Stony Brook (IS) vs Michigan (OOS)

[anti1dentite]

Hi! So i’m currently deciding between Stony Brook Dental and Michigan Ann Arbor Dental and I was wondering if anyone could help me with the decision.

Stony Brook;
- In state so I get cheaper tuition
- med integrated classes
- closer to home
- not as cold as michigan
- small class size

Michigan ;
- Good reputation as "The best dental school"
- Can transfer to in-state after a year
- Potential connections for the future?

I did the math and the costs come out to pretty much the same so I can't go off of that. I was wondering if anyone had any insights to these schools since this is a hard decision to make

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[macsak]

Hi! So i’m currently deciding between Stony Brook Dental and Michigan Ann Arbor Dental and I was wondering if anyone could help me with the decision.

Stony Brook;
- In state so I get cheaper tuition
- med integrated classes
- closer to home
- not as cold as michigan
- small class size

Michigan ;
- Good reputation as "The best dental school"
- Can transfer to in-state after a year
- Potential connections for the future?

I did the math and the costs come out to pretty much the same so I can't go off of that. I was wondering if anyone had any insights to these schools since this is a hard decision to make

are you sure you can get in-state after a year???

 

[anti1dentite]

are you sure you can get in-state after a year???

To qualify as a resident it just says to live in Michigan for 6 months, so I'm assuming I'll be able to get it after a year. I could be wrong since I never had to deal with this before, can anyone confirm/deny?

 

[Boofy]

I was under the impression that at Mich you cannot change from OOS to IS, I thought that was part of the acceptance checklist is stating what tuition you are projected to pay and that it cannot change.

 

[John Muir]

Not Michigan. Anything but Michigan. Clinical training is trash. Admin is trash and destroying the school. Clinical faculty shortages. You will not get in-state unless you went to a high school in Michigan.
Current D4 at Michigan.

 

[anti1dentite]

Not Michigan. Anything but Michigan. Clinical training is trash. Admin is trash and destroying the school. Clinical faculty shortages. You will not get in-state unless you went to a high school in Michigan.
Current D4 at Michigan.

Dam I thought Michigan was supposed to be the top dental school out there. Is there a reason why it sounds like everything is falling apart?

 

[John Muir]

Administration priorities are #1 research funding. #2 graduate/specialty programs and then a distant third is the DDS program. They have been slowly hollowing out the DDS program for years.
Ill give an example...

The most recent thing to get hollowed out by Michigan is their DDS oral surgery education. Historically, students (once they have their OS rotation third year) could perform extractions for their patients. They would just schedule them in OS and do the extraction themselves.
They stopped that during the covid. COVID had been under control at Umich for over a year and they have a fully renovated OS clinic, but they will not let us do any extractions. And no one has mentioned that we will ever get that ability back as future classes had. Now your entire OS education is a two week rotation D3 year, and then a 4 day rotation fourth year. Oh, and the person most in charge of "teaching" D3s is someone who graduated dental school (not oral surgery) in 2021 and wants to get into OS - little to no interest in the education of students.

 

[John Muir]

Dam I thought Michigan was supposed to be the top dental school out there. Is there a reason why it sounds like everything is falling apart?

two more examples.
Endo: You are not allowed to do any endo until your fourth year.
10-15 years ago you needed complete root canals on 6-8 teeth to graduate. The class of 2020 needed two canals to graduate. Class of 2022 you need one root canal to graduate (typically one canal since we are only allowed anterior + premolar endo), doesn't matter if it is one canal. You can ONLY do one, you are not allowed to do more than one until the entire class has done at least one root canal - which never happens for one reason or another. About 10 - 15% of the class will have to do their endo competency on a plastic tooth. You are not allowed to ever do molar endo, unlike with past classes.

Pediatric dentistry: your entire clinical education consists of 8 days of rotation D3 year and they never give you a full schedule. I was "lucky" and did a few sealants and two restos. Most students never get to do any operative care on their pediatric rotation.

From what I have gathered talking to faculty who graduated 10+ years ago is that the University of Michigan used to be a really good school.
If you have any questions, I'll give you my biased but honest answer!

 

[anti1dentite]

two more examples.
Endo: You are not allowed to do any endo until your fourth year.
10-15 years ago you needed complete root canals on 6-8 teeth to graduate. The class of 2020 needed two canals to graduate. Class of 2022 you need one root canal to graduate (typically one canal since we are only allowed anterior + premolar endo), doesn't matter if it is one canal. You can ONLY do one, you are not allowed to do more than one until the entire class has done at least one root canal - which never happens for one reason or another. About 10 - 15% of the class will have to do their endo competency on a plastic tooth. You are not allowed to ever do molar endo, unlike with past classes.

Pediatric dentistry: your entire clinical education consists of 8 days of rotation D3 year and they never give you a full schedule. I was "lucky" and did a few sealants and two restos. Most students never get to do any operative care on their pediatric rotation.

From what I have gathered talking to faculty who graduated 10+ years ago is that the University of Michigan used to be a really good school.
If you have any questions, I'll give you my biased but honest answer!

Thank you so much for the response