Stony VS. Columbia???

[MrReuv]

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I just got off both wait lists and i am having a touch time deciding where to go ...i need help! I have lived in NYC all my life and i love it here. Is it worth it though to stay and pay the extra money...or move to the depths of long island to save a few years of debt? (I also have four close friends going to Columbia) Any thought would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Predent68]

Columbia would be a better choice. If you want to specialize or have the thought of specializing, Columbia gives the better edge.

On the top of it, your family and friends are nearby.

 

[dentiist2be]

Stony Brook. Much cheaper.still a well respected school & much smaller class size. & its only an hour and 1/2 away from the city so your still not much farther from your family & friends.

 

[Oracle DMD]

easy choice. stony brook.

 

[MrReuv]

any details as to why? i mean how important is the p/f aspect. I know financially its gonna be more but specialty wise i would like to leave the door open.

 

[dentalaee]

any details as to why? i mean how important is the p/f aspect. I know financially its gonna be more but specialty wise i would like to leave the door open.

To tell you the truth, Columbia is NOT true p/f.. More like Honor/Pass/Fail. Sounds like a grading system to me.... I would personally choose Columbia if you can afford it. But then, Stony is WAY too cheap to pass up..... I was thinking about going to Buffalo at one point lol.

 

[pinetar321]

im obviously biased b/c im on the columbia waitlist, but as I have said on the boards before, you're gonna have to do a ton of studying and work your butt off to get into a specialty regardless of what school you go to. No such thing as a free pass b/c you went to Columbia. I do like the medical integration aspect at Columbia though. Still, take advice you get here on SDN with a grain of salt... and then choose Stony Brook LoL

 

[AskJeeves]

I just got off both wait lists and i am having a touch time deciding where to go ...i need help! I have lived in NYC all my life and i love it here. Is it worth it though to stay and pay the extra money...or move to the depths of long island to save a few years of debt? (I also have four close friends going to Columbia) Any thought would be greatly appreciated.

Columbia, without a doubt. No one knows what Stony Brook is outside of Long Island.

 

[dentalaee]

As for the specialty remark, I truly believe that you can specialize from ANYWHERE. What is Stony's figure in specializing? I would imagine it is not that bad since their DAT average is like 22AA.

 

[Charmm]

I think you should post a Voting Poll for these two

 

[Oracle DMD]

any details as to why? i mean how important is the p/f aspect. I know financially its gonna be more but specialty wise i would like to leave the door open.

i know a few adjunct faculty at Columbia that do NOT speak highly of the preclinc curriculm. to protect their anonyimity i'll leave it at that. combining factors of cost of living in or out of the city and tuition disparity, i call it for stony brook.

some may argue that patients have never heard of stony brook, but patients also don't care (and their opinon on dental education doesn't matter)

some may argue that you would have an easier time specializing from columbia. to my knowledge it doesnt matter too much where you go so even if it were true (which i understand that it is not), it shouldn't be a deciding factor.

 

[hopefullyadent]

columbia...

 

[AskJeeves]

If you're going to boast about living in NYC, you might as well go to Columbia because Long Island is further away from NYC than Jersey City is.

 

[teethmagnet]

stony ALL the wayyyy
why?
bec:
1. small class
2. when i interviewed there, the faculty seemed to really care about the student
3. every students gets their own chair
4. much better clinically than columbia
5. i feel like columbia sucks

only thing columbia has on stony is:
a. better location
b. P/F

so you have to see how much being with you friends that are going to columbia + around family will affect you.

if you do end up at columbia, I still think one can become a great dentist though

congrats againnnn,
teethmagnet

 

[kitejunky27]

the whole argument against Columbia based on its supposed lack of clinical skills is ridiculous.

In the first 6months out of school your going to do as much as you did in school and thats where your going to really get your skills up to speed. Its more important to get a strong education at a school then clinical practice.

