Tufts or Temple?

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easy!

TEMPLE

GREAT SCHOOL.. great clinical experience its in PHILLY!!!!! temple prepares u well if u want to open ur own practice i think.

i never been to tufts..but i never had a good impression of them... they are lousy in processing the application and never heard nethign so "WOW" about them.
 
Temple you will not find a better clinical experience.👍
 
I got an interview at both schools. Here is the truth:

Tufts:
very nice facilities
digital xrays and digital charting
good balance of clinical and didactics
very accomodating faculty - they do surveys every year to change the curriculum to make it better
Great city - the D school is in downtown, right in chinatown
Students were very good looking

Temple:
bad area - which is why the patient pool is so large
more focused on clinical exp - you basically practice on patients
no sim lab - they have 2 dentsim dummys you basically only use to pass from year 2 to 3 so you can move to real people.
no technology WHATSOEVER - no digital xrays, no dig charting
you push these carts around with your instruments
high student population of mormons from utah - the recruiter from temple told us "there is a tunnel underground from utah that pops up right in front of the temple dental school"

Because of the clinical exp I'm sure that you will become a very highly skilled clinician no doubt about it but they don't prepare you with current equipment. I think that Temple is a great school, but it's not for everyone.

I liked Tufts more because the area of Boston has a lot of colleges and I liked the feel of being in a college city. I also like technology and balancing science with clinicals.
 
Also interviewed at both & accepted to both... To tell you the truth if my acceptance at Tufts wasn't contigent upon me completing my masters program... My signature would say Tufts instead of Temple.

However they are both great! If you really like top notch technology that you will not be able to afford when you graduate, go to Tufts... As for clinical, @ temple they will work you to the bone (mad experience), Tufts also has a pretty decent clinical program, so I've heard from one of my cousins a (d3).

If it is just a toss up for you, I would say choose the one located closer to your family or the cheaper one? That's more or less my determining factors!
Good luck and hope to see you in Philly 😀
 
UCFpremed said:
Temple:
bad area - which is why the patient pool is so large
more focused on clinical exp - you basically practice on patients
no sim lab - they have 2 dentsim dummys you basically only use to pass from year 2 to 3 so you can move to real people.
no technology WHATSOEVER - no digital xrays, no dig charting


Because of the clinical exp I'm sure that you will become a very highly skilled clinician no doubt about it but they don't prepare you with current equipment. I think that Temple is a great school, but it's not for everyone.

I liked Tufts more because the area of Boston has a lot of colleges and I liked the feel of being in a college city. I also like technology and balancing science with clinicals.
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All true about Temple, although the first two years are very rigorous. You will feel well rehearsed before you start working on patients junior year. The area has gotten better, and it's next to Temple's Hospital and Pharmacy school, but that complex is down the road a bit from Temple's main campus and even further from center city. Feels a little isolated. I've never been to Tufts, but hear it's a good school and that students enjoy going there. Boston is a great college/student city. My younger son goes to school in the New England area, and loves it! Dental school will be demanding wherever you go. If cost is not a consideration and Temple is not an in-state school for you, go to the school in the city that works best for you. If you're not sure, taking a second visit to schools you have been accepted to but on the fence about will cost a little bit, but over the long run may be a good investment. Good luck with your decision. It's a nice decision to have. Congratulations!
 
mouthcracker said:
Where would you go if you had a choice...
and more importantly WHY??????
Click to expand...


My husband wanted to add his two cents. Tufts hands down, if money isn't an object. Boston, best college life and college town. Nothing to do around Temple Dental School or in the immediate area. Just his opinion.
 
Philly is dirty and looks like a warzone most of the time, but not once have I ever felt in danger. Don't not pick Temple because you are scared of getting mugged.

There have been notions of going digital at Temple...but I doubt it anytime soon. Going digital in a private practice is a heavy enough undertaking let alone 10,000 square feet (guess) of dental school clinics.

