year program
• Pass-fail system means less pressure
• 25 months only

Cons:

• Old facilities
• More expensive than BU, similar cost to UMich
• Presence of residency programs may limit DDS clinical experience

More background info:
- As an international dentist with not-inadequate clinical experience, the main goal is to get the dental license
- These all refer to Advanced Standing programs, not traditional 4-year programs
- Not planning to specialize
- I am willing to travel to any of these places
- (UCLA hasn't actually started interview invites yet, this one was included as a thought exercise)

Summary: I suppose that cost should be the biggest factor, but a $20K difference seems relatively small, making the other factors more relevant.

Thanks very much in advance for your thoughts! I'm a long-time lurker who has learned a lot from SDN!

have you been admitted to these programs?

 

[artist2022]

School 3: UCLA (PPID)
Pros:

• Best weather
• I have some relatives there, the settling-in period may be easier
• 25 PPID students, Integrated into final years of traditional four-year program
• Pass-fail system means less pressure
• 25 months only

Cons:

• Old facilities
• More expensive than BU, similar cost to UMich
• Presence of residency programs may limit DDS clinical experience

Current 4th year UCLA student (but I'm traditional); just wanted to comment on some of your things here
1) As far as I've seen, there are only 20 PPID students. Haven't heard of them increasing it to 25 (but their website says 25 so I'm not sure).
---> integrated with us but they are very tight-knit since the first ~4 months you're only with each other
2) Grading system is P/F/H so there is some competition to get honors but overall yes it's less pressure
3) Clinic has been undergoing renovations (pre-COVID) and we had new clinic chairs installed so that's been nice
---> Also just launched the iDDS clinic for more digital dentistry
4) I don't think our clinical experience has been limited by having the residencies here, but yes most of the complex cases to go the residents
---> we also have community rotations where you get to do a lot more than what you might do at UCLA

I will say that admissions is very competitive though so I would be wary of putting the cart before the horse here....

 

[greenfields]

have you been admitted to these programs?

Sorry for not making that clear; I've been accepted to both BU and UMich.

 

[greenfields]

Current 4th year UCLA student (but I'm traditional); just wanted to comment on some of your things here
1) As far as I've seen, there are only 20 PPID students. Haven't heard of them increasing it to 25 (but their website says 25 so I'm not sure).
---> integrated with us but they are very tight-knit since the first ~4 months you're only with each other
2) Grading system is P/F/H so there is some competition to get honors but overall yes it's less pressure
3) Clinic has been undergoing renovations (pre-COVID) and we had new clinic chairs installed so that's been nice
---> Also just launched the iDDS clinic for more digital dentistry
4) I don't think our clinical experience has been limited by having the residencies here, but yes most of the complex cases to go the residents
---> we also have community rotations where you get to do a lot more than what you might do at UCLA

I will say that admissions is very competitive though so I would be wary of putting the cart before the horse here....

Thank you for your insights regarding UCLA! I agree very much that the CAAPID admission process is extremely competitive (much more than I anticipated), but I figured that it might be better to put everything on the table into one post and see what everyone says.

 

[Ajav]

Hello everyone! Here is a different situation, I'm a foreign dentist / advanced standing candidate asking for help with school choices!


School 1: Boston University (DMD Advanced Standing)
Pros:

• 24 months only
• Cheaper by ~$20K than UMich/UCLA (total cost including living)
• Heavy focus on digital dentistry
• Recent renovation of facilities
• Boston is a great city

Cons:

• Late program start and end dates (July)
• Only has 12 months of clinic work (starts only in second year), significantly less clinical experience?
• Large class of international dentists (~85)
• Not integrated with traditional four-year-program students (is this a pro or con?)
• Cold

School 2: UMich (ITDP)
Pros:

• Highly-ranked dental school (but that could just be for research)
• Recent renovations of facilities
• 20 ITDP students, Integrated into final years of traditional four-year program
• Ann Arbor seems to be a nice college town

Cons:

• Longest duration (28 months)
• Presence of residency programs may limit DDS clinical experience
• More expensive than BU, similar cost to UCLA
• More cutthroat due to more competitive admissions??
• Cold

School 3: UCLA (PPID)
Pros:

• Best weather
• I have some relatives there, the settling-in period may be easier
• 25 PPID students, Integrated into final years of traditional four-year program
• Pass-fail system means less pressure
• 25 months only

Cons:

• Old facilities
• More expensive than BU, similar cost to UMich
• Presence of residency programs may limit DDS clinical experience

More background info:
- As an international dentist with not-inadequate clinical experience, the main goal is to get the dental license
- These all refer to Advanced Standing programs, not traditional 4-year programs
- Not planning to specialize
- I am willing to travel to any of these places
- (UCLA hasn't actually started interview invites yet, this one was included as a thought exercise)

Summary: I suppose that cost should be the biggest factor, but a $20K difference seems relatively small, making the other factors more relevant.

Thanks very much in advance for your thoughts! I'm a long-time lurker who has learned a lot from SDN!

You forgot to take into account that the cost of living is a lot less in michigan than Boston or Cali.

 

[Mexdds]

Has anyone heard from UCLA yet?