Tufts or Penn?

go to penn. tufts suckts.

 

uhhmmmm

both are great schools with huge price tags.

boston trumps philly in my opinion big time....and i think you know what it comes down to.. do you think you'd like to specialize or not? if you're certain you'd like to be a GP, then i'd prolly goto tufts b/c boston is the sh!t. otherwise, choose penn. this is not to say that you can't specialize if you choose tufts, but by playing the numbers game you'd be better off at penn.

jb!

 

I got into both many years back and chose Tufts. I figured that the schools were academically equivalent. Penn had a slightly better name. Penn had better research, Tufts had better clincis. Boston is MUCH better than Philly. I knew I wanted to go into OMFS and figured I could get there from either program, but that Tufts may be a touch less competitive. I don't know if this was true because I didn't go to Penn, but 4 applied from Tufts my year vs. 12 from Penn during the same year if that says anything. I loved living in Boston, Tufts was a great experience and I'm an OMFS resident. Tufts worked well for me. Your really in a win win situation so it doesn't really matter where you go. Congratulations on getting into both schools and know that you can't make a wrong decision with those two schools.

 

I'm in the same boat - got into Tufts & UPenn, gotta send one of them a deposit by March 1st or 2nd. Thanks for asking this question!

More questions from me:

When i was at Penn, they talked about offering dual degrees - that during your 3rd & 4th year, you can work on an MPH or MEd; I've heard you can do this at Tufts as well...is that true? I've also heard that at Penn, they restrict the # of ppl that get to do this, is that true?

where do people generally seem happier? my general impression was that the ppl at Tufts were happy to be there while the ppl at Penn were "just there"

what's the reputation of practitioners (general or specialists) out of Penn? I ask cuz I've heard good things about ppl out of Tufts; but no one I know seems to know ppl out of Penn.

Being on the rest of the campus & having international externships are little pluses to Penn in my mind.

 

Answers to your questions...

When i was at Penn, they talked about offering dual degrees - that during your 3rd & 4th year, you can work on an MPH or MEd; I've heard you can do this at Tufts as well...is that true? I've also heard that at Penn, they restrict the # of ppl that get to do this, is that true?

Nobody that I know of in my class at Tufts did an MPH or MEd.

where do people generally seem happier? my general impression was that the ppl at Tufts were happy to be there while the ppl at Penn were "just there"

People at Tufts were very happy. Great city and usually a fun group from all over the country and new england.

what's the reputation of practitioners (general or specialists) out of Penn? I ask cuz I've heard good things about ppl out of Tufts; but no one I know seems to know ppl out of Penn.

Practioners out of Tufts are generally well respected. Penn probably has the same reputation.

Being on the rest of the campus & having international externships are little pluses to Penn in my mind.

I agree, it is a plus for Penn if you want to do it. We didn't have this at Tufts. We did have a program to Colorado and one to Florida, but not out of the country.

 

merkman320, what are your thoughts?

i'm leaning toward Penn at this point only to 'keep my options open' wrt specializing or not

where in Calif are ya? I've been taking classes at ucla extension

either way, it's gonna be cold...

 

Hey I just got into both schools, any input. I pretty much rate the cities the same, price is the same. What do you all think?

 

simple, UPENN, no doubt

 

You're crazy.. ... did you just rate Philadelphia on the same level as Boston ? Boston, in it's infinitely gross water, still blows Philly right out of it.

No doubt, Penn is a better school, but the cities are far from comparable. Boston is pricier to live in than Philly (especially proximally to each respective school), and is a far nicer place to go to school/live.

 

this has been covered recently. do a friggin search.

jb!

 

Personally I think Upenn has the better name...
well I could not say for sure with the other stuff...
they both have good facilities... sim labs

 

Go to Penn. Not for any other reason other than giving my wife a chance of getting into Tufts . When you respond to Tufts, say you'd like to give your potential seat up to the married girl w/ 2 kids.

Just kidding. Good luck on either choice. Awesome school, fun cities either way you look at it.

Don't let ppl give Philly a bad rap. you'll be so busy w/ school for 4 years, you won't have time to really get too far outside of Penn's campus area, which is fairly nice.

 

I had the same decision to make & ended up fedexing my deposit on the last possible day.

Alot of the feedback I was hearing was that Penn's a better place if you want to specialize & that Tufts does a better job of clinical training for practice right out of school. Numerically, I looked at the "future plans" sheets that both schools gave out & the last class had almost the same # of ppl specializing (Tufts sent 27 while Penn sent 33). I guess historically the #'s were more uneven? So because Tufts has a larger class, it has a smaller % of specialization, but it still sends nearly the same #.

Aaaanyways. I've also been told that Tufts has nicer/newer facilities.

After about 10 days of agonizing over this & talking to the whole world (ppl who went to Penn, ppl who went to Tufts; one fellas who went to Penn dental & did his residency at Tufts; dentist friends, etc) it kinda came down to a totally subjective "feel".

the most common feedback I got was that it doesn't matter where you went to school once you're out practicing. how many ppl know where their dentist went to school? unless you want to go into academia or research or something where 'name' matters.

On top of that, these two schools are both excellent. If there were other factors regarding reputation & all, then that'd be something else.

Given these last two ideas, the decision that was posed to me was "where did you feel more comfortable? where did you see yourself liking it more?" Since all the objective stuff kinda evens out, go with the comfort factor.

It seemed like the ppl at Tufts were a little happier; but for me, it kinda came down to City life vs Campus life - in terms of walking distance. I'm crazy - I even went onto google maps & "browsed" the surrounding neighborhoods.

So I went with Penn (ok, i'll be honest, the whole Ivy league thing was enticing too; along w/ international externships & the opportunity to take education & public health classes)

Anyways, I hope that helps some.

Tough decision! You'll get great training & education at either!

 

hey merkman320, just wondering what you've decided on.

I ended up sending my depost to Penn. Just a 'feeling' thing. I wrote a longo reply on some earlier thread called "TUFTS or UPENN" if you want to take a look.

 

Since both of these threads are addressing the same topic I merged the two together.

 

I think Penn is a better school, but on the other hand I like the city of boston better......It's a toss up

 

Congratulations on your decision!

 

hahaha.

Philly isn't quite Detroit on the level of crappiness, but don't be too self-serving and suggest that it's something it is not. Talk to any Penn dental students lately, before rendering such advice ? Philly isn't close to being the worst city out there, but there is a very good reason why 2 Penn Police officers are stationed at each intersection (up until 43'rd street). Penn is, however, a far better school.

Some students choose to live in the suburbs b/c they don't want to deal with the hassles of living in Philly proper. As well, many students still manage to be successful while enjoying the philly nightlife in center city.

 

Are you happy with your decision???I am facing the same dilemna...i assume you have been there for a while so any input you (or anyone else! ) can give me would be appreciated! THanks!