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Like many right now, I too had to make difficult decisions at this time last year. With deposit deadlines closing in and post Dec-interviews on the horizon, I thought that I may offer my advice on choosing between schools. Of course it's not definitive guide, but I hope it helps!
If you're in a tough situation where you're choosing between 2 or more schools, be aware that you'll not only be unsure of your decision at this moment, but you'll reflect on it in dental school as well. At the day of your interview, you're being sold each school as much as you're selling yourself. You can really only know what it's like attending any dental school you're considering by attending it, but since you can't, you'll need to make your best guess with the information you've gathered thus far and continue to gather. Ultimately, you'll just have to run with it.
My advice is to go about it through a reductionist's method of simplifying. It's intuitive enough, but it can be helpful to write it out or think about it sequentially. 1) quickly ranking the schools in an order of preference 2) recognizing your influencing factors like costs, reputation, distance to loved ones, perceived school environment and any other strengths that you associate with a school 3) weighing and ranking those factors on your own accord and then rationally by bringing up your factors with those more experienced 4) making sense of the factors and why the decision was difficult to begin 5) following up with the ultimate decision of where you'll proudly be for the next 4 years.
I'll give a scenario similar to my experience in a step-wise manner as an example:
1) school A< school B < school C = D.
Here I decided that school B was better than school A, but school C and D were better than school B. I couldn't quickly make a decision between schools C and D, so I said they were equal. Therefore, I've eliminated A and B since I was able to clearly establish 2 or more schools I preferred more.
2) school C is significantly cheaper than school D, but from what I know, school D has a better reputation. Both schools C and D are far from home. Both appear to have a family environment among the student body. After attending the interviews, it appears that school D seems to have a better atmosphere with lower levels of student stress. School C's location is a little nicer.
Here I set some quantitative and qualitative parameters for basing my decisions on. It appears reputation, cost, stress, and location are influencing my decision.
3) at first I believe: cost> reputation > stress > location.
rationally: cost > blank > stress > reputation > location.
Here, I listed and began by weighing the factors on a scale based on my inexperienced notions. After, I sought rational perspectives for my factors from that of mentors and those experienced in the field. It soon became clear that the reputation of a dental school didn't play as big of a part as I thought it did in practicing dentistry or gaining entrance to residencies. I was able to move reputation below stress. Compared to the almost now arbitrary factor of reputation in my decision, it only made sense that having less stress would directly correlate with happiness. Since I removed reputation from its spot, I kept the area blank which symbolized cost remaining in its position.
4) school C and D were difficult to decide between based on my initial beliefs, but school C made the most sense rationally.
Here, I was able to realize why I was having trouble deciding between schools C and D in plain site. Schools C and D were equal when cost> reputation > stress > location. It looked like C > D > D > C which numerically symbolized 4>3>2>1 when assigning each factor a number based on its position. Basic addition gives C=5, D=5, which showed equal footing. Prior to making these factors visible, it was a jumbled mess in my head of why I couldn't make the decision. After adding a rational perspective, it became clear that cost > blank> stress > reputation > location. This describes C>blank>D>D>C. Numerically it's 5>0>3>2>1. Giving C=6 D=5.
5) school C is the lucky winner!
Here, I concluded that it made the most sense to attend school C based on the factors that were influencing my decision.
Good luck!
If you're in a tough situation where you're choosing between 2 or more schools, be aware that you'll not only be unsure of your decision at this moment, but you'll reflect on it in dental school as well. At the day of your interview, you're being sold each school as much as you're selling yourself. You can really only know what it's like attending any dental school you're considering by attending it, but since you can't, you'll need to make your best guess with the information you've gathered thus far and continue to gather. Ultimately, you'll just have to run with it.
My advice is to go about it through a reductionist's method of simplifying. It's intuitive enough, but it can be helpful to write it out or think about it sequentially. 1) quickly ranking the schools in an order of preference 2) recognizing your influencing factors like costs, reputation, distance to loved ones, perceived school environment and any other strengths that you associate with a school 3) weighing and ranking those factors on your own accord and then rationally by bringing up your factors with those more experienced 4) making sense of the factors and why the decision was difficult to begin 5) following up with the ultimate decision of where you'll proudly be for the next 4 years.
I'll give a scenario similar to my experience in a step-wise manner as an example:
1) school A< school B < school C = D.
Here I decided that school B was better than school A, but school C and D were better than school B. I couldn't quickly make a decision between schools C and D, so I said they were equal. Therefore, I've eliminated A and B since I was able to clearly establish 2 or more schools I preferred more.
2) school C is significantly cheaper than school D, but from what I know, school D has a better reputation. Both schools C and D are far from home. Both appear to have a family environment among the student body. After attending the interviews, it appears that school D seems to have a better atmosphere with lower levels of student stress. School C's location is a little nicer.
Here I set some quantitative and qualitative parameters for basing my decisions on. It appears reputation, cost, stress, and location are influencing my decision.
3) at first I believe: cost> reputation > stress > location.
rationally: cost > blank > stress > reputation > location.
Here, I listed and began by weighing the factors on a scale based on my inexperienced notions. After, I sought rational perspectives for my factors from that of mentors and those experienced in the field. It soon became clear that the reputation of a dental school didn't play as big of a part as I thought it did in practicing dentistry or gaining entrance to residencies. I was able to move reputation below stress. Compared to the almost now arbitrary factor of reputation in my decision, it only made sense that having less stress would directly correlate with happiness. Since I removed reputation from its spot, I kept the area blank which symbolized cost remaining in its position.
4) school C and D were difficult to decide between based on my initial beliefs, but school C made the most sense rationally.
Here, I was able to realize why I was having trouble deciding between schools C and D in plain site. Schools C and D were equal when cost> reputation > stress > location. It looked like C > D > D > C which numerically symbolized 4>3>2>1 when assigning each factor a number based on its position. Basic addition gives C=5, D=5, which showed equal footing. Prior to making these factors visible, it was a jumbled mess in my head of why I couldn't make the decision. After adding a rational perspective, it became clear that cost > blank> stress > reputation > location. This describes C>blank>D>D>C. Numerically it's 5>0>3>2>1. Giving C=6 D=5.
5) school C is the lucky winner!
Here, I concluded that it made the most sense to attend school C based on the factors that were influencing my decision.
Good luck!
