Pitt vs. Temple

[Godzilla1]

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I'm from Pittsburgh and got accepted to both Pitt and Temple. I've got several questions that I'd like to pose to try and come up with where I want to attend.

About Pitt: When I interviewed there, they stressed the fact that most graduates go on to do AEGD/associateship. I know that I'm not going to come out of any dental school as a 100% competent dentist, but I would like to come out pretty damn close. Is the clinical environment at fault, is too much emphasis placed on the sim clinic, are the students all brainiacs with no hand skillz, etc.

About Temple: I know that they're the bomb diggity when I comes to clinical, but what about specialization? I know every idiot comes into school wanting to specialize, but I want to keep everything open. If I bust my butt and am at the top of the class, will coming from Temple preclude some opportunities?

 

[Dentgirl09]

Isn't specialization pretty good anywhere?

 

[Godzilla1]

I'm not saying that specialization is not possible, or even less likely from Temple, but what I am asking is if there is a stigma associated with coming from Temple, which is known as a clinical school, when compared to applicants from more academically-oriented schools (possibly such as Pitt)? Obviously if you're #1 in your class, 95 part 1 boards, activities, blah, blah, blah..........

What I want to know is if you're upper-eschelon with a 85-90 boards, would it be a disadvantage to come out of Temple?

 

[Dentgirl09]

I'm not saying that specialization is not possible, or even less likely from Temple, but what I am asking is if there is a stigma associated with coming from Temple, which is known as a clinical school, when compared to applicants from more academically-oriented schools (possibly such as Pitt)? Obviously if you're #1 in your class, 95 part 1 boards, activities, blah, blah, blah..........

What I want to know is if you're upper-eschelon with a 85-90 boards, would it be a disadvantage to come out of Temple?

Sorry, I don't want to give you false info. Maybe someone else can help. I remember someone saying that the Pitt (some guy from there that they interviewed with or something--this was in a forum) that 100% of their people who applied (it was either100% out of everyone or out of ortho)... were placed somewhere.

I don't know Temples stats offhand (although I am waiting ot hear back from temple-- I don't plan on specializing so I haven't taken it into consideration).....

Maybe someone else can help!

 

[chocltcake]

I think Pitt has a pretty strong clinical curriculum. As a D3 you share a chair with one D4, but your schedules don't overlap (I'm not 100% sure of how they arrange it) so I'm assuming you get enough practice that way. Their sim lab also has enough stations for everyone in your class and you can be there pretty late practicing if you want to improve your skills. I don't know much about Temple, but I was very impressed by Pitt's dental school!

 

[Vicviper]

I was under the assumption that when you finish your 4 years, you have the ability to go out into the workplace and start, but that you're not fast enough to make yourself as commercially viable or you want to further hone your skills, and that's why the GPR etc existed. Seemed like that was from just about every dental school - hell, New York requires you do a 1 or 2 year GP residency to practice at all in GP.

 

[jdw22]

Pitt all the way

 

[orangutan777]

i'm having the same dilemma. Can anyone else either attending either school or has been accepted to both and choosing pitt/temple give any advice to why they chose pitt/temple? any help would be great thanks!

I had a great feel when i interviewed at both schools. The location that temple is in doesnt really bother me since i'm not going to live right next to the school anyway. The students were friendly at both schools as well.

 

[orangutan777]

wah anyone else in this situation???

 

[TedyBearSuicide]

In addition, what is the patient population at Pitt like? enough patients?

 

[Vicviper]

In addition, what is the patient population at Pitt like? enough patients?

From what I've seen of my rotations through the clinics, there's plenty of patients. When I tried to make an appointment for a screening for myself a week or so ago, they were booked solid until January. Haha, luckily I was still able to talk to a 3rd year and have him get me a consult with oral surgery, yay, free oral surgery and IV sedation for me (from an oral surgeon) 😀 .

 

[TedyBearSuicide]

When I tried to make an appointment for a screening for myself a week or so ago, they were booked solid until January

That sounds great. Few more questions:

1. When do you start seeing patients? and what kinds of procedures do you get involved with?

2. Do you walk to school/ride the bus or drive?

3. How much is the rent for 1 bedroom apartment located in walking distance or in the school bus zone from school?

 

[orangutan777]

also vicviper,

they schedule all appointments for you right?

 

[junkemails44]

Pitt all the way!!

 

[orangutan777]

Pitt all the way!!

hey junkemails44, what do you like about pitt compared to temple??

 

[Vicviper]

Lets see if I can answer these....

