I apologize in advance if this turns out to be really long, but I am hoping that I could get some advice. I am a student from Canada, and I graduated University with a 3.70 GPA, which would not have been competitive for Canadian schools. I have always wanted to study in the States, but due to the tuition it just did not seem like a viable option. Our exchange rate is terrible and when all was said and done I was looking at paying over half a million at the cheapest school, mainly just for tuition. Luckily for us Canadians, the Dental board has agreements with other countries, so I was accepted into one of the Dentistry programs abroad. Having just finished my first year, it is unlikely that I will continue studying at my current school and have once again looked into applying to the States.
I was initially quite happy, after I got accepted, but within a week, things took a turn for the worst. During my first class, I quickly learned that we would pretty much have to teach ourselves everything. In our very first Dental lab, we were given the equipment, told what was expected of us and had to figure it out by ourselves, with the staff member, refusing to help. There was no demonstration, tips or tricks to help, just had to get into it. As expected, a lot of us started struggling and when we asked for extra time to practice, we were told it was not possible, since it would be unfair to other students and the uni refused to setup open lab sessions, as I know is common in the States. Next, we were only given feedback once in the entire first semester, with a letter grade and no option to improve. The professor started helping us, but instead of actually telling us what to do, he ended up taking over and doing the work for us, which in this case was pouring models. A few of the other students ended up submitting his poured models and still failed the lab portion of the class.
Next, when it comes to classes. One of our professor, changed the course outline at the last minute, putting a lot of us at the risk of failing. In addition, in a semester, he cancelled around 50% of our classes, and claimed we were doing alright. We were supposed to be learning the theory but due to his frequent cancellations, we were left in a terrible situation for the final. The average on our first midterm and final, ended up being close to 40%, but not because everyone was doing bad. The truth was, we were purposely marked hard, as a way to motivate us to keep studying, which we found out from third year students. Apparently, what he does is mark you wrong on purpose during the first semester tests and midterms, then all of a sudden passes you at the end, which ended up being true, when the final exam average was in the mid 80s.
Lastly, comes the issue, of staff bullying students and the blatant cheating going on around us. I think the first part is self explanatory, but the second one, during a test, we were split into two rooms and for some reason, it was decided that we should do the test, which was multiple choice on a computer. Of course, when someone is typing, it becomes obvious they are cheating, but the professor was not able to pick up on that, even though he was invigilating the test. He knew students in the other room were cheating, but instead of reprimanding them, then and there, he arranged meeting with all of us and tried to get us to snitch on everyone else. Of course when he found out who they were, he did not take any actions against them. Basically, what I learned that if you want to practice, spend extra time, so that you can be a great dentist, they won't let you, but if you decide to cheat, and get ahead, then it won't be held against you. Of course if I was the only one saying all this, I could perhaps be seen as not being able to cope with the demands of dental school, but unfortunately, the countries dental board has also uncovered similar issues, and the future of our program is a bit uncertain.
After finishing my first year, I ended up applying to schools in the States, and I know for a fact that I will be questioned about why I am not continuing with Dental school overseas. Even though the Dental council's report is online, I don't know how I should go about explaining this issue I, and so many others had. I don't mind starting from the first year again, but I feel like I might be at a disadvantage, even if other aspects of my application are good, mainly because I did not continue there. Of course the other option for me is to continue where I am at, and hope for the best, but I would rather not go back and give them any more of my money or time
I was initially quite happy, after I got accepted, but within a week, things took a turn for the worst. During my first class, I quickly learned that we would pretty much have to teach ourselves everything. In our very first Dental lab, we were given the equipment, told what was expected of us and had to figure it out by ourselves, with the staff member, refusing to help. There was no demonstration, tips or tricks to help, just had to get into it. As expected, a lot of us started struggling and when we asked for extra time to practice, we were told it was not possible, since it would be unfair to other students and the uni refused to setup open lab sessions, as I know is common in the States. Next, we were only given feedback once in the entire first semester, with a letter grade and no option to improve. The professor started helping us, but instead of actually telling us what to do, he ended up taking over and doing the work for us, which in this case was pouring models. A few of the other students ended up submitting his poured models and still failed the lab portion of the class.
Next, when it comes to classes. One of our professor, changed the course outline at the last minute, putting a lot of us at the risk of failing. In addition, in a semester, he cancelled around 50% of our classes, and claimed we were doing alright. We were supposed to be learning the theory but due to his frequent cancellations, we were left in a terrible situation for the final. The average on our first midterm and final, ended up being close to 40%, but not because everyone was doing bad. The truth was, we were purposely marked hard, as a way to motivate us to keep studying, which we found out from third year students. Apparently, what he does is mark you wrong on purpose during the first semester tests and midterms, then all of a sudden passes you at the end, which ended up being true, when the final exam average was in the mid 80s.
Lastly, comes the issue, of staff bullying students and the blatant cheating going on around us. I think the first part is self explanatory, but the second one, during a test, we were split into two rooms and for some reason, it was decided that we should do the test, which was multiple choice on a computer. Of course, when someone is typing, it becomes obvious they are cheating, but the professor was not able to pick up on that, even though he was invigilating the test. He knew students in the other room were cheating, but instead of reprimanding them, then and there, he arranged meeting with all of us and tried to get us to snitch on everyone else. Of course when he found out who they were, he did not take any actions against them. Basically, what I learned that if you want to practice, spend extra time, so that you can be a great dentist, they won't let you, but if you decide to cheat, and get ahead, then it won't be held against you. Of course if I was the only one saying all this, I could perhaps be seen as not being able to cope with the demands of dental school, but unfortunately, the countries dental board has also uncovered similar issues, and the future of our program is a bit uncertain.
After finishing my first year, I ended up applying to schools in the States, and I know for a fact that I will be questioned about why I am not continuing with Dental school overseas. Even though the Dental council's report is online, I don't know how I should go about explaining this issue I, and so many others had. I don't mind starting from the first year again, but I feel like I might be at a disadvantage, even if other aspects of my application are good, mainly because I did not continue there. Of course the other option for me is to continue where I am at, and hope for the best, but I would rather not go back and give them any more of my money or time
