I am deciding between SIU, UIC, Marquette and Nova Southeastern. Currently I am leaning toward Nova and Marquette. I loved Nova but it is quite expensive (IMO) and I currently attend Marquette for undergrad. SIU is VERY inexpensive compared to most schools. UIC is in chicago so cost of living is high. I currently attend Marquette for undergad so it would be nice to be in a new environment but I also love it here and its comfortable. Marquette also offered me a 10,000 scholarship for the first year (have to be re-evaluated each year). Anyone have insight on Nova's program/ any reasons you think I should attend a particular school? I am just looking for more info to help me make my decision. Thanks everyone for your time!
Marquette vs Nova vs UIC vs SIU
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Wow! That's awesome, good luck with the choice, that's the position you want to be in! May I ask how your stats were?
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Km18:
First off congrats on having so many options! What a great December this has been for you! The process of picking which dental school to attend is not one to be taken lightly. It is good that you are seriously considering all your options. I had to choose between several schools and it was difficult to weed through what I felt about each school and what everyone else thought about the individual dental schools. Although I attend MUSoD (Class 2016), I want to make sure that all students go to the school that matches them best. As such, I will not talk about any school individually in this response...
Here are my thoughts:
No matter where you go, the school provides you with the means to pass the boards. It is on you to do your part and hope that you do not have a bad test day. No matter where you go, the school provides you with the means to graduate. It is on you to do your part to stay in contact with the faculty to help make sure you are on the path to DDS success. No matter where you go, if you are near the top of the class, you have a great chance to specialize.
Dental school costs money. All other things equal $$$ needs to be considered… However, being miserable for 4 years may yield poor schooling results because you cannot find a way to be "in-the-zone". Happy students tend to be better students. Also, you will not transfer. Where you start is where you finish. Think back and ask yourself this… When you interviewed, how did the school feel? Did you like the type of students you met? Could you see yourself being able to do your best in the environment that the school has set up for you? Does the school seem to attract the types of students that you are excited to work with and work well with?
Some programs do offer the ability to get other degrees while you pursue your DDS or DMD. Some programs are only three years. Every school has unique facets. Since you have already interviewed I assume that the admissions department talked to you about the characteristics of the school, and all the things that make it unique. So if you still are not sure what the school is like, the interview/visit experience probably didn’t have anything that really stuck with you.
Remember, the decision you make is one that you will have the pleasure of living with the rest of your life. As I am sure you already know, the environment helps drive how we evolve. So pick the school that best matches you. Hopefully, come graduation day you will be able to say with excitement and pride, “I graduated from ________ School of Dentistry.”
I hope that helps. If you have any questions about Marquette feel free to message me. You could also just come by the school. Just let me know in advance so that I do not schedule a patient for when you come. Way to keep focused amidst the Dec 1st acceptance excitement.
-john
I just wanted to add this. I feel like schools may be different but the students, in general, make the school. What school had the student body that you could see yourself being good friends with? A journey with good friends is more pleasant than going to the same place with strangers. Again good luck on making the best decision for you. BTW I didn't quality control this.
First off congrats on having so many options! What a great December this has been for you! The process of picking which dental school to attend is not one to be taken lightly. It is good that you are seriously considering all your options. I had to choose between several schools and it was difficult to weed through what I felt about each school and what everyone else thought about the individual dental schools. Although I attend MUSoD (Class 2016), I want to make sure that all students go to the school that matches them best. As such, I will not talk about any school individually in this response...
Here are my thoughts:
No matter where you go, the school provides you with the means to pass the boards. It is on you to do your part and hope that you do not have a bad test day. No matter where you go, the school provides you with the means to graduate. It is on you to do your part to stay in contact with the faculty to help make sure you are on the path to DDS success. No matter where you go, if you are near the top of the class, you have a great chance to specialize.
Dental school costs money. All other things equal $$$ needs to be considered… However, being miserable for 4 years may yield poor schooling results because you cannot find a way to be "in-the-zone". Happy students tend to be better students. Also, you will not transfer. Where you start is where you finish. Think back and ask yourself this… When you interviewed, how did the school feel? Did you like the type of students you met? Could you see yourself being able to do your best in the environment that the school has set up for you? Does the school seem to attract the types of students that you are excited to work with and work well with?
Some programs do offer the ability to get other degrees while you pursue your DDS or DMD. Some programs are only three years. Every school has unique facets. Since you have already interviewed I assume that the admissions department talked to you about the characteristics of the school, and all the things that make it unique. So if you still are not sure what the school is like, the interview/visit experience probably didn’t have anything that really stuck with you.
