Let's talk about USC

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DINI

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hi everyone,
I was wondering if we could open the discussion regarding USC school of dentistry as a whole; by that I mean the facility and the PBL. The reason I am doing this is because I am hearing a lot of negative feedback from the dentistry community. Le't also talk about the PBL. Is it true that there are no lectures? we are going to spend more than quarter of a million dollars at this school if we get accepted. Do we get our money's worth? Please share your thoughts. By the way, I am not bashing the school. I would like to hear some insite.

Thanks

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I would also love to hear some insights about USC, especially from the USC dental students...Thanks guys:thumbup:
 
Just referring to the PBL (problem based learning) there are currently 6 schools now that employ that curriculum. Harvard, Indiana, Case, USC, UCSF and Marquette have all changed their curriculums.

I hear the PBL is more difficult because you also have to get prepared for your board exams, so it's almost like you're doing double-duty.
 
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Isn't USC the only exclusively PBL school though?
 
Isn't USC the only exclusively PBL school though?

From what I know, USC is the only school that is exclusively PBL. The others have a hybrid program of PBL and lectures.
 
Just referring to the PBL (problem based learning) there are currently 6 schools now that employ that curriculum. Harvard, Indiana, Case, USC, UCSF and Marquette have all changed their curriculums.

I hear the PBL is more difficult because you also have to get prepared for your board exams, so it's almost like you're doing double-duty.

Just referring to the PBL (problem based learning) there are currently 6 schools now that employ that curriculum. Harvard, Indiana, Case, USC, UCSF and Marquette have all changed their curriculums.

I hear the PBL is more difficult because you also have to get prepared for your board exams, so it's almost like you're doing double-duty.

In terms of how the curriculum prepares us for the boards, I feel this word accurately describes how most students feel. But then again, I'm not sure how much help a traditional program would be either. Boards are not difficult to pass. You can just memorize dental decks - get the 75% - and forget everything the next day. But if you want to specialize, thus - have to score +90, that's a different story.

Here at USC, you get about a month off to do nothing but study for the boards. I don't think this is the case with other schools. I recently took the Part I qualifying exam they make you take at this school, and needless to say - I'm going back to good old textbooks. Which is something I should have done from Day 1. I should have supplemented every Case by just reading a correlating textbook. I don't plan on just memorizing a bunch of pneumonics in First Aid and claim I now know how the human body works.
 
Do you think the PBL system prepared you well for the boards? or did you have to basically teach everything to yourself? Thanks...:thumbup:


In terms of how the curriculum prepares us for the boards, I feel this word accurately describes how most students feel. But then again, I'm not sure how much help a traditional program would be either. Boards are not difficult to pass. You can just memorize dental decks - get the 75% - and forget everything the next day. But if you want to specialize, thus - have to score +90, that's a different story.

Here at USC, you get about a month off to do nothing but study for the boards. I don't think this is the case with other schools. I recently took the Part I qualifying exam they make you take at this school, and needless to say - I'm going back to good old textbooks. Which is something I should have done from Day 1. I should have supplemented every Case by just reading a correlating textbook. I don't plan on just memorizing a bunch of pneumonics in First Aid and claim I now know how the human body works.
 
In my opinion, Cases are extremely fun, but they can only be fully utilized if the student has a strong foundation in the subject material.
 
Do you think the PBL system prepared you well for the boards? or did you have to basically teach everything to yourself? Thanks...:thumbup:

I haven't taken the boards yet. I'm preparing for them right now. PBL will probably help us alot with the new clinical vignette portion of the exam, since are trained to think like diagnosticians. But right now, I'm definitely going back to books on my own time to try to fill gaps in my knowledge. And trust me, I have huge gaps in my knowledge. That practice board exam was a pretty big wake up call.
 
I totally agree with Briansle (what's up buddy). I'm a 1st year at USC, and I believe PBL can be extremely rewarding if you take advantage of it. By "taking advantage" I mean reading everything you are told to read by your group members, making sure you understand how the material interrelates with other material, and most importantly, being motivated to learn. USC is not a fluff school by any means, and if you do what you are suppose to be doing you will learn A LOT -- guaranteed.

Now, we have some lectures here, but we are suppose to call them "resource sessions." We have a Dental Anatomy and Morphology lecture and every two weeks we have a lecture for the case we just finished. This lecture is a time in which we can ask questions and see how everything fits together. Now, you may be asking yourself, how in the hell do they expect me to pay 90k +/year to do the work myself? Listen, and I can speak from experience, sitting in lecture from 8am to 5pm is not doing you any good. You are still going to have to go home and "RE-LEARN" everything you just sat through. If you deny this, you are one of the few individuals in this world that can see something once and know it. However, sitting in case (which is only 3hrs/day 3x week) allows you to act more like a clinician from the get-go. It will allow you to see how various disciplines (physio, biochem, anatomy) work in harmony (most of the time) to keep this marvelous thing we call the human body running. But, you are not going to learn everything you need to know for the Part-1 boards from some case 3x week, you will still need to go home and go over the information using the books recommended to you by upper classmen as well as the school (only PBL gives you much more time to do this).

