Nova 2008

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I talked to Su-Ann today and she confirmed that we can give a deposit for our student kits until our Financial Aid comes in. She said last year it was $75, so it should be around the same amount this year. Hope this helps some of you out, because it really helps me! 😀
 
chinpatel said:
Is there any way we can know more about the computer we will be getting. Like, what are going to be the specs, payment options. Also, same with the dental kits.

I have learned a few details about these in the forum, but I would like to know what we will be getting next year.
Click to expand...

Greetings everybody!

Michael Scherer here from the D-2 class NSUCDM2007. New to this thread... I have been busy at NIH 🙂. I can answer questions about your laptop.

We (D-1 through D-4) have a Dell Inspiron 8500. I do not have the computer in front of me but I believe the specs are as follows (from memory):

Intel Pentium M 1.4 GHz (it may be 1.6??)
512 MB DDR SDRAM
30 GB Ultra ATA/100 Standard
15.4" wide WXGA screen (the best $ can buy in a dell laptop)
1280 x 800 resolution
ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 w/ 32MB vRAM
24x read (not sure of burn speed) CDRW/DVD drive
10/100 Ethernet; 56 Kbps Network / modem combo Integrated; integrated 802.11b (maybe g??)
~7lbs
Li Ion Battery (great battery life)
Built in Lo/Jack-type system
4 year while in school warranty (really important for Dell's... they are piece's of you know what)

I have been working in the computer field for a long time. This laptop is QUITE good... in fact, it's probably the best at the time. CNET rated it an editor's choice www.cnet.com.

It will do the job nicely during dental school and don't worry about other choices or better prices. It's about $2,000 charged to your student accounts... administration claimed it was super-cheap compared to other models, I disagreed, went online and found that if you configured it at education prices, it was about $3,100! Not bad NSU.

If you have any other questions about NSU, either post or e-mail me. I have been a Ft. Lauderdale native for 23 years so if you have questions about where to live (on the east side... I don't know the Davie area well) or what to do, do ask!

We all can't wait until you guys get into town!
Cheers,
-Mike
 
The cost of the laptop is $2,165 and needs to be paid in full before you receive it.

Jessica
 
Mike...

Thanks for the info on the computer, it sounds pretty awesome. I'm hoping that we'll get the 2 Ghz. It comes out to about $3,000 when i price it out, which is about the same range as last year. We'll just have to see though. I did have a question though, can you give a deposit for the computer until financial aid comes in like the student kits? Also, how much are we going to be using the computer and what for? Is it just for powerpoint slides? If so, how do you take notes? In undergrad, i simply printed out powerpoint slides so i could make notes on them. Would you keep a notebook and take notes seperate from your slides? Any help would be great. Thanks! 😀
 
Hello Everyone,
I am new to this forum and I haven't had the chance to go over every thread (they are so many!). This would be my last year as an undergraduate student and during this year I am going to apply for dental school and Nova is one of my top choices! I've heard lots of nice things about Nova and I really hope to get accepted there! I already took the DAT once and I got AA/TS/PAT = 17/21/19, my GPA is 3.7 overall, and 3.7 again- science (I have one more year to go). Now, DAT is a very f..... up test (sorry, but I just don't have another word), and I wouldn't like to take it again. My question for you guys is do I have good chances to get accepted at Nova with this score, or would it be better to take the test again? I know that probably a lot of people have been asking you this question, but please, have mercy, as I sad- I'm new here🙂. Thanks a lot!
Eliza
 
You DO NOT NEED to retake the test. My stats are a bit lower and I still got accepted. Your GPA is very good and this will compensate for the lower average DAT. Also your Science and PAT scores are excellent so dont sweat to retake it. If you apply now which I STRONGLY recommend you should expect your interview invite before Dec 1st. Just make sure you apply early, dont procrastinate it and I really cant stress that enough. One last thing - do you have shadowing experience? If you do you'll be fine.
 
who the heck brought us down to 4 stars?
 
not me🙂

Hey Everyone,

For all of you who are living in different states than FL when are you going to move to nova? Lets make a list and see when can we meet before the beginning of school:

Dr_Oh_DMD - I'll be there on July 30th
 
Hey Boyan,

I'm soo excited for school to start. Have you found a roommate yet? I don't see why FL people couldn't say when they are moving to Nova too! 🙂

Dr_Oh_DMD - I'll be there on July 30th
jes1ca-I'll be there on July 31st
 
JRogoff said:
who the heck brought us down to 4 stars?
Click to expand...

