In regards to patients at SIU and graduating on time and patient availability:
As goes with many dental schools, your progress to graduate depends on fulfilling a long list of procedures and competency exams during 3rd and 4th year. Most students end up getting the great majority of these requirements done with the amount of patients that are assigned to themselves, however in certain circumstances people end up still needing select procedures before they can graduate. Its not so much that there is a lack of patients at the school (3 month+ new patient waitlist at the moment), but only these select things such as getting denture patients, and fixed proth requirements because they are so heavily weighted in the graduation requirements. When it gets down to the end of the year the faculty do look out for the students and do their best to make sure everyone finishes on time by getting these last requirements done but occasionally people do stay late to complete them. Whether it is the students fault for not being proactive about getting their patients in and requirements checked off or the faculty for not efficiently distributing the patients to the students is anyone's best guess in these situations and may be a combination of the two.
I will say that SIU graduates are very well rounded general dentists for some of the reasons already mentioned above. The school's philosophy is to produce general dentists so the curriculum has the full spectrum of classes such as fixed, removable, operative, endo, oral surgery, pediatric, and even exposure to implants and ortho. If you end up choosing to join the program it definitely is no walk in the park and you will be kept very busy studying and in the lab the first few years but your hard work will pay off in the end. You will graduate feeling very comfortable in the skills you've learned and feel ready to practice. A great majority of the graduates go right into practice without need for residencies, however there are also 5-10 in the class of 50 that go into specialties or advanced education.
I will say SIU often gets a bad wrap being located into Alton. If you're someone that must absolutely be in the city then maybe SIU isn't the place for you to go, but if you're not stuck on that then it ends up not being as bad you might assume. Since the class size is relatively small everyone pretty much knows everyone and you'll most likely find things to do with each other on the weekends, whether it be in St. Louis 30mins away or downtown at the bars.
If you look at the past history on this forum people that usually are relatively unfamiliar with the school will rag on it for either the location or less commonly the "lack of patients/not graduating on time." I have explained the patient situation and wouldn't consider it to be a huge problem in most cases for the majority of students. You should note that people who really have taken the time to learn about the school have a high opinion of what the school is really about instead of those trying to diss the school for having good board scores because of where its located. Seems pretty petty to me. I have rarely seen people talk negatively about the school for issues that are pertinent to becoming a competent dentist or the education you will receive there.
Best of luck with your decision- it will decide the next 4 years of your life.
