Help!! Buffalo over Temple? ( also vs UNLV and Nova ) Lots of info inside!

[BoxerRumble]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hey everyone, I can’t believe I get to make a thread like this. It’s been such a long journey to get into dental school after 2 years of hard work (on top of the 4 years of undergrad). I feel so lucky and privileged to be able to go into this profession and become a health care provider. I first want to say that every one of these schools is a good school and that I am honored that they picked me for an acceptance. I will always be grateful to them for this and wish them the best. If I had only been accept to any one of these schools only, I would be ecstatic and more than happy to attend, but I must make a choice. I have pretty much already decided on Buffalo, but a decision like this shouldn’t be made so hastily and I want to look at all my options.

My main question is between Buffalo and Temple. I love both schools and was wondering if anyone would pick Temple over Buffalo? The rest of the thread is for those who are interested in those schools. Can anyone tell me more about the city of Buffalo? Would the advantage of Temple’s clinical training overshadow Buffalo’s low tuition and its own clinical training? Thank you all for taking the time to read and reply.

1. Buffalo
Price: $238,311
Clinical Training: Clinical experience first year. Good reputation for clinical training.
Chair/Scheduling: Schedule own patient, use to have own chair but new dean is bringing in more international students so we will have to share chairs. Large patient pool. You will be assigned patients.
Technology: Uses Macbook Pro, electronic textbooks. Sim lab/preclinical lab is old, I don’t think they have an actual sim lab. Recorded lectures/video lectures.
City: Don’t know too much, decent size city, will snow (which is a plus)
Student/Faculty: Good class size at around 90. Students like the faculty; they are treated like colleagues and respected. Some faculty is med school faculties, and we will have same classes with the med school.
Community Service:

School starts in August. Multiple choice tests, anatomy is just the upper part of the body, and will have 24 hour gross lab open to you. If you fail, you come back in January and retake course.

Pro: Really cheap tuition, great faculty, good patient pool.
Con: old pre clinic lab, might have trouble with chairs in the future

2. Temple
Price: $341,899
Clinical Training: Best out of the 4, you get to do a lot of extractions and restorations. No problem finding patients. (75-125 extractions, 10+ root canals, 15 crowns, 75-100 restorations, 10+ dentures). Start clinic during 2nd year. You will have graduation requirement numbers.
Chair/Scheduling: Have your own chair, schedule your own patients. Sometimes it can be competitive to get patients.
Technology: New renovations. Video recorded lectures, converting to digital office. They do not use e-books.
City: It is an 8am-5pm school, and afterwards people go home because the area is that bad. There is usually no one around at night and they do not advise you to be on campus after 6 pm. The worst part about this school is the location. It seems very unsafe, but they take measures to protect the students with police and security presence.
Student/Faculty: Most students were pretty nice and excited about the school. One person felt he would’ve fit better elsewhere. One tour guide was kind of rude and just texted during our lunch and didn’t really try to engage in conversation with us.
Community Service: Outreach clinics.

Lease all of your instruments. Practice management courses. They have a new robotic typedont but since they have enough patients they don’t really use it.

Pro: best clinical training, you will get a lot of practice and be ready to come out and practice dentistry, improving the school with renovations and digital office. Well established school with huge patient pool.
Con: the city is in a really bad area, and will change the dental school experience I think.

3. UNLV
Price: $355,157
Clinical Training: They have a good patient pool. Competency based requirements after a certain number of procedures. First year you learn about the operatory, 2nd year you do anesthesia on each other.
Chair/Scheduling: Schedule your own patient but you get your own chair.
Technology: Paperless/Digital office, they use ebooks (vital source). New school so they have flat screen TVs in the lecture halls, new preclinic with monitors. Have to buy a 1,300 Dell. There are some recorded lectures but not every teacher does it or allows for it.
City: Las Vegas would be a decent place to live, and it is close to home which is a huge plus.
Student/Faculty: Small groups/teaching – you get a buddy system of 1,2,3,4th year and faculty mentor and team leader , and everyone works together and mentors each other which is a plus. Help each other and learn from them. 8 chairs/instructor. Get one clinical grade. One of the tour guides did not seem to enthusiastic about the school, and have heard some faculty can have an ego and look down on you. Another student didn’t seem too excited about it, but then heard from a friend that a friend of his loved his time there. All this hearsay makes it hard to know who to believe.
Community Service : Saturday children’s clinic, smile day, required amount of community service hours.

Get a pretty long Christmas break. Mon-Fri 8am – 3 or 5 pm. Integrated curriculum, there are no departments. Coordinated teaching of different subjects. 1st year – you assist/observe, 2nd year do the easy stuff, 3rd/4th year in clinic practicing dentistry. Not really a practice management course. Assess your own work/request competency. A newer school.