Hey Josh,

I don't know who the bastard is, but I got us back up to five. 🙂

Jessica
 
I'm glad I made you happy Boyan. 🙂

One more thing....for all you people coming in out of state.

I have been researching shipping/moving places. One really good deal on shipping is with Amtrak. They won't ship breakable stuff or furniture (but they will ship bikes), but they're rates are really cheap. They'll ship 100 pounds for $55.00 and it costs $0.52 more per pound for up to 500 pounds. And you can have as many boxes as you want to make up that 100-500 pounds. However, each box cannot weigh more than 50 pounds or be larger than 3'x3'x3'. All you have to do is go to the Amtrak office and drop off the boxes (label with your name, address and phone number). They take a few days to get there and you just have to go to the Amtrak office and pick them up. Way cheaper than the US postal service. Just thought I'd let people know. Especially people with little cars like me.

Jessica
 
The information on webstar is updated. You can log in and check the classes you are registered for; schedule and much more stuff. I have bad news though - we are taking 24 credit hours this semester 😱... O MY GOD !!!! Who said dental school is easy ???
 
Thank you Dr_Oh_DMD, you made my life a lot easier now! I asked this question because friends of mine were telling me to retake the DAT and I really didn't see the point! I also have a couple of hours of dental observation, so you're saying I don't have anything to worry about. Thanks! I'm going to apply as early as possible!
Eliza
 
Dr_Oh_DMD said:
The information on webstar is updated. You can log in and check the classes you are registered for; schedule and much more stuff. I have bad news though - we are taking 24 credit hours this semester 😱... O MY GOD !!!! Who said dental school is easy ???
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, Boyan. Guess I'll have to get some more loan money for books!


Chris
 
Do you guys have the Orientation Schedule for Thursday, August 5th, throughout the day? I just got it, let me know if you guys don't, I'll post it so y'all know what's going on.
 
Andy...

The only schedule i have says we have advising and instrument distribution. If you have a better one feel free to post it.
 
Dr_Oh_DMD said:
The information on webstar is updated. You can log in and check the classes you are registered for; schedule and much more stuff. I have bad news though - we are taking 24 credit hours this semester 😱... O MY GOD !!!! Who said dental school is easy ???
Click to expand...

My webstar is not working. I can't view my financial aid, classes, anything! This crap is really beginning to annoy me. I called financial aid and they told me i have to sign a promissory note first, which comes via e-mail. I got the e-mail to check webstar, but no e-mail about the promissory note. Any help would be great, i'm lost here! 🙁
 
Here y'all go! This is from Dr. Lippman and Su-Ann.

After reading the day schedule, as you all will see, you'll be meeting a lot of important people from NSU-CDM. It is truly an exciting time! Unfortunately, I will not be participating in the exciting day, but I will see all of you at the White Coat Ceremony on Sunday.
 

Attachments

Thanks for posting that Andy, looks like a very busy day. Can you help at all with my webstar problems i've been having?
 
For all Florida residents: Has Nova documented you as a Florida resident for tuition purposes yet?


Chris
 
Thanks for the schedule Andy!

Who took us back down to four stars? That's soooo lame.
 
JRogoff said:
My webstar is not working. I can't view my financial aid, classes, anything! This crap is really beginning to annoy me. I called financial aid and they told me i have to sign a promissory note first, which comes via e-mail. I got the e-mail to check webstar, but no e-mail about the promissory note. Any help would be great, i'm lost here! 🙁
Click to expand...


Josh, I really don?t know what to say. Did you receive in the mail a letter that your webstar account is ready? I got this letter 3 months ago and I used it to login into the system for the first time. Then I changed my PIN, address, phone # and so on. Have you done all this or not?
 
Chris,
I logged onto Webstar yesterday and went to tuition/fee assessment. I saw that they had categorized me as non-Florida resident, which I'm not. I had sent them all the necessary documentation to prove residency back in April when they asked for it. Anyway, I emailed all the health professions division financial aid counselors to ask them what the problem is. Hopefully they answer back this week, if not I'll call them by Tues/Wed. -Bianca
 
Thanks Bianca! Let me know if you hear anything from Nova about that. For a second there, I thought I was the only one!


