Columbia vs UCSF

[TrojanC]

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So, I've narrowed down my acceptances and will be attending either UCSF or Columbia School of Dentistry in the Fall. I would like to get as much feedback from any other pre-dental/dental colleagues as possible. Which would you choose and why??

Thanks,

TrojanC

 

[dentister]

So, I've narrowed down my acceptances and will be attending either UCSF or Columbia School of Dentistry in the Fall. I would like to get as much feedback from any other pre-dental/dental colleagues as possible. Which would you choose and why??

Thanks,

TrojanC

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[howui3]

Congrats on the acceptances!

I wish I had you dilemma, though it would not be such a hard decision for me.

I am from California, my family and many friends are here, so I would like to stay here. Since both schools are great and will provide you will an amazing education, board scores for any specialty, and will train you clinically, I would choose UCSF. For one it's here in CA, it's a public school which makes the tuition a little cheaper. UCSF has great research available to the students (an area I am very interested in) and a good friends of mine is there at the med school.

You should make a list of important things you look for in an ideal school, location, cost, class size, research, teachers, board scores, externship availability, access to patient pool, etc and compare the two schools.

We can't make your mind for you, plus you might not be happy by going to a school suggested by others.

Good luck and hope in the end you make the right decision for you!

 

[iviikoivi]

go to columbia



[so ill have a better chance at ucsf 😀 ]

 

[INFNITE]

nah, I highly recommend you going to UCSF. I mean, the weather is just so much nicer out there. You don't wanna go to Columbia.

 

[nyching30]

go to UCSF. i'm 99.9% sure i'm going there now haha

 

[vaio]

i would pick UCSF, because i think it's a better school

 

[fightingspirit]

here is my personnal opinion, so you need to keep consulting others (including columbia students who are going to disagree with me for understandeable reasons) and yourself after you read it. i am a new yorker by the way!

GO TO UCSF...because:

1-SDOS is shabby, overcrowded, has narrow corridors and is teeming with people just like a persian bazaar. it is located in a depressing negihborhood.

2- the curriculum of SDOS is bizzarre!!! the focus on didactics is just toooooooo much...too too much..all d-schools will teach you more than you need to know for both practice and boards. but columbia goes overboard and its students suffer the burden of having to learn extensively (as opposed to intensively) at the expense of clinical practice....many columbia students graduate without having done more than 2 crowns. the administration indoctrinates the students with the idea that this curiculum would make them better dentists and that it would make them score better at the boards.....they also brainwash them into beleiving that treading into non-related biomedical science territories is important for specializing!! in reality, if you take columbia's students and put them in howard, they would score the same on the boards because they are good students who are ambitious...i.e, it is not columbia's curriculum that makes those students successfull....it is columbia's students who make columbia's SDOS successfull.

3-the type of students that dr. mcmanus likes are not the type of students you'd like to hang out with for 4 years. there are exceptions to every rule and SDOS has some awesome outgoing students...but for the most part, columbia's students are not cool ...they are competitive in a very bad way. the students are unnecessarily overstressed because of the bizarre curriculum.

4- columbia's ethnic/racial class make up is neither a good representation of new york society nor american society. this might make you feel out of place.

5-columbia is more expensive than UCSF, and it will eventually provide you a weaker dental education. a dental education in which your energy and time was spent on areas of biomedical science that you'd never need. try to save every penny for your dental practice in the future.

6-ivy that is not so ivy....columbia is an ivy league university and when you say you went to columbia undergrad, law, med, or business, it means a lot and people look at you highly....but SDOS is not an ivy league college...i mean it is harder to get into UCLA dental than it is to get into SDOS. on the other hand, it is harder to get into columbia law than UCLA law....you get the point....sophisiticated people know these things so they would not drop their jaw if you said that you went to SDOS. patients could not care less. the only people you;d impress are gonna be dates and strangers you meet at a bar.....i.e people who are not in the loop.


having said all that, columbia does provide 1-ivy league name and good connections 2- the opportunity to go through commencement in the undergrad campus which is breathtaking. 3-the chance to live in nyc for 4 years, and nyc is awesome. 4-the chance to meet some successful and attractive people from the other columbia grad schools.

if you really want the ivy league then go to a D-school that is truly ivy league (as opposed to just being attached to ivy league university), and that is penn.

or better yet, save your moneys and go to UCSF...

by the way, you can go to UCSF, columbia or you can save a buck or two by switching to Geiko...lol 😉 😉

 

[greenday]

A freshman medical student at Columbia posted some photos just after completing the first semester. It seems the medical students' lives are 10 times better than the dental students in the same year. Damn maybe we should have chosen medicine instead. 😱

" Columbia P&S Student Life

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Im a first-year with P&S. Here's a site with a lot of pictures of our class so far this year:

http://www.chem.ucla.edu/~benbk/medicine

Check it out; Columbia is very diverse, NYC is a great place to be, and we all have plenty of fun outside of the classroom. Look me up if you have any questions.

