NYU vs U Minnesota (Please give me some advice for these 2 schools!

[James_ngu]

Hi everyone!

Please give me some advice on choosing between 2 schools!

NYU vs. U Minnesota

Both schools are great. Please share anything that you know about these two schools, positive or negative, thanks

A few points of comparison I thought about:

• Location
  • On this one, I am very sure that I prefer the big city lifestyle of NYC over Minneapolis. There is no hate or anything, but it’s just a personal preference.
  • Also, schools in NYC seems to have a lot more ethnic diversity, which I love.
  • But one thing going for Minnesota is that the dental school is on the main campus, which could be real nice.
• Class size
  • Minnesota class size is 100, and NYU is 380
  • Someone has told me before that a large class size means that you have to be extra proactive to get guidance and attention. Don’t know if this is true and how it is at NYU.
• Name of school
  • For this one, I know that dental schools are no longer ranked, and any dental professional would know that each school excels in its own ways. But when I’m talking to my non-dental friends or family, or patients, they usually consider NYU to be better because the school as whole has a “bigger name” and is more “recognized” by the general public
  • And one more concern to add to that is that I am considering working as a dentist abroad, and to my knowledge NYU is the more “known” school around the world.
• Quality of Education
  • I heard NYU has some courses reworked, and the schedule got a little messy, and there was some poor communication between students and admin, and apparently some students were struggling with passing certain classes?
  • I heard U Minnesota is a more traditional school that still teaches amalgam and doesn’t really keep up with the tech and equipment?
  • I also heard that at NYU, there isn’t as much instruction and you often have to learn from peers and upperclassmen?
• Opportunities and connections
  • From my interview and understanding of U Minnesota, most students who attend U Minnesota are from the Midwest. They grew up in the Midwest and intend to stay to practice in the Midwest. If I know that I plan to move to NY or CA after dental school, would going to U Minnesota hinder my network and connections? Like would going to NYU help with my networks and connections on the two coasts if I plan to work/do residency on the two coasts?

A few things to state about myself:

• Tuition cost and cost of living does not matter to me at all, so money can be ignored in for my personal case
• I do not yet know if I want to specialize.

I'd really love any opinion from any peers (pre-dental), dental students, or dentist!
And which school would you recommend?

Thanks!

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[Mr. Handsome boy]

Choose NYU since you don't need to worry about the cost. If I had rich parents, I would choose NYU too lol.

 

[2thDoc11]

Are those the only 2 programs you’ve interviewed at?? I’m in ND and praying for an interview to MN so I think NYU would be a great fit for you but honestly if money is absolutely not an issue ig Im not sure what’s best for you.. Minneapolis is a pretty decent sized city especially when you consider St. Paul.. obviously not NYU big but still.. I’d prefer a smaller class size as well. Having a campus sounds nice.. other then the name “NYU” I don’t really see them having much of an advantage but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any

 

[DentGent13]

Current NYU student here and I'll chime in on what you've heard about NYU.

• Class size
  • Someone has told me before that a large class size means that you have to be extra proactive to get guidance and attention. Don’t know if this is true and how it is at NYU. Depends. Lecture you might have to fight for attention, but no one actually does. For labs, you're split up into groups of 30 and that will be your "class." Less fighting for attention here during labs.
• Name of school
  • For this one, I know that dental schools are no longer ranked, and any dental professional would know that each school excels in its own ways. But when I’m talking to my non-dental friends or family, or patients, they usually consider NYU to be better because the school as whole has a “bigger name” and is more “recognized” by the general public
  • And one more concern to add to that is that I am considering working as a dentist abroad, and to my knowledge NYU is the more “known” school around the world. Both these reasons, I agree with. I got into a few schools, but friends and family all congratulated me and urged me to go to NYU and all I can think of was that it's not even that well regarded among dental students.
• Quality of Education
  • I heard NYU has some courses reworked, and the schedule got a little messy, and there was some poor communication between students and admin, and apparently some students were struggling with passing certain classes? Extremely true. Zoomniversity has screwed up the system, especially since they had to rework the schedules for a whole 380 students. I understand that this is new for everyone but there seems to be so little direction everywhere and not enough ears for feedback. There isn't much communication going on and we also learned that it really is student vs administration. Some professors make it bearable though, but the administration itself is ass.
  • I also heard that at NYU, there isn’t as much instruction and you often have to learn from peers and upperclassmen? True, you will get D3 peer mentors and be in contact with your D2s, so you should learn as much as you can from them.
• Opportunities and connections
  • From my interview and understanding of U Minnesota, most students who attend U Minnesota are from the Midwest. They grew up in the Midwest and intend to stay to practice in the Midwest. If I know that I plan to move to NY or CA after dental school, would going to U Minnesota hinder my network and connections? Like would going to NYU help with my networks and connections on the two coasts if I plan to work/do residency on the two coasts? Maybe someone from NYC might be more likely to hire NYU/Columbia grads, or nearby, but highly unlikely that they won't consider you because of your school.