Temple does do all sorts of lab work and patient population is very good. You see lots of patients who need lots of work so when you get out and start doing suburban dentistry in nice neighborhoods a lousy crown or MOD will be a cinch.

Philly IS fun, you just need to find the right places. There is plenty of fun stuff to do around here. Boston is the same along with any big city. I would compare costs and what you want.
 
As someone who made this choice last year, I just have to say that Tufts is in the ghetto too. Nobody realizes that that area of Boston was up until about ten years ago known as "the combat zone." Don't base it on safety, either school is in a total craphole.

As far as the rest of it goes, Tufts has a better didactic program, Temple probably has a better clinical program. AND Temple is cheaper. If you are thinking of not going to Temple because of specialization worries, my advice is to just do really well at Temple instead of bothering with the competition at Tufts. I think it would be a lot easier to become part of the top of the class at Temple than here (they just don't do as much classwork their first year).

And even though Temple doesn't score as well on their boards as we do, just bust your butt, and you'd probably save yourself at least 100K. That's just my two cents.
 
I had to make that decision 7 years ago and choose Tufts. I weighed the pros and cons and here's what I came up with.

Tufts
-Better city
-Safer area (by far)
-Nicer school
-Better name for specialization (really doesn't matter if you do well anywhere)
-Better technology

Temple
-Less expensive

I don't regret my decision.
 
amichail said:
Also interviewed at both & accepted to both... To tell you the truth if my acceptance at Tufts wasn't contigent upon me completing my masters program... My signature would say Tufts instead of Temple.

However they are both great! If you really like top notch technology that you will not be able to afford when you graduate, go to Tufts... As for clinical, @ temple they will work you to the bone (mad experience), Tufts also has a pretty decent clinical program, so I've heard from one of my cousins a (d3).

If it is just a toss up for you, I would say choose the one located closer to your family or the cheaper one? That's more or less my determining factors!
Good luck and hope to see you in Philly 😀
Click to expand...

I personally feel that you are putting way too much emphasis on newer technology. Digital is very, very, very easy to learn. A lot of dentists do not have digital yet, and if you are planning on buying out of school, the practice you will buy will most likely not have newer technology (because you are buying from an older doc who didn't want to spend $50,000 to update his office when he will be gone soon). But, you gotta do whatever will make you happy.

Temple is better. 😀
 
plus temple has 'ghost rooms'.

You can only know what those are by coming here. Just putting out the bait.
 
johntara04 said:
I personally feel that you are putting way too much emphasis on newer technology. Digital is very, very, very easy to learn. A lot of dentists do not have digital yet, and if you are planning on buying out of school, the practice you will buy will most likely not have newer technology (because you are buying from an older doc who didn't want to spend $50,000 to update his office when he will be gone soon). But, you gotta do whatever will make you happy.

Temple is better. 😀
Click to expand...

This is a stupid comment. You just told people not to learn newer technology in dental school because they can learn it when they're done. Why wouldn't you want to learn it in dental school the first time if it's offered? Why try to learn it afterwards when you can get it done in school? It's not like digital technology is a fad, it's here to stay and will be in all offices in the future. I'm sure that Temple would love to switch over to digital if they had the means.
 
thanks to those who replyed to my post

But which school is better if you want to specialize?

In other words, is there any advantage to get into PG in the same school where you have done your general dentistry?
 
OMFSdoc said:
This is a stupid comment. You just told people not to learn newer technology in dental school because they can learn it when they're done. Why wouldn't you want to learn it in dental school the first time if it's offered? Why try to learn it afterwards when you can get it done in school? It's not like digital technology is a fad, it's here to stay and will be in all offices in the future. I'm sure that Temple would love to switch over to digital if they had the means.
Click to expand...

Maybe this is why:

[Qoute=johntara04]
Digital is very, very, very easy to learn. [/Quote]

Temple probably would, but to say someones comment is stupid when this whole thread is opinion anyway? Here is another good reason to not want to learn it in dental school: Cost.