Chris
 
Quick question for Andy or any other current Nova students- that Friday, August 6th, we're supposed to go to Nova for ID badges. Is that all we're doing that day? Is there any way we can get our ID badges another day? Just wondering, thanks
 
Ok, i finished my promissory note, so thanks for that link B. With that aside, i am still having webstar problems. I can log on to webstar just fine, that is not the problem. The problem is that when i click on financial aid and try to look up my award for 2004-2005 nothing comes up. It says that there is nothing awarded at this time. When i called financial aid they told me that i had to complete the promissory note to view my award, but i did complete the promissory note and there is still nothing there! I also can't view my schedule like a couple of you have been saying. I go to view my schedule and it says that i am not registered at this time. Can anyone help? I have called Nova numerous times and they can't seem to help me. This really sucks! 🙁
 
J:

Don't freak out! Everything will work itself out! Financial aid process is pain in the @ss, but as long as you have all the required documents in, then you're fine. Just because one or some of your classmates can see something on WebStar and you can't, that does not mean there's something wrong with your application for FA. Since you've just completed your promissory note over the weekend, then let it process this week. You're worrying about something that you shouldn't be worrying about. You'll still get your white coat on Sundy, you'll still get your D1 kit on Thursday, and you'll still be a part of Class of 2008. Relax....just make sure you have all documents that FA office needs to process your loans.

B:

I have no idea what's going on for you guys on Friday, August 6th. I'm sure plenty of you will be getting situated for school and in your apartments/condos. I'm also sure that you're family members will be around that you'll be entertaining. I know many parties will take place so if there's nothing on Friday than just IDs, then great.

This message is for Chris:

You guys now have 3 class websites:

www.nova.edu/cdm2008
MSN group (message board)
Yahoo group

You have to let all your classmates know which one you guys will use for the next 4 years so everyone can be at one place to avoid confusion. My class, we use the Yahoo group website and we made it PRIVATE (no one can access unless you're a classmate). You guys should do the same. Since you're the website moderator, be sure to screen all members that applied to join. Be sure to have myself and some other upper classmen to be member of your class website so we can post important announcements on the site.

Decide which website you want to maintain and select that one to be your private class website. I have joined your Yahoo site and my screen name is "shie0023", be sure to screen everyone and make sure their Nova dental students. I also recommend to eliminate the MSN message board since you have a message board on the Yahoo group site.

That's it for now...
 
I was having the same problem with my webstar....not showing any tuition awarded. I'm now here in davie, so I stoped in to talk with financial services and they told me that they hadn't allowed access to view the award....they forgot or something. Any way long story short, after I left I checked webstar again and I could view my awards.
 
I can't view my award either, but I can see that my loans have been processed. I guess I'll call them tomorrow. 😕
 
Andy, how does your class like the Yahoo message board? I found that the MSN message board is designed a little better than Yahoo's, but then again we really haven't been using it as much. The www.nova.edu/cdm2008 website is the portal to the other parts of the site, so that will remain no matter if we go with Yahoo or MSN. Let me know what you guys think...


Chris
 
jes1ca said:
I can't view my award either, but I can see that my loans have been processed. I guess I'll call them tomorrow. 😕
Click to expand...

Jessica,
I'm going to try to call tomorrow also about that same problem. Can you do me a favor and post when you know that the deal is? I'll do the same. Also ask about viewing our schedule, because some people are able to do this, and with my luck i'm not. Do you have the same problem? Let me know.
 
Josh,

I can view my shedule in the term Fall 2004. Good luck and I'll let you know what I hear.

Jessica
 
JRogoff said:
Mike...

Thanks for the info on the computer, it sounds pretty awesome. I'm hoping that we'll get the 2 Ghz. It comes out to about $3,000 when i price it out, which is about the same range as last year. We'll just have to see though. I did have a question though, can you give a deposit for the computer until financial aid comes in like the student kits? Also, how much are we going to be using the computer and what for? Is it just for powerpoint slides? If so, how do you take notes? In undergrad, i simply printed out powerpoint slides so i could make notes on them. Would you keep a notebook and take notes seperate from your slides? Any help would be great. Thanks! 😀
Click to expand...

The laptops are great, you guys may (this is a guess here) be getting a newer edition and most likely the latest thing out there. The computers are lumped into the instrument kit $$'s and you can for it out of financial aid or through private means.