I feel like if you want a life in NYC and don't care about tuition, you should go to NYU. We are all dealing with their BS and are still doing well, so you could too and even enjoy NYC at the same time.

 

[the5]

With the way Corona is Going, Id choose the school with less students as you arent fighting over lab space.
With 380 people PER class, My friends have told me they only go into school 1 time per week to do Lab work.

 

[Alaskan _Polarbear]

Current NYUCD student.

Honestly because of COVID I think my view of NYU might be different from previous students. But at the moment NYU has done a horrible job and navigating. At the beginning of the semester NYUCD did not specifically give guidelines to what is allowed and not allowed and unfortunately 13 D1 students ended up being placed on probation due to not complying to COVID guidelines.

NYU has also been very bad at communicating with faulty and students on what is happening. Initally we did not have any in person labs and were told we would not have any until 2021. Then randomly they tell us we have lab but only once a week for two hours.

During the labs professors dont really know what to do and in terms of getting help it really varies. Sometimes you'll get a good lab professor that helps you other times the professor wont do anything and you'll have to go out of your way to find a TA or professor for feedback.

In terms of schedules, because of COVID NYU just through all our didatics at us so for the fall 2020 semester we ended up with 18 credits of classes.

Professors are a hit or miss. Some are good at teaching others are terrible and dont care about students. Most students do use previous dental student notes to study just because the course load is very heavy at NYU.

Because of COVID everything is different. We havent really gotten to know each other because we only see each other through a screen. But from the looks of everything if you are admitted into NYU you will most likely have an entire online semester with limited in person labs.

If you dont have a problem with working or studying on your own and are a proactive person then NYU is a good choice. NYU is more of an independent school where they can provide you with everything you need as long as you go out there yourself and find it

 

[James_ngu]

Are those the only 2 programs you’ve interviewed at?? I’m in ND and praying for an interview to MN so I think NYU would be a great fit for you but honestly if money is absolutely not an issue ig Im not sure what’s best for you.. Minneapolis is a pretty decent sized city especially when you consider St. Paul.. obviously not NYU big but still.. I’d prefer a smaller class size as well. Having a campus sounds nice.. other then the name “NYU” I don’t really see them having much of an advantage but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any

Thanks for the tips. I'm wishing you the best of luck with getting an MN interview! I'm sure you'll get in! your stats are better than mine. I'm just leaning towards NY a little more because of the city. Minneapolis is great, but it just isn't as international of a place as I'd it to be.

Good luck!

 

[2thDoc11]

Thanks for the tips. I'm wishing you the best of luck with getting an MN interview! I'm sure you'll get in! your stats are better than mine. I'm just leaning towards NY a little more because of the city. Minneapolis is great, but it just isn't as international of a place as I'd it to be.

Good luck!

Thank you! Best of luck to you too! What are your stats if you don’t mind me asking? And where are you from? I happened to get a 14 on my QR and I think that might be a roadblock for some schools m, especially state schools but we will see!

 

[James_ngu]

Current NYU student here and I'll chime in on what you've heard about NYU.

• Class size
  • Someone has told me before that a large class size means that you have to be extra proactive to get guidance and attention. Don’t know if this is true and how it is at NYU. Depends. Lecture you might have to fight for attention, but no one actually does. For labs, you're split up into groups of 30 and that will be your "class." Less fighting for attention here during labs.
• Name of school
  • For this one, I know that dental schools are no longer ranked, and any dental professional would know that each school excels in its own ways. But when I’m talking to my non-dental friends or family, or patients, they usually consider NYU to be better because the school as whole has a “bigger name” and is more “recognized” by the general public
  • And one more concern to add to that is that I am considering working as a dentist abroad, and to my knowledge NYU is the more “known” school around the world. Both these reasons, I agree with. I got into a few schools, but friends and family all congratulated me and urged me to go to NYU and all I can think of was that it's not even that well regarded among dental students.
• Quality of Education
  • I heard NYU has some courses reworked, and the schedule got a little messy, and there was some poor communication between students and admin, and apparently some students were struggling with passing certain classes? Extremely true. Zoomniversity has screwed up the system, especially since they had to rework the schedules for a whole 380 students. I understand that this is new for everyone but there seems to be so little direction everywhere and not enough ears for feedback. There isn't much communication going on and we also learned that it really is student vs administration. Some professors make it bearable though, but the administration itself is ass.
  • I also heard that at NYU, there isn’t as much instruction and you often have to learn from peers and upperclassmen? True, you will get D3 peer mentors and be in contact with your D2s, so you should learn as much as you can from them.
• Opportunities and connections
  • From my interview and understanding of U Minnesota, most students who attend U Minnesota are from the Midwest. They grew up in the Midwest and intend to stay to practice in the Midwest. If I know that I plan to move to NY or CA after dental school, would going to U Minnesota hinder my network and connections? Like would going to NYU help with my networks and connections on the two coasts if I plan to work/do residency on the two coasts? Maybe someone from NYC might be more likely to hire NYU/Columbia grads, or nearby, but highly unlikely that they won't consider you because of your school.

