Plz help..UoP or UCSF?

[sfdent]

I don't know what to do at all!! They are both great schools.. And I'm interested in specializing. I love the attitudes at uop and the friendly enviornment. I also like the clinical experience. But ucsf...is ucsf. So confused:/ any opinions pleasee?

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[iralex801]

UOP over UCSF IMO. If your interested in specializing however, I believe UCSF has better specialization rates. Only school I'd consider over UOP out of the cali schools is UCLA.

 

[dantemac]

I vote UOP!

 

[ndds]

It depends on your age and priorities. If you want to or might want to specialize definitely go to UCSF. If not UOP is awesome.
Good Luck

 

[destinedsirius]

Hey op I'm in the same boat as you. Ive been building up a comparison chart for the two if you're interested. Are you on uop class of 2015 page on fb? I can send it to you on there. The people on there are doing a very good job of persuading me to pick Uop. And the people on there already seem cool that I wouldn't mind being classmates with.

 

[John Durian]

UCSF. Hands down.

 

[armorshell]

UCSF. Hands down.

 

[armorshell]

Interested in specializing in what? Get any scholarship love from UoP? How self-motivated are you in general?

 

[Sunspear]

I heard a lot of people at uop specialize. I think it's a myth that they don't.

 

[BTown DDS]

If you are interested in specializing then there are more research opportunities at UCSF to help your resume since the boards are going P/F. You can also take the $ difference into account. UCSF is about 100k cheaper.

 

[oae]

I heard a lot of people at uop specialize. I think it's a myth that they don't.

From what I gather, there is a difference between

ALOT OF STUDENTS SPECIALIZE and

ALOT OF THE STUDENTS SEEKING SPECIALIZATION WERE SUCCESSFUL

The former indicates that a large number of students can and will specialize.

The latter indicates that if the school happened to have 2 students wanting to specialize, and those two students were successful, than that school can suddenly claim they 100% specialization rate for students seeking that route.

UOP falls in the latter. (not the 2 students part, just the fact that numbers wise they do not have too many students going into specialities compared to UCSF. If UOP suddenly had a spike in the number of stduents seeking specializing, then Im certain they would struggle in getting most of the students entrance into residencies.

 

[armorshell]

If you are interested in specializing then there are more research opportunities at UCSF to help your resume since the boards are going P/F. You can also take the $ difference into account. UCSF is about 100k cheaper.

Myth. There's an excessive amount of research projects available for students at Pacific, and you're likely to be able to play a major role in the design and execution of the study if you take part. I certainly did and I'm nothing particularly special.

As far as cost, difference in total education is more around $70,000 due to loan capitalization, and is around $15,000 less if you're out of state.

 

[armorshell]

From what I gather, there is a difference between

ALOT OF STUDENTS SPECIALIZE and

ALOT OF THE STUDENTS SEEKING SPECIALIZATION WERE SUCCESSFUL

The former indicates that a large number of students can and will specialize.

The latter indicates that if the school happened to have 2 students wanting to specialize, and those two students were successful, than that school can suddenly claim they 100% specialization rate for students seeking that route.

UOP falls in the latter. (not the 2 students part, just the fact that numbers wise they do not have too many students going into specialities compared to UCSF. If UOP suddenly had a spike in the number of stduents seeking specializing, then Im certain they would struggle in getting most of the students entrance into residencies.

Not only is this purely conjecture, but it's pointless speculation combined with a logical fallacy. Your hypothetical situation of "UoP suddenly having a spike in the number of students wanting to do specialty programs" will never happen, since a ton of people choose Pacific to shave a year off their training. The general population of UoP has ZERO interest in doing any residency; they are trying to finish as quickly as possible and get into general practice. Second, the match rate directly out of school, into specialty programs (not GPR/AEGD) has ranged from 10-24% over the past 6 years for which I have data, further undermining your assumption since the rate is relatively variable (Average is 15.6%).

Third, you're rampantly confusing correlation with causation. UoP and UCSF generally attract wildly different student populations, so any direct, uncontrolled comparison between them in something like this is effectively meaningless. If you're smart enough to get into to UCSF, they're telling you you're their type of student.

Lastly, I'm walking, breathing, typing proof you can specialize coming out of UoP.

 

[LaFleur]

As far as cost, difference in total education is more around $70,000 due to loan capitalization, and is around $15,000 less if you're out of state.

I can't believe no one has asked this yet...OP, are you in-state for UCSF?

IMO, if you're in-state go with UCSF.

Both are great schools, so you're not going to go wrong with either one.

 

[LaFleur]

Lastly, I'm walking, breathing, typing proof you can specialize coming out of UoP.

