Buffalo Help

[DDSjunior]

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Like many of the other SDN posters, I have a few questions if anybody currently at Buffalo could help answer.

1). I know that Buffalo does alot of didactic classes in the first two years, but what type of pre-clinical stuff do you guys do? (Waxing, prep, etc) Im not really sure what most schools do pre-clinically other than waxing, so some info on what to expect would be nice.

2). For above, do you feel the pre-clinical experience was adequate to prepare you for clinic?

3). Is there any glaring negatives at Buffalo curriculum wise?

4). I know the weather is not sunny and 80 all year, but is all the snow and cold that bad?

5). Is there alot of stuff to do socially? Parties, social clubs, sporting events, etc. What do students do on the weekends?


Thank you very much for your help, I really loved Buffalo and plan on attending next fall in large part to how friendly the students were.

 

[Regmata]

Like many of the other SDN posters, I have a few questions if anybody currently at Buffalo could help answer.

1). I know that Buffalo does alot of didactic classes in the first two years, but what type of pre-clinical stuff do you guys do? (Waxing, prep, etc) Im not really sure what most schools do pre-clinically other than waxing, so some info on what to expect would be nice.

2). For above, do you feel the pre-clinical experience was adequate to prepare you for clinic?

3). Is there any glaring negatives at Buffalo curriculum wise?

4). I know the weather is not sunny and 80 all year, but is all the snow and cold that bad?

5). Is there alot of stuff to do socially? Parties, social clubs, sporting events, etc. What do students do on the weekends?


Thank you very much for your help, I really loved Buffalo and plan on attending next fall in large part to how friendly the students were.

1. Buffalo has a very respected clinical program...you are in the clinic the first few weeks of school. You will perform trivial procedures on classmates in the clinic your first year and will see actual patients the second year and in the preclinic you will get more time than you probably wanted by the end of 2nd year.

4. Weather isn't bad...if you are really worried just get a place with a garage and a remote car starter b/c whipping off your car and sitting in it when it is cold is the worst part of winter

5. There are more social activites available than you should probably be attending...it can be a good time...maybe too good for some

 

[DDSjunior]

1. Buffalo has a very respected clinical program...you are in the clinic the first few weeks of school. You will perform trivial procedures on classmates in the clinic your first year and will see actual patients the second year and in the preclinic you will get more time than you probably wanted by the end of 2nd year.

4. Weather isn't bad...if you are really worried just get a place with a garage and a remote car starter b/c whipping off your car and sitting in it when it is cold is the worst part of winter

5. There are more social activites available than you should probably be attending...it can be a good time...maybe too good for some

Good to hear, thank you for your help. If there are others willing to share their opinion I would greatly appreciate it.

 

[blankguy]

I heard Buffalo is in the top third in board scores. It's a complete package, strong clinically, strong didactically, and inexpensive, what else can you ask for?😎

 

[Regmata]

Typically top 20% for boards actually

 

[blankguy]

Typically top 20% for boards actually

Even better!👍

 

[I'mFillingFine]

regmata pretty much covered it! I'll add my own experiences....


1 and 2).

As for what is actually done in preclinic, you spend the first year practicing basic labwork skills (taking impressions, making and mounting casts, making custom trays, doing a casting, working with acrylic.) Then for all of second year you basically learn dentistry on your "fake heads on sticks"...you have most of your classes in the preclinic lab and you learn to drill for all kinds of preps (cavity, crown and bridge, removeable pros, etc.) and will also make dentures, do more castings, and basically just learn everything for the first time. You drill plastic teeth in a typodont put inside a metal/rubber head to simulate operator position. You will be MORE than ready to move upstairs to real people because they hold you to minute, varied criteria in the preclin (since they can examine the teeth you drill for ages as they're grading you and they make up numbers since there's nothing like caries to simulate what real drilling is like.) So it's not like the standards are higher, but they're REALLY picky and often pretty random about what's expected, just so you do an "ideal" prep before you go into real mouths.


3). Is there any glaring negatives at Buffalo curriculum wise?

The profs are very comfortable with their courses in general. You get a few bad ones here and there, like at any school, but if there's really any great problem with one it happens so rarely that everyone gossips and bitches about it. 😉 Also, if curriculum is important to you, you can join the Curriculum Committee which meats after every semester to analyze all the courses and suggest possible changes for the future.

4). I know the weather is not sunny and 80 all year, but is all the snow and cold that bad?

It wasn't bad for me, but I'm from New England. The area the actual dental school is in isn't the same place that's become famous for "lake effect" snow, so as long as you have good tires or live within walking distance of the school, you'll be fine.

5). Is there alot of stuff to do socially? Parties, social clubs, sporting events, etc. What do students do on the weekends?

Absolutely. There are events happening within the school all the time as well as stuff in the city in general (museums, live music, art, sports, bars, good restaurants.) Some students go out more than others....the feeling is a bit different from undergrad since many may prefer to stay in and catch up work rather than go out (or are married and have families so they don't really go out socially too often), but if you like to have fun to de-stress there are plenty of people to join you.

 

[DDSjunior]

Thanks everybody for your help. If there is anything else important admitted students should know or if anybody else could input their thoughts, it would be greatly appreciated. Happy Holidays!

 

[TucsonDDS]

All I can say is that I am cold right now, gotta go turn up the heater. Buffalo seems to be a pretty good school. The first 2 years are all about getting you ready for clinic and they do a pretty good job at that. Moving onto real patients wasn't difficult at all. My only gripe with how unorganized the school is. For being open 115 years you would think they would have a better way of letting students know what all of the paperwork and other BS is other than having to ask upperclassmen. I don't know if anyone is truely happy with their school but I only have a few nitpicks. Did anyone mention that it is cheap for a high quality education. Another benefit of Buffalo over most other schools is that you can become a resident paying instate tuition after the first year (or sooner if you buy a house) saving another 50K on your tuition over the time here.

 

[d2754]

Like many of the other SDN posters, I have a few questions if anybody currently at Buffalo could help answer.

1). I know that Buffalo does alot of didactic classes in the first two years, but what type of pre-clinical stuff do you guys do? (Waxing, prep, etc) Im not really sure what most schools do pre-clinically other than waxing, so some info on what to expect would be nice.

2). For above, do you feel the pre-clinical experience was adequate to prepare you for clinic?

3). Is there any glaring negatives at Buffalo curriculum wise?

4). I know the weather is not sunny and 80 all year, but is all the snow and cold that bad?


5). Is there alot of stuff to do socially? Parties, social clubs, sporting events, etc. What do students do on the weekends?


Thank you very much for your help, I really loved Buffalo and plan on attending next fall in large part to how friendly the students were.

Hi, I got 86 in nbd part1 n my GPA is 4.00,toefl 100
So any chance for me for getting admission in any school this year

 

[theun4given]

I am a little ignorant here so someone please enlighten me... What is the difference between Buffalo's "heads on sticks" and SimLabs in other schools?

 

[I'mFillingFine]

I am a little ignorant here so someone please enlighten me... What is the difference between Buffalo's "heads on sticks" and SimLabs in other schools?

All schools have some kind of preclinical simulation before you go up to clinic and they all call it different things. We just call ours "manikins" with typodonts inside. School range from having just a typodont on a table through something like UPenn, which has a laser on your handpiece and a computer that knows EXACTLY what you're prepping so you can view it on a monitor from all angles. It even beeps when you're leaning over the patient too much 🙂 However, at least there, you only train with that for a few weeks and then work on regular manikins as well.

Here's a picture of me and Fred. ("Fred the Head".) He is one patient mofo 😀