ucsd vs ucla

[brownfx]

ok, im pretty new to this forum, ive been doing my searching and stuff and heres my questions.... well first off im a transfer and ive read that it is going to be hard for me to get into dental but lets put that aside for now...
my question is i am deciding between ucsd and ucla, and i know about ucla and their volunteer clinic along with their technique courses, and from what i have read ucsd has their pre dental society that does a lot of work at their free clinic. if someone could give me advice on which school i should pick... solely based on the aspect of making oneself more competitive for dental schools. thank you.

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[pacbum]

both schools will adequately prepare you for dental school. heck, i went to uci, they had a predent club (asda) but i wasn't really part of it, and still managed to get in. so it's not the school, but it's what you do at the school. it's honestly where you would prefer. both have excellent bio programs (if that's where you're going), and neither would prepare you better than the other in terms of material. the techniques courses at ucla can be taken by any student (not solely ucla students). in terms of the clinic, you could go work at any clinic and gain the same experience.


the one thing i will say is i noticed a lot of the incoming class at ucla sod are from ucla (maybe 7 or 8 or so). i don't think ucla favors their students more than other students, but it's probably more like the students that went to ucla undergrad enjoyed it, and wanted to stay there for dental school.

either way, it's a win win situation. go where you'd like to live more. program wise, i see no difference.

 

[Dentalist]

ucla. go bruins

 

[burgler09]

from what i hear ucla has more school pride, ucsd is a d3 school i belive.. In my opinion I would pick UCLA due to the atmosphere around the school.. but if you've ever been to san diego its amazing.. I don't think you can go wrong with either school. Do a campus visit to both and go with what you like better, you will get into dental school from either school with good grades.

 

[PChemGrad]

both schools will adequately prepare you for dental school. heck, i went to uci, they had a predent club (asda) but i wasn't really part of it, and still managed to get in. so it's not the school, but it's what you do at the school.

It doesnt really matter, I went to UCSB and got into dental school. Go to the school you like more.
I loved UCSD a lot more than UCLA, but thats just me. they are both excellent schools.

 

[djeffreyt]

I don't know anything about UCLA cause I've only visited friends there twice, and I don't know what d3 refers to, but either one is fine.

I can tell you about the UCSD program though to help you decide. The UCSD Pre-dental Society is pretty huge, and it also gives lots of opportunities. Whether or not these opportunities make you a better applicant is up to you to decide.

UCSD's Pre-dental Society runs it's own 3 free clinics. The student run the clinics, doing everything from obtaining donations, setting up volunteer dentists, doing charting and chairside assisting, maintaining records, cleaning up, setting up equipment, etc. There is no full time or part time clinic staff, it's all students. The clinics also only serve homeless, working poor, and uninsured people for free.

They have a special speaker series where different people come and talk to the organization on Thursday nights (usually each week). Recent speakers have included deans of several different dental schools, admissions people, forensic dentists, business people, the Surgeon General of the Nacy, etc. usually after the talk the student go to dinner and drinks and have another opportunity to speak with the person

They go to CDA and ADA conventions for free (hotel and travel costs not included) in order to obtain donations and go to any continuing education lectures they want to go to.

They have set up with local and state groups to do things like get students X-ray certified (costs about $250), go on dental missions (2-3 day trips to Mexico where they assist chairside at clinics doing general dentistry), go on Navy ship missions (3-6 week missions on navy ships where they assist and also, sometimes learn to do extractions and injections on patients - fairly limited number of spots) etc. etc.

They also have the UCLA workshops at UCSD. 2-4 times a year Mark Hunt comes down to UCSD and hosts the UCLA Pre-dental Workshops at UCSD.

So...that's about ti. They do other stuff too, but that a lot of it.

 

[pacbum]

I don't know anything about UCLA cause I've only visited friends there twice, and I don't know what d3 refers to, but either one is fine.

I can tell you about the UCSD program though to help you decide. The UCSD Pre-dental Society is pretty huge, and it also gives lots of opportunities. Whether or not these opportunities make you a better applicant is up to you to decide.

UCSD's Pre-dental Society runs it's own 3 free clinics. The student run the clinics, doing everything from obtaining donations, setting up volunteer dentists, doing charting and chairside assisting, maintaining records, cleaning up, setting up equipment, etc. There is no full time or part time clinic staff, it's all students. The clinics also only serve homeless, working poor, and uninsured people for free.

They have a special speaker series where different people come and talk to the organization on Thursday nights (usually each week). Recent speakers have included deans of several different dental schools, admissions people, forensic dentists, business people, the Surgeon General of the Nacy, etc. usually after the talk the student go to dinner and drinks and have another opportunity to speak with the person

They go to CDA and ADA conventions for free (hotel and travel costs not included) in order to obtain donations and go to any continuing education lectures they want to go to.

They have set up with local and state groups to do things like get students X-ray certified (costs about $250), go on dental missions (2-3 day trips to Mexico where they assist chairside at clinics doing general dentistry), go on Navy ship missions (3-6 week missions on navy ships where they assist and also, sometimes learn to do extractions and injections on patients - fairly limited number of spots) etc. etc.

They also have the UCLA workshops at UCSD. 2-4 times a year Mark Hunt comes down to UCSD and hosts the UCLA Pre-dental Workshops at UCSD.

So...that's about ti. They do other stuff too, but that a lot of it.

wow they do all tha at sd? not gonna lie, i'm impressed

 

[aznxhon3y]

Ditto to what Jeff said above.

