Originally posted by japolloniac
That maybe if i get into a private school, i'll be offered a better dental eduation?
Not true. The only thing a private school could offer you is more loans & a nicer building b/c they have lots of money to pay for carpeting and pretty walls and stuff. The dental education you'll get is the same - they teach how to do root canals at private AND public schools - WOW!!!
Do you think the housing anxiety should be reason enough to make me change my mind and apply as a traditional applicant?
No way! Listen to Tom. People often get accepted to dental school off the waitlists the day before it starts - and these students find a place to live just live everyone else in their class. Eight months? That's a really long time to research and find a good place to live. Living off campus is not a big deal at all. It's not like undergrad where those who lived "on campus" had the posh dorms with ethernet and the "off campus" students lived in the dingy houses that smell like beer. "Off campus" house for dental school is more like an apartment in the "real world" - you know, the apartments where people with real jobs & families live with their own bedrooms with closets, real bathrooms & kitchens, closets (get the picture?). Not the shower-down-the-hall and share your bedroom & phone line with a roommate scenario from undergrad.
I started dental school after my junior year in college. Have never ever regretted it. Now as I graduate, I'm really excited to be young and have a real paycheck to spend on myself next year. (OK, I'm being selfish, but I did promise my little brother I'd buy him fancy electronics when I got a job.) And I have time on my side for when I apply to specialize (which I will in the next application cycle or two).
I always figured that had I stayed that fourth year in undergrad, I would have taken classes like "Ornithology" and "Marine Biology." I have forgotten almost everything I've learned in my 3 years in college b/c the amount of new info you take in dental school leaves very little for the old irrelevant ("non-dental") things you learned, like a Grignard reaction from Organic Chem. So I definitely saved a year of studying by starting first year of dental school and tackling the Gross, Histo, Physio, etc. Taking the bird & whale courses senior year in college would have helped me ZERO in dental school, and I wouldn't remember a thing from them now anyways.
If you spent two weeks there & liked it, then you'll be fine at the school. You're just having cold feet, it's normal when you are forced to make "non-traditional" decisions about school. But you're already in; think about it, if you drop this chance and reapply for next year, you're going to have to go through AGONY and a lot of ANXIETY waiting till Dec. 1, 2004 to see where you get in. Then you'll be in same spot you are now - You'll have 8 months to find housing in your new location. Since the housing is your biggest worry right now, you'll be worrying & posting about the same thing in Jan. 2005 if you reapply.
Go for it! Good luck!