Best,
Ben
"

 

[Grasshoper]

So, I've narrowed down my acceptances and will be attending either UCSF or Columbia School of Dentistry in the Fall. I would like to get as much feedback from any other pre-dental/dental colleagues as possible. Which would you choose and why??

Thanks,

TrojanC

I actually have the same problem. I did a cost-analysis to help me decide and since I'm not from CA, the actual cost for UCSF was greater than Columbia. (263K for UCSF and 253k for Columbia - for 4 years not including any potential financial aid)

 

[nothen2do]

I actually have the same problem. I did a cost-analysis to help me decide and since I'm not from CA, the actual cost for UCSF was greater than Columbia. (263K for UCSF and 253k for Columbia - for 4 years not including any potential financial aid)

You can get in state tuition from UCSF after 1st year...that probably lowers the expected cost some

 

[penguinteeth]

compare between Columbia and UCSF?

Are you kidding?

Give me a break.

Do you think Columbia can compete with UCSF in dentistry just becaust it is Ivy league school?

UCSF ranked 4th in NB I 2005.

Pefectly balanced research and clinic

Long history

Nice weather

World class Faculties

What do you want more?

Unless you are willing to die with those med student in columbia

I would not recommend that school.

don't waste your energy to choose.

Your choice is already there.

 

[v&andy_yankee]

3-the type of students that dr. mcmanus likes are not the type of students you'd like to hang out with for 4 years. there are exceptions to every rule and SDOS has some awesome outgoing students...but for the most part, columbia's students are not cool ...they are competitive in a very bad way. the students are unnecessarily overstressed because of the bizarre curriculum.

and where, my dear, are you getting all these assumptions? do you go to columbia? or are you basing this on what sally said that bobby said that his cousin said his best friend said about columbia? it's been one semester in, and i'm pretty sure i don't have a knife sticking out of my back. as for competitive--well, this is dental school. i really don't see a difference between the competitiveness of columbia dental and my major during undergrad.

to the OP, predents really can't give you a definite answer as to which school is the best, etc--they don't go to both schools, how in the hell are they supposed to compare the two? i would suggesting pm-ing current columbia and ucsf students, asking them what they think the pros/cons of their school are, and then think it over.

 

[BigBottomGirl]

and where, my dear, are you getting all these assumptions? do you go to columbia? or are you basing this on what sally said that bobby said that his cousin said his best friend said about columbia? it's been one semester in, and i'm pretty sure i don't have a knife sticking out of my back. as for competitive--well, this is dental school. i really don't see a difference between the competitiveness of columbia dental and my major during undergrad.

to the OP, predents really can't give you a definite answer as to which school is the best, etc--they don't go to both schools, how in the hell are they supposed to compare the two? i would suggesting pm-ing current columbia and ucsf students, asking them what they think the pros/cons of their school are, and then think it over.

At UCSF there is very little competition within the first and second year classes. We share everything...notes, lecture recordings, old exams. There are no grades the first two years just P/NP. This does not mean we are not hard working. Undergrad was far more competitive. Of course next years class may be different.

 

[ScorpiORTHO]

Honestly, you should pick where you want to be for the next 4 years. Academically, i'm sure they're both challenging and you'll do well in either school. Do you want to be in SF or NYC? What was your own personal impression when you went to visit? I can't understand what people have against Columbia on these boards? It's just a dental school that's highly competitive to get into, cheapest dental school in NYC, it has a great name and the people are pretty cool and intelligent. Otherwise, we'll all be dentists in the end. No need to put it down. If you want to be in a warmer location, on the other hand, then you should pick SF cause ny is cold most of the time we're in school. But, hey, it's not like you'll be living on the beach in SF either. You're going to have to work hard no matter what dental school you go to.

 

[luder98]

IMO, a plus from UCSF or any research oriented institute is that you are the first to be taught with the latest material. This includes both science and dentistry. Maybe that's something you should think about.