UCLA vs. UCSF (2014)

[YYC]

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Hi all,

Similar thread like this one comes up every year but I just wanted to use this thread as an opportunity to help people who are in similar situation as I am in deciding between the two UC's with the most up to date responses from pre-dents, dental pre-professionals, and dental professionals. If you are someone who is currently attending one of these schools, someone who graduated from one of these schools, or someone who interviewed at both schools, or simply someone with a story/advice/opinion to share, then please feel free to drop a comment below.

It would be AWESOME if you could help cast a vote on the poll and share why you select a particular school base on your positive/negative experiences (learning environment, curriculum, student competitiveness, faculty responsiveness, financial aid from FAFSA, availability of patient as D3's and D4's, living expenses as a student, life after dental school, etc)with UCLA and/or UCSF as an interviewee/student/alumni.

🙂 Much appreciated!

 

[HaverfoodsDDS]

I know you saw my comment on the UCSF thread, but I'm going to go ahead and copy-paste it here also so that other people who are making the same decision might have an easier time finding it. Good luck again !

Like you, I also had to choose between UCLA and UCSF and I realize it's a super tough call. Both schools are excellent and you really can't go wrong either way. UCLA and UCSF will both provide you with tons of opportunities to become involved in research, in student organizations, in the community, and will prepare you for a productive career in general dentistry, as a specialist, or in dental education. In my opinion it is a really personal decision that depends on a number of factors. To me, UCSF actually is a more well-rounded program than UCLA in terms of integrating a high-quality didactic education with good clinical skills, but there are a number of other factors that led me to choose UCLA over UCSF that I'll share below. Hopefully this will at least help you (and other) students that are in the same position make the right decision for themselves.

1) First and foremost I wanted to go somewhere that would put me in a good position to pursue specialty training. It's obvious both programs are excellent and both send a lot of people into specialty, but in my opinion UCLA places a higher emphasis on this than does UCSF (At this point slight edge UCLA, but I could go either way if this were my only criteria).

2) Next, if at all possible I wanted to remain as close to my friends and family as I could. With UCLA being only about 20 minutes away from my current home and UCSF being about 500 miles away this was a no-brainer for me (of course, it may be totally different for others).

3) I'm of the opinion that no matter where you go to school, you will never be TOTALLY COMFORTABLE to do all of the procedures that a dentist should do coming right out of the gate. The clinical strength of a program is not all that important to me because I think you will learn more in the real world than you will in any school setting, and success in dentistry is determined far more by your people skills and marketing than your clinical skills (obviously you need to be good at what you do, but I think it's naive to believe that the average patient is choosing their dentist based on their clinical skills and not their bedside manner, office environment, and marketing strategy). From the outside looking in, UCSF seems to have a better clinical program than UCLA, but I don't find this to be super important (judging from what so many others say around the forums I'm in the minority here, but to each their own).

4) I wanted to attend a "big-name" school with an exciting sports program and a lot of school spirit. This is self-explanatory - UCLA is awesome in that regard and UCSF has none because it's just a graduate school.

For me, choosing UCLA was an easy decision but you might have totally different priorities. Congrats on being accepted to some awesome schools and good luck in making your final choice - you can't go wrong either way !

 

[YYC]

I know you saw my comment on the UCSF thread, but I'm going to go ahead and copy-paste it here also so that other people who are making the same decision might have an easier time finding it. Good luck again !

Like you, I also had to choose between UCLA and UCSF and I realize it's a super tough call. Both schools are excellent and you really can't go wrong either way. UCLA and UCSF will both provide you with tons of opportunities to become involved in research, in student organizations, in the community, and will prepare you for a productive career in general dentistry, as a specialist, or in dental education. In my opinion it is a really personal decision that depends on a number of factors. To me, UCSF actually is a more well-rounded program than UCLA in terms of integrating a high-quality didactic education with good clinical skills, but there are a number of other factors that led me to choose UCLA over UCSF that I'll share below. Hopefully this will at least help you (and other) students that are in the same position make the right decision for themselves.

1) First and foremost I wanted to go somewhere that would put me in a good position to pursue specialty training. It's obvious both programs are excellent and both send a lot of people into specialty, but in my opinion UCLA places a higher emphasis on this than does UCSF (At this point slight edge UCLA, but I could go either way if this were my only criteria).

2) Next, if at all possible I wanted to remain as close to my friends and family as I could. With UCLA being only about 20 minutes away from my current home and UCSF being about 500 miles away this was a no-brainer for me (of course, it may be totally different for others).

3) I'm of the opinion that no matter where you go to school, you will never be TOTALLY COMFORTABLE to do all of the procedures that a dentist should do coming right out of the gate. The clinical strength of a program is not all that important to me because I think you will learn more in the real world than you will in any school setting, and success in dentistry is determined far more by your people skills and marketing than your clinical skills (obviously you need to be good at what you do, but I think it's naive to believe that the average patient is choosing their dentist based on their clinical skills and not their bedside manner, office environment, and marketing strategy). From the outside looking in, UCSF seems to have a better clinical program than UCLA, but I don't find this to be super important (judging from what so many others say around the forums I'm in the minority here, but to each their own).

4) I wanted to attend a "big-name" school with an exciting sports program and a lot of school spirit. This is self-explanatory - UCLA is awesome in that regard and UCSF has none because it's just a graduate school.

For me, choosing UCLA was an easy decision but you might have totally different priorities. Congrats on being accepted to some awesome schools and good luck in making your final choice - you can't go wrong either way !

Hahaha, thanks again.

 

[Meat Gyver]

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[Meat Gyver]

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[Shunwei]

The clinical education of UCLA is of some concern to me, and while I agree with @HaverfoodsDDS Nevertheless, I'm certain UCLA won't allow their graduates to enter the profession unprepared, so I'll put my trust in them.

You'd be surprised.😀

 

[Meat Gyver]

You'd be surprised.😀

👍 haha thanks

 

[Troyvdg]

Interviewed and accepted to both. I've been around UCSF many times (I'm local) know lots of the students there...I'd still choose UCLA. Student's just seem happier there, just an observation compared to my many visits to UCSF. This of course, in addition to everything else listed. Like you said, there are lots of threads covering this topic, and even from what I've mentioned, each class is different. Might as well just draw the names out of a hat, either way you can't go wrong. It's really personal preference at this point.