Either way you become a dentist, digital or not. Sometimes I think of those texas residents who come out of school with less than 150K in debt and cringe. Looking at numbers like 250K vs. 350K vs. 100K are mind maker uppers.

So some schools have new technology...chances are you won't use 70% of what the schol used anyway, old or new, so in that sense who cares? Either way, opinions have been formulated for both schools based on opinions and all are valid.
 
Temple probably would, but to say someones comment is stupid when this whole thread is opinion anyway? Here is another good reason to not want to learn it in dental school: Cost.



This makes no sense....
 
I have never heard someone say that if you attend Tufts you have a better shot for specializing. What I have heard is that you should kiss butt at your home institution to help your chances for specializing, (also do well in your classes, and NDBE, and Extracurriculars). If it was between Tufts and Temple, I would choose Temple because: Clinical experience, many scholarships opportunities, nice faculty and staff, and you might see Will Smith! I know current D-1s and D-2s at Temple and they do get hammered with alot of didactics. Whoever said that they are not strong in their didactics should check their resources or check this site,

www.dmdstudent.com <---written by a current Temple D-Student

________________________________________________________________
"Restorative Dentistry II, Quiz 1, written by a current Temple D-Student



'When you are in undergraduate class and the professor tells you you have a quiz tomorrow, you usually go home, watch three hours of TV, play with your kids, or hang out with friends, then go to sleep at 10pm. In the morning you wake up and 10 minutes before class you cram 15 facts into your brain and get quized on 10 of them. If you are good, you miss none.

I would change this habit before dental school or else you are in for a rude awakening! We had our first quiz of the semester in Restorative Dentistry II last Tuesday and although it wasn’t a beast, preparing for it was. Some reading this may disagree with the amount of reading I and fellow classmates may have done, but I do pay close to 300 dollars a day (every day 24/7 for four years) in tuition, etc. so I might as well make the most of it.

Here is the reading our quiz was centered on:

Reading from ‘The Art & Science of Operative Dentistry’ by Sturdevant (A 1000 page textbook on various dental procedure from posture to application of rubber dam to drilling and filling):

Chapters 2, 3, 6, and pp. 449-452, 419-430, 435-446, 690-702, 709-720, 778-782, 463-492, 737-749

Also reading from a packet: Sections 1-4, 10

5 Powerpoint lectures

2-4 articles (I didn’t get time to read these)

Various online resources (glanced through them)

This is two weeks worth of reading. Granted it is EASY for the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year dental students because of their exposure, but to a young grasshopper as myself and my classmates, it was pretty extensive. New terminology, depth of cuts (like memorizing that the gingival wall ideal outline form should be 1.5 mm in width from the proximal surface to the axial wall. (I just lost all the pre-dental students on that one - you guys get the idea) to the proper bur selection for the cavity prep. All good things to memorize, but very extensive.

After cramming in all the reading, memorizing my little review sheet, looking at back quizzes (one question remained the same) I still missed one. 4/5. 80%

I am not sharing this information to discourage anyone, nor am I discouraged. This is a good grade and it was (in a sadistic way) fun to read, after all, we did CHOOSE to do this and it is FUN, even if it includes reading 400 pages in two weeks. 🙂 '
_________________________________________________________________




Temple is the second oldest D-School and has an excellent reputation for the competent dentist they crank out. I applied to Temple and BU (got accepted at both schools), however I did not apply to Tufts, [as you can see money was not the deciding factor]. I figure that BU fits me!
 
OMFSdoc said:
This is a stupid comment. You just told people not to learn newer technology in dental school because they can learn it when they're done. Why wouldn't you want to learn it in dental school the first time if it's offered? Why try to learn it afterwards when you can get it done in school? It's not like digital technology is a fad, it's here to stay and will be in all offices in the future. I'm sure that Temple would love to switch over to digital if they had the means.
Click to expand...