I feel like if you want a life in NYC and don't care about tuition, you should go to NYU. We are all dealing with their BS and are still doing well, so you could too and even enjoy NYC at the same time.

Thanks for all the great feedback! It really helps hearing it from a current student at that school!
So would you choose NYU again if you could go back in time?

 

[James_ngu]

With the way Corona is Going, Id choose the school with less students as you arent fighting over lab space.
With 380 people PER class, My friends have told me they only go into school 1 time per week to do Lab work.

Thanks for giving me some advice too! I will def think about the lab time and the development of covid and everything. I'm guessing that covid should be under control by next Fall.

 

[James_ngu]

Current NYUCD student.

Honestly because of COVID I think my view of NYU might be different from previous students. But at the moment NYU has done a horrible job and navigating. At the beginning of the semester NYUCD did not specifically give guidelines to what is allowed and not allowed and unfortunately 13 D1 students ended up being placed on probation due to not complying to COVID guidelines.

NYU has also been very bad at communicating with faulty and students on what is happening. Initally we did not have any in person labs and were told we would not have any until 2021. Then randomly they tell us we have lab but only once a week for two hours.

During the labs professors dont really know what to do and in terms of getting help it really varies. Sometimes you'll get a good lab professor that helps you other times the professor wont do anything and you'll have to go out of your way to find a TA or professor for feedback.

In terms of schedules, because of COVID NYU just through all our didatics at us so for the fall 2020 semester we ended up with 18 credits of classes.

Professors are a hit or miss. Some are good at teaching others are terrible and dont care about students. Most students do use previous dental student notes to study just because the course load is very heavy at NYU.

Because of COVID everything is different. We havent really gotten to know each other because we only see each other through a screen. But from the looks of everything if you are admitted into NYU you will most likely have an entire online semester with limited in person labs.

If you dont have a problem with working or studying on your own and are a proactive person then NYU is a good choice. NYU is more of an independent school where they can provide you with everything you need as long as you go out there yourself and find it

Thanks for the feedback Alaskan! really appreciate the first hand experience of a current student.

So overall, would you choose NYU again if you could go back in time?

 

[James_ngu]

Thank you! Best of luck to you too! What are your stats if you don’t mind me asking? And where are you from? I happened to get a 14 on my QR and I think that might be a roadblock for some schools m, especially state schools but we will see!

I have heard somewhere that QR is one of the sections dental schools care least about, so I'm sure you'll do fine!
And my stats are 3.0 sGPA, 3.2 oGPA, 25 DAT.

Let me know if you get some good news in december!

 

[DentGent13]

Thanks for all the great feedback! It really helps hearing it from a current student at that school!
So would you choose NYU again if you could go back in time?

Honestly, yeah I would but it's mostly for personal reasons. I live with my parents, my dad's a good cook, my girlfriend is in NYC, and all of my friends are here. There are also so many things to do in NYC. Also, like you, tuition doesn't matter to me because I'll be getting out better than my peers, my parents are willing to pay for half of my dental education and I'm estimated to get out for under 500k even if they didn't (which means I'll only have less than 300k debt). While NYU does have a lot of bull****, as the rumors say, I wouldn't trade it for the price I'm getting out for. Maybe if tuition mattered, my whole mindset would change though.

 

[Alaskan _Polarbear]

Thanks for the feedback Alaskan! really appreciate the first hand experience of a current student.

So overall, would you choose NYU again if you could go back in time?

I would choose NYU again just because my family is here and my life is here. I think its important to consider your mental health as well. If you have to move away from your friends and family and start all over again you have to ask yourself if your mentally prepared to do that.

I also commute so I'm only paying tuition and fees. But if i didnt commute and had to pay for housing as well I wouldn't choose NYU. I truly dont think anyone should be in 500-600k in debt. The mentality that you'll make big bucks and pay it off fast is no longer correct as dentistry isn't as big of a money maker as it was in the past.