Campus Visit

[Snowpea]

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I am going to be going on a campus visit to a dental school and I was wondering if anyone knows if I should bring anything (resume/transcript)? or what I should wear? or anyone whom I should try to talk to while I am there? or general advice.. Thanks!

 

[lgreen_aci]

good question.

tagging along.

I'm going to the oregon coast this summer and planning to check out OHSU SOD on the way. If anyone has any specific info about visiting OHSU I'd be greatful if you could share. Thanks.

 

[TEXDENT]

Wear business casual ~ slacks + button shirt, no tie and no jacket

bring a notepad, in this notepad you should be ready to write down stuff they tell you, your opinion of the school, people giving tour so you can mail thank you cards etc. You also need the notebook as a reference to the questions you will ask them about their school (have some prepared and written down in your notebook), you want to look interested in the school so have pleanty of questions. Lastly, use the notebook to have your checklist of qualities about you you will talk about as the day progresses. EX: your high gpa, dat scores, shadowing, how much so-and-so influenced you to be a dentist, etc

SO recap: bsn casual + notebook

good luck

 

[Biogirl361]

is this an interview or just like an open house/tour? bc if it is kind of an informal tour i wouldn't really do much of the part about talking about yourself, first of all they won't remember whatever you say anyway and secondly the interview is when to talk about yourself, during the tour you should stick to asking questions about them and looking interested in them unless they specifically ask you about yourself. besides, after going on 4 interviews i've noticed that one of the things that really makes a person stand out to a school is simply if they seem genuinely interested in that school. everything else i agree with tex though, the business casual, slacks and a golf shirt should be fine for a summer tour, and to bring a nice notebook to complete the look and to have notes about questions you wanted to ask them.

 

[Snowpea]

Thanks! that is very helpful. Does anybody have any reccomendations as to impressive questions that I could ask at the school? or just questions in general?

 

[TEXDENT]

I don't know about impressive questions, but some questions you might want to ask to know if the school will be a good fit for you is:

Student/admin relations - (get a feel for if the admin is pro students or anti students and or organized, have a friend at medschool with an anti-student admin and he says life is miserable)

General school atmosphere - (as you walk around get a feel for the layout and if you like it, especially where the library is, its lighting and how the library and school smells. I know you think smelling the school is funny, but believe me, when you are spending close to 24-7 at the place, you don't want the layout/lighting/smell to be lame, it will make you miserable in the long run. I went to UT and spent almost all of my time in Welch, been out of college for 2 yrs now and when I go visit friends, just walking into Welch gives me shivers and puts me in a down mood because of its smell.)

Schools focus - are they heavy into research and expect everyone attending to research, are they focused more on science or more on clinical? Match up with what is important to you

Board scores - ask % passing, and their average scores last year (how well they stacked up against other schools)

Specialization - if this is important to you, what % of their classes usually matches (matches is important here) in their residency programs.

What their ideal student is (application purposes) no harm in asking, and if you get a straight answer, you can position your application/statement to be exactly what they want (ask the Dean of Admin this one(

Student environment- ask the students how they like it, is their class competative and cut throat or collaborative, and ask yourself which environment you would do better in. Also ask them why they picked the school, and if now they are there they would have done anything different, and if there is anything they don't like about the school.

Location - more of an observation- how accessible is it to housing, could you tolerate the area of town it is in.


These are just some off the top of my head