You're proof that you could specialize coming out of UoP.

Armorshell, I may be wrong, but from reading your posts, I'm convinced that you are one of those super talented/intelligent types who picks things up very quickly. Combine that with hard work, and the result is that I wouldn't want to have to compete with someone like you.

 

[sfdent1]

Im in state. and looking at oral surgery. My sister went to UoP and she was just telling me that everyone who wanted to specialized did. Ya, not as many people do want to at UoP because it makes such great dentists off the bat. But is it hard to be at the top of the class with the fast paced curriculum. Does it help that ucsf is pass fail?

 

[iralex801]

Im in state. and looking at oral surgery. My sister went to UoP and she was just telling me that everyone who wanted to specialized did. Ya, not as many people do want to at UoP because it makes such great dentists off the bat. But is it hard to be at the top of the class with the fast paced curriculum. Does it help that ucsf is pass fail?

I think if you've made up your mind and your heart is set on specializing, you should probably go to UCSF. My previous post was just what I would choose based on my priorities.

 

[LaFleur]

Im in state. and looking at oral surgery. My sister went to UoP and she was just telling me that everyone who wanted to specialized did. Ya, not as many people do want to at UoP because it makes such great dentists off the bat. But is it hard to be at the top of the class with the fast paced curriculum. Does it help that ucsf is pass fail?

I think if you've made up your mind and your heart is set on specializing, you should probably go to UCSF. My previous post was just what I would choose based on my priorities.

I think it depends on what your priorities are.

For ex, I think I might like to specialize in OS (you don't really know until you're in dental school and actually have experience under your belt). However, I'm going to be a very slightly older applicant, so if I were lucky enough to get in, I'd probably still consider UoP very highly because it'd allow me to shave a year off of dental school.

Does saving a year appeal to you? How much? If "saving" that year of your time doesn't appeal to you, there's no reason to go with UoP. You'll get a better price with UCSF, and the P/F grading system would probably be to your advantage. I don't think that you need us to tell you that if UCSF is truly P/F, it'd confer an advantage.

 

[dantemac]

Armorshell, I may be wrong, but from reading your posts, I'm convinced that you are one of those super talented/intelligent types who picks things up very quickly. Combine that with hard work, and the result is that I wouldn't want to have to compete with someone like you.

This describes like 98% of dental school students. The other 2% can't make it. Did you expect no one to be pro-active at all? Everyone is a slouch?

 

[destinedsirius]

dantemac, what's you reason for UOP?
john durian, why do you love the UC's so much?

 

[armorshell]

I think it depends on what your priorities are.

For ex, I think I might like to specialize in OS (you don't really know until you're in dental school and actually have experience under your belt). However, I'm going to be a very slightly older applicant, so if I were lucky enough to get in, I'd probably still consider UoP very highly because it'd allow me to shave a year off of dental school.

Does saving a year appeal to you? How much? If "saving" that year of your time doesn't appeal to you, there's no reason to go with UoP. You'll get a better price with UCSF, and the P/F grading system would probably be to your advantage. I don't think that you need us to tell you that if UCSF is truly P/F, it'd confer an advantage.

This is the first thing you've said that makes sense. If the price difference isn't worth the objective benefits Pacific has to offer than its not worth it.

I disagree that the utility of p/f is self evident. As I said above, you're comparing two different populations. Look at Penn and ucsf to see two schools with similar populations irt specializing, similar rates of specializing, and yet, Penn is graded. You're confusing correlation and causation.

 

[armorshell]

You're proof that you could specialize coming out of UoP.

Armorshell, I may be wrong, but from reading your posts, I'm convinced that you are one of those super talented/intelligent types who picks things up very quickly. Combine that with hard work, and the result is that I wouldn't want to have to compete with someone like you.

I'm nothing special compared to any other dental student. Maybe its because you've never attended a ranked school, but 'competition' like you're imagining doesn't really exist. Additionally, plenty of people from Pacific specilize from outside of the top 10%, I have some friend in os and ortho programs that were ranked in the 30's and 40's (class of 140). Around 5 people in the top ten of my class went in to general dentistry and we still had 20 or so get into great specialty programs. Standardized exam scores are far more important than rank anyway.

 

[armorshell]

This describes like 98% of dental school students. The other 2% can't make it. Did you expect no one to be pro-active at all? Everyone is a slouch?

Hahahhhahha. Yeah, you're way off mark. There's a saying at Pacific, "UCSF is pass/fail for everyone, but so is pacific for the 120 people that don't want to specialize."


At graded ""non-specialty" schools, the pool youre competeing with from top spots is smaller than you'd think.

 

[Flosstooth]

I'm probably going to pass on both.