Harvard or Penn?

[uclaDDS101]

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thank you all for the thoughtful posts! I think the fact that the discussing is going on for so long is evidence enough that there is no clear winner, and it really depends on a pre-dent's personal preference. As for me, I'm still undecided so I may end up visiting both schools again before making my final decision.

that said, I would still appreciate any continuing posts about either school if anyone has an extra opinion to add!

When/if you come back to HSDM, feel to PM me. I can give you a proper tour and some information about the two schools from my point of view. It was only a year ago when I had to make the same decision that you are faced with now.

 

[HeyCharlie]

I was speaking of Penn vs Temple, the comparison being that they are in the same city like USC and UCLA.

How is USC not like a west coast Ivy? Our endowment is as large as most Ivy league schools and is growing faster then Penn's. Penn was established more then a century before USC, so of course USC is catching up. I am not comparing USC to Harvard. Harvard is an institution in a league of its own in the US.


UCLA is a great research institution with a great medical school, but you can't compare it to the private Ivy league schools. UCLA is run very differently from these schools because it is a public institution and is run by the UC Regents and the taxpayers of California.

Ivy dental schools possess the most renown professors and researchers in the field. USC not even close. It has nothing to do with the endowment. We're talking about quality of the didactics, not whether a school is private/public.

 

[dantemac]

Endowments is just a word for the funds procured from donations/alumni. Yeah, private schools have more of it. Ivies probably have tons more. Who cares?

 

[Timpson]

Ivy dental schools possess the most renown professors and researchers in the field. USC not even close. It has nothing to do with the endowment. We're talking about quality of the didactics, not whether a school is private/public.

USC has world famous dental professors. Dr. Malamed, Kahn, Slots, Magne, etc. Malamed wrote the book on local anesthesia. Dr Kahn and Dr Magne are great innovators in aesthetic restorations. Your Linek carving manuel is from a USC professor. Harold Slavkin was the head of the NIH for dental research.




Ivy League dental schools are more competitive to get into and are slightly more affordable though. Penn, Harvard, Columbia, Yale, these schools are better then USC in most aspects. People on the east coast do not understand USC. In CA, it is generally thought that the best schools west of the Mississsippi are UCLA, UC Berkeley, USC, Stanford, UCSF and Caltech. US News also ranks these schools as the best in CA. Out of these schools, only USC, UCLA, UC Berkeley and Stanford have the whole package for a university with sports, academics, professional programs, medical schools, etc. USC is the worst of these schools in research and academics but has always been focused on its professional, athletics, and engineering programs.

 

[HeyCharlie]

USC has world famous dental professors. Dr. Malamed, Kahn, Slots, Magne, etc. Malamed wrote the book on local anesthesia. Dr Kahn and Dr Magne are great innovators in aesthetic restorations. Your Linek carving manuel is from a USC professor. Harold Slavkin was the head of the NIH for dental research.




Ivy League dental schools are more competitive to get into and are slightly more affordable though.

Dude, those guys are a bunch of bums. If you only weren't brainwashed..

 

[weller2019]

USC also has graduated Gordon Christensen 🙂

 

[flossboss24]

Can't really speak for Harvard except that I continually here that they don't have the greatest hand skills. As for Penn, I visited this last weekend and have a few friends that go there and I can say that it is pretty great. They are in the process of renovations this summer in the pre-clinic, which should make almost everything except the general clinic really nice, they might have mentioned the clinic undergoing renovations soon but I don't remember completely. You can look forward to great facilities. As for the curriculum, I know that most people really like it in the aspect that Penn really transitions you into the rigors of dental school, they don't overload you with a ton of classes as a freshman, rather like I said, ease you into school with science classes then dental lab. They also have this rather neat virtual simulator, where you are virtually drilling teeth and it gives you a 3-D visual of what you are doing and creates a sensation similar to that of real drilling, found that pretty cool and at the moment they are the only school that has it. Personally, I would choose Penn over Harvard, due to cost and like everyone mentioned Penn had less cons for you. Hope this helped.

 

[elhammy]

Go to Penn for sure. Campus is beautiful, Philadelphia is an amazing city(i have family in philly too!), and the money is super important. Specializing won't be a big deal because your dmd degree will be from Harvard, not necessarily your specialty. Make sure you know the matching rates for schools to specialties and if not ask. I'd say go to Penn, then Harvard for specialty. In the end, you'll have less debt, that big HARVARD specialty degree and a not too shabby UPENN dmd degree

Family can only be a + and should play an important role in your decision.

 

[BYU4you]

Wonder which he chose?

 

[arkenstone]

Wonder which he chose?

Yeah me too.

In my opinion, if you want to specialize the most tangible benefit a prestigious school can give you (and what only a prestigious name can practically pull-off) is pass/fail. It translates directly into more time in your day for other things----research, extracurriculars, CBSE studying.

But I still might choose the cheaper option based purely on the fact that you may not get the specialty you want.