UCLA or UOP?

[Paxton]

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Hey guys,
I am having a hard time deciding between UOP and UCLA, financially I do not have any problems. can anyone help me by shining some light on the positive and negative aspects of both schools? If you were to choose between the two which one would it be, and why?How much is the living cost(apartment) near UCLA and UOP?

If I do DDS from UOP will it be more difficult to get into a graduate program at another school?Is the patient pool at UCLA minute compared to that of UOP? I will greatly appreciate the feedback! thanks 🙂

 

[reapply2007]

Q: can anyone help me by shining some light on the positive and negative aspects of both schools?
A: Yes

QIf you were to choose between the two which one would it be, and why? UoP - the three years at any price more than make this the best option compared to any other school. Avoiding any extra time required to graduate from dental school is worth quite a bit.

Q: How much is the living cost(apartment) near UCLA and UOP?
A: Both are comparable to each other

Q: If I do DDS from UOP will it be more difficult to get into a graduate program at another school?
A: No. Grades and board scores are the two largest criteria.

Q: Is the patient pool at UCLA minute compared to that of UOP?
A: Both schools have access to limitless patients.

 

[cooldentist]

Q: can anyone help me by shining some light on the positive and negative aspects of both schools?
A: Yes

QIf you were to choose between the two which one would it be, and why? UoP - the three years at any price more than make this the best option compared to any other school. Avoiding any extra time required to graduate from dental school is worth quite a bit.

Q: How much is the living cost(apartment) near UCLA and UOP?
A: Both are comparable to each other

Q: If I do DDS from UOP will it be more difficult to get into a graduate program at another school?
A: No. Grades and board scores are the two largest criteria.

Q: Is the patient pool at UCLA minute compared to that of UOP?
A: Both schools have access to limitless patients.

That is great information.

 

[Paxton]

Q: can anyone help me by shining some light on the positive and negative aspects of both schools?
A: Yes

QIf you were to choose between the two which one would it be, and why? UoP - the three years at any price more than make this the best option compared to any other school. Avoiding any extra time required to graduate from dental school is worth quite a bit.

Q: How much is the living cost(apartment) near UCLA and UOP?
A: Both are comparable to each other

Q: If I do DDS from UOP will it be more difficult to get into a graduate program at another school?
A: No. Grades and board scores are the two largest criteria.

Q: Is the patient pool at UCLA minute compared to that of UOP?
A: Both schools have access to limitless patients.

Thanks Reapply2007
I appreciate your help.🙂

 

[ilovegoldens]

Hey guys,
I am having a hard time deciding between UOP and UCLA, financially I do not have any problems. can anyone help me by shining some light on the positive and negative aspects of both schools? If you were to choose between the two which one would it be, and why?How much is the living cost(apartment) near UCLA and UOP?

If I do DDS from UOP will it be more difficult to get into a graduate program at another school?Is the patient pool at UCLA minute compared to that of UOP? I will greatly appreciate the feedback! thanks 🙂

UCLA has a much higher acceptance rate in graduate programs compared to UOP. And UOP does not hide that. They say they prepare GREAt general practitioners. But their strong is not graduate studies. Ask yourself what your long term goals are. UCLA might give you more advantage if you wanna get into graduate program

I heard from a dentist in Redwood city that UOP has a fame among most dentists that you went school there because daddy could pay.. While UC schools you got in because you were smart enough ( Note he is a dentists who got his degree in UCSF so....bias)

UCLA has a better name than UOP. UOP is a small school. Excellent school but general public don't give as much value as for UCLA. But again.. You should ask yourself how much value people give to our diploma.. Some people care about having a good looking diploma on the wall, others don't. Not that UOP would look bad...

I live in San Fran and pacific heights is the most expensive area. LA will be cheaper to live. Not a lot cheaper tho.

I heard rumors that both have problems getting patients. Specially LA. they are in a fancy location...But.. never heard of anyone who had problems graduating because of that!!