Now you are probably thinking, where do the cases come in? The cases are designed (and well-designed) to make sure you cover a certain system or multiple systems (the heart, GI tract) during each case. You WILL cover anatomy, physiology, histology, pathology, biochemistry, and pharmacology in each case. For example, you will do a case involving an infant and a heart condition, which will require you to learn everything involving the heart (physio, anatomy, biochemistry, pathology). Then the case will introduce an infection from a dental procedure and the medications prescribed to treat this infection (endocarditis???), which will then force you to look into some pharmacology as well as clinical microbiology and so on until the case closes.

So in the end, you will get your money's worth, but ONLY if you take advantage of the time provided to you by the school. Also, the free time allows you to take on additional tasks like getting involved with school government, organized dentistry leadership positions (ADA, ASDA, ADEA & GPSS). For me, I use my free time to read textbooks that relate to the case, and volunteer in the OMFS department. Also, this school offers a lot of extra things you can get involved with. There is a sports dentistry selective, an I.V. sedation selective, numerous opportunities to get involved with aesthetics, implants and so on. There is an open-door policy with every department and upper-classmen are extremely accommodating if you have the desire to help out with a surgery case, perio case, endo case, implant case, aesthetic case and so on.

There are people that will start a PBL program, at USC or some where else, and hate it. I mean absolutely hate it. Why? It is a very unorthodox way of learning (think about it, you've been sitting through lecture for 21+ years) and you really have to TRUST the system and believe that with the cases and YOUR OWN EFFORT you will be extremely successful. Some of these individuals that hate PBL want everything spoon fed to them and others need the structure of a traditional curriculum. Some individuals want to know that they need to JUST read the powerpoint from each course, memorize it and this will ensure them of an A in each course. This is not how USC works. No one tells you what will be on each midterm and final, but then again, grades don't really matter because there is NO RANKING SYSTEM here. So, essentially, your GPA becomes moot because it has NO MEANING behind it.

I honestly believe that the individual EARNS the board score. It honestly does not matter where you go. People earn 75's and 99's at USC and every other school in this country. If YOU have the will power to specialize, then sac up and start studying. If not, pass Part-1 and move on.

I cannot stress this enough. You will only get the most out of your education at USC if you take advantage of everything it has to offer. But, no one is going to tell you to do it. They are going to tell you to go to case 3x week, Dental Anatomy/Morphology lecture once/wk and Morphology lab once/week.
 
I totally agree with Briansle (what's up buddy). I'm a 1st year at USC, and I believe PBL can be extremely rewarding if you take advantage of it. By "taking advantage" I mean reading everything you are told to read by your group members, making sure you understand how the material interrelates with other material, and most importantly, being motivated to learn. USC is not a fluff school by any means, and if you do what you are suppose to be doing you will learn A LOT -- guaranteed.

Now, we have some lectures here, but we are suppose to call them "resource sessions." We have a Dental Anatomy and Morphology lecture and every two weeks we have a lecture for the case we just finished. This lecture is a time in which we can ask questions and see how everything fits together. Now, you may be asking yourself, how in the hell do they expect me to pay 90k +/year to do the work myself? Listen, and I can speak from experience, sitting in lecture from 8am to 5pm is not doing you any good. You are still going to have to go home and "RE-LEARN" everything you just sat through. If you deny this, you are one of the few individuals in this world that can see something once and know it. However, sitting in case (which is only 3hrs/day 3x week) allows you to act more like a clinician from the get-go. It will allow you to see how various disciplines (physio, biochem, anatomy) work in harmony (most of the time) to keep this marvelous thing we call the human body running. But, you are not going to learn everything you need to know for the Part-1 boards from some case 3x week, you will still need to go home and go over the information using the books recommended to you by upper classmen as well as the school (only PBL gives you much more time to do this).

Now you are probably thinking, where do the cases come in? The cases are designed (and well-designed) to make sure you cover a certain system or multiple systems (the heart, GI tract) during each case. You WILL cover anatomy, physiology, histology, pathology, biochemistry, and pharmacology in each case. For example, you will do a case involving an infant and a heart condition, which will require you to learn everything involving the heart (physio, anatomy, biochemistry, pathology). Then the case will introduce an infection from a dental procedure and the medications prescribed to treat this infection (endocarditis???), which will then force you to look into some pharmacology as well as clinical microbiology and so on until the case closes.

