Question about Texas Schools

[sfoksn]

I have a question regarding Texas schools. I know this may sound stupid, but I assure you I am not trying to offend anybody or be ignorant.

It seems that Texas schools have MUCH LOWER tuition than many other dental schools.

I was wondering if Texas schools still provide their students with same quality of education? I am just puzzled by the fact that the Texas schools are collecting like 1/4 or even lower tuition than many other dental schools. How are they able to afford everything? Does Texas state support the schools whole a lot more than other states?

I am a California resident, do you think it is worth the effort for me to apply to Texas schools? I am thinking of applying to Texas schools as long as the education I get in TX schools is similar to education from other dental schools in the west/east coast.

Thanks in advance.

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[ScratchMan]

TX has a monster budget for d/medical schools. Education quaility definitely same as others..

 

[MaybeDent]

.

 

[doc toothache]

If you have to ask, stick with CA.

 

[DudeDDS]

No, it is not worth the effort, because it's highly unlikely that Texas will accept you.

 

[slm266]

Baylor is one of the cheapest schools in the nation, but there you'll do more lab work than almost any other school which is very time consuming.

 

[americanpierg]

without even looking up Texas' government information and their education budget, its quite obvious the most logical answer is that they provide more tax money for their dental schools. this is more apparent in the fact that its nearly impossible for out of staters to get in, which is only fair when the state is providing that much tax money to fund the education. most likely those oos students have ties to texas, the schools, or are from neighboring states.


quality of education is almost guaranteed to be on par with the rest of the US, or they would no longer be accredited. if you can get in, then save yourself a couple hundred grand and go. thats IF you can get in, which will probably be based more on your ties with the school and the state than your credentials

 

[sfoksn]

I see. Thank you very much for the replies, everyone.

 

[chikwa]

I don't think it would be worth your time applying to the Texas dental schools, especially because you are from California.

 

[slm266]

I don't think it would be worth your time applying to the Texas dental schools, especially because you are from California.

Lol y b'c you are competing for the same spot?

Baylor accepts ~10% OOS and San Antonio accepts a handful. Don't waste your time applying to Houston, they don't interview OOS applicants.

 

[m1817]

Texas dental schools OOS stats for the entering class of 2009:

.....................OOS Applications.....Interviews.....Accepted

Baylor ...................634................... 16 ...............11

UT Houston ............411 ....................0 .................0

UT San Antonio .......278 ..................11 .................1

See page 7 for the following:

http://www.adea.org/publications/Documents/OG_2010/OG2010_ch3.pdf

Looks like the odds of getting an interview, much less being accepted, are pretty slim.


BTW, UT San Antonio was rated the #3 dental school in the U.S. and Canada in 2008:

http://toptennation.blogspot.com/2008/02/top-10-best-dental-schools-in-us-and.html

 

[alanan84]

Texas dental schools OOS stats for the entering class of 2009:

.....................OOS Applications.....Interviews.....Accepted

Baylor ...................634................... 16 ...............11

UT Houston ............411 ....................0 .................0

UT San Antonio .......278 ..................11 .................1

See page 7 for the following:

http://www.adea.org/publications/Documents/OG_2010/OG2010_ch3.pdf

Looks like the odds of getting an interview, much less being accepted, are pretty slim.


BTW, UT San Antonio was rated the #3 dental school in the U.S. and Canada in 2008:

http://toptennation.blogspot.com/2008/02/top-10-best-dental-schools-in-us-and.html

You may want to edit out that blog ranking dental schools. Dental schools aren't ranked and there is no validity to that site.

 

[m1817]

The first paragraph of the site has a disclaimer about the ranking methodology.

"Dental professionals will undoubtedly say that it is improper and unfair to rank dental schools. We agree, it is not the best idea to provide our readers dental school rankings because each school provides similar education and each school has unique characteristics. For this reason, this list remains debatable, however, our main intent is to provide a general road map of which schools are leaders in their small niches, and why they are unique. This ranking of the Top 10 Best Dental Schools involves the amalgamation of multiple metrics and rankings from media sources as well as other sources and reports. Our primary intelligence is our dental student and faculty insiders at dental schools across the United States and Canada. All dental schools in the US and Canada are excellent, and the reader should note that that all dental students eventually graduate with equivalent DDS or DMD degrees."

While the exact rankings may be debatable, its inclusion was intended to show that Texas dental schools' quality is not correlated to tuition cost.

By it's #3 ranking, San Antonio, is regarded by many in dental education as a top tier school.

