information on U Marlyand, or U. Pitt

[Beagle]

Does anyone have info about U pitt or U maryland. I am debating on which schools to apply.
Does anyone know about the number of applicants accepted that are out of state? Also, GPAs, DATS?
BEAGLE

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[hopefully]

Hi Beagle,

I interviewed at U of Maryland this year and I had a great time. All the students looked happy and the faculty were extremely nice. I also know they accept a lot more out-of-state applicants than other state schools. The clinics didn't look too over crowded and in case you're interested they have a DDS/PhD dual degree program in which they pick 2 students each year. When I was there, they emphasized that they were more of a clinical school rather than a research school. Also, they made it very clear that it is very difficult to gain Maryland residency and therefore quite hard to pay in-state tuition. However, the out-of-state tuition is still lower than most private schools. The 39th edition of the ADEA book lists that for the 2000 entering class at Maryland, 49 in-state, and 50 were out-of-state students enrolled. The mean academic DAT was 18.9 and the PAT was 17.6. The overall GPA was 3.32 and the science GPA was 3.23. Remember these are from 2000. Sorry I don't know anything about U of Pittsburg. Best of luck to you!

 

[Viraj]

Hey Beagle
How is it goin.. I got accepted to UPitt for this year, and know quite about it. Well let me tell you first, that this school is one of the most underrated school. When I was going for an interview, not many people in this forum knew anything about it. It is a very nice school actually, great facilities, small class size(85), great staff, good board scores... But the only thing that I didn't like about it was the city of Pittsburgh itself.
The interview there was quite different than any other school, as they had about 30 students for the interview that day. They have only I think like 5 interview dates, so they try to get a lot of people. The interview day started with a introduction, and stuff about the school, then there was a financial stuff, and stuff about the Pittsburgh city. Then there was a one page essay to write about How do you think Dentistry will be in the year 2020, and how will you manage yourself to be up to date with it? I think they gave us 10 mins to write. Then after that there was a school tour and lunch. Lunch was awesome, it really was not like any other school, hahaha. Well neways, after that they assign you with a professor or a dental student for an interview. The interview was a group interview, there were like 6 students in my interview. We were given a scientific paper to read, and then we were told to discuss about it. The whole point was to see how we interact with each other. As this is Problem Based Learning school, so they really wanted to see if we could do stuf like that. Well after the interview which was like 25 mins, we had an option of working with the current Dental students or just leaving. I left, but I heard that people who stayed did actually saw some cool stuff in the clinics.
On the whole I would rate my interview experience great. As I said the only thing that didn't made me go there is Pittsburgh city itself, otherwise I would have definately gone there. One more thing good to know about interview is that the Pittsburgh Airport is like 45 miles away from the school, so if you are gonna take a cab, be ready to pay about $40. There is shuttle that goes from school back to Airport though, that charges you like $15.
Oops I forgot to put the Stats for the school
I think they take 80-90 students every year, 35 instate and rest out of state. You can't declare residency if you are out of state for the whole 4 years. The avg DAT was 18/18, and GPA was like 3.2/3.3 (ACAD/Sci).
I hope this is helpful to whoever is planning to go to UPitt. If you gys have any other questions, I will be more than happy to answer.
Viraj

 

[iflossdaily]

Maryland just finished a new dental school building...I believe the freshman class of 2005 will start there. I was impressed with the school. All dental schools start to look alike after a few interviews but I just had a gut feeling that I was going to enjoy being at Maryland. The only thing I didn't like was the location. Baltimore is not going to make any top 10 cities lists anytime soon......but I think good clinical schools are always in the worst part of town.

 

[tothplrdds]

UofMD is a great clinical school and the new building won't be finished until about 2005. They just broke ground on it this past month. One item to be concerned about is a shift in some of their policies. The class of 2004 just got beat up pretty bad with about 1/3 to 1/4 being held back as second years, dropped (5), or remediating over the summer and missing the first boards. Make sure you check on the schools policies for advancement and what changes they are putting into place. Some schools will help the student, UofMD is in the process of helping the school.

 

[Hope7]

Hey tothplrdds. Doesn't U of MD enroll about 100 students/yr. So you are talking about 25 to 30 students had to repeat a year. How did the change in their policy relate to this? Is information published on how many students repeat, drop or are dismissed from each dental school?

 

[tothplrdds]

HOPE7, UoMD usually has a class size of 100. The class of 2004 had 5 of their classmates dropped, 10 others will be remediating the second year and about 3-7 are remediating right now and will have to pass a test in early July to see if they are going to be third or second years. I posted a question on the Dental Student brd asking other 2004 classes to see if they are seing the same results. Last years class of UofMD didn't have this happen to them so UofMD seems to have shifted the way they enforce academic policies.

 

[iflossdaily]

I don't get your point. As I recall from my interview, the deal was that if you pass your classes they don't fail you. Are you saying that the school has raised its expectations to unattainable levels mid-semester? What exactly should I be concerned about? Has the school all of a sudden decided that it isn't adequately preparing its students? If there has been any change in policy, no one has faxed me the memo....

 

[tothplrdds]

iflossdaily,
If you pass all of your classes your're good to go, but the ones who messed up here and there are being held up. The standards didn't change, just the extent of enforcement. You may have hit on something about the school realizing that it isn't adequately preparing its students. It could be the reason the 2004 class got beat up so bad while last year the 2003 class had no problem pressing forward.