I have a pre-dental friend that went to UCLA, volunteered in their clinics, and took their tooth waxing course (albeit at UCSD... since, as Jeff said, Mark Hunt, the tooth waxing/denture quad/complete denture technique instructor comes down once or twice a year to hold these classes ON the UCSD campus), and she never had the opportunity there as she has had here at UCSD (she's back in San Diego to work for a year, but she joined our pre-dental society anyways). She said at UCLA, she didn't get to do any chairside assisting-only the filing of charts and scanning in/out of instruments for the dental students. Here at UCSD, not only do you assist and manage the clinics, you can take certification classes such as for X-ray, know the OSHA regulations for dentistry, and CPR, all for either free or incredibly reduced price (who else can get CPR certified for $12?!?!)

I'm not going to go on and repeat everything Jeff said in the earlier post-however, I'll admit to one fact--if it wasn't for the UCSD pre-dental society and the opportunities it gave me, I probably wouldn't be going to dental school this summer. Take a look at our special speaker series.... who else can get up close and personal opportunities to talk to deans of dental schools (and maybe even drive them around and have dinner with them?) To see just SOME of the opportunities available to us, check out our website: http://acs.ucsd.edu/~ucsdfdc/

If you have any questions about the UCSD Pre-dental society or about UCSD in general, I spent 5 years in school here and 3 in the society and have worked my way up in the society so PM me or AIM me and I'd be glad to talk to you.

 

[aznxhon3y]

Oh, one more thing, one of our clinics (it's actually the one i manage... YAY PB CLINIC!!!) has actually been featured on our local news here in San Diego. To see the clip, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARFfghBrWvs

 

[lifeisgood]

If it means anything, I went to UCSD, was not involved in any sort of dental program and got into UCLA SOD. But realistically, I don't think you could go wrong with either school. I just personally like La Jolla much more than Westwood.

Good luck!

 

[djeffreyt]

If it means anything, I went to UCSD, was not involved in any sort of dental program and got into UCLA SOD. But realistically, I don't think you could go wrong with either school. I just personally like La Jolla much more than Westwood.

Good luck!

Oh yeah...not trying to kid anyone. There are a couple people in the organization that applied and did not get accepted to dental school, and of the 29 or so who did get accepted, not everyone got into their top 1 or 2 choices. There are also UCSD students who never got involved and got accepted to dental school.

UCSD just provides a lot of opportunities that other pre-dental organizations don't have to those who want to take part. Participation is neither a requirement to get into school nor a guarantee of acceptance.

Still, I guess the recent rates of acceptance at UCSD among it's pre-dental members who are actve is pretty outrageously above the curve.

 

[Envision]

both schools will adequately prepare you for dental school. heck, i went to uci, they had a predent club (asda) but i wasn't really part of it, and still managed to get in. so it's not the school, but it's what you do at the school. it's honestly where you would prefer. both have excellent bio programs (if that's where you're going), and neither would prepare you better than the other in terms of material. the techniques courses at ucla can be taken by any student (not solely ucla students). in terms of the clinic, you could go work at any clinic and gain the same experience.


the one thing i will say is i noticed a lot of the incoming class at ucla sod are from ucla (maybe 7 or 8 or so). i don't think ucla favors their students more than other students, but it's probably more like the students that went to ucla undergrad enjoyed it, and wanted to stay there for dental school.

either way, it's a win win situation. go where you'd like to live more. program wise, i see no difference.

Agreed. It doesn't really matter what school you go to, its what you do at the school. I went to UCI and like pacbum, loosely participated in ASDA but was active in other activities. In the end, i got into UCLA SOD. Like everyone else said, you cant go wrong at either school. Perhaps a better selection factor would be location, which you prefer to live. Have you visited the schools? see which school fits you better. gl.

 

[brownfx]

yeah, thanks for the great info... i have been to both schools, la is beautiful, and sd just is a little to big.. but you guys said a lot of good things about sd so it will weigh heavily on my decision. thanks.

 

[keibee82]

ucla has better basketball team.

 

[brownfx]

hahah yeah... i love the campus a lot more than ucsd... but i wanna go somewhere that puts me at the best opportunity to look better for dental schools. so i guess sd it is for me.

 

[lifeisgood]

hahah yeah... i love the campus a lot more than ucsd... but i wanna go somewhere that puts me at the best opportunity to look better for dental schools. so i guess sd it is for me.

You like the UCLA campus more than UCSD's?!?! All I can say is it comes down to preference on where you want to live, but UCSD has a much better campus and location than UCLA. Let me put it this way, if San Diego had a dental school, I don't care if it was the worst dental school in the country, I would still go there. My two cents...

 

[Mrxle3]

Hey guys. I went to undergrad at UCSD, and I'm a current student at UCLA SoD. I was involved in the pre-dental society, though not nearly as much as some of my friends who were in it as well. I merely volunteered at the clinics and never did anything as crazy as becoming a manager of PB or anything like that. I also shadowed extensively through the pre-health professional program that UCSD offers.

You really can't go wrong either way, but if I had to do it all over again I'd still choose UCSD over UCLA. Looking back, I had a great time there! And, like lifeisgood said, if UCSD had a dental school, regardless of their rep, I'd be there in a split second.

 

[GRAD]

I also went to UCSD undergrad and I would say atten UCSD, especially if you want to go to UCLA SOD because at least you can live in a couple of great places instead of just westwood. La Jolla is beautiful, i'm actually still here until I start school.