Now about computer usage, I am probably a little biased when it comes to the laptop usage. I bring mine to class everyday and takes notes on it in most classes that I can! I am joined by about 3-4 other students in the same practice, but by no means are they absolutely necessary during your first year. I did, however, find it quite useful during biochem to look up on a site that has great info to explain in a little more detail some facts, but for gross anatomy and histology, not at all. In fact, Dr.D will probably love you for that 😉 I know I used the laptop to type notes during Dental Anatomy, Cariology, and Biomaterials.

You may find that it helps you or becomes a 7lbs weight to carry during the day, but it's great to play music during simlab or to check e-mail while in class.

We, much to my distaste, do not have table features on the laptop where writing on the screen could come in handy as such with power point slides for classes. For this reason, just printing out notes will be easier in these classes.

Hope this helps.
-Mike
 
JRogoff said:
Jessica,
I'm going to try to call tomorrow also about that same problem. Can you do me a favor and post when you know that the deal is? I'll do the same. Also ask about viewing our schedule, because some people are able to do this, and with my luck i'm not. Do you have the same problem? Let me know.
Click to expand...


I called and they didn't really have a very good answer for me. They still have to do some in-house processing of the Stafford Loan and they won't update Webstar until they do it. Grrr... At least it isn't because we forgot to fill out a form or something.

Take care,
Jessica
 
Our laptop computers are not Dell Inspirons, they are Dell Latitude series, D800 to be exact. You D1s may get something different, so wait and see!
 
Yah-E said:
Here y'all go! This is from Dr. Lippman and Su-Ann.

After reading the day schedule, as you all will see, you'll be meeting a lot of important people from NSU-CDM. It is truly an exciting time! Unfortunately, I will not be participating in the exciting day, but I will see all of you at the White Coat Ceremony on Sunday.
Click to expand...

It seems I got added to the list as a speaker-panelist! Haha, and they misspelled my name, what else is new 🙂 I will be looking forward to it!

xxsuzuki1000xx said:
Andy, how does your class like the Yahoo message board? I found that the MSN message board is designed a little better than Yahoo's, but then again we really haven't been using it as much. The www.nova.edu/cdm2008 website is the portal to the other parts of the site, so that will remain no matter if we go with Yahoo or MSN. Let me know what you guys think...
Click to expand...


We (class of 2007) have been using Yahoo groups and it has worked out just fine for us. Other than difficulty with downloading documents (they have a download quota... i.e. a limit) so it can be difficult when you need to post lectures. As a result, we were using my personal web storage (www.scherer.net) and a directory under that which is password protected and only accessible to NSUCDM2007. This helped immensely when we had 20mb powerpoint presentations.

Chris, I implore you to switch away from MSN and stick to Yahoo-based groups. Microsoft usually has decent message board, however, their ubiquity opens them to attack from hackers as well as your e-mail address open to spamming. For your class, you want something simple, fast, and most importantly, secure.

In either case, make sure you close message board access so only registered users can read it. When school starts, send around a user list and only allow people from your class and a few upperclassmen reps. We had an incident on our message board where somebody from outside of our class got access and posted inflammatory racist remarks. It was after that we sent the list and closed it to everybody except those on the list. Besides, you will be having messages on there you DO NOT want your professors to see. Trust me 🙂

-Mike
 
Jessica,
I had a long talk with Cindy, one of the HPD financial aid officers. She is the most helpful person there and has cleared everything up for me. I can view my finnancial aid and schedule now. Now all i have to do is apply for the private loan. I think i remember you said you're going with Citi Bank. I checked it out and it does seem like the best option. I am filling out the online application now. They told me it only takes 24 hours to be approved, which is awesome because i thought i was doing this late in the game. Thanks for your help Jessica! Anyways, i got to get back to the application. 😀
 
I got approved within 3 min by citi bank. All they have to do is send the info to nova for verification and thats it.
Good luck ...
 
JRogoff said:
Jessica,
I had a long talk with Cindy, one of the HPD financial aid officers. She is the most helpful person there and has cleared everything up for me. I can view my finnancial aid and schedule now. Now all i have to do is apply for the private loan. I think i remember you said you're going with Citi Bank. I checked it out and it does seem like the best option. I am filling out the online application now. They told me it only takes 24 hours to be approved, which is awesome because i thought i was doing this late in the game. Thanks for your help Jessica! Anyways, i got to get back to the application. 😀
Click to expand...


