Is it better to go to a Pass/Fail or Ranking-based Dental School?

[1TrickUnicorn]

I'm considering specializing and was curious if it is better to go to a Pass/Fail or Ranking-based Dental School?

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[deleted903013]

Proven pass/fail schools like Harvard, UCONN, etc. seem to do fine matching people into competitive residencies. If the pass/fail school is newer, I'd be more weary. However, you got a 26 DAT. If you work hard from any school I'm sure you'd be fine.

 

[princeafrica]

If you are considering specializing, strongly consider the cheapest school

 

[1TrickUnicorn]

If you are considering specializing, strongly consider the cheapest school

Where can I get a list of this?

 

[S_Diamond_DDS]

I agree with fermi, high profile P/F schools are your best bet. Except why risk it and go to a school with a ranking system? 26 DAT doesn’t necessarily translate to top 10% ranking. You have to factor in all the unforeseen stuff schools will throw at you (many times non-test related) to try to stagger the class rankings.

The popular opinion is always choose the cheaper school. I think this makes sense in setting you up for success no matter what you will do in dentistry (general or specialty), however I would consider paying more to go to a high profile P/F school when thinking of specializing exclusively, that is, within reason (some “top schools” are pushing $500k with living expenses). I say this both because of the P/F system at these schools and the additional opportunities only available at these institutions that can help to build an exceptional CV (a greater extent of research availability for example) or help you to score well on the CBSE (such as the school making you take classes at the medical school, if that’s your thing), etc.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

No school is ever truly pass fail. Ask other members of the class of 2021 at Columbia.

Ranking into 1/3s is nice though. If I had to do it all over again I think I would have gone Columbia again

 

[S_Diamond_DDS]

Where can I get a list of this?

You can find out which schools are the cheapest through the ADEA Guide to Dental School.

 

[ToothJockey]

Where can I get a list of this?

2018-2019 dental school costs spreadsheet

I had a lot of downtime so I made this spreadsheet for future applicants. All info is based on the 2019-2020 ADEA dental school guide or the schools website. Enjoy EDIT: try this link to access, but just delete the spaces --> https: //docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

forums.studentdoctor.net

It's 2 yrs old but it should still be the same order now

 

[1TrickUnicorn]

2018-2019 dental school costs spreadsheet

I had a lot of downtime so I made this spreadsheet for future applicants. All info is based on the 2019-2020 ADEA dental school guide or the schools website. Enjoy EDIT: try this link to access, but just delete the spaces --> https: //docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

forums.studentdoctor.net

It's 2 yrs old but it should still be the same order now

Exactly what I was looking for 🙂

 

[0Mik3cho]

2018-2019 dental school costs spreadsheet

I had a lot of downtime so I made this spreadsheet for future applicants. All info is based on the 2019-2020 ADEA dental school guide or the schools website. Enjoy EDIT: try this link to access, but just delete the spaces --> https: //docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

forums.studentdoctor.net

It's 2 yrs old but it should still be the same order now

I was looking at the projected costs for the coming year on ADEA Explorer. Some schools' yearly cost of attendance didn't go up a dollar (Loma Linda's actually went down a bit with the same total tuition). Others went up 10% (I'm looking at you Case Western).

 

[S_Diamond_DDS]

Expanding on my previous post. At the time of applying to residencies, programs often give more weight to applicants from certain programs. So another thing to consider when choosing the ds you will attend. A school like UCONN might be the best of both worlds- both cheap and highly regarded. The highly regarded part is highlighted by their high specialty match rate year over year. There used to be a post (I think that has since been deleted, couldn’t find it) that showed the highest specialty match rate among schools: harvard was number 1, followed by columbia, UCLA, UCSF, UCONN, and Penn (don’t remember the order of these). What all these schools have in common is 1) big name school and 2) P/F grading system. As stated before, I guess columbia has a variation on simple P/F and is ranking students by thirds.

 

[Gustavo dos Santos]

What are all of the pass/fail schools?

Harvard
UConn
Columbia
UCLA
UCSF
Roseman
OHSU?

Am I missing any?

 

[pookey123]

Stony Brook is p/f. Heard they have issues with their dean and faculty though. Couple of residents from Stony Dental all praised the P/F system. said it made it easier for them to match, didn't have to worry about grades, just test score and icing on the cake. also classmates are not as competitive which is nice

when choosing schools, location (are they in your state; if not, do they accept oos) and cost are the two primary factors. P/F grading, name/prestige, etc are all secondary factors. P/F grading is more likely to help you specialize than hinder you, unless you are great at getting high gpa but bad at standardized tests, I think for most people P/F is the way to go

 

[S_Diamond_DDS]

What are all of the pass/fail schools?

Harvard
UConn
Columbia
UCLA
UCSF
Roseman
OHSU?

Am I missing any?

You can find out which schools are P/F and which are not via the ADEA guide to dental schools.

 

[0Mik3cho]

Stony Brook is p/f. Heard they have issues with their dean and faculty though. Couple of residents from Stony Dental all praised the P/F system. said it made it easier for them to match, didn't have to worry about grades, just test score and icing on the cake. also classmates are not as competitive which is nice

when choosing schools, location (are they in your state; if not, do they accept oos) and cost are the two primary factors. P/F grading, name/prestige, etc are all secondary factors. P/F grading is more likely to help you specialize than hinder you, unless you are great at getting high gpa but bad at standardized tests, I think for most people P/F is the way to go

According to this, didactics and technique courses are graded A/B/C/F. Patient care and seminar courses are Honors/Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory.

What dean and faculty issues do they have?

 

[pookey123]

According to this, didactics and technique courses are graded A/B/C/F. Patient care and seminar courses are Honors/Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory.

What dean and faculty issues do they have?

a resident who was a stony alum told me that stony was P/F. maybe it changed but sorry I didn't look it up. he said that they promote the wrong people to be administrators and that the profs who care about teaching never get promoted and are actually leaving the school. talked about truhlar, kucine, corruption, fraud, discrimination and mentioned some other people who I'm not familiar with. talked a lot about people i've never met

 

[0Mik3cho]

a resident who was a stony alum told me that stony was P/F. maybe it changed but sorry I didn't look it up. he said that they promote the wrong people to be administrators and that the profs who care about teaching never get promoted and are actually leaving the school. talked about truhlar, kucine, corruption, fraud, discrimination and mentioned some other people who I'm not familiar with. talked a lot about people i've never met

No problem. Sometimes I notice college websites have out of date content so I have no clue how recent this info is.