I have heard though that they are redoing the curriculum a bit to give a better preclinical experience.

sure you can specialize from anywhere but when half the kids in your class manage to place into specialties and 46% more into GPR/AEGD, i feel like you have better chances.

Obviously I am biased since I am going there. Dont know anything about stony brook so cant comment on that school.

 

[Oracle DMD]

the whole argument against Columbia based on its supposed lack of clinical skills is ridiculous.

In the first 6months out of school your going to do as much as you did in school and thats where your going to really get your skills up to speed. Its more important to get a strong education at a school then clinical practice.

I have heard though that they are redoing the curriculum a bit to give a better preclinical experience.

sure you can specialize from anywhere but when half the kids in your class manage to place into specialties and 46% more into GPR/AEGD, i feel like you have better chances.

Obviously I am biased since I am going there. Dont know anything about stony brook so cant comment on that school.

46% go into gpr/aegd? for what? oh yeah, to improve weak clinical skills. lol jk. the "half" of columbia that places into a specialty program, did so on their own merit, and would have done so anywhere else, but w/ a better class rank maybe.

 

[clearview]

Columbia!
Their new curriculum looks very promising, plus with such an unbalanced budget in NY i won't be surprised if in a year it will face the same struggles as California already has. The living isn't that expensive if you get a room in dorms it will cost you about 525$ or something around that.
Good luck with your decision!
Both schools are great and you can't go wrong.

 

[Charmm]

stony ALL the wayyyy
why?
bec:
1. small class --> so UCSF and UCLA are not good schools?
2. when i interviewed there, the faculty seemed to really care about the student
3. every students gets their own chair
4. much better clinically than columbia
5. i feel like columbia sucks

only thing columbia has on stony is:
a. better location
b. P/F

so you have to see how much being with you friends that are going to columbia + around family will affect you.

if you do end up at columbia, I still think one can become a great dentist though

congrats againnnn,
teethmagnet

speechless

 

[teethmagnet]

speechless

NEVERRRR said that a large class size is bad, but I BELIEVE SMALLER CLASSes are move indvidualized and better.

and don't make it like you think its not an advantage to have a smaller class size; ESP when you get your own chair.

and dont think im going off saying how great stony is bec i attend their school, bec i dont


and yes i think columbia SUCKS 😀

 

[longislanddent]

I too had the choice between attending Stony Brook and Columbia, and I picked Stony Brook. At the end of the day, both schools produce competent dentists, but there were a few points about Stony Brook that pushed it over the edge.

- Stony Brook is about half the class size of Columbia. This will lead to more one on one teaching. Also, the school really felt like a family...

- Even though both schools share the first 1.5-2 yrs with the medical students, Stony Brook students start clinic in their second year. I know Columbia just went through changes in their program, so this might be the case for them too, however the ability to have your very own chair was too appealing to turn down.

- The faculty seem very caring. A current dental student told me about a few professors who stayed on the weekends/ night to help students before the boards. I also know a few of the clinical professors. They all graduated from Stony Brook and speak very highly of it. They went back to teach there part time because they like working with students- this leads to a very friendly environment.

- Price- Stony Brook is my state school and I will not have to pay back as much in loans. This allows me to save up and open up a practice sooner.

As far as specializing is concerned, I know that Columbia has great stats about number of people able to specialize. Although it is not published, faculty at Stony Brook report that the students who wanted to specialize all got in to their first pick. The same goes for GPR programs.

Good luck with your decision! Maybe I'll see you in August!

 

[pinetar321]

wow that is actually some of the most well-thought-out advice I've heard on SDN, longislanddent

 

[Charmm]

I am not a New York resident and I had a tough time choosing between these two. I found a few things that you may not know:

1) At New York, every dental graduate will have to do a year of gpr, so Columbia or Stony Brook , you will be experienced enough to practice dentistry.

2) Stony Brook is cheap, but Columbia offers scholarships ( If you deserve it you can get 50K at first and more during the four years)

3) P/F/H or A/B/C system or Nice proffs at Stony Brook or mean at Columbia, they all make you work your butt off

4) Stony Brook has a lower specialization rate just b/c the majority of Stony Brook students happen to like general dentistry, but they are well qualified and will not have a problem getting into residency programs

5) Stony Brook has a limited research opportunities ( 5 for entering class) but Columbia has unlimited spots for research

6) The new curriculum at Columbia is not supposed to "fix" anything, it is because of the new boards exams arrangements. When boards go P/F, there will be another subject test for the specialty you want to apply.

 

[longislanddent]

Thank you pinetar 🙂

Just to clear something up...I met with the head of research at Stony Brook. It is true that they have about 7 spots for the summer research program (before entering year 1), but throughout your 4 years they constantly encourage people to get involved in research. This is especially true since Stony Brook got the new dean. Even if you don't get the summer program you will definitely still be able to do research and even probably apply for grants. Plus, like Columbia there are several opportunities to present at national conferences, etc.

I hope this helps!

 

[Dental2014]

Stony Brook is renovating their sim-lab. It will be brand new for our class.

How long do they each give you to decide?

 

[WannaKnow]

.

 

[DrDientes]

I would say stony brook too, save money make new friends live somewhere else four a couple years. Smaller class size will probably good when you need help in pre-clinic lab and stuff too

 

[alphaDDS]

I am not a New York resident and I had a tough time choosing between these two. I found a few things that you may not know:

1) At New York, every dental graduate will have to do a year of gpr, so Columbia or Stony Brook , you will be experienced enough to practice dentistry.

2) Stony Brook is cheap, but Columbia offers scholarships ( If you deserve it you can get 50K at first and more during the four years)

3) P/F/H or A/B/C system or Nice proffs at Stony Brook or mean at Columbia, they all make you work your butt off

4) Stony Brook has a lower specialization rate just b/c the majority of Stony Brook students happen to like general dentistry, but they are well qualified and will not have a problem getting into residency programs

5) Stony Brook has a limited research opportunities ( 5 for entering class) but Columbia has unlimited spots for research

6) The new curriculum at Columbia is not supposed to "fix" anything, it is because of the new boards exams arrangements. When boards go P/F, there will be another subject test for the specialty you want to apply.

We have nice profs?

All right, for most classes yeah we have nice professors, but we have our fair share egomaniacs who like to treat dental students like crap.

Stony Brook, the town, is aweful. There's nothing to do out here. It's a two hour train ride into Manhattan. The beaches during the summer are pretty much the only saving grace. Honestly, this is the worst aspect of going to school at SB.

If you want to do research out here, there really isn't much competition for the research grants, and there are some quality labs.

As far as academics, I'm pretty sure our stats for our entering class were about the same, if not better than Columbia's. We take basic sciences with med students. Classes are small so professors watch us like hawks in dental classes (for better or worse). Don't feel like you'd be coming to a lesser school by any means, in fact, quite a bit of our faculty have teaching roots at Columbia.

Clinic, we start the beginning of second year with operative and pedo, so there's plenty of prep there. I've already placed a stainless steel crown in pedo as a second year... that's not happening at Columbia.

Don't worry about specializing. I can't imagine specializing because money is an issue for me, and because Stony Brook has kicked my brain's ass. Even the residents here say SB works us WAY harder than their schools ever did. That being said, it's commonplace for our students to get into their first choice for whatever residency they want to do be it GPR or a specialty.

Both schools are great school. For me it came down to cost, and so Stony was the choice. BUT if you can afford Columbia, go there, I miss NYC way more than I thought I would.

You've probably already made your decision, but I'm tired of studying so I figured I'd go off on a little rant.

 

[thethethe]

why is it so important to start clinicals early?
you'll be spending your whole life doing it after school anyway. i think the most important part in dental school should be to prepare you for the boards.

 

[pinetar321]

aw cross-town dental school rivalry this is cute