You start doing clinic observation rotation second week, and you do that just about every Tuesday afternoon - you get rotated through the general clinics (modules), as well as a number of the specialty clinics. You don't really have to do anything during this other than observe, but you can assist if you want to, or if your 3rd/4th year will let you. A number of people take radiographs. Even though you're not really doing anything spectacular, my overall experience of this has been pretty great, and has also showed me that I really might not be as interested in Ortho as I thought I was....haha. They've said that we'll be doing prophys on each other this summer, and then on patients probably next fall.

I live in a nice area of town called Squirrel Hill - it's an area that's more families than college students, and it's nice and quite, but still within walking distance to some nice shops on Murray (Barns and Nobel, Starbucks, movies, etc.). I usually carpool with another student who has a house a block up the street for me, but when I take the bus, the 7:30 bus near me will get me to school on time. Most busses will drop you off at the foot of the HUGE hill in front of the hospital / med school - the dental school is at the top of the hill, behind the med school. Within the first week you'll hopefully learn the shortcut through the Med school that lets you avoid climbing the hill every day - it takes a few minutes longer... but it's a huge steep hill, haha.

My friends who live within walking distance (Oakland or Shadyside) are paying anywhere from 450-750 a month, depending on if you live with other people, get a studio, one bedroom, or whatever. Like I said before, I'm a bit further away, and I pay 750 for a pretty big apartment, while a friend who's within walking distance pays the same for a much smaller apartment. Oh, and the busses are free with your Student ID, and the bus system in Pitt is much better than many other places I've been.

To my fellow anteater, yes, they schedule patients for you, but say when you've got a patient who needs to come back, you can just schedule them yourselves during the previous appointment.

Another nice thing, and I know a lot of other dental schools do this as well, we can get tons of dental work done for free at the school - so you really don't need to opt for the dental insurance if you don't have it. Even though I have dental insurance through my parents, I'm getting my 4 3rd molars removed next month including IV sedation for free, by an oral surgeon - I've also gotten my cleanings done free.

Let me know if anyone has any other questions!

 

[rsj05004]

thanks for all the great info vicviper! i have a couple more questions if you can help:

How are the exams scheduled? bunched up or spread out?

Do you think the school prepares you well for NBDE part I?

Does the curriculum include any sort of externship program?

Is it fairly easy to get involved in research with faculty?

 

[Vicviper]

thanks for all the great info vicviper! i have a couple more questions if you can help:

How are the exams scheduled? bunched up or spread out?

Do you think the school prepares you well for NBDE part I?

Does the curriculum include any sort of externship program?

Is it fairly easy to get involved in research with faculty?

Lets see... for the most part so far in the first year, we've never had more than 2 exams a week, but they don't particularly plan it very well. There was one point where we had a test like every 3 days for 2 weeks, and that was pretty hectic.

From what I've heard, the school really prepares you well for the boards, I think it's something like 90% pass on the first try.

From what I remember hearing, there's this program SCOPE, the first part of which we're doing in our first two years which involves community service, and attending a few education lectures of our choosing *usually a during lunch thing with pizza*, and in the second two years, it has us going out into community clinics, and other stuff like that.

As far as research, we're really busy in our first year, so there's not much time for that right now, but the faculty say they're very open to having students help in their research, even if it's only a little in your spare time. The level of how in depth that might be though I'm not sure about.

Hope that helped, any other questions?

 

[justanotherpredent]

I'm from Pittsburgh and got accepted to both Pitt and Temple. I've got several questions that I'd like to pose to try and come up with where I want to attend.

About Pitt: When I interviewed there, they stressed the fact that most graduates go on to do AEGD/associateship. I know that I'm not going to come out of any dental school as a 100% competent dentist, but I would like to come out pretty damn close. Is the clinical environment at fault, is too much emphasis placed on the sim clinic, are the students all brainiacs with no hand skillz, etc.

About Temple: I know that they're the bomb diggity when I comes to clinical, but what about specialization? I know every idiot comes into school wanting to specialize, but I want to keep everything open. If I bust my butt and am at the top of the class, will coming from Temple preclude some opportunities?

So which school did you end up going to to? I'm having a hard time deciding as well..

 

[kimothy_777]

I was just accepted to UPitt today, after Dec. 1 acceptances I put my deposit down at UDM. When I interviewed at UPitt, the students seemed very stressed and the atmosphere was not near as happy as all the other dental schools I interviewed at. Can you speak to the atmosphere and stress level at UPitt? I realize dental school will be stressful anywhere I go, but the stress level was almost palpable at UPitt.