Pro: new school with nice facilities and technology. Very interested in the buddy system where we help each other. Huge pro is that it is close to home (from northern California)
Con: tuition is a little high, instructors might one be the best.

4. Nova
Price: $329,480
Clinical Training: Not known to be the best. They have some patient pool problems maybe because the area around the school is of a higher income median.
Chair/Scheduling: You are assigned a family of patients that you work on, and sometimes you might not be able to get the procedure you need but the team leaders will switch around patients for you. Shares seats and schedule your own patients. There is a waiting list of patients. Competency on manikins, huge con for the school. Comprehensive patient care – hope your patient has problems.
Technology: Very nice facilities. New sim lab/preclinics, the operatories are new. There are no recorded lectures and I don’t think teachers allow you to record them if you wanted to. Kind of makes you wonder what kind of faculty they are if they don’t want to be recorded.
City: It is in a nicer area and you have the beach and the weather, but I don’t enjoy the humidity and hot weather.
Student/Faculty: The students have a reputation of being a little looser and the party/fun type. Not something I look for in a dental school as we are in a professional setting.
Community Service:

Take histo/neuro with the med school but on a different grading system. No dissections for cadavers. Lab test is multiple choice.

Pro: I believe the curriculum will be easier because of the multiple choice and what I’ve heard (from a D1).
Con: The city, no recorded lectures, patient problem.

PS. I apologize for any typos, I didn’t really proof read it.

 

[hifive]

Yeah it comes down to Buffalo vs Temple. Although Temple will provide the better clinical, there is nothing deficient in Buffalo's clinical sciences that you would choose Temple which costs 100grand more. Buffalo takes the cake. If Temple had the same cost as Buffalo I would have suggested Temple, in that case if you are loaded follow the one with greater clinical education. The basic sciences are essentially the same in every school, they depend more on your hardwork, while clinical is in part responsiblity of the school.

 

[bing12]

Both schools are great, but I would chose Buffalo. It is still very good clinically, and its alot cheaper. 2 very big factors. Although I am loving temple right now, if cost matters(which it usually does unless you're a child of a Saudi prince/king), then go with buffalo.

I also dont think the toal cost will be 350K for temple, Cost of living is fairly cheap if you live in the suburbs(can find a pretty nice place for $1400/month including utilities for a 2 bedroom) . This year's tuition is about 65K.

 

[Demps]

UNLV, I hear you get in-state tuition starting 2nd year, so I believe that is something you should also consider as well.

You're a NY resident so Buffalo is ~100K cheaper for you so I would go there if you had to pick between Buffalo and Temple.

However, if you don't care so much about that extra 100K you will pay at Temple, then go there. I know the cost factor is huge, but I don't like the weather and general surroundings in Buffalo. The location doesn't really interest me too much even though the tuition is cheaper there (I'm NY resident also lol).

 

[BoxerRumble]

Both schools are great, but I would chose Buffalo. It is still very good clinically, and its alot cheaper. 2 very big factors. Although I am loving temple right now, if cost matters(which it usually does unless you're a child of a Saudi prince/king), then go with buffalo.

I also dont think the toal cost will be 350K for temple, Cost of living is fairly cheap if you live in the suburbs(can find a pretty nice place for $1400/month including utilities for a 2 bedroom) . This year's tuition is about 65K.

Hm, thank you. I got the numbers from their Tuition and Fees handout they gave us during interview and also their website. It says the tuition for non residents is 54k, but I guess they are raising that to 65k?? And the cost of living is definitely dependent on the area/roommate situation.

The way I got this figure was $55k + $21,800 cost of living from their website + books and supplies($1,500) + instruments ($7.5k for the first year!).

I know each website/school will be a rough estimate of tuition and total cost of attendance because of the ever changing tuition fee and different life style of students.

http://www.temple.edu/dentistry/admissions/tuition.html

Also, I am not a NY resident but I believe we can gain residency after first year and pay in state tuition. And yes it is true that you get instate tuition after the first year at UNLV also. I have taken this factor into account. The estimated cost for Buffalo and UNLV is what I would be paying after getting residency, and Temple and Nova are OOS for 4 years.

If the cost didn't matter and you didn't care about the city, would it be an easy choice to go to Temple over Buffalo?

 

[bing12]

54 is pure tuition, but dental kit rental and all that other great things we have to pay for will total to 65K. I personally would estimate the yearly cost to be about 80K, unless theres a dramatic increase the 2nd year. 65K for tuition, if have a 2 bed aprtment for 1400/month ( you are paying 700 including utilities, and this is in the middle price range), then that will annually be : $8400. comes out to about 74K. which leaves you 6K for other living costs. but this is MY personal calculations and assumptions, you should do more research on this, I am not the greatest with math ( not terrible either).
- if cost didnt matter? yea temple would deff be my choice. It is great here, faculty, classmates, upperclassmen ( help out alot, they dont have to, they just randomly do). My personal opinion is that you can debate between schools if the costs fall between 40K-50K difference of total cost(if both schools are somewhat similar in what they offer). Anything higher is tough.

