UIC vs. Michigan

[mikey4226]

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So far those are the two acceptances I have received. I really like UIC because I'm comfortable here (I'm doing undergrad here), its in-state so its cheap, I love the city, and I have a lot of friends here. However, Michigan does have a great reputation and I feel like I may have better opportunities at a school like Michigan in terms of the type of education i'll get and if i choose to specialize later on. I have no actual evidence to support that feeling, but that article about how UIC is underfunded and has to cut some of their faculty and staff makes me a little worried. Also I probably won't be too big on research, so that's not really a major factor for me.

anyone have any input or reasoning as to why you chose one over the other? thanks a bunch!

 

[jackbauer!]

don't you get in-state at Michigan after a year? if so, then cost may not be as big as a factor as you may think. i would personally choose UMich for the change alone. I've heard Ann Arbor is a fun place to go to school, too.

jb!🙂

 

[mx41]

Mikey, do you mind if I ask you what your stats are?

 

[mikey4226]

i didn't know about the in-state tuition after the first year at michigan....can anyone else confirm that? cus that would be pretty nice.

also, do they allow 2nd looks at dental schools? i think it would be helpful to visit the schools again and maybe follow around a student for a day, just to get a better feel for the school.

oh, and my stats are BCP gpa: 3.42, sci gpa: 3.37, non-sci gpa: 3.92, cum gpa: 3.55, 20 AA

 

[dentalguy2007]

the instate-tuition at UIC might not be an advantage any more because they raised their tuition last year, and plan to raise again this year another 15%. It comes out close to $40,000/yr, almost catching up with Marquette. I think on Marquette website, it's still around 41,000 yr tuition. Can someone @ Marquette fill us in with the whole cost to attend Marquette, please? I think it adds up to around 48,000/yr, yes? So, I think you need to base your decision on which program you like better, not the tuition.

 

[mikey4226]

ok, well tuition costs aside, what do you think are UIC/Michigan pros/cons?

 

[onamission]

ok, well tuition costs aside, what do you think are UIC/Michigan pros/cons?

I shadowed a dentist at Great Lakes who was a recent grad of UofM. He said he wouldn't go there if he had to make the decision again. He chose it for the prestige and reputation but he said there just wasn't enough clinical experience. He said they had to fight to get patients (Ann Arbor is very affluent and UDMercy gets the low-income inner-city patients) and when they did get patients, all too often they were given to the post-doc residents. Therefore, they almost create their own group of students who specialize because they don't have enough general experience. Sometimes a high rate of post-doc specialization can give you some insight into the pre-doc program.

Ann Arbor is a cool town and if you think you're going to specialize, the clinical probably isn't an issue. But if you are leaning towards general dentistry, I'd stick with UIC for the clinical experience.

 

[taylormade]

don't you get in-state at Michigan after a year? if so, then cost may not be as big as a factor as you may think. i would personally choose UMich for the change alone. I've heard Ann Arbor is a fun place to go to school, too.

jb!🙂

U of Michigan said that there is unfortunately no way to get in-state tuition after you start as an out-of-state resident....that's straight from the admissions office.

Non-Resident tuition is: 41,461.00 a year, plus 4,106.00 for books/supplies, 3,208.00 for instrument rental.

Out-of-State tution alone over 4 years would be in the neighborhood of 165-170K.

Hope that helps.

 

[mikey4226]

I shadowed a dentist at Great Lakes who was a recent grad of UofM. He said he wouldn't go there if he had to make the decision again. He chose it for the prestige and reputation but he said there just wasn't enough clinical experience. He said they had to fight to get patients (Ann Arbor is very affluent and UDMercy gets the low-income inner-city patients) and when they did get patients, all too often they were given to the post-doc residents. Therefore, they almost create their own group of students who specialize because they don't have enough general experience. Sometimes a high rate of post-doc specialization can give you some insight into the pre-doc program.

Ann Arbor is a cool town and if you think you're going to specialize, the clinical probably isn't an issue. But if you are leaning towards general dentistry, I'd stick with UIC for the clinical experience.

