Deciding Midwestern MA or UMDNJ newark or stratford or Barry MBS?

[atlanta213]

I am pre-dent. I really want to be well prepared for next cycle. I am currently on the waitlist for University of pacific dental school. However, in case reapplying, I applied to SMP and now got couple different options. As a result, I would like to get you guy's idea on choosing the program.
In my opinion, UMDNJ newark or Midwestern MA is my best option.. because it both has own dental school. How do you guys think???

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[jslo85]

I am pre-dent. I really want to be well prepared for next cycle. I am currently on the waitlist for University of pacific dental school. However, in case reapplying, I applied to SMP and now got couple different options. As a result, I would like to get you guy's idea on choosing the program.
In my opinion, UMDNJ newark or Midwestern MA is my best option.. because it both has own dental school. How do you guys think???

I hope you get into UoP, it's a quality dental school and the only one that I know that offers the 3 year program.

That said, this late in the cycle it might not be too realistic to bank too much hope on an acceptance this cycle and I see you have applied to three SMPs. This is my personal opinion, but with any of these three programs, whichever one you end up going to is most likely the school that you will end up attending for dental school. I know Barry does not have a dental school but they do have a strong linkage to Nova Southeastern's dental.

Of all three programs, I would definitely agree that UMDNJ and Midwestern MA are probably the best academic programs to attend. But that said, I don't really know if either of those two programs really have a strong reputation outside of their own institution. Midwestern's linkage program for dental if it's analogous to it's medical school linkage for the MBS program would be a 3.0+ in the program and higher and a one full standard deviation above the mean of the entering class of dental students for the DAT score. I think a safe assumption would be a 20-21. The class size is relatively small compared to UMDNJ-Newark, I think it was around 40 or so (could be wrong). I think Stratsford is smaller. Anyway, Barry if you got into their option 1 track is also 1 year like the MA program and is also capped at 40 students. NSU's dental school accepts about 10-12 Barry students each cycle which in my opinion isn't bad at all. NSU's MBS program only consists of 8-12 students itself and supposedly upon successful completion, all of them could matriculate into their med/dental program at NSU so in comparison with Barry's program sending 10-12 students of their own, I would think that this would not be that bad of an option to consider if you have interest in living in Florida.

I don't think you can go wrong any way you look at it, I just think the main perspective you should take is where you would wish to attend for dental school because attending one of these programs would give you the best chance back to their own respective dental/medical school. Good luck

 

[terry gordy]

I'm predental and I'm going with umdnj.

Midwestern is two years...nuff said. I thought about applying there but the people were really rude and weren't very helpful in regards to my questions.

Barry is at a pod school...I dunno, some people don't like that. Plus it's pretty expensive as well. I think umdnj has a better reputation with east coast schools like BU, NYU, Tufts, etc. They have shown some love to people who did the mbs at umdnj.

Also, if you go to the newark campus you might be able to take dental courses with the dental students.

 

[jslo85]

I'm predental and I'm going with umdnj.

Midwestern is two years...nuff said. I thought about applying there but the people were really rude and weren't very helpful in regards to my questions.

Barry is at a pod school...I dunno, some people don't like that. Plus it's pretty expensive as well. I think umdnj has a better reputation with east coast schools like BU, NYU, Tufts, etc. They have shown some love to people who did the mbs at umdnj.

Also, if you go to the newark campus you might be able to take dental courses with the dental students.

-I'm sorry but do you even know what you're talking about? The OP stated it was the Midwestern MA program (1 year) not the MBS program (2 year).

Anyway, if you want to look through past posts, there have been numerous success stories from graduates of the AZCOM MA program. Dentistin is one name that I recall and another would be some SDN member who entered an allopathic residency program afterwards.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=439628

Several pages long if you felt bored and wanted to read through it. Main thing I'd say would be their is a confirmed linkage into their medical/dental school if you attended.

-You're definitely more knowledgeable about UMDNJ's program. "nuff said" there. But just curious, each one of those schools you cited has their own post-bacc/SMP program so wouldn't they put more priority on their own students before viewing others? I'm not sure about Tufts, but I know BU does. The BU Dental program is pretty top notch and competitive too from what I've read/heard. Why wouldn't the OP just apply to one of those programs if he wanted to attend dental school there?

- Yes Barry is a Health Sciences college and has a podiatry school and no dental school. I believe I did mention that before and also uses some Nova professors to teach their classes instead of having their own which leads me to suspect how motivated the MBS faculty is in ensuring success in their students. But that said, most of the posts here on this forum from students who have went to Barry's program are strong supporters and are where they want to be. It is also a fact that Nova accepts 10-12 students into both dental and medical school from Barry. Yes there is at least one dental exclusive course offered. Yes their cited matriculation %s are probably skewed and biased but speaking with admissions people from PCOM-GA and Nova, both regard this program very highly for whatever reason and if you wanted to go to either school and did not apply to PCOM-GA MBS or NSU MBS then Barry would most likely be the next best thing. That was all I was trying to get across.

http://more.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=527650

Relatively useful thread.

disclaimer: Not trying to sound biased for Barry, I was simply trying to clarify matters as they have bombarded me with material. I do not go there. I just felt it necessary to clarify certain matters and bring up facts that might help the OP in his decision.

