UPENN any good?

[AcidETCH]

Hahah, I'm kidding about the question. Which school would you pick if you were given the choice: UPENN or UCONN.

Please give a brief reason as I would like to get some perspective on the reasoning behind the decision. Thanks.

AE

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[kaelkastro]

I would definately choose UCONN. I consider the school one of the best if not the best school in the country.

Reasons:

Solid curriculum- They dont just teach you about the mouth, you learn about the entire body. Hence dental students take the basic medical sciences with the med students for the first two years.

Smaller class Size- There is more individualized attention at UCONN unlike some school that have classes of 235 and high drop out rates.

Board Scores- UCONN has been consistently scoring in the top 5 on Step one and 2 Boards. Last year they placed 2nd only behind Harvard in step 1 and 1st in step 2. IF you want to specialize this is the place to be.

Cheaper Tuition- Yes you can restate your residency after the first year. UCONN has the price of a quality education for a far cheaper price than the IVY League schools. The state is very generous to the school unlike some other states.



Make your choice of a school carefully! Dont get caught up in the IVY league hype.

 

[gryffindor]

UCONN

Geez, this decision should be a no-brainer.

1. Don't buy into the Ivy League stuff. In dentistry, Ivy League means nothing. Why would your patient care if you went to an "Ivy League" dental school or the state school? As long as you can take them out of pain, that's fine with them.
Post-grad programs don't care that much either. They look at your board scores, GPA, rank, involvement in activities, experience, letters of rec, interest in the program, and essays before considering that you went to Penn, Columbia, or Harvard (Ivy League) versus the 52 other dental schools in the country. Even then, it still wouldn't matter that you went to an Ivy school unless maybe one of the admissions people was an alum of that school.

2. You will save loads of money at UCONN, even if you are from out of state.

3. UCONN consistently ROCKS the boards (Part I & II) every year, so they must be academically teaching them something right over there. (Do a search on their site and you'll find articles bragging about their board scores).

4. UCONN sends a large proportion of their class to specialize, if this is something you are thinking about. A student there told me that 8 of the students in the Class of 2001 were going to pursue Oral Surgery. Eight students is a lot when there are only like 40 in the entire class.

5. The facility is really nice at Connecticut as is the Farmington area. Penn is located in not the best section of Philly and its facility was borderline antique. But if as DesiDentist says, they are building new stuff, then maybe they'll be getting better equipment soon.

6. Research experiences are available at UCONN and at Penn, it's up to you if you want to take advantage of it. How many NIH research dollars a school brings in does not correlate to producing good clinicians.

But the best way for you to make this decision is to talk to upperclassmen and especially recent graduates of each school. I am a big fan of the state schools and don't feel you should attend a pricey private school if you have a
cheaper option. And in your case, UCONN is a cheaper and a very good option.

Good luck!

 

[leafhound16]

I have to agree about UConn. When I was an undergrad, I did some dental-related volunteer work with Penn D-3 dental students two years ago in Philly, and none of them that I talked to really seemed that happy at their school, they were saying stuff like the professors weren't easily available for their students and the curriculum wasn't that great, etc. I'm not sure how the situation has changed since then, as they hoped it would be better by the time I applied.

I have the feeling Penn prepares you better for applying to specialty programs than preparing you immediately to work or having hands-on experience like Temple or Tufts do. Penn doesn't have as strong a clinical focus as those schools do. Correct me if I'm wrong, but at my interview at Penn, I heard that only 10 graduates went on to private practice/associateships, and most everyone else went into residencies and speciality programs for further experience.

I'm not trying to be negative here about Penn, I'm just saying what I've heard from other people. I agree with the other posts. I know it's tempting, but don't buy immediately into the Ivy League name and think it has to be better than other schools. I have several friends who got into Penn dental in the past years but decided they'd getter a better clinical experience elsewhere. I think the moral is to go wherever you think will prepare you the best once you're out of school, gets you the biggest bang for your buck.

 

[Comet208]

I don't know much about UConn, but i know the following about UPenn:

a friend of mine graduated from there 3 years ago and he failed the board exam THREE times. when i asked him why, he said that school put too much emphasis on research and very little on clinical training. he also said that faculty cared more about those students who want to go to research...
The poor guy had to practice at his father's dental practice for 2 extra years (to learn things he did not learn at UPenn) before he passed the exam when he took it for the 4th time!!!!

 

[DesiDentist]

Thanks Comet for your post. It really helps me think about the real "goals" of dental school. Now it's between UW, NOVA, and Temple....

Any suggestions on these school?

DesiDentist