Dental students, I'm sure you knew these threads would be coming. I'm stuck deciding between SA and Baylor, and I'm sure lots of other people are in the same situation, so I was hoping to hear what some current students have to say. I have some specific questions but feel free to say whatever you think might be helpful!
1. What's Baylor's laptop policy. I know SA makes you buy a laptop but I don't remember what BCD does.
2. At SA you get your own chair. What's the policy like at Baylor?
3. Does either school give you business-type classes to help you when you get out of school? At San Antonio we have a course that we take all 4 years called Professional Development. The first year of the course is okay, but years 2-4 is much more relevant. We learn how to design practices, discuss overhead, cost of equipment, salaries of hygienists, assistants, front desk personnel, etc. Things that are relevant to starting up your own practice or things you should be looking for when you are applying for an associate position. During 4th year, we actually have a rotation devoted to practice management with seminars from people with real-world experience. Over the course of 4 years you design a practice plan that you could potentially use when wanting to get a loan to start your own business. That's the course in a nutshell.
4. What are your schedules like--when does school start and end and do you get summer breaks? I don't know what the plan is for incoming classes because I know they have changed the curriculum a bit (i.e. what courses you taken when, some courses have been combined into one course, etc) but for me we started the second week of July 1st year and ended in May. We had the entire summer off between 1st and 2nd year if we wanted. Otherwise you can do research or electives. We started the 3rd week of July 2nd year and ended in May. Between May and the first week of July we had to take Part 1 boards and do an elective of some sort. 3rd and 4th year start the first week of July. Between 3rd and 4th year we have to do a 2 week commitment of some sort, either externships, rotations (OMS, South Texas), etc. Clinic 3rd year is all day Monday, half day Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and all day Friday. For seniors it is half day Monday and Wednesday, all day Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.
5. Is it tough getting patients? Not really. Each student is assigned to a general practice group and each group is assigned patients from screening. The group then distributes patients to students so you have patients to start seeing from Day 1. You can bring in your own patients for screening whenever, you can pick up patients from screening clinic rotations, oral surgery rotations, etc.
6. What are the requirements like for graduating (in terms of number of each procedure you have to do)? Which school has higher requirements? We have 3rd year and 4th year requirements. It's a point system for operative dentistry, and for fixed prosthodontics 3rd year we have to cut, impress, and deliver minimum 6 crowns to pass with 2 competency (graded crowns). You have to cut, impress, and deliver 12 to get an A. It doesn't seem like a lot, but it is difficult to get that A due to phased treatment (i.e. all perio and operative first before you can do crown/bridge) and then lab turn-around can get backed up at certain times. So it just depends. For endo, 3rd year, you have to 3 canals (can be any combination of simple or complex cases) simple being single rooted, complex being 2+ roots) to do molar endo you have to do an elective course, which many students do. I am currently doing the elective so I can start molar endo in clinic next semester. I know some schools don't do it like this, but it seems to work out. For removable 3rd year, we have to do 1 unit of RPD and 4 units of complete (one max and man denture on same patient, and the other can be 2 units on 2 different patients or 2 units on the same patient) and then we have rotations for oral surgery (4 weeks), pedo (2 weeks), perio and geriatrics (1/2 week each) and then we have emergency clinic rotation and screening clinic. As seniors there is oral surgery, pedo, hospital dentistry, South Texas rotation (2 wks), and a few others.
7. I've been told you do all of your lab work at BCD but you do lab work only at the beginning at SA. True? And what are your thoughts on this? We do a good amount of lab work at UTHSCSA. We do not cast our own crowns or set denture teeth but we do pretty much everything else. We do custom trays, record bases, occlusion rims for our denture patients, and we will re-set teeth if the lab messes up. We make our radiographic and surgical guides for our implant patients, we do all the master cast work, cut and trim dies for our crowns/bridges, etc.
8. I remember the food court at Baylor. What's the food situation like at SA?
On campus cafeteria that was newly renovated, Subway, grab-n-go kiosk, new italian place on campus that has pizza, calzones, pasta... Chickfila is across the street with Starbucks and Wendys, and on the other side of campus across the street there is Jimmy John's subs, a little Mexican restaurant, and a sandwich/soup place that is awesome. A lot of people bring their lunch... we have a new lounge that is nice... refrigerator to store lunches, coffee maker, microwave to re-heat things, etc. The food situation is good, it works out nicely. And a lot of students will sometimes go home for lunch if they live close enough, and you definitely can. Tons of apartments near the medical center
9. What do students typically do in their free time? work out at the new Spectrum fitness center on campus, go to bars/clubs, out to eat, spurs games, hiking/biking/camping in the hill country, wine tasting in fredericksburg, tubing the river when it gets warm outside, etc. There is a lot to do when you have free time... first 2 years you don't have much though... but 3rd and 4th year, much more free time to do things... some people will go to Austin on the weekends, go home, etc... so go skiing on our 3-day weekends that we get
10. How competitive and cut-throat do you think your class is? mine is not too bad at all... but every class has their personality, some people are gunners, some aren't, our class has been pretty good overall about sharing notes/reviews, some people won't but that's to be expected
11. When do you first start seeing patients? 2nd semester 2nd year, but I hear they are trying to implement more patient experiences during the 2nd year, but you will get to do a work-up on a patient in the spring, (i.e. medical hx and stuff, and then do a prophy)