 

[terry gordy]

-I'm sorry but do you even know what you're talking about? The OP stated it was the Midwestern MA program (1 year) not the MBS program (2 year).

Anyway, if you want to look through past posts, there have been numerous success stories from graduates of the AZCOM MA program. Dentistin is one name that I recall and another would be some SDN member who entered an allopathic residency program afterwards.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=439628

Several pages long if you felt bored and wanted to read through it. Main thing I'd say would be their is a confirmed linkage into their medical/dental school if you attended.

-You're definitely more knowledgeable about UMDNJ's program. "nuff said" there. But just curious, each one of those schools you cited has their own post-bacc/SMP program so wouldn't they put more priority on their own students before viewing others? I'm not sure about Tufts, but I know BU does. The BU Dental program is pretty top notch and competitive too from what I've read/heard. Why wouldn't the OP just apply to one of those programs if he wanted to attend dental school there?

- Yes Barry is a Health Sciences college and has a podiatry school and no dental school. I believe I did mention that before and also uses some Nova professors to teach their classes instead of having their own which leads me to suspect how motivated the MBS faculty is in ensuring success in their students. But that said, most of the posts here on this forum from students who have went to Barry's program are strong supporters and are where they want to be. It is also a fact that Nova accepts 10-12 students into both dental and medical school from Barry. Yes there is at least one dental exclusive course offered. Yes their cited matriculation %s are probably skewed and biased but speaking with admissions people from PCOM-GA and Nova, both regard this program very highly for whatever reason and if you wanted to go to either school and did not apply to PCOM-GA MBS or NSU MBS then Barry would most likely be the next best thing. That was all I was trying to get across.

http://more.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=527650

Relatively useful thread.

disclaimer: Not trying to sound biased for Barry, I was simply trying to clarify matters as they have bombarded me with material. I do not go there. I just felt it necessary to clarify certain matters and bring up facts that might help the OP in his decision.

NYU has an smp???

I never claimed they would give preference over their own. Where did I make any such claim???

"showing love" = getting an interview despite poor ug gpa but good smp performance at umdnj.

Also, here are the links for glendale and downers grove campus. Scroll down, they are two year programs. That is what I was referring to. Sorry about the mixup.
http://www.midwestern.edu/Programs_and_Admission/IL_Master_of_Biomedical_Sciences.html
http://www.midwestern.edu/Programs_and_Admission/AZ_Master_of_Biomedical_Sciences.html

 

[jslo85]

NYU has an smp??? (No but they have their own post bacc. Note I said postbacc/SMP)

I never claimed they would give preference over their own. Where did I make any such claim??? (where did I suggest that you did??? I only said that SMPs generally give preference to students of their own program and as such why wouldn't he attend an SMP at those very schools you suggested if he wanted to go to do that specific school? Gtown and BU both have higher reputable programs than UMDNJ which have 80-100+ students. My whole point was that the OP should go to a program where he wants to end up attending for dental/medical school)

"showing love" = getting an interview despite poor ug gpa but good smp performance at umdnj. (That is great that a possible (?) interview is offered. I think that is the case for many SMPs regardless of where you attended if you apply broadly enough, I have read enough on these forums to even see a 2.2 cGPA student do well in an SMP and end up in medical school (not where he attended SMP). The only reason I brought up linkages was because I know for certain that AZCOM MA program has a guaranteed acceptance if you have a good SMP performance and a certain DAT score. This has been verified in past posts and with Dr. Jones of the MBS program at AZCOM. Drexel's SMP has a guaranteed interview but according to alot of students, it is a very small amount of the interviewees that actually get accepted)

Also, here are the links for glendale and downers grove campus. Scroll down, they are two year programs. That is what I was referring to. Sorry about the mixup.
http://www.midwestern.edu/Programs_and_Admission/IL_Master_of_Biomedical_Sciences.html
http://www.midwestern.edu/Programs_and_Admission/AZ_Master_of_Biomedical_Sciences.html

(thanks for the clarification, I am on the alternate list for one and accepted in the other. My only problem with your post there on this point was that you wrongfully assumed the MA program was the MBS program for some reason and as such put down that it was 2 years as the OP was only applying to one year programs. That was it. I was not contesting your personal views on the program or the people, I only want true facts to be on the table for the OP to decide for himself)

 

[atlanta213]

Thank you so much for good information! It is a vital resource for me. I saw many different views by sdners on UMDNJ and Midwestern. I agree with Jslo85's point that both schools will help me to get in dental school in next cycle. Compared to UMDNJ, Midwestern is fairly new. As many people know, whole point of doing SMP is improving science GPA (mines 3.2 in science UG 3.5 overall.. I went to University of Michigan Ann Arbor). What program will be more harder to get a good grade based on the structure of program (eg.. curve, etc)

Thank you again !!

 

[theWUbear]

 

[jslo85]

ty WUbear, am i supposed to take that in half tablets BID or as symptomatic relief?