Feeder Schools: Actual Practice? Myth?

[Wei87]

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I've just recently learned about the concept of a feeder school. I guess the outcome of this discussion would not really apply to me now. I was just wondering if some of you can help satisfy my curiosity.

Like the title said, do feeder school actually exist for some dental schools in the US? or is it just a myth?

If they do exist, what dental schools in the US currently employ this practice? How does it work and how much would it "boost" your standings?

Thanks to everyone ahead of time for taking the time to read the thread and answering my questions!

 

[sabdul]

IMO, feeder schools themselves are simply a trend of which dental school receive students from where...Going to a school b/c it is known to be a feeder school IMO is useless if you're going there just for that fact...Your marks, ECs, etc. matter more...Not sure if that was your questions though, but I hope that helps!

 

[somethinpositiv]

Like the title said, do feeder school actually exist for some dental schools in the US? or is it just a myth?

That term exists for a reason. Obviously they exist, not for every school, but for many. For example, public dental schools have pretty obvious feeder schools. UIC Dental = UIUC & UIC. UW Dental = UW & WSU. Michigan Dental = Michigan & MSU. UMDNJ = Rutgers. And so on and so forth. Private schools may or may not practice this, and the preference may or may not lie in-state. I'm going to assume that Ivy Dental schools may prefer students from Ivies or equivalent schools. And what private school doesn't love a BYU grad?? none. 😛

 

[DrReo]

I've just recently learned about the concept of a feeder school. I guess the outcome of this discussion would not really apply to me now. I was just wondering if some of you can help satisfy my curiosity.

Like the title said, do feeder school actually exist for some dental schools in the US? or is it just a myth?

If they do exist, what dental schools in the US currently employ this practice? How does it work and how much would it "boost" your standings?

Thanks to everyone ahead of time for taking the time to read the thread and answering my questions!

Tufts has a list of "feeder schools" on their website.

 

[enfuego]

Tufts has a list of "feeder schools" on their website.

I think those are just a list of schools that have at least X number of students that matriculated into Tufts. I don't think that means Tufts gives preference to people at those schools.

 

[NyCzPeter]

That term exists for a reason. Obviously they exist

If we go by that logic, then it follows that unicorns and boogymen obviously exist since the terms must exist for a reason right?

 

[somethinpositiv]

If we go by that logic, then it follows that unicorns and boogymen obviously exist since the terms must exist for a reason right?

Yes, and you've seen the unicorn fossils too? They're extict. And it's boogyman, since there's only one of him.

 

[somethinpositiv]

...

 

[clockwork]

obviously true. schools keep a track record of how students do and from what schools. if they have success in accepting students from say, univ of michigan, then why not continue accepting a few students from there each year. state schools have more obligations to accept from the same state institutions for funding purposes but private schools aren't locked down like most state schools are. regardless, it still exists at private schools. its no mystery that at some schools, you see a recurring amount of students in each class from a certain school. (i.e. 3 students always from VA Tech and so on).

 

[somethinpositiv]

obviously true. schools keep a track record of how students do and from what schools. if they have success in accepting students from say, univ of michigan, then why not continue accepting a few students from there each year. state schools have more obligations to accept from the same state institutions for funding purposes but private schools aren't locked down like most state schools are. regardless, it still exists at private schools. its no mystery that at some schools, you see a recurring amount of students in each class from a certain school. (i.e. 3 students always from VA Tech and so on).

agreed.

 

[Wei87]

obviously true. schools keep a track record of how students do and from what schools. if they have success in accepting students from say, univ of michigan, then why not continue accepting a few students from there each year. state schools have more obligations to accept from the same state institutions for funding purposes but private schools aren't locked down like most state schools are. regardless, it still exists at private schools. its no mystery that at some schools, you see a recurring amount of students in each class from a certain school. (i.e. 3 students always from VA Tech and so on).

So this system is based on the merit of past graduates?
I hate to bring "school rankings" into this discussion... But, I can understand consistently bringing students in from top tier undergrad schools, I don't quite get the reasoning behind feeding from lower tier schools.

Granted, rankings may not mean anything and some "lower tier" schools may provide better undergraduate dental education than schools that are better "ranked". Let's ignore the ranking from US News for now. I am a NY state resident, and I would say people from NY have a general idea of which SUNY's are at the top, and which SUNY schools are less than ideal (even before our "ranking process" are tainted by US News).

I have a difficult time believing that students from SUNY-****** consistently produce more prepared students than SUNY Binghamton or SUNY Stony Brook (I don't go to school in NY btw). Yet, from my interview at Buffalo, I heard that a little more than 10 seats of each incoming class in past years were graduates of SUNY-******. Assuming that "feeder schools" are actual practices, are there other "contributing factors" other than past graduate performances?

 

[Dentgirl09]

obviously true. schools keep a track record of how students do and from what schools. if they have success in accepting students from say, univ of michigan, then why not continue accepting a few students from there each year. state schools have more obligations to accept from the same state institutions for funding purposes but private schools aren't locked down like most state schools are. regardless, it still exists at private schools. its no mystery that at some schools, you see a recurring amount of students in each class from a certain school. (i.e. 3 students always from VA Tech and so on).

