Pitt vs. UNLV

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DentalGirl5

DentalGirl5

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Hey everyone,
So I've been fortunate to receive acceptances to a few schools and I've narrowed it down to these two. I'm having a super hard time deciding which to choose. On the one hand, Pitt is closer to home (3 hours from my family) and they offered me a scholarship, so without cost of living, I'd be looking at $213,000. I liked the city and the people. The school seems wonderful as well.

UNLV is more appealing to me as a city, however, since at this point in my life, I want to experience something different than where I'm from--Ohio. Most importantly, my fiancé is in the hospitality industry so he works as a manager at a hotel. He would obviously have way more opportunities to move up in the hotel world in Las Vegas and his salary would dramatically increase. He wants to be in Las Vegas more than in Pittsburgh. I love that Vegas has a lot of cool shows and music groups and nightlife that's far different than anything I've experienced. The school also seemed great but my dilemma is that Pitt is more reputable (from what I've heard and known) since it's more established (UNLV has only graduated ~10 classes). I did vibe more with the UNLV folks and I left the interview happier, but that doesn't negate how sweet Pittsburgh was in terms of the awesome things they have to offer, like cool electives and working with the disabled. UNLV would be about $260,000 for me without cost of living. Cost of living in LV is cheaper as a whole than in Pitt. So I'm thinking my fiancés salary and the cost of living would balance out my scholarship at Pitt.

P.S. Technology and clinical experience are the most important things to me in a school, so if anyone knows something to a greater extent about these two things for the two schools, I'd love to learn more about that.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks guys!!!
 
First off, congrats! I've lived in Las Vegas my entire life so feel free to ask any questions about neighborhoods and life in Vegas in general. one of my favorite things about Vegas is that almost everything is open late, if not 24 hours. That, and the all you can eat sushi haha. by technology, what exactly do you mean? Like the simulation labs? Besides it being my in state school, I was drawn to UNLV because of its community service. That, and it really seems like the faculty listens to the students in what the students want from the school. I remember them saying at their pre dental day that they made a new class at the suggestion and direction of students. I don't know much about Pitt's program but I can say that wherever you choose will be your home for 4 years and that you should pick whichever one you can see yourself living in for 4 years.
 
I probably cant say much since I def am not in your shoes in life but looks like UNLV is the way to go, esp if your fiance loves it and is willing to support your dreams as well.

I also interviewed and got accepted to UNLV and it seems like a school that can meet your expectations in tech and clinical exp. Also you are correct on cheaper rent than most big cities
 
Congratulation on your acceptance!!
Imo, I would go with UNLV just cause you are happier there. You gonna be spend the next 4 hard years of your life, might as well be at some place that make you happy.
 
Thank you so much guys!!! Your input means so much to me 🙂 this is gonna be a tough call, but you're right, gotta go with the one that makes us happiest as a whole
 
Just wondering, it was said during my interview day that you can establish residency after one year. Does anyone know how valid this is, and if it's easy? (UNLV)
 
I thought we're going to be classmates? Why hesitate? Lol
 
Usually I would say Pitt but your life seems to fit perfectly at UNLV, especially if it's easier to find a job for your significant other.
 
DentalGirl5 said:
Why would you say Pitt though?
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Personally, Pitt was my top out of state choice and I will be attending there if I do not hear from a TX school, so I'm a little biased.

But here are some reasons I wrote down:
1. Very reputable (ranked 4th in dental research) so it won't be very difficult to get into residency.
2. They are with a handful of schools that offer EVERY specialty so you won't have any trouble when you want to learn something.
3. Pre-clinic ratio: 1:7ish so you'll get all the help you need
4. Tuition is fairly priced, you're looking at around $250,000 for tuition and fees
5. Living expenses are very affordable (around $500-1000/month)
6. VERY good patient pool
7. The campus is very beautiful, you're in the medical center so you won't need to go far for rotations.
8. Curriculum is amazing, NBDE Part 1: 100% pass rate.
There's more reasons but yeah...
 
Typical Average Student said:
Personally, Pitt was my top out of state choice and I will be attending there if I do not hear from a TX school, so I'm a little biased.

But here are some reasons I wrote down:
1. Very reputable (ranked 4th in dental research) so it won't be very difficult to get into residency.
2. They are with a handful of schools that offer EVERY specialty so you won't have any trouble when you want to learn something.
3. Pre-clinic ratio: 1:7ish so you'll get all the help you need
4. Tuition is fairly priced, you're looking at around $250,000 for tuition and fees
5. Living expenses are very affordable (around $500-1000/month)
6. VERY good patient pool
7. The campus is very beautiful, you're in the medical center so you won't need to go far for rotations.
8. Curriculum is amazing, NBDE Part 1: 100% pass rate.
There's more reasons but yeah...
Click to expand...

