Hello everyone,
It looks like it has been a while (2006) since anyone started a thread about the Texas dental schools. There is another thread, a survey ("can you answer these questions about your dental school") and it is very helpful. However, I disagree with certain aspects, those that pertain to student-faculty interaction at San Antonion dental school. No offense to the student who submitted it, but the experience can vary somewhat from student to student. I thought I would share this with other up and comers who are trying to decide where to go to school. I can't tell you anything about other schools, but hopefully someone else can.
First off, I'm thankful to be in dental school, nearly finished actually, and I still believe dentistry is a great profession. However, dental school is a tough, often discouraging experience, at least at San Antonio. Several of the faculty here are ex-military and while some faculty are kind and respectful toward students, many are not. For instance, there is one group practice in which nearly one-half of the juniors could potentially fail the year and either have to repeat or remediate over the summer and the faculty of that group and administrators who have been made aware of the situation do not seem to be too concerned. Some of the students in that group are very good students. In my perspective, there has been an ever increasing disregard for the education of students here and the preferred option appears to be failing students rather than helping them recognize deficiencies and improve. I'm not basing this upon a few isolated incidents and while I have had my fair share, I know others have had it worse.
I pretty much agree with everything else that was posted on the survey (although we do have about 10 cut-throat gunners in the class, but I suppose that is about normal). If such is the case at the other two schools, then I guess y'all will just have to deal with it... and it's not unbearable, but is sure can make for a long day, month...year if you get stuck in the wrong group.
Some of the faculty have been given way too much authority (one in particular, and all of you at UTHSCSA know who I am talking about) and if they think you should fail for poor performance, poor professionalism (a word that can often be applied capriciously to include anything the faculty doesn't like but has yet to be added elsewhere in an evaluation form). My group is great and I'm glad to be in it, but in other groups, the students are treated very disrepectfully. It is possible for students to fail, learn from it, and still not be humiliated. Somel of the faculty fail to grasp this notion and inflict a level of humiliation upon students that I am certain they would not want inflicted upon themselves. And, in general, I would say the greivances of the students are not generally addressed, especially in the clinic. A fact that the building of a new student lounge will not ameliorate or disguise.
This is not meant to be a gripe thread, I could have said a lot more, rather it is intended to give future dental students an honest perspective of what I, and several others who prompted me to write this thread, have experienced here. While I hold several of the faculty in high regard here and am grateful to them, some chages are in order and long overdue.
