Oklahoma vs. Tennessee vs. BU

[masterduc]

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I'm so grateful to have received acceptances from these schools, but I'm having a hard time deciding where to go. I guess why I'm starting this thread is to find out everything I can about each school. The good and the bad. I know I went on tours of all these schools, and of course, I loved each and every school. They did a good job selling their school.

Cost isn't really a factor. I want to know about how many people specialize. How are the facilities. How do faculty treat their students. What are the research opportunities. Anything that will help me make a decision.

I was hoping some dental students at each school could throw in some input.

Thanks!

 

[sublimeu4ea]

I'm a DS3 at Oklahoma, where we focus on clinical experience, but don't have enough pt's to get clinical experience on. We see our first patient our first year and perform our first prophy/SRP/anesthesia, which is awesome. Start operative/pedo the beginning of our second year, endo/fixed/removable/implantology our third year, and and extensive ortho appliance training throughout. HOWEVER, we have a problem getting patients due to the economy, the system is outdated, and the red tape is thick here. Every clinic operates separately from each other and no one knows what the students have to put up with to get requirements/see patients/etc. It's a total crap shoot here. In order to treat your patient, you have to bring them to the appropriate clinic if there is a spot for you and it must be properly assigned and documented, you do not have a designated chair and it is ANNOYING.

Our board scores are ho-hum, but we come out of school more clinically competent than most. About 1/3rd of the graduating class this year has been accepted to post-doc programs. If you are a hard worker and know how to make the system work for you, you can really shine here. We work up almost every pt as a comprehensive pt and they are yours until you are finished with them. You need 25 crowns to graduate, if your pt's only have 5 crowns between them all you have to beg for more your last year to graduate. OH, and we have to wax, invest, cast, and polish our own crowns.

In other news, they appear to be switching to a new curriculum/patient system with this incoming class of 2015. I would love to have been a part of the new system, but I would not want to be a part of the transitional hoopla. It sounds wonderful... but there is no telling how it will turn out.

I am not telling you not to come here. I think I have learned loads more than friends at other schools, but if you don't think it is necessary (like being able to make ortho appliances)... its just a waste of your time.

To others trying to get in in future years, check out how the new system is working... right now, I am beyond frustrated.

 

[masterduc]

sublimeu4ea,

Thanks so much for your input. It's this type of information that I need to help me decide what school I want to go to. I think that was kind of one of my concerns with oklahoma- finding patients.

How are they changing the curriculum?

When I went on tour, I don't really remember much about the facilities. All I remember was walking around the different floors and seeing the different colors, but I don't remember actually seeing each clinic. Are patient records all electronic? Are x-rays digital?

When it comes to faculty, do you feel they're receptive to student opinions?

I appreciate your comments.

 

[DropShot 2014]

I'm at DS1 at OU right now so I can't speak to what the clinics and patient situation is like, but we have had a few meetings with the dean addressing the upcoming changes. In short they are moving to what can probably best be described as a trimester system with test blocks. The way it is now, we have a traditional fall and spring semester with the first summer off. This summer is the first time we will be having a "summer semester" for about 10 weeks I think. They say this will somewhat spread out the course load where 1st years will "only" have about 7 classes at a time instead of the 10-11 courses currently in the fall semester. Also, moving to test block will concentrate all exams during one week instead of having 3-4 each and every week of the semester which believe me, can be very grueling.

As far as clinic goes, their plan is to move to a "group practice model with a universal point system" where DS1-DS4s are grouped up into a practice where they spend most of their clinic time overseen by GPs and specialists.

So that is a very brief and incomplete distillation of my understanding of what is happening. Overall, I can say that I am pretty happy with my decision to come to OU. Many of the upperclassmen say that all of these changes once enacted will make life much easier on the students. Let me know if you have any other questions!