Thank you 🙂 I had all those reasons written down too. Both have pros and cons. It's seriously going to be so tough to choose
 
hellofuturedentists said:
Lol don't let Pitt football be your deciding factor. It will eventually disappoint you 🙁
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Indeed... seeing that Houston (my alma mater) laid down 29 points in the 4th against Pitt last year during the bowl game for a comeback 35-34 win... lets just say I'm sad my university doesn't have a dental school.
 
This is just hearsay but from what I have been told, getting hotel management jobs in Vegas is actually difficult. I haven't done any research or whatnot but it was more of a conversation with someone who has a son out there and their experience. I would just have your fiance look into the job possibilities before you commit. This could be totally off base and that person's son could be a total dolt for all I know, but just something to consider.

As for reputation, does it really matter? Your patients are not going to have any idea if you were the first graduating class of a school or the 200th. They will see the diploma on the wall and that is all they care about. To them UNLV is a big enough name because of the sports teams at the UG school. If you go to Pitt they will ask if you are a Steelers fan LOL.

I would knock out some real final numbers and see how far apart the schools are factoring in COL. Even if your fiance is making money in Vegas, it would still be nice to be able to not spend all of that on tuition and more accurately LOANS.

For me, right now being a year away from hopefully having to make this kind of decision, #1 factor for me will be cost. If I get into my in-state, I'll go there, or I'll go where ever is the least expensive. It would be great to live in a different part of the country for a while, but I go to school out of state now so it's not that big of a deal. It would be nice if all the schools cost the same so we could make decisions based on the school itself (or location) but they are not.
 
ajj70 said:
This is just hearsay but from what I have been told, getting hotel management jobs in Vegas is actually difficult. I haven't done any research or whatnot but it was more of a conversation with someone who has a son out there and their experience. I would just have your fiance look into the job possibilities before you commit. This could be totally off base and that person's son could be a total dolt for all I know, but just something to consider.

As for reputation, does it really matter? Your patients are not going to have any idea if you were the first graduating class of a school or the 200th. They will see the diploma on the wall and that is all they care about. To them UNLV is a big enough name because of the sports teams at the UG school. If you go to Pitt they will ask if you are a Steelers fan LOL.

I would knock out some real final numbers and see how far apart the schools are factoring in COL. Even if your fiance is making money in Vegas, it would still be nice to be able to not spend all of that on tuition and more accurately LOANS.

For me, right now being a year away from hopefully having to make this kind of decision, #1 factor for me will be cost. If I get into my in-state, I'll go there, or I'll go where ever is the least expensive. It would be great to live in a different part of the country for a while, but I go to school out of state now so it's not that big of a deal. It would be nice if all the schools cost the same so we could make decisions based on the school itself (or location) but they are not.
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I really appreciate your feedback. Thanks for taking out your time to do that 🙂
You're totally right in a lot of the things you've said. Now I'm as confused as ever hahaha
 
Typical Average Student said:
2. They are with a handful of schools that offer EVERY specialty so you won't have any trouble when you want to learn something.
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I'm pretty sure the only two schools in the country that have every specialty residency program are Baylor and Iowa...?

OP, if your husband would have an easier time finding a job - and a more lucrative one at that - in Las Vegas, my vote is for UNLV. You don't want him to resent you for holding his career back when you could've made the decision to increase his employment opportunities instead. You liked UNLV better anyway, and the CoL difference is not insignificant.
 
strep mutans said:
I'm pretty sure the only two schools in the country that have every specialty residency program are Baylor and Iowa...?

OP, if your husband would have an easier time finding a job - and a more lucrative one at that - in Las Vegas, my vote is for UNLV. You don't want him to resent you for holding his career back when you could've made the decision to increase his employment opportunities instead. You liked UNLV better anyway, and the CoL difference is not insignificant.
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Thanks strep mutans 🙂 I actually felt similarly towards both schools as programs. It's more of a where do I see us for 4 years and why should I pay 260k instead of 213k. But resentment is a huge thing, you're right. It would be a gamble finding a good job for him in Pittsburgh since if he can't find a job in downtown where we want to live, he'd most likely commute to work and with crazy traffic in Pitt, I know that he would hate that.