 

[armorshell]

UCLA has a much higher acceptance rate in graduate programs compared to UOP. And UOP does not hide that. They say they prepare GREAt general practitioners. But their strong is not graduate studies. Ask yourself what your long term goals are. UCLA might give you more advantage if you wanna get into graduate program

You can specialize from any dental school in the nation, and there's very little one school can do for you another can't. UCLA undeniably has a higher percentage of it's students going into graduate programs every year. But does that mean anything?

Isn't it possible that the type of person who goes out of their way to shave a year off their DDS might not be too interested in 2-6 more years of additional training afterward?

 

[armorshell]

I heard from a dentist in Redwood city that UOP has a fame among most dentists that you went school there because daddy could pay.. While UC schools you got in because you were smart enough ( Note he is a dentists who got his degree in UCSF so....bias)

I heard from my uncle in Bakesfield that UCLA was founded by baby-eating Satan worshippers, but that doesn't make it true. More recently, I've heard from a half dozen program directors and division chiefs at well-respected OMFS programs that they wished they saw more people from Pacific applying, or that they though UoP was an excellent school. Interesting given our "terrible reputation for specializing" that gets bandied about these boards.

UCLA has a better name than UOP. UOP is a small school. Excellent school but general public don't give as much value as for UCLA. But again.. You should ask yourself how much value people give to our diploma.. Some people care about having a good looking diploma on the wall, others don't. Not that UOP would look bad...

Your tagline says you're a dentist. How often has your dental school come up as a topic of conversation initiated by your patients? I bet you can count the number of times on one hand. Cruise on over by dentaltown and ask them (them being a board comprised almost solely of practicing dentists) if it matters where you went and see what response you get.

I live in San Fran and pacific heights is the most expensive area. LA will be cheaper to live. Not a lot cheaper tho.

My girlfriend recently moved to LA to start her residency (And she's a Pacific graduate, so that's clearly impossible) and her rent went up from living in Pacific Heights to living in Westwood for a comparable apartment.

OP: UCLA and Pacific are both great schools, and you can't go wrong with either one. I'd focus more on things like cost of attendance, closeness to family, weather, class dynamics, clinical experience, etc...

 

[sajjy]

Everything else the same, UoP is graded while UCLA is P/F (if i am not mistaken). Personally that is a huge difference!!!
Otherwise UoP is an excellent school.

 

[jmick101]

Everything else the same, UoP is graded while UCLA is P/F (if i am not mistaken). Personally that is a huge difference!!!
Otherwise UoP is an excellent school.

I go to Pacific and it might as well be pass/fail (as long as I am in the former!)

Not to sharp shoot your post, but grades mean squat to a guy who just wants to get as much clinical experience as possible and graduate. In fact, though Pacific is graded, I would bet there are less worries over grades/marks/whatever here than at most of the pass/fail programs.

Don't get me wrong, I care about my knowledge base and take my training seriously, and Pacific IS rigorous, I just don't care to obsess over it, and neither do most of my classmates. This is part of the underlying coolness of the class dynamic: we are not competing with each other since we really don't give a hoot who is Numero Uno. We help each other out, share notes, etc, it is just the way it is at Pacific (and other places too, I am sure)

Ironically, this also makes it relatively easy to stand out here. Most everyone (there is an exception or two) I have known of who wanted to specialize has done so. Everyone last year matched OS, and I think most everyone matched Ortho and Pedo. I don't know where people get this idea that you will have a harder time specializing from Pacific, like it has some bad reputation. Its just not true.

 

[charlestweed]

P/F system gives every student in the class the same opportunity to specialize….not just the top 10%. But if you don't want to specialize, it doesn't matter which school you attend.

 

[allstardentist]

P/F system gives every student in the class the same opportunity to specialize….not just the top 10%. But if you don’t want to specialize, it doesn’t matter which school you attend.

Yeah, and also think about what your chance might be if you end up getting Bs and Cs at UOP.