Remember, the decision you make is one that you will have the pleasure of living with the rest of your life. As I am sure you already know, the environment helps drive how we evolve. So pick the school that best matches you. Hopefully, come graduation day you will be able to say with excitement and pride, “I graduated from ________ School of Dentistry.”
I hope that helps. If you have any questions about Marquette feel free to message me. You could also just come by the school. Just let me know in advance so that I do not schedule a patient for when you come. Way to keep focused amidst the Dec 1st acceptance excitement.
-john
I just wanted to add this. I feel like schools may be different but the students, in general, make the school. What school had the student body that you could see yourself being good friends with? A journey with good friends is more pleasant than going to the same place with strangers. Again good luck on making the best decision for you. BTW I didn't quality control this.
TheRoni,
Thank you for your feedback. I am having a difficult time deciding because I felt a very similar student camaraderie at both Nova and Marquette. They both have students that help each other out and are very friendly. I saw a lt of interaction with all classes at both schools which I also liked. Nova takes boards after the first year, while I know Marquette takes them during the second year. Any opinion on this? Obviously I do not know which I would like better since I have not went through it. Also Nova is roughly 80,000 a year for tuition and instruments, etc. I believe Marquette comes down to roughly 65-70,000 per yr for that (-10,000 for scholarship). The cost of living is estimated roughly the same for both but I know that I can get away with approx half of what Marquette allows because I live on even less than that now in undergrad. Ultimately I guess I am trying to figure out how much I am going to let cost sway my decision. I know I need to be realistic in order to have a smaller loan amount at the end, so that is why I am leaning toward staying at Marquette because I do not think Nova offers any scholarships.
Thank you for your feedback. I am having a difficult time deciding because I felt a very similar student camaraderie at both Nova and Marquette. They both have students that help each other out and are very friendly. I saw a lt of interaction with all classes at both schools which I also liked. Nova takes boards after the first year, while I know Marquette takes them during the second year. Any opinion on this? Obviously I do not know which I would like better since I have not went through it. Also Nova is roughly 80,000 a year for tuition and instruments, etc. I believe Marquette comes down to roughly 65-70,000 per yr for that (-10,000 for scholarship). The cost of living is estimated roughly the same for both but I know that I can get away with approx half of what Marquette allows because I live on even less than that now in undergrad. Ultimately I guess I am trying to figure out how much I am going to let cost sway my decision. I know I need to be realistic in order to have a smaller loan amount at the end, so that is why I am leaning toward staying at Marquette because I do not think Nova offers any scholarships.
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I cannot speak for Nova at all. I have not interviewed, been or applied there. As such As far as boards are concerned, what matters is you pass. At Marquette in Fall of D2 year you take a class called "Biomedical Systems". The class is basically boards stuff. In Early D2 January they give you a Mock test they give you feedback about if you will be fine on the real thing or if you should study more. They give you resources and walk you through the process. It was very nice and I approve of Marquette's method.
If you have any other Marquette questions please just lemme know! Congrats on your acceptances!
If you have any other Marquette questions please just lemme know! Congrats on your acceptances!
Cost of living is expensive in many places. I know Chicago may be expensive but so are the other locations. If I were you I'd choose between UIC and SIU. I've heard good things about SIU (some say it seems isolated, but I think St. Louis is like 30 minutes away from it). I'm still waiting on UIC too. Went there for undergrad and hoping to go to their dental school too. They are still up there and man I would love to go there. Hopefully we'll be classmates. Good luck on your decision(s) and best of luck whichever one you choose!
I am 99% sure I will be giving up my spot at UIC, and SIU is personally not a top choice for me. Right now it ultimately is coming down to Nova and Marquette, but thanks for your input! Marquette will most likely be the school I attend, but I am going to FL after finals so I will give Nova one more look. Milwaukee is actually roughly half the cost of what the students at UIC told me they pay for an apartment and I am trying to minimize my costs as much as possible. UIC tuition/instruments also are more expensive than Marquette is for me as an out of state resident. Everyone has their own preferences in dental school so I hope you attend the school that is best for you. Goodluck on your journey!
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I'll put in my spiel for SIU even though you might be considering other places. The curriculum itself is set up to benefit the student very well. I think we have only had more than one test on a day only one time so far and since some classes are block classes you take finals throughout the year so now at the end of the semester we only have 3 tests which won't be too hard. Versus having like 10 tests to take all at once for finals. Also if you like having a smaller more close knit group this is about as good as you can get. As far as being boring and having nothing to do Alton does have some bars to go out to but if you're looking to do something more interesting most people go to st louis which is just a short trip by cab or car. One of my top considerations that puts our school at the top of my list is the quality of the clinical education at the value it is. With tuition and fees being a little bit above or below 40k for the 4 years that's gonna run like 160k. Living frugally Theres an opportunity to get out of DS under 200k in debt when it's all said and done. Not too many schools can give you that opportunity outside of Texas. I noticed what you said you're paying for the other choices and this would literally be 1/2 to 2/3 of your other choices. Personally that would probably decide it for me right there. It's really not like you're settling for less with your education either so I couldn't be happier with my choice. Good luck with your choice
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What is the total COA (including living) for each of these schools?
I have totaled each school to be approx:
SIU: 200,000-220,000
UIC- 325,000-335,000
Marquette: 270,000-280,000 (this is without receiving any more scholarship and I have the best estimate of living expenses because I live here now)
Nova- 390,000-410,000
So ultimately for the value of the school, and what each place has to offer, Marquette seems like the obvious choice. It is possible for me to lower that amount as well based on academic performance and possibility of additional scholarship. Some may say to go to SIU, but I was not impressed with their facilities, and they did not sell me on their school and do not think I would be happy here.
SIU: 200,000-220,000
UIC- 325,000-335,000
Marquette: 270,000-280,000 (this is without receiving any more scholarship and I have the best estimate of living expenses because I live here now)
Nova- 390,000-410,000
So ultimately for the value of the school, and what each place has to offer, Marquette seems like the obvious choice. It is possible for me to lower that amount as well based on academic performance and possibility of additional scholarship. Some may say to go to SIU, but I was not impressed with their facilities, and they did not sell me on their school and do not think I would be happy here.
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If that is truly the case, then marquette is the better choice.
I agree, I think I am settling on Marquette. I just know my personality type fits better with the environment at Marquette and I really dislike going to school in small towns (I know bc I went to a small school initially for undergrad and transferred to Marquette). Thanks for your input!
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Have you seen this thread?
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...refully-a-few-hints-from-a-humble-ds.1109867/
It is quite general, but I think some of the advice is worth considering. When I look at your list, definitely I think it comes down very close to just marquette and SIU. I think the best school is probably marquette. Nova/UIC offers nothing more than marquette that is worth the additional cost. However, in the case of marq vs SIU, it really comes down to if you think your gut feeling is worth 80k. Of course, you attend marquette so you really know what school life is really like. But there's no saying that SIU would be a bad fit for you either.
Personally speaking, I didn't feel marq clinics were particularly eye-opening. But then again, I interviewed mostly at schools that were already strong clinically so I can't really compare. However, I will give you that marq facilities "looks" the nicest, but it is worth considering whether or not if that directly translate coming out with better clinical skills. (I say this because udm arguably has the worse-looking facilities IMO. However, udm is the best school at preparing students for their clinical skills amongst the schools I interviewed even though it didn't have the look or vibe)
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...refully-a-few-hints-from-a-humble-ds.1109867/
It is quite general, but I think some of the advice is worth considering. When I look at your list, definitely I think it comes down very close to just marquette and SIU. I think the best school is probably marquette. Nova/UIC offers nothing more than marquette that is worth the additional cost. However, in the case of marq vs SIU, it really comes down to if you think your gut feeling is worth 80k. Of course, you attend marquette so you really know what school life is really like. But there's no saying that SIU would be a bad fit for you either.
Personally speaking, I didn't feel marq clinics were particularly eye-opening. But then again, I interviewed mostly at schools that were already strong clinically so I can't really compare. However, I will give you that marq facilities "looks" the nicest, but it is worth considering whether or not if that directly translate coming out with better clinical skills. (I say this because udm arguably has the worse-looking facilities IMO. However, udm is the best school at preparing students for their clinical skills amongst the schools I interviewed even though it didn't have the look or vibe)
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I live close by to Alton. Trust me, getting to St.Louis takes 15-20 min. Don't worry about the isolated life as its not as bad as people make it out to be. This is coming from someone who lives in the area.
That being said, I personally would chose Chicago, but that's because I prefer the city over a town.
it might be a bit preemptive to say Marq would provide a better education than SIU as well, at my SIU interview they kept hammering away at me how SIU is consistently in the top 10-15 schools in average board exams score.
Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to comment on this thread and provide me feedback. I think that Marquette will be the best fit for me. Personally, at SIU they did not impress me. When I asked if students graduate on time, they told me that many students do not finish in time (for a variety of reasons). SIU did not offer anything new or special that I had not seen other places. The cost of tuition is the most drawing factor, but I think it is the environment and the people that will make a difference for the four years. I have witnessed the student and faculty interactions as MuSoD and its very genuine and they have tons of outreach programs, volunteer opportunities, group functions etc. I personally felt that SIU did not make an effort to sell me on their school, and I did not get enough information about different programs. They did not include much in their info folders either. I think they have difficulty recruiting students because they don't sell people on their program. Just my own personal view. I think everyone looks for different things in a dental school, and while Marquette is more expensive, it is not 400,000 like many schools. One again, thanks for the input as everyone definitely gave me some things to think about. Right now I am still leaning toward Marquette, but I have a few weeks still to decide.
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I will start this post off by saying that I am biased toward SIU but will address this to anyone that might be considering the school. It seems that you might be putting a large consideration of your decision into social factors at the schools and how well you might fit in with your personality and preferences which only you will be able to decide. If this is truly your #1 consideration then I will tell you go to go Marquette and your decision is made. However it seems like you may have been poorly informed or hold some misconceptions of SIU. First, I would like to address your comment that SIU has many students that don't graduate on time. In May, the class of 2014 graduated 50/50 of its starting class and it is the norm to have 45+ students graduating in may and anything otherwise is usually the fault of the individual student and not the school. Second, I'd like to reference a comment made by a previous poster about SIUs performance in board exams. Since it is hard to rank schools because of so many factors to consider, I along with many others would consider board exam scores to be the best indicator of the quality of education you can expect to receive at a particular school. Unfortunately for dental students, these rankings have never been published to the public but each school was able to see their own ranks from the ADEA until these rankings were discontinued around 2005. Based on conversation with a senior member of the SIU faculty that actually held a position in the ADEA for a period, SIU ranked consistently for 10+ years 10th-15th in part 1 boards and even better in part 2. For a few years they broke into the top 5 in part 2 and even climbed as high as the #2 position. I can promise you that since this time the curriculum is still very similar to produce the same results and has added a new sim lab and newly renovated clinic. I don't know where people came up with the notion SIU was rinky dink university but anyone who actually knows the facts about the school knows it is commonly underestimated as a low tier school that people "settle" in going to. I would argue that anyone trying to convince you that you'd be getting a sub-par education, clinical or didactic, would be utterly wrong and the facts speak exactly to the contrary. So to anyone trying to decide on whether the extra: __(insert $ amount)__ would be worth going to __(insert prestigious school name) over their spot at SIU for the better education they expect to receive, I caution you to think twice about your decision. If it is based on other subjective considerations then that's up to you, but I will tell you the person that ultimately ends up with your spot will more than likely graduate in four years very satisfied with their dental education, potentially hundreds of thousands less in debt and they will thank you for their opportunity you gave to them in giving up your spot.
Good luck to all in their decisions. My intentions are not to talk down on any other schools but to clear up misconceptions held by many people and give SIU the credit it deserves.
Time to get back to studying for finals.....
Good luck to all in their decisions. My intentions are not to talk down on any other schools but to clear up misconceptions held by many people and give SIU the credit it deserves.
Time to get back to studying for finals.....
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Arlmay, I appreciate you taking the time to give some input on SIU. I personally think that often people may chose another school because they simply are not given enough information about SIU. They do not offer an informational session/financial aid session while all of the other schools I have attended did. There also was not a student panel which I enjoyed at other schools because we could really ask some tough questions to the students. I had asked my interviewers if most students graduate on time and they told me that they have people who do not graduate on time in May. That was a major turn off for me and made it seem like there was difficulty in scheduling/chairs/organization/etc. Since they did not give reasons for graduating on time, it didn't give me many answers. I'm not trying to say SIU is a bad school, however it does not have everything that I am looking for. Personally I am willing to pay a bit more and go to Marquette where I already have many contacts and know everything about their program (I work a student job at the dental school and see what goes on there multiple times a week). That being said, I think that SIU leaves many questions unanswered while I know exactly what I am signing myself up for at Marquette. I do agree that lack of information or misinformation is a big issue in SIU's recruiting process. Hopefully they start to provide future students more info. I am sure the student who gets my spot at all of the schools will be happy, after all we are all working toward the same goal. I just want to reiterate that I do not believe any one school is "better" than another, but I know what I am looking for and where my future is headed and that will be to Marquette. Good luck to everyone in their journey and thank you for the comments.
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I do agree with you in saying the ad coms could do a better job selling the school. I also understand staying at the same school for ds as undergrad. I wasn't meaning to target you in saying someone will appreciate your spot, although it is probably true under the circumstance, but people giving up their spots in general.