So in the end, you will get your money's worth, but ONLY if you take advantage of the time provided to you by the school. Also, the free time allows you to take on additional tasks like getting involved with school government, organized dentistry leadership positions (ADA, ASDA, ADEA & GPSS). For me, I use my free time to read textbooks that relate to the case, and volunteer in the OMFS department. Also, this school offers a lot of extra things you can get involved with. There is a sports dentistry selective, an I.V. sedation selective, numerous opportunities to get involved with aesthetics, implants and so on. There is an open-door policy with every department and upper-classmen are extremely accommodating if you have the desire to help out with a surgery case, perio case, endo case, implant case, aesthetic case and so on.

There are people that will start a PBL program, at USC or some where else, and hate it. I mean absolutely hate it. Why? It is a very unorthodox way of learning (think about it, you've been sitting through lecture for 21+ years) and you really have to TRUST the system and believe that with the cases and YOUR OWN EFFORT you will be extremely successful. Some of these individuals that hate PBL want everything spoon fed to them and others need the structure of a traditional curriculum. Some individuals want to know that they need to JUST read the powerpoint from each course, memorize it and this will ensure them of an A in each course. This is not how USC works. No one tells you what will be on each midterm and final, but then again, grades don't really matter because there is NO RANKING SYSTEM here. So, essentially, your GPA becomes moot because it has NO MEANING behind it.

I honestly believe that the individual EARNS the board score. It honestly does not matter where you go. People earn 75's and 99's at USC and every other school in this country. If YOU have the will power to specialize, then sac up and start studying. If not, pass Part-1 and move on.

I cannot stress this enough. You will only get the most out of your education at USC if you take advantage of everything it has to offer. But, no one is going to tell you to do it. They are going to tell you to go to case 3x week, Dental Anatomy/Morphology lecture once/wk and Morphology lab once/week.
it seems like you guys are happy with the program. Thanks again for the feedback
 
Wow this year seems much happier about USC's PBL than last years.
 
Also, during our third trimester (summer of 1st year) we have a full on Anatomy course (lecture and lab) at the USC Keck School of Medicine. This course is taught by medical and dental faculty and includes full dissection (cadaver) of the head and neck region.

Also, I would suggest that you call USCSD and tell them that you would like to see the 1st trimester syllabus (they should be able to send this to your e-mail). This provides detailed information regarding the material you will cover in your first trimester at USC.

I can assure you that USC is making huge strides to make it's curriculum as efficient as possible. In fact, A LOT of things changed just in one year. For instance, we now carve teeth in morphology (something removed from the curriculum 7 yrs ago). And they've expanded the length of a lot of our rotations and added lectures to ensure that we are provided with the necessary education. A lot of these things can be attributed to the recommendations from the classes above us (08's, 09's and 10's).

Also, all of the facilities at USC are in excellent shape, except for the 2nd floor clinic (where you will spend much of your last two years of dental school); however, USCSD has already raised over half of the amount needed to completely remodel the entire 2nd floor (new chairs, possibly more chairs, better equipment, more equipment and so on). The class of 2012 will be in this new clinic as will the class of 2011. The SIM lab is awesome and has everything you could possibly need. It's also open pretty late through out the week and closes earlier on the weekends. Two of the three dental fraternities also have labs in their houses that are available to use anytime of the day (3a.m. on a Saturday) providing you join the fraternity, which most people often due.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask!

Good Luck!
 
hi everyone,
I was wondering if we could open the discussion regarding USC school of dentistry as a whole; by that I mean the facility and the PBL. The reason I am doing this is because I am hearing a lot of negative feedback from the dentistry community. Le't also talk about the PBL. Is it true that there are no lectures? we are going to spend more than quarter of a million dollars at this school if we get accepted. Do we get our money's worth? Please share your thoughts. By the way, I am not bashing the school. I would like to hear some insite.

Thanks

If you want to specialize, try getting into UCLA or UCSF or some other schools that offers you classes. When I started preparing for boards I felt as I knew very little when I started studying. The problem with SC it's not so much PBL, but clinic. The administration is very disorganized and has made a nightmare out of the supposedly best last years of dental school. USC should officialy go public and make this program a 5-year deal; with so many clinical requirements and lack of patient chairs we, and know the class of 2009, have realized the frustrations that surrounds the clinic floor everyday.

Do yourself a favor and try getting somewhere else. This advice comes from a senior from the class of 2008 that has painfully gone through the entire process.
 
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