UF vs UCSF

[hockey553]

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Hello,

Trying to plan ahead on where I want to go if I am accepted to my top 2 schools (UF and UCSF). The total cost of attending UF (in-state) would be 280,000 as compared to 360,000 at UCSF. I definitely want to specialize but I am not sure in what. Is UCSF that much of a better school to pay 80,000 more?

Here are the pros and cons of each school as I see it:

Pros of attending UF:

-In-state and close to home
-80,000 cheaper
-Has all specialties
-Living is much cheaper and nicer around UF
-Weather is better
-Way more attractive females at UF Dental

Cons of UF:

-Not much to do around the area

Pros of attending UCSF:

-Its reputation
-Better faculty
-Better chance to specialize?
-So much to do - I love the outdoors and hiking, but how much time will I have in dental school?
-City is beautiful
-New experience
-Technology is better from what I can remember
-Food

Cons of UCSF:

-More expensive
-Weather
-Living standards would be lower (apartments would be more expensive and lower, food is amazing but more expensive)
-Away from home (not sure where I want to practice after dental school, staying in Florida near family would be nice)

 

[Viva Terlingua]

I would save the hundred grand and choose UF.

 

[FanOfCostco]

UF for price. Specializing is more about you getting good grades, externships, etc. basically it's like applying to dental school again... except the worse case senario is you end up a general dentist.

 

[BeaverLover]

Is UCSF that much of a better school to pay 80,000 more?

It's going to be more than 80k if you include interest over the 4 years

 

[hockey553]

It's going to be more than 80k if you include interest over the 4 years

True, I think at admissions they said you pay $3 for every $1 you borrow

 

[Incis0r]

Cons of UCSF:

-Weather

😱

 

[setdoc7]

UCSF is Pass/Fail. You can party like a rock star in NoCal and your grades wont suffer. UF has grades. Just saying.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

UCSF is Pass/Fail. You can party like a rock star in NoCal and your grades wont suffer. UF has grades. Just saying.

I feel like this is a factor I put way too much consideration on

 

[personalstatementsbyeric]

I feel like this is a factor I put way too much consideration on

All of us do

 

[hockey553]

UCSF is Pass/Fail. You can party like a rock star in NoCal and your grades wont suffer. UF has grades. Just saying.

That is true. This will be a tough choice 🙁, I would prefer Pass/Fail but as OP says it probably doesn't matter too much.

 

[MattBiggar80]

if u think u will perform better than average go to UF and enjoy the highergrades , if u think u r below avg go to UCSF. i think since u wanna party , go to ucsf.
when i was in D school, i was super focused... well its a long story. dont worry about the money if u become a specialist. u will make it back very fast.
y do u wanna be a specialist?

 

[hockey553]

Well I got into both, still confused 🙁

 

[CaliforniaDMD]

Did you calculate CoA for UCSF as OOS for all 4 years? Because you can get California residency and pay IS tuition starting D2.

 

[hockey553]

Did you calculate CoA for UCSF as OOS for all 4 years? Because you can get California residency and pay IS tuition starting D2.

Yes, I think it is around 15K more for the first year as OOS

 

[periopocket]

Hello,

Trying to plan ahead on where I want to go if I am accepted to my top 2 schools (UF and UCSF). The total cost of attending UF (in-state) would be 280,000 as compared to 360,000 at UCSF. I definitely want to specialize but I am not sure in what. Is UCSF that much of a better school to pay 80,000 more?

Here are the pros and cons of each school as I see it:

Pros of attending UF:

-In-state and close to home
-80,000 cheaper
-Has all specialties
-Living is much cheaper and nicer around UF
-Weather is better
-Way more attractive females at UF Dental

Cons of UF:

-Not much to do around the area

Pros of attending UCSF:

-Its reputation
-Better faculty
-Better chance to specialize?
-So much to do - I love the outdoors and hiking, but how much time will I have in dental school?
-City is beautiful
-New experience
-Technology is better from what I can remember
-Food

Cons of UCSF:

-More expensive
-Weather
-Living standards would be lower (apartments would be more expensive and lower, food is amazing but more expensive)
-Away from home (not sure where I want to practice after dental school, staying in Florida near family would be nice)

At first I saw the cost and I almost rushed to type in UF, but then I saw that UCSF is pass/fail ---- I would easily pay another 60-80k to attend a pass/fail school, getting graded on everything is annoying as hell!

 

[personalstatementsbyeric]

It's not pass fail, it's pass fail honors. Grades kind of do matter in the end if you want letters.

Wrong. It's p/f during the didactic years 1+2. P/f/h during the last two clinical years. No brainer, UCSF in a heartbeat

 

[Scumbag_Steve]

.

 

[tigerteeth22]

Yes pass fail during didactic, but if you receive 90 and greater on exams, profs will notice and take that into consideration for letters of rec. even though honors begins during clinical.

Hi! I go to UCSF and it is Pass/Fail. The Honors thing isn't actually a thing. If you get Honors in a class, you get "points" based on how many units the class is. When you go to apply to residency, the amount of points you have will unofficially "rank" you. Only the school administration has access to this rank. No students or professors know what rank they are. The only place this rank will be published is your Dean's letter of rec that goes to the programs you apply for. They won't put your number rank but what percentage you are in the class i.e. top 10, top 20, etc.
I love Pass/Fail because you only have to get 70% to pass and everyone can feel equal. There's no physical way to be a "gunner."

But what I wanted to say is, if you are thinking of practicing in Florida... we all take WREB here, which doesn't include Florida! You can take NERB...but no one really does. And it's not offered at UCSF. So it would be a challenge to take your licensure exam here at an unfamiliar location without knowing the details of the exam. You'd probably have to fly somewhere to take it, which would mean flying your patients too. Because of that reason alone I would go to UF.

Good luck!