 

[Demps]

If the cost didn't matter and you didn't care about the city, would it be an easy choice to go to Temple over Buffalo?

I would go to Temple any day over Buffalo if Buffalo was the same price lol.

 

[hifive]

If cost DIDNT matter take Temple. I dont know if its me but the lack of clinical diversity at my school is really hurtin me and I would take any top notch clinical school in heartbeat. There are only a few schools in country (eg. Temple, Case, UDM) that have that sort of exposure. Its sad that schools that are not clinically strong have higher specialization rates despite there being really great students coming from strong clinical schools but because they are not Ivy it kinda hurts them. I know that students at the schools I mentioned above have crazy skills just because they have literally seen what hell looks like in the oral cavity. Take Temple if your rich, you will see some crazy **** and know how to handle it when your done.

 

[BoxerRumble]

Hm, this is turning out harder than I expect. So Buffalo's clinical program does not hold a candle to Temple's? Is Temple's training/opportunity/experience that much better? It's a hard decision because my parents told me to pick the best school and that I shouldn't think about the cost. Even though they aren't incredibly rich, I think they would be able to help me a little bit. I still do think about the cost, but look at how many people go to private schools or OOS schools and pay around 320-350k and they will be ok. It seems Temple will give me a much better education.

As for specialization, I know that it's really up to the student to be proactive to specialize. But what if I do decide to specialize, will Buffalo give me more opportunities to do so with research or extracurricular over Temple?

 

[Bereno]

Hm, this is turning out harder than I expect. So Buffalo's clinical program does not hold a candle to Temple's? Is Temple's training/opportunity/experience that much better? It's a hard decision because my parents told me to pick the best school and that I shouldn't think about the cost. Even though they aren't incredibly rich, I think they would be able to help me a little bit. I still do think about the cost, but look at how many people go to private schools or OOS schools and pay around 320-350k and they will be ok. It seems Temple will give me a much better education.

As for specialization, I know that it's really up to the student to be proactive to specialize. But what if I do decide to specialize, will Buffalo give me more opportunities to do so with research or extracurricular over Temple?

I would not say that Buffalo's clinic does not hold a candle to Temples. Temple is known for a great clinical experience, but from what I understand (and I could be wrong), is that Buffalo also has a strong clinical experience. Maybe not as strong as Temple's but still strong nonetheless. My vote easily goes to Buffalo

 

[bing12]

I would not say that Buffalo's clinic does not hold a candle to Temples. Temple is known for a great clinical experience, but from what I understand (and I could be wrong), is that Buffalo also has a strong clinical experience. Maybe not as strong as Temple's but still strong nonetheless. My vote easily goes to Buffalo

I hear the same

 

[hifive]

Indeed Buffalo does have a great clinical experience. It is naturally assumed that Temple may be more diverse in the clinical aspect because poverty rate is high and income rate is lower surrounding that area in comparison to Buffalo's. Both are great choices, I would choose Buffalo, cheaper does equal better (in this case), you dont want to burden your parents or yourself with another 100grand.

 

[iralex801]

I would go to Temple any day over Buffalo if Buffalo was the same price lol.

+1 to this. However, considering everything, I would definitely choose Buffalo because it's 100K cheaper.

 

[oreoson]

for the difference in tution, you can buy a house in buffalo area. 👍
Buffalo FTW.

 

[trixr4kids0001]

I would say Buffalo as well. Im from there and absolutely love it. There's so much to offer here and the cheaper price is definitely a plus. I've also heard that Buffalo may be getting new sim labs... not sure how true it is, but I'm sure you could talk to the school about it. There is probably a decent patient pool in Buffalo. We have a decent amount of diversity in Buffalo, so it is very well rounded. If you have any Buffalo questions about living or anything feel free to PM me 🙂

 

[thesituationPhD]

UB ftw. see you in the fall

 

[Simiam]

I love Temple, but I would say save the $$ and go to Buffalo. Generally the only reason why I recommend someone to attend a school than Temple is if they have the potential to save a substantial amount of money.

 

[dantemac]

I think you are right to have narrowed it down to Buffalo or Temple. If money didn't matter as much, I would go to Temple. I know it's in a bad area, but the clinical experience is one of the best in the country, and I think Philly is a better place to live than Buffalo. But, going to the cheaper school isn't a terrible idea here because Buffalo is still a great school

 

[ttpharm]

Bump since students will likely need this type of info and who can't find it through search! 🙂

 

[Sal427]

Thank you for the info! So do temple students mostly have cars and just drive in from where they live?

 

[colombianDDS]

Don't forget Buffalo gets a S**t ton of snow.