Hey guys! I posted one thread before deciding between Pitt and Tufts and gladly chose Tufts! However, I recently got accepted by UPenn and just wanna hear how other people think about choosing between these two. I would really appreciate any opinions from you guys!
UPenn
Pros:
I have some friends from my undergraduate school currently studying at Penn dental and they absolutely love it. I vibed really well with the students there during my interview and really like the faculties too. It has been my dream school since I stepped into dentistry so I am definitely a bit sentimental about this school.
Penn is very very strong academically and they have been doing integrated curriculum for years, not like some schools which just recently started to change curriculum because of the new boards. They also gave me an impression of them heavily emphasizing on specialties, so that gives me more options if I wanna specialize in the future.
Also... I don't wanna sound shallow, but just wanna be honest here, the name of Ivy school is really tempting... I don't know how much it will affect the application for specialty programs tho.
Cons:
UPenn didn't offer me any scholarship. I am planning to try negotiate a little bit but not putting too much hope on that. If anyone had this kinda experience I would really appreciate some tips!
I have heard from a D4 that previously UPenn hasn't been doing as great as Tufts in clinical training. But they are add more hours for clinical training starting this July (as I heard) and maybe it will get a lot better later on?
My boyfriend majors in computer science and we are planning to living together during my dental school years. He hasn't applied for jobs yet, but Philly probably has less opportunity than Boston. (I am not too sure about this. I just googled and found that there aren't a lot of big companies in Philly like Google, Facebook, Amazon... but this is a minor concern I am sure he will do great no matter what.
Tufts:
Pros:
Pretty much the opposite from the cons for UPenn. I got a scholarship of 15,000 dollars per year. Although I have to be in the top 10% in the class every year to keep it coming but I am not too worried about that.
Boston, big city, exciting life. My friend who goes to Tufts told me I might experience less stress if I go to Tufts and for sure a better life! It might be biased so maybe I can hear more from you guys!
They are known for really good clinical training! According to my friend, they do operative the first year like practicing on plastic teeth, doing filling and finish the year with dentures, and then do endo, veneers and stuff the second year. and then summer to third is start of the clinics. Sounds like they start a bit earlier than other schools so that's really awesome.
Cons:
Cost of living in Boston is really expensive. I don't know how expensive it is in Philly but I assume it would be cheaper than in Boston.
I have heard that people would fight for patients since there are many dental schools in Boston.
This might sound weird but I know less people at Tufts than at UPenn so I only talked to people I know through calling and texting. But I got to actually hang out with some UPenn students and know more about their lives. I am sure I love UPenn but I am not too sure if the Tufts I have in mind is only what I pictured or is actually as good as I thought if that makes any sense...
This has been a really tough decision and I also asked some dentists for their opinions. And all of them said these two schools are equally good and they wouldn't rank one over the other. Considering tuition from both schools, the scholarship from Tufts and the difference in living expense, money is no longer a decisive factor since the costs at both places wouldn't be that different...
Thanks for your time to read all this! I really would appreciate any suggestions or comments!!!
Good luck with your own applications and have a great one
UPenn
Pros:
I have some friends from my undergraduate school currently studying at Penn dental and they absolutely love it. I vibed really well with the students there during my interview and really like the faculties too. It has been my dream school since I stepped into dentistry so I am definitely a bit sentimental about this school.
Penn is very very strong academically and they have been doing integrated curriculum for years, not like some schools which just recently started to change curriculum because of the new boards. They also gave me an impression of them heavily emphasizing on specialties, so that gives me more options if I wanna specialize in the future.
Also... I don't wanna sound shallow, but just wanna be honest here, the name of Ivy school is really tempting... I don't know how much it will affect the application for specialty programs tho.
Cons:
UPenn didn't offer me any scholarship. I am planning to try negotiate a little bit but not putting too much hope on that. If anyone had this kinda experience I would really appreciate some tips!
I have heard from a D4 that previously UPenn hasn't been doing as great as Tufts in clinical training. But they are add more hours for clinical training starting this July (as I heard) and maybe it will get a lot better later on?
My boyfriend majors in computer science and we are planning to living together during my dental school years. He hasn't applied for jobs yet, but Philly probably has less opportunity than Boston. (I am not too sure about this. I just googled and found that there aren't a lot of big companies in Philly like Google, Facebook, Amazon... but this is a minor concern I am sure he will do great no matter what.
Tufts:
Pros:
Pretty much the opposite from the cons for UPenn. I got a scholarship of 15,000 dollars per year. Although I have to be in the top 10% in the class every year to keep it coming but I am not too worried about that.
Boston, big city, exciting life. My friend who goes to Tufts told me I might experience less stress if I go to Tufts and for sure a better life! It might be biased so maybe I can hear more from you guys!
They are known for really good clinical training! According to my friend, they do operative the first year like practicing on plastic teeth, doing filling and finish the year with dentures, and then do endo, veneers and stuff the second year. and then summer to third is start of the clinics. Sounds like they start a bit earlier than other schools so that's really awesome.
Cons:
Cost of living in Boston is really expensive. I don't know how expensive it is in Philly but I assume it would be cheaper than in Boston.
I have heard that people would fight for patients since there are many dental schools in Boston.
This might sound weird but I know less people at Tufts than at UPenn so I only talked to people I know through calling and texting. But I got to actually hang out with some UPenn students and know more about their lives. I am sure I love UPenn but I am not too sure if the Tufts I have in mind is only what I pictured or is actually as good as I thought if that makes any sense...
This has been a really tough decision and I also asked some dentists for their opinions. And all of them said these two schools are equally good and they wouldn't rank one over the other. Considering tuition from both schools, the scholarship from Tufts and the difference in living expense, money is no longer a decisive factor since the costs at both places wouldn't be that different...
Thanks for your time to read all this! I really would appreciate any suggestions or comments!!!
Good luck with your own applications and have a great one