This is true. At my interviews at both temple and MWU I heard this from admissions.
Temple mentioned that they have faith in BYU and penn state students b/c they are always so motivated--even after they come to d-school. And have stellar stats for their application.

MWU mentinoed hte same thing.

A lot of schools list feeder schools that thye have "connections" with on their website.....

 

[enfuego]

So this system is based on the merit of past graduates?
I hate to bring "school rankings" into this discussion... But, I can understand consistently bringing students in from top tier undergrad schools, I don't quite get the reasoning behind feeding from lower tier schools.

I don't understand what school rankings have to do with it. If dental schools have observed that certain undergraduate institutions have a pattern of producing successful dental students, then who cares how that institution is ranked? Does it matter if it's not a top 20 school? All that matters is that you have a set of students who can do well in dental school.

I'm turning this into a rankings discussion for a second, but I think rankings are crap and people put too much emphasis on it. I'm using US News here because I believe it's a commonly used ranking system, and I think other rankings use similar criteria and have similar rankings as US News.

Schools are ranked based on inputs - the high school GPAs/SAT scores of incoming students, the level of education of their professors, how much money alumni donate to the school, what other academic institutions think about the school, what kinds of financial resources are available, graduation and retention rates, quality of research produced by professors. This is all listed on the US News website. However, schools are NOT ranked based on outputs - acceptance rates into graduate programs, performance on exams like DAT/MCAT/LSAT/etc, employment rates immediately after graduation, the average income of their graduates, etc.

Students who go to top-ranked schools don't necessarily get a better education because university prestige is mostly based on the research the university generates, not on academics. And looking at the criteria that US news uses for its rankings, how many of them actually reflect the quality of education the students receive? Studies show that students who go to small liberal arts colleges do just as well or better than students from top-ranked schools on admissions tests. The top 4 or 5 schools who have the highest percentage of students going on to receive PhDs are all small, lesser-known colleges - only one of those schools is ranked in the top 50 by US News.

I wouldn't put much stock into rankings and name. Dental schools apparently take it into consideration, but I wouldn't be surprised if they have their own system for ranking schools.

 

[Dentgirl09]

Why feed from low-tier schools? That's just a matter of ranking--it doens't make those students any less qualified. Reasons for doing this may include:

1. State relationship (Temple recruits from a lot of surrounding PA schools)
2. Noticeable outstanding performance from students from specific schools (BYU, for example has a great reputation).
3. Relating to #1.. retention rate of dentists within that state--maybe they will stay and rpactice there if they already have connections in the state..

Who knows. I do know that schools don't always care about rankings... that's why people who to go to community colleges get in--they actually care about grades, the student, and all the other BS that you put in your application. Not putting down CC--i htikn its a great way to save $$, but just comparing it to an ivy or top 20 or even 50 school.

 

[Wei87]

I complete agree with what you guys have said, and I do realize that prestige/ranking is often based on funding other than academics. But, In my personal view, prestige and education aren't mutually exclusive. There is probably still some truth in perceived "rankings".

I specifically compared schools under the SUNY system because someone mentioned that state schools may have feel "obligated" to take more students from other state schools within the same state (sorry about the grammatical errors). I thought this comparison would be relevant.

I don't go to a SUNY school, but I vouch for some above others based on my personal experience and perception. I've visited SUNY schools during my high school years. I've based my "ranking" on the general impressions I got from the science programs of these school during my visit and the advice I got from my counsellors.

I personally think that amount of research funding a school get doesn't really affect the quality of education for entry-level science classes. But IMO, it does affect upper level science classes. I think some science classes are so obscure that few people will know enough to teach them properly. To play devil's advocate, more funds "often" means better grant proposal -> better projects -> better scholars. Of course, that's not always the case, but probably the case.

In terms of admissions test performance, it might not necessarily be a fair way to say that the quality of education for a school is "good" or "as good as the other". For the DAT, I personally don't recall any of the science topics actually go into anything complex or in-depth. They were general questions that you'll be able to answer just from entry level courses, and the rest is self-study. I think from this respect, some can argue that while prestige doesn't mean everything, it probably does tell you the level of education to some extent. To use an extreme example, this may be why so many dental schools have an issue with applicants completing pre-reqs at CCs. The level of education for these CCs may be great, but there will always be a limit placed on the lack of research professors. A good education is an up-to-date education. The textbooks we buy are often outdated, and a pretigious research professor is more likely to keep up with scientific journals and teach us proper material (as oppose to a lecturer)
note: the above are JUST my personal thoughts

If we speak only for the SUNY schools, I have always been told that Stony or Bing is the way to go coming out of a New York state high school. Granted, that may not be the best way to judge things, but I wouldn't say that US ranking is any better.

Like you said, schools probably have their own system of ranking... and that's precisely what I want to learn more about!! Like I previously mentioned, Buffalo seem to accept more SUNY-****** students over Bing and Stony graduates. I am wondering if anything other than academic performance played a role, that's all.

Sorry if I offended anyone 😛. I am actually more neutral about this issue than I appear, but I played devil's advocate here to stimulate discussion because nobody was arguing for this side of the story. Back to the topic please!!