Josh,

I might have to call and talk with Cindy too. Good luck with the loan. Make sure you get the lowest interest rate possible. If you don't, you might have to sweet talk your parents into cosigning.

Jessica
 
Guys,

I talked to Cindy a few days ago and she told me that the most popular loan among students at our CDM is the Dental Access Loan.
 
Why is dental access better?

Jessica
 
Andy and Mike:

Thank you for your advice about the class message board. I decided to go ahead and replace the MSN message board with Yahoo's because of its superior moderation abilities. I didn't think that the group needed to have moderation, until I read your message. I know this might be an inconvenience to those who do not have a Yahoo e-mail address, but I think that it is best to make the change before school starts. So, right now I'm going to replace the MSN message board link on the main site (http://www.nova.edu/cdm2008) with Yahoo's. I'll post a new message when everything is done. 😀

Chris
 
OK, the website is updated. Just join the group and I'll approve you guys... 🙂

Chris
 
I don't know how it's better for sure.....I just went with what she told me. According to Cindy....dental access was the most popular among dental students.

After doing a little research of my own, I realized that none of these loans have a set interest rate and fees....these depend upon the credit check that they do on you. I know when I applied for the citibank, there a 6% repayment fee charge on the loan (on the website it said no repayment fee but it really actually depends on credit and other factors, i think). The dental access I applied for didn't have any fees for the loan nor did I have a repayment fee. Basically, I think it depends, maybe based on your credit history (b/c thats how the determing your interest rate in the first place).
I did some background check on interest rates also. Dental access has interest rates based on the 3month LIBOR while the citibank is based on the Prime rate from WSJ (Wall Street Journal), I believe so is the Bank One loan. I don't know how much of a difference this makes, b/c these rates are varible. Bottomline, I just went with what Cindy and the few advantages about repayment fees and interest rates that I said above.

Another thing, You can apply to all the private loans....the amount doesn't get disbursed to you until you tell Cindy or some other financial aid officer which loan you actually want. After that, the school will process the loan, you will sign a disclosure statement, I belive and then the funds will arrive.
Hope that helps.
 
This has been one of the worst days ever. I go to apply for private loans and i'm getting declined from all of them. To make a long story short, the reason for this is because there are all these bad marks on my credit report that aren't mine! This is going to take so long to clear up and i'm not going to have any money to start school. On top of that my application for the federal loans was all screwed up, but luckly i called financial aid today and cleared that part up.

Moral or the story, don't listen to Andy's advice of not worrying about financial aid! You really need to worry about it so you don't get screwed over like i am. 😕 :scared: 🙁
 
:laugh: :laugh:

J, I can't help it if your credit report is screwed up by others, just have your parents co-sign and you'll have no probs. Good luck sorting everything out, you'll be fine. Trust me.
 
Josh,

Don't stress too much, things will work out. I think that your parents can always co-sign a loan with you and this takes care of many credit problems if they are able and willing. Otherwise, hopefully a few phone calls will clear things up. 🙂

ChinPatel,

You have an excellent point about the loans. My previous comment that Citibank was the loan of choice was based on having good credit because you would have no fees. There are, however, tons of discrepancies within the loan choices if your credit falls between perfect and horrible. It all depends on your particular situation and from the sounds of it, it would be worthwhile to apply for all of them and see which one gives you the best deal.

I will provide ranges of interest rates and fees (prime is 4 and has been for a while). All of the ranges are credit based and you can only get the lowest one with very good credit:

Chase
disbursement: 3%-6%
repayment: 3% always
interest rate: Prime+0.5%-Prime+4% (4.5%-8%)

DentalAccess
disbursement: 0
repayment: 0-6.6%
interest rate: 3.97% compounded quarterly

Citibank
disbursement: 0
repayment: 0
interest rate: Prime+0.25%-Prime+4% (4.25%-8%)*

*if you have a cosigner, the interest rate is capped at Prime+3% (or 7%)

I believe that the interest rates are calculated differently in these loans, so this is something to take into account (meaning that a 3.97% interest compounded quarterly is not necessarily better than a 4.25% simple daily percentage rate). I am no financial expert but those are the facts that I got from all of the representatives on the phone. Citibank can also be deferred while in residency (GPR). Good luck in choosing what's best for you and your credit situation. 🙂

Jessica
 
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