Thanks for sharing that! That's really helpful b/c i want a strong clinical experience during dental school. I'm gonna try to talk to some current students and see if they have issues with clinical experience too.

 

[onamission]

Thanks for sharing that! That's really helpful b/c i want a strong clinical experience during dental school. I'm gonna try to talk to some current students and see if they have issues with clinical experience too.

Please post what you're able to find out.

 

[runrabbitrun]

I gotta go with Michigan on this one.

True, you will pay more and it will be impossible to establish in-state residency...but IMO it would be well worth it.

As far as the clinical experience, I feel you get plenty at UofM not only in the regular clinic but also the outreach and off-site clinic locations. It would be interesting to see the differences in the amount of procedures necessary to graduate btwn the 2 schools. Also, you should take into account that its not always the sheer volume of procedures you complete, but WHO is teaching you and inspecting your work that will ultimately make the difference.

If youre serious about becoming a great general dentist, youll want to pursue a GPR or AEGD anyway.

 

[Hoprod3]

At my interview U of M told me that their clinical curriculum is very strong. So strong that most of their students finish most of their requirements at the end of D3. I don't know how good clinic is at UIC but it seems that U of M has it all together.

 

[huk1985]

You cannot get instate in Michigan period, unless you are from Michigan.

 

[explosive]

mikey...did you make a decision on whether you're going to michigan or UIC?

 

[mikey4226]

nope...i'm still deciding. I'm trying to weigh out the pros and cons, but it's still a toss up for me. anyone have any other input?

 

[dizzle23x]

.

 

[DDS_2011]

I am curious then. Do UIC & Michigan have the same type of requirement? If UIC has somewhat a higher requirement, then it's obvious they have to spend more time to finish theirs. UIC students said they were involved in clinic since early year 2 already.

 

[gatormichigan]

don't you get in-state at Michigan after a year? if so, then cost may not be as big as a factor as you may think. i would personally choose UMich for the change alone. I've heard Ann Arbor is a fun place to go to school, too.

jb!🙂

no you do not get instate ever

-UMich D1

 

[gatormichigan]

I shadowed a dentist at Great Lakes who was a recent grad of UofM. He said he wouldn't go there if he had to make the decision again. He chose it for the prestige and reputation but he said there just wasn't enough clinical experience. He said they had to fight to get patients (Ann Arbor is very affluent and UDMercy gets the low-income inner-city patients) and when they did get patients, all too often they were given to the post-doc residents. Therefore, they almost create their own group of students who specialize because they don't have enough general experience. Sometimes a high rate of post-doc specialization can give you some insight into the pre-doc program.

Ann Arbor is a cool town and if you think you're going to specialize, the clinical probably isn't an issue. But if you are leaning towards general dentistry, I'd stick with UIC for the clinical experience.

As a D1 at Michigan, you spend 4 days a week doing clinical related things: you spend AT LEAST 6 hours a week in the lab and AT LEAST 3 hours a week with patients and D3's or D4's (assisting).

Also, michigan is one of the few schools where you start working on patients your first year. The only other school that I know of that has that is UNC.

I've never heard of students fighting for patients here as D3's or D4's since you are assigned a "family" of patients.

 

[muz]

As gatormichigan said, we do start working on patients during May of our first year, infact we are in the clinics assisting by the 5-6th week of school... Yeah we dont get the crazy inner city cases like detroit, chicago, LA, NYC, or newark would get...but our clinical experience is definitely extended in time---in terms of competing with others....we DO NOT fight for sure---obviously like in every other school there are gunners!

I was visiting home (NJ) and met my friend from UMDNJ he's a D3 while I am a D2...by mid october--- I had worked on more patients than him including restorative---UMDNJ is the norm of dental school-see patients D3 year...

The quality of education is pretty cool, considering that alot of the books you use are written by the faculty that teach you, much of the groundbreaking research that you learn about is here at michigan, and in terms of dental history---Michigan is huge

Ann Arbor is a great place to live too!

 

[explosive]

made a choice on your school yet??