I have had the fortunate opportunity in helping my friend set up is first office from scratch over the last year. This included being involved in picking out digital technology. Here is a reality check, there are quite a few different systems out there. Then once you choose the system there are quite a few different software programs to choose from. When you buy a system and a software program it obviously is very expensive. The companies that you buy from provide training for you and your entire staff. Technology changes over time, and I highly doubt that when you get out of school you are going to purchase the same system as Tufts. Therefore your great technology experience that you pay 100k more for goes down the drain because inevitably you will be learning a new system.
 
RockstarDMD said:
I have had the fortunate opportunity in helping my friend set up is first office from scratch over the last year. This included being involved in picking out digital technology. Here is a reality check, there are quite a few different systems out there. Then once you choose the system there are quite a few different software programs to choose from. When you buy a system and a software program it obviously is very expensive. The companies that you buy from provide training for you and your entire staff. Technology changes over time, and I highly doubt that when you get out of school you are going to purchase the same system as Tufts. Therefore your great technology experience that you pay 100k more for goes down the drain because inevitably you will be learning a new system.
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Actually, I know quite a few dentists in Los Angeles with the digital system. It makes quite a impression for patients to see that. And I think in four years were only headed towards using the digital technology even more so.
 
gould409 said:
Actually, I know quite a few dentists in Los Angeles with the digital system. It makes quite a impression for patients to see that. And I think in four years were only headed towards using the digital technology even more so.
Click to expand...


Not sure what you are talking about as my point of reference was not to discourage the use of digital, but to make the point that when you are in your own office you will have to learn your own system.

As I mentioned before I helped my friend startup his office. He has everything from a video game room, flat panel monitors over the chairs to watch TV or movies, headphones to listen to satellite radio. Guess how often patients are interested in using these amenities? Thats right hardly ever and he is in a very high end area.
 
OMFSdoc said:
This is a stupid comment. You just told people not to learn newer technology in dental school because they can learn it when they're done. Why wouldn't you want to learn it in dental school the first time if it's offered? Why try to learn it afterwards when you can get it done in school? It's not like digital technology is a fad, it's here to stay and will be in all offices in the future. I'm sure that Temple would love to switch over to digital if they had the means.
Click to expand...

Before you call a comment stupid you should reread what you are ridiculing. I never said they shouldn't learn it in school because they can learn it when they get done. I have no problem with learning it in school if you can. Odds are you won't use that system your dental school uses and will have to learn a new one anyways when you graduate, but go ahead and learn the technology. The point of my thread was that the extra money you would pay is not worth learning "new" technology.

Also, Temple performs hundreds of thousands of procedures every year and it would cost millions and millions of dollars to convert to digital and as a student I would rather the money go elsewhere than a digital x-ray machine so I can blow up my x-rays on the computer screen.

Finally, the more you post, the more I doubt you are actually in/going to be in/are an OMFS. And if so, I feel bad for your future colleagues but am grateful you will be in a profession that your patients will not have to see you on a continous basis.
 
Let me explain my reason for you OMFSdoc and for the others. It wasn't as articulate as I wanted it to be.

The cost of Tufts vs. Temple is another good reason to choose Temple. The money you save in dental school can go towards your future practices digital technology which will most likely be a different (not to mention dated) than what you used in dental school anyway.

Just because a school has 'new technology' does not make it better. Look at UNLV. To us it is a brand new school. But hasn't it been around for four years? A car from 4 years ago is pretty crappy compared to new cars. Dental technology changes just as fast. So choosing tufts 'dated' technology (which is probably more than 4 years old) over a school with older technology (Temple was renovated in 92 or 95) is arbitrary. By the time you graduate from either school the technology will be even more dated.

Choose the place that costs less while weighing other options.

Temple is good because you are eased into the program (gets considerably more challenging each year first two years) and then you get to see A LOT of stuff. The majority of your patients will need so much restorative care/extractions/perio/etc. that when you graduate and go to little suburbia and take care of simple DO's and MO's all day long, they will be a breeze.

Using your two days off a week to learn the tortuous amount of material required to work a brand new handpiece or digital xrays will be worth it...


Also thanks to college boy for that article, it was very very very very interesting.😀
 
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