As a member of Baylor c/o 2014, you should be proud that the San Antonio dental school is highly ranked because the three Texas dental schools, in large part, share the same in-state applicant pool, and have similar DAT scores and GPA's for admitted students. Think win-win, if the San Antonio dental school is highly regarded, it implies that the Baylor and Houston, by association, should be highly regard as well.

 

[alanan84]

The first paragraph of the site has a disclaimer about the ranking methodology.

"Dental professionals will undoubtedly say that it is improper and unfair to rank dental schools. We agree, it is not the best idea to provide our readers dental school rankings because each school provides similar education and each school has unique characteristics. For this reason, this list remains debatable, however, our main intent is to provide a general road map of which schools are leaders in their small niches, and why they are unique. This ranking of the Top 10 Best Dental Schools involves the amalgamation of multiple metrics and rankings from media sources as well as other sources and reports. Our primary intelligence is our dental student and faculty insiders at dental schools across the United States and Canada. All dental schools in the US and Canada are excellent, and the reader should note that that all dental students eventually graduate with equivalent DDS or DMD degrees."

While the exact rankings may be debatable, its inclusion was intended to show that Texas dental schools' quality is not correlated to tuition cost.

By it's #3 ranking, San Antonio, is regarded by many in dental education as a top tier school.

As a member of Baylor c/o 2014, you should be proud that the San Antonio dental school is highly ranked because the three Texas dental schools, in large part, share the same in-state applicant pool, and have similar DAT scores and GPA's for admitted students. Think win-win, if the San Antonio dental school is highly regarded, it implies that the Baylor and Houston, by association, should be highly regard as well.

But the thing is, choosing a dental school is pretty simple and you certainly don't need, or should use, some "roadmap" based on pure opinion and conjecture so I just wonder how this helps anybody.

 

[m1817]

Alanan84, the OP asked whether there was a correlation between the quality of Texas dental schools and their low tuition. The answer is no. In fact, there are dental students and faculty insiders at dental schools across the United States and Canada that consider the San Antonio dental school to be a top tier program.

If you don't like dental school rankings, that is the subject of another thread. No one talked about using the rankings as a roadmap to choosing a school until you brought it up.

 

[alanan84]

Alanan84, the OP asked whether there was a correlation between the quality of Texas dental schools and their low tuition. The answer is no. In fact, there are dental students and faculty insiders at dental schools across the United States and Canada that consider the San Antonio dental school to be a top tier program.

If you don't like dental school rankings, that is the subject of another thread. No one talked about using the rankings as a roadmap to choosing a school until you brought it up.

I guess I just twitch everytime I see someone link that blog. It perpetuates the idea that dental schools are ranked. Next thing I know, people are posting that X school is ranked number whatever and it's just nonsense.

The answer to the OP's question is simple. The 3 texas schools are all accredited by the ADA. All 3 have a long history of producing great dentists. To know more information about the individual schools, you should research their websites, attend an interview or talk to students, faculty and alumni.

 

[Baylor2011]

sfoksn - i'd say give it a shot! your DAT is crazy, you may be one of those very few that get interviews - and plus if you do get an interview, theres a high probability you'll get accepted.

TX dental schools are excellent, very well known for their quality of education, as well as clinical work (Baylor)

Reason they're so cheap is because of education taxes - they get a huge amount of state money.

 

[aelian]

I guess I just twitch everytime I see someone link that blog. It perpetuates the idea that dental schools are ranked. Next thing I know, people are posting that X school is ranked number whatever and it's just nonsense.

The answer to the OP's question is simple. The 3 texas schools are all accredited by the ADA. All 3 have a long history of producing great dentists. To know more information about the individual schools, you should research their websites, attend an interview or talk to students, faculty and alumni.

Regardless, you can give some credence to dental schools over certain factors such as public funding, board pass rates, cost of tuition, quality of research publications, faculty/student. Of course in the end, anyone who completes dental school will be accredited and earn their DDS or DMD. But I think one can get a relative idea of the dental schools based on the aforementioned factors.

 

[alanan84]

Regardless, you can give some credence to dental schools over certain factors such as public funding, board pass rates, cost of tuition, quality of research publications, faculty/student. Of course in the end, anyone who completes dental school will be accredited and earn their DDS or DMD. But I think one can get a relative idea of the dental schools based on the aforementioned factors.

Well sure, but the point is that certain students will value different factors differently. For example, I believe the NIH has the dental schools ranked by NIH funding. If you're interested in research (I, personally, am indifferent) than this would be important to look at. But it's not like the NIH is saying, "this is the number 1 best dental school in the US, and this is the number 2 dental school, etc."