Dental School Rankings

[akbansal22]

I was wondering if there is an updated set of rankings for dental schools. I've seen a couple online but they seemed outdated.

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[Papasmurf1234]

There is no official ranking of dental schools. However, there are certain schools that one would consider more prestigious than others (i.e. UCSF, Harvard, etc.)

 

[sgv]

There's too much difference in costs, the curriculum is too similar, too many patients don't care about their dentist's school name, the job opportunities are too available to reduce hiring based on name alone, and dental students want different outcomes from their school. People who can't think for themselves ask for other people to "rank" all dental schools into an unrealistically neat list. There are too many variables to make one list for all dental schools. If you were a Georgia resident, Georgia Reagents would be the best school if you wanted to come out with the lowest debt. While someone from North Carolina, should not go to Georgia Reagents because the out of state tuition would cost too much. Nothing in life is as simple as a list.

 

[HaverfoodsDDS]

There's too much difference in costs, the curriculum is too similar, too many patients don't care about their dentist's school name, the job opportunities are too available to reduce hiring based on name alone, and dental students want different outcomes from their school. People who can't think for themselves ask for other people to "rank" all dental schools into an unrealistically neat list. There are too many variables to make one list for all dental schools. If you were a Georgia resident, Georgia Reagents would be the best school if you wanted to come out with the lowest debt. While someone from North Carolina, should not go to Georgia Reagents because the out of state tuition would cost too much. Nothing in life is as simple as a list.

In a totally rational sense this answer is about as spot-on as you can get. It's just too difficult to rank dental schools because there are too many factors to take into consideration.

Just in terms of reputation (whatever that really means) alone though, I think MOST people would come up with a top 10 list comprising the following schools in some arbitrary order:
Harvard, Columbia, Penn, UCLA, UCSF, UNC, Michigan, UW, UConn, UOP.

Remember though, what sgv said is 100% correct and it's really up to you and what you want out of a school that determines what schools are best for you. My list is totally based on my opinions and by no means is it correct or all-inclusive. There are many excellent dental schools that can offer you a great experience, but it's up to you to do the research and find out what you want to get out of a school.

 

[Contach]

RE: it being too difficult to rank dental schools... The same would be true for undergrad universities, medical schools, etc. But, low and behold, there are rankings for these! Who would have thought? There are even rankings for hospitals, but as you both surmised: surely someone who has insurance to one hospital and not to another would prefer the former. What is your explanation for that?

US News, and other agencies compile ranking based on "indicators" that they see as important. "Indicators" like: tuition, prestige, quality of education, opportunities for students at graduation (employment rate), would likely be things they would take into account. And hopefully they would provide their results transparently and systematically. But you can understand where schools are better than one another in atleast, if nothing else, the individual indicators.

 

[Papasmurf1234]

RE: it being too difficult to rank dental schools... The same would be true for undergrad universities, medical schools, etc. But, low and behold, there are rankings for these! Who would have thought? There are even rankings for hospitals, but as you both surmised: surely someone who has insurance to one hospital and not to another would prefer the former. What is your explanation for that?

US News, and other agencies compile ranking based on "indicators" that they see as important. "Indicators" like: tuition, prestige, quality of education, opportunities for students at graduation (employment rate), would likely be things they would take into account. And hopefully they would provide their results transparently and systematically. But you can understand where schools are better than one another in atleast, if nothing else, the individual indicators.

Some of those rankings are a complete joke. The schools that get ranked high automatically flaunt about their ranking and most of the people that flaunt it don't even know what or how each of those criteria were ranked.

 

[Screwtape]

In a totally rational sense this answer is about as spot-on as you can get. It's just too difficult to rank dental schools because there are too many factors to take into consideration.

Just in terms of reputation (whatever that really means) alone though, I think MOST people would come up with a top 10 list comprising the following schools in some arbitrary order:
Harvard, Columbia, Penn, UCLA, UCSF, UNC, Michigan, UW, UConn, UOP.

Remember though, what sgv said is 100% correct and it's really up to you and what you want out of a school that determines what schools are best for you. My list is totally based on my opinions and by no means is it correct or all-inclusive. There are many excellent dental schools that can offer you a great experience, but it's up to you to do the research and find out what you want to get out of a school.

Lol I think you mean most pre-dents on sdn.

 

[kevin512]

You really need to ask yourself why you are asking the question. It seems like a viable question when you are in undergrad and I am even guilty of asking the same. But you need to know one thing- and that is debt. If I run into a Harvard, BU, UOP, Nova dentist I would feel smug... why? Debt. I went to a state school- Florida, and paid much less compared to a BU grad.

Debt is something most predents do not look at because we are so focused on getting into school. If you go to whitecoatinvestor.com this Emergency Physicans says the same thing... and even goes on to say that people don't care.

Last year I worked in a large corporate clinic and I realized one sad fact: people choose dentist by (1) cost (2) location. I could argue that location would come first. It doesnt matter if you are the class President and valedictorian of your Harvard class. What matters is how fast can you pay of your debt, how quickly can you build a nest of financial wealth, and how quickly you can actually give back to the community.

This is why rankings are unimportant. If you bloom where you are planted, people will want you, I guarantee it.

 

[sgv]

This is why rankings are unimportant. If you bloom where you are planted, people will want you, I guarantee it.

 

[Contach]

Some of those rankings are a complete joke. The schools that get ranked high automatically flaunt about their ranking and most of the people that flaunt it don't even know what or how each of those criteria were ranked.

They are a joke in the same way material goods are a joke. People flaunt nice cars and nice houses, only for the cars to have the lowest safety ratings, and for the houses to be built along earthquake fault lines. They have no idea. But we are a product of our surroundings, and materialism is apart of us.