Thank you for your input. Much appreciated and I'll be thinking long and hard!
 
another great thing about Vegas as a city is that you're an hour from the mountains, 4 hours from the beach, an hour from a lake, and 3 hours from one of the most beautiful national parks to go hiking. Once you're off the strip, Vegas is just a bunch of neighborhoods so while it is a city it's nothing like San Francisco or New York or what I assume Pittsburgh is like
 
jackierific said:
another great thing about Vegas as a city is that you're an hour from the mountains, 4 hours from the beach, an hour from a lake, and 3 hours from one of the most beautiful national parks to go hiking. Once you're off the strip, Vegas is just a bunch of neighborhoods so while it is a city it's nothing like San Francisco or New York or what I assume Pittsburgh is like
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That's the thing--we're both super interested in the "big" city life. So not having much to do off the strip in terms of big city things is concerning. But we love nature and hiking so obviously that proximity to these places that you mentioned is phenomenal. Are the neighborhoods generally safe? What do you personally do on the weekends or how do you spend your free time?
 
DentalGirl5 said:
What do you think about my dilemma? Any thoughts?
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Seems like UNLV might be the best fit for you. I don't know anything about the school, but if you're looking to go into general dentistry, I'm sure it's a quality education that will get you there! Pitt/Pittsburgh is awesome but if you and your fiance would be better off in Vegas, go for that. Especially if he can get a relatively higher salary and support you through school 🙂
 
hellofuturedentists said:
Seems like UNLV might be the best fit for you. I don't know anything about the school, but if you're looking to go into general dentistry, I'm sure it's a quality education that will get you there! Pitt/Pittsburgh is awesome but if you and your fiance would be better off in Vegas, go for that. Especially if he can get a relatively higher salary and support you through school 🙂
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Thank you! I appreciate the feedback. Are you gonna choose Pitt?
 
DentalGirl5 said:
That's the thing--we're both super interested in the "big" city life. So not having much to do off the strip in terms of big city things is concerning. But we love nature and hiking so obviously that proximity to these places that you mentioned is phenomenal. Are the neighborhoods generally safe? What do you personally do on the weekends or how do you spend your free time?
Click to expand...
What big city things do you mean exactly? The neighborhoods are generally safe. There are a few places that are sketchy but if you decide to come here i can definitely steer you away from those ones. While I'm in school, I usually don't do anything crazy over the weekends beside the usual like brunch with friends or morning hike at red rock which is like 40 min away. Cirque du soleil is actually having s good deal where you buy one ticket and get the second one for 15 dollars so I'm thinking about going to see the Beatles Love after finals. In a few weeks I'll go up to California and stop at six flags and then I'll probably go to southern Utah up to Brianhead to play in the snow. They're working on revamping downtown so right now that's kind of the trendy place, with tons of bars and cafes and art . There's always something you could find to do here. There was a beer festival a couple weeks ago. tons of music festivals are here like the country music one or rock in rio or life is beautiful. Last weekend I saw the Broadway musical elf here too. There's definitely always something to do haha
 
Also, idk if weather is a significant factor for you (it is for me), but winter in LV is much more tolerable than winter in Pittsburgh.
 
@DentalGirl5 Hey, congrats on your acceptances. There's been a lot of great feedback here, and here's a few of my thoughts on the subject:

1. "Happy wife, happy life" is a phrase that we use at my job a lot. "Happy husband" doesn't have the same ring to it, but you get the idea. I will say that what @ajj70 said about LV hotel management being hard to break into resonates with me (but again, based on my own hearsay).
2. I think both programs bring different things to the table: UNLV has very few specialities and a technologically-forward curriculum. You'll get lots of exposure to complex cases that would get canibalized at other programs. Pitt has an outstanding special needs program, and unique exposure to dental anesthesiology, along with all the other specialities they carry. If you want to specialize, Pitt's program would probably be a better choice. The spec. rates for each school seem to support this claim.
3. I have family in Vegas, so I've spent some time there - everything being said above is true, it's very underrated in terms of what it can offer (especially outside the Strip). Pittsburgh seems like a cool town, but nothing really stood out to me personally when I visited there.

