Temple vs Penn opinions needed

[umdpredent]

Hi all,

I have recently been accepted to both Temple and Penn. I was wondering if anyone can speak to choosing between them. I know that Penn is about 20k more expensive a year than Temple (im in state), but I would like an opinion that disregards the cost. I am wondering if anyone has ever chosen Temple over Penn for other reasons?
I know that with Penn, comes the great name, but Temple is also a wonderful school and I really feel like I could be happy at either.

Just looking for some thoughts.
Thanks and happy finals week!

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[ecap707]

I picked temple over penn and many of my classmates have as well. To give you an honest answer you should pick based on what you want to do. If you want to do research or teach dentistryd then Penn is your best pick. If you want to get hand skills and work on patients then Temple is better. I know people who graduated Penn and couldn't keep a job because they didn't have enough experience yet. Temple is among the best for clinical dentistry and its why I picked it. Congrats on your acceptances!

 

[huskiesrule]

Temple is a better clinical school due to the large patient pool . Penn is more recognized nationally. At the end of the day if your in state choose the school you will be happier in. Penn might be more cut throat mentality due to the nature of the school. Can't speak on temples behalf

 

[umdpredent]

I wanted to bring this thread back up in case there are any other opinions out there!

 

[nahehes49]

hi there! Not sure if you have already seen this document or not, but this is a compilation of various e-mail responses when I was choosing between ucsf and penn. overtime, other penn acceptees have contributed to this document. hope this sheds some extra light for you! best of luck and congratulations.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zMo9Dkwbll7JNCWRmhQNPUG_w_gd4yaUekfQE4Y8Q_c/edit?usp=sharing

 

[periopocket]

You can't beat Temple for in state. PENN will end up costing 100k more. Nothing else matters. However, Temple is not so great of a deal for OOS people. If I were OOS I would deff be going to Penn!

 

[xbite]

I picked temple over penn and many of my classmates have as well. To give you an honest answer you should pick based on what you want to do. If you want to do research or teach dentistryd then Penn is your best pick. If you want to get hand skills and work on patients then Temple is better. I know people who graduated Penn and couldn't keep a job because they didn't have enough experience yet. Temple is among the best for clinical dentistry and its why I picked it. Congrats on your acceptances!

I don't know why every year there's a temple student hating on Penn. Very predictable.
Anyway, judging by the percentage of failures Temple had on the NERBs compared to Penn, or Part II pass rates, I think you might be highly misinformed regarding clinical skill. I don't know how many restorative requirements Temple has, but I know the endodontic or prosthodontic requirement is no where near Penn's.

 

[sgv]

You guys are both charged up the wazoo in tuition. Clinical skills doesn't end at dental school so I don't get the big deal about the clinical exposure you get from the slowly paced four years of dental school compared to a lifetime of CE and real world exposure. Y'll are being defensive after paying so much money...who cares about the board pass rates...once you're five years into private practice, you're not going to give two ****s about your school's passing rate...CODA thinks whether you pass or not is on you b/c all the schools are acceptable to them

 

[xbite]

Oh look a Penn student acting like he's better than everyone else because he pays a fortune for a brand name, and to practice in a dungeon. Very predictable. It's pretty much common knowledge that Temple>Penn clinically. If you think otherwise you are highly misinformed. You can have specialty and research...but not clinical. Sorry.

Get over yourself. Your not as cool as you think you are.

EDIT: For those Penn students that are humble and don't rub their ivy in others faces, I apologize for the above post. But I think xbite's post is extremely arrogant. First off the quoted post isn't even "hating" on Penn. Penn is a great school with an unheard of match rate and great research opportunities. That's what they advertise..that's why you go there. Temple advertises (and backs up) extensive clinical training, with much lower match rates and less research opportunity. That's why we go there. Let's not let our ego's make our schools something their not. I'm not saying Penn students aren't trained well...they are. I'm just saying that's not the focus at Penn.

I'm not sure what part you found arrogant, exactly - I just thought it was interesting that there's the same claim every year - coincidentally by a Temple student -- with no information to back it up, other than pre-dental posts on SDN. I'm sorry that things are different in the real world. Anyway, I apologize for whatever offended you. I didn't want to put you on such a defensive.

I was merely replying to your claim that Temple is far better than Penn "clinically," to the point where the only knowledge of Penn's clinical training is all these 'people who couldn't hold jobs' because of their skill, or lack thereof. Please let me know of any other way to assess your claim; the only way I know how is by looking at NERB and part II rates, and, to an extent, the number of exposures to certain procedures. I am sorry if those facts offended you, or if they were an inaccurate way of displaying Temple's clinical superiority over Penn.

 

[ecap707]

The boards are mostly academic not clinical. And I'm not bashing penn. Penn is unbeatable when it comes to academics and research but doesnt have the clinic or requirements to compare with other schools. And schools don't usually post clinical requirements online which is why I don't have those numbers. It is pretty common knowledge that Temple requires many procedures to graduate. And all my observations come from dentists themselves from all schools including penn. Being a good dentist is dependent on the student not the school. But not all students are able to practice as much based on the school them come from