 

[BigCountry]

Wow that's deep bro...deep stuff.

 

[OldMoney]

top dental schools ranking:

1. school that accepts me
2. school that accepts me
3. school that accepts me
4. school that accepts me
and so on.

 

[djd0516]

They did an official ranking this year:

1. Maryland
2. Maryland
3. Columbia
4. UoP
5. Tufts
6. UConn
7. Florida
8. Michigan
9. Harvard
10. Louisville

 

[djd0516]

Horrible list.

Then make a better suggestion...

 

[ModifiedBass]

There's no such thing as a "better suggestion" all these rankings are entirely pointless (and having a school listed as #1 and #2 would make it a "horrible list", but that's besides the point). Schools have a reputation based on their name and location. Obviously many would think the ivies are "ranked high" solely based on the fact that they're ivies, and then based on where you're located in the nation, your local schools will probably have a better reputation.

 

[moler]

#1: Ivy with substantial scholarship (If you want to specialize--not saying it's easier to specialize if you go to an Ivy, but the name can't hurt)
#1: Your state school or cheapest
#2: School that accepts you

 

[djd0516]

There's no such thing as a "better suggestion" all these rankings are entirely pointless (and having a school listed as #1 and #2 would make it a "horrible list", but that's besides the point). Schools have a reputation based on their name and location. Obviously many would think the ivies are "ranked high" solely based on the fact that they're ivies, and then based on where you're located in the nation, your local schools will probably have a better reputation.

Sorry that might have gone over your head. Obviously the rankings are pointless. I put Maryland as 1 and 2 because I like them best and it was intended as sarcasm. Don't take these forums seriously...99.9999% of people on here have absolutely no idea what they're talking about.

 

[ModifiedBass]

Sorry that might have gone over your head. Obviously the rankings are pointless. I put Maryland as 1 and 2 because I like them best and it was intended as sarcasm. Don't take these forums seriously...99.9999% of people on here have absolutely no idea what they're talking about.

Hard to sense sarcasm when it's not blatant sometimes on this site, my fault. Second part of my post still holds true along with yours.

 

[ecap707]

I was wondering if there is an updated set of rankings for dental schools. I've seen a couple online but they seemed outdated.

It All matters how you want to rank schools. If you want it by research and academics then you would go Ivy League schools. But if your going to rank by actual dental skills you would go Maryland Pitt Temple ect

 

[shulk]

We rank dental schools all the time here. There are spreadsheets floating around you can use to rank schools by average incoming GPA, DAT, etc. Dental schools can definitely be ranked by any number of criteria they have in common with one another. Whether or not that is useful or productive is another matter. Some possible useful rankings would be a list of % of dental graduates who find employment upon graduation, average starting salary out of dental school, or average debt burden upon graduation.

 

[mike ashley]

Ivy leagues > schools that are not lecom, howard and meharry, >> lecom, howard, meharry

 

[Longcatislong]

Ivy leagues > schools that are not lecom, howard and meharry, >> lecom, howard, meharry

Why Howard, LECOM & Meharry on the bottom of your list?

 

[gn4]

Why Howard, LECOM & Meharry on the bottom of your list?

I think he's just trolling us

 

[mike ashley]

Why Howard, LECOM & Meharry on the bottom of your list?

Do you want the word osteopathic in your degree? May as well say that you got your dental degree from a massage school. Howard and meharry….DAT averages of 17 and 16 respectively. Seriously? That almost warrants changing the school name to school of dentistry for the feeble minded…….

 

[Longcatislong]

Do you want the word osteopathic in your degree? May as well say that you got your dental degree from a massage school. Howard and meharry….DAT averages of 17 and 16 respectively. Seriously? That almost warrants changing the school name to school of dentistry for the feeble minded…….

Nothing wrong w/ Osteopathic medicine. I have plenty of friends from college who went that route.

 

[mike ashley]

Nothing wrong w/ Osteopathic medicine. I have plenty of friends from college who went that route.

In other words….they didn't get into allopathic medical schools…….

Aspirin > OMT

Simple fact…..

 

[Longcatislong]

In other words….they didn't get into allopathic medical schools…….

Aspirin > OMT

Simple fact…..

lol no. At least not for everyone (my sample size is obviously small though, three people) Surprisingly, some folks actually set out with that career goal in mind. Although I could totally see how osteopathic schools are fall backs for lots of premeds.

 

[lemoncurry]

The only people who care about any sort of dental school ranking are predent gunners who applied to all the Ivy League schools. Go to the cheapest one that accepts you. Every school has to prepare you for national boards and for the regional board exams. If you can't pass those, your degree is useless.

 

[BlackThought]

.

 

[Ferneezy]

Howard and meharry….DAT averages of 17 and 16 respectively. Seriously? That almost warrants changing the school name to school of dentistry for the feeble minded…….

but who was graduate dentists of fully accredited schools?

 

[Sublimazing]

Now that board scores are oblitterated I think your best bet is using incoming DAT, GPA and matriculant application info since the best school gets the best applicants. And then to me the graduate match/specialty rate was a huge consideration.

I think a lot of people are recommending the cheapest schools because they have a better purported "value", but typically that's not how we rank things...no one would say a toyota camry was the best car, but it may be the best value...we all know the high end cars, howevet, get a higher rank

And a higher ranked school isn't necessarily the better school for an individual. But again, if you're just looking for the best RANKED schools then the harvard, columbia, ucsf, etc list is a good one.

Good luck!

 

[lemoncurry]

Just remember that when people talk about dental school rankings without a qualifier ( e.g. DAT scores, etc), they are just giving their own opinion as there is NO official or agreed upon ranking system for dental schools.