All that said, I think Vegas is the play here. I'm going through the same mental gymnastics as you with offers on the table, but the good thing about all this is there is no wrong choice!
 
jackierific said:
What big city things do you mean exactly? The neighborhoods are generally safe. There are a few places that are sketchy but if you decide to come here i can definitely steer you away from those ones. While I'm in school, I usually don't do anything crazy over the weekends beside the usual like brunch with friends or morning hike at red rock which is like 40 min away. Cirque du soleil is actually having s good deal where you buy one ticket and get the second one for 15 dollars so I'm thinking about going to see the Beatles Love after finals. In a few weeks I'll go up to California and stop at six flags and then I'll probably go to southern Utah up to Brianhead to play in the snow. They're working on revamping downtown so right now that's kind of the trendy place, with tons of bars and cafes and art . There's always something you could find to do here. There was a beer festival a couple weeks ago. tons of music festivals are here like the country music one or rock in rio or life is beautiful. Last weekend I saw the Broadway musical elf here too. There's definitely always something to do haha
Click to expand...
Wow, this just made me super happy! That seems so fun and interesting and new. Thanks Jackie 🙂
 
CraigHack said:
@DentalGirl5 Hey, congrats on your acceptances. There's been a lot of great feedback here, and here's a few of my thoughts on the subject:

1. "Happy wife, happy life" is a phrase that we use at my job a lot. "Happy husband" doesn't have the same ring to it, but you get the idea. I will say that what @ajj70 said about LV hotel management being hard to break into resonates with me (but again, based on my own hearsay).
2. I think both programs bring different things to the table: UNLV has very few specialities and a technologically-forward curriculum. You'll get lots of exposure to complex cases that would get canibalized at other programs. Pitt has an outstanding special needs program, and unique exposure to dental anesthesiology, along with all the other specialities they carry. If you want to specialize, Pitt's program would probably be a better choice. The spec. rates for each school seem to support this claim.
3. I have family in Vegas, so I've spent some time there - everything being said above is true, it's very underrated in terms of what it can offer (especially outside the Strip). Pittsburgh seems like a cool town, but nothing really stood out to me personally when I visited there.

All that said, I think Vegas is the play here. I'm going through the same mental gymnastics as you with offers on the table, but the good thing about all this is there is no wrong choice!
Click to expand...
Thank you so much! Thanks for commenting on the school programs themselves. I don't know if I'm going to specialize but I'm sure what you put into it is what you get. They are both so unique. That's what was so difficult for me to begin with. I really hope the hotel thing isn't true or that'll be a big deciding factor lol. Las Vegas was pretty cool 🙂 Where are you gonna go? Good luck to you! And thanks for the feedback 🙂
 
DentalGirl5 said:
Wow, this just made me super happy! That seems so fun and interesting and new. Thanks Jackie 🙂
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Of course! Let me know if you have any other questions! And like they said above the winters are very tolerable. The high today is 61 haha
 
DentalGirl5 said:
Thank you so much! Thanks for commenting on the school programs themselves. I don't know if I'm going to specialize but I'm sure what you put into it is what you get. They are both so unique. That's what was so difficult for me to begin with. I really hope the hotel thing isn't true or that'll be a big deciding factor lol. Las Vegas was pretty cool 🙂 Where are you gonna go? Good luck to you! And thanks for the feedback 🙂
Click to expand...

I'm approaching a decision, but not ready to commit just yet. We may be classmates though 🙂
 
jackierific said:
Of course! Let me know if you have any other questions! And like they said above the winters are very tolerable. The high today is 61 haha
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You should be a saleswoman. You've totally sold me on LV lol. Hahaha thanks Jackie hope we are classmates soon 🙂 Not 100% sure yet, but maybe leaning a little LV now!
 
DentalGirl5 said:
You should be a saleswoman. You've totally sold me on LV lol. Hahaha thanks Jackie hope we are classmates soon 🙂 Not 100% sure yet, but maybe leaning a little LV now!
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Haha if dentistry doesn't work at least I'll have a backup as a salesperson 😉 anytime! Let me know if you have more questions 🙂
 
DentalGirl5 said:
Thank you! I appreciate the feedback. Are you gonna choose Pitt?
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Ummm leaning toward no, but haven't made a decision yet. I do love this city, but I think Vegas probably has more activities to offer you guys. However, the cost of living in Pittsburgh is actually very reasonable. It got voted "most live-able city" by some magazine and I think they overestimate the cost by a lot in Pitt's budget. You'd also get free bus transportation with your student ID so you wouldn't need a car for yourself
 
If you have Instagram search "cityoflasvegas" and "Vegas" in the people's search for two accounts that post pictures about Las Vegas and the surrounding area !
 
Thank you so much everyone!! Will update with decision 🙂
 
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