UNC-Chapel Hill Anyone????

[MrFutureDMD]

I'm applying to UNC-Chapel Hill Dental School. I'm curious to know if anyone else is applying there. I hear its a really good school with a solid reputation.

Also, anyone know anything about UMDNJ School of Dentistry?

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[UBTom]

UMDNJ?

Well, it's the only dental school in New Joisey.

If you are a Soprano, er, an NJ resident, then you got a better chance than applicants from 49 other states of getting in there. I wouldn't quite say fuggedaboudit, but if yer not from the Garden State dey ain't likely to make you an offer ya can't refuse. Rumor has it the first question the adcom asks is, "what exit?" If ya can't answer that, ya ain't gettin' in.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Seriously though, UMDNJ does give priority to NJ residents first and foremost. And the bulk of their out-of-state applicants are from right across the Hudson River, so other out-of-staters got some fierce competition from New York for spots in that school too.

 

[Joshua Tree]

I got into UNC and some other schools, but I chose not to go to UNC for a few reasons. I will give some benefits and some drawbacks...

Benefits:
-great reputation
-research opportunity
-nice town
-big school
-nice faculty
-great weather
-small, safe town


Drawbacks:
- Prepare you for NC State boards, not good prep for Part I of NBDE. (Bad if you are looking to specialize)
- Say they are one of the top ranked schools b/c of research money, not b/c of student performance on Nat. Boards.
- Ranking system for candidates determines their class despite what they say. (take what they say with a grain of salt)
-Town is small

I personally enjoyed VCU, Louisville, Tufts, UTSA. I would have given my right arm to go to Oregon Health Sciences Univ, but so tough to get into. The most important thing to look for is size of student clinic (# of chairs) and the patient pool size (ability to get patients and if patients can easily get to school). Some schools say they have a 1 year waitlist, but they are in smaller areas and patients can't drop what they are doing to go an appointment. It is most important b/c getting your requirements done and having the ability to have a patient and perform the required treatment will determine if you graduate on time or not. Kind of scary, huh?

These are just my opinions. But the schools I liked were in "bigger" cities. So that is my preference and may not be the opinion of anyone else. You can't go wrong with a school, just find what you like...

 

[waiting]

future dmd,

I'm a first year at UNC right now...I chose to go here over a number of other 'big name' schools I got into (ucla, ucsf, penn, columbia, uconn, etc.) and here's a brief list why:

1. Cost: I'm a NC resident so I'll save tens of thousands more here
2. Rep: Research funding ranking brings rep., and in that dept. UNC does very well for itself (4th last year). It's a major research school with innumerable opportunities to get involved in some exciting projects. Also, it has some outstanding, internationally recognized departments; two of the standard texts used in dental schools (operative dentistry, ortho) are written by UNC profs.
3. Facilities: The clinics here are all state-of-the-art with the latest and greatest gizmos and what not. They're in the process of even further renovations/expansions right now...
4. Location: Chapel Hill is a beautiful, lively college town with a very active campus and the weather ain't too shabby if you can put up with the humidity!

Drawbacks:
1. The biggest one for me was the board scores...however, this is more a reflection on the students here rather than on the curriculum; the fact is that UNC is a state school where 50-55 of the 75 or so grads each year go into general dentistry. The avg. student here is from NC and just wants to be a general dentist back in his/her hometown. Hence, you only have 20-25 students in the class who really care about board scores since they want to specialize, the others just want to pass and couldn't care less about anything beyond that. The students who come in knowing they want to specialize and study/prepare accordingly do very well each year on the boards. In the past 5 years, no student who has applied for any particular specialty has been denied.

I'll stop my propoganda spiel there! Feel free to e-mail me with any more questions...

 

[ItsGavinC]

I have a friend interviewing at UNC right now! He was pretty stoked to go out there -- I'll report on his views when he returns on Monday.

 

[guest]

I just got out of the UNC-CH interview. THere were quite a few people there. From what I could tell a good number of them were from out of state. The interview consisted of three interviews, i had one with a student one with a dentist and one with a faculty member. Someone had mentioned the national board exams during one of the discussions and the response was that UNC students traditionally do not do well on Part1 but they do extremely well on Part2. But a solid research reputation at UNC-CH should enhance possibilities in specialization.