i went to umich undergrad and have many friends who attend the dental school. ann arbor is a great city, but it is small-- less than 100,000. on football game days, there are more people in the staduim than the entire city population. this is important because umich doesnt have a very large patient pool to work with. of the population of ann arbor, many are students and faculty, leaving few potential patients who need cheap or free dental care.
while at umich, i received mass-emails from dental students willing to pay for a patient with a particular condition. however, these people may have been slackers and fell behind or it could have been for a number of legitimate reasons they were begging for patients, but it perpetuates the notion that umich doesn?t receive as many patients as other schools.
will you get a great clinical education? of course. willl you be an excellent general dentist? definitely. but if you want a school with tons of patients and hours and hours of clinical work (not just working with dent-sims or manikins in the pre-clinic), michigan may not be where you want to go.
you will be a great general dentist graduating from any dental school as long as you are willing to work hard. some schools, like michigan, will have added work: such as finding and scheduling patients, whereas you wont have to do this AS MUCH at other schools, like detroit or temple (for example) where patients are easier to come by.
umich doesnt have set requirements (15 crowns to graduate) like some other schools. so while you will receive an adequate education, it is up to you as an individual to go above and beyond the minimum and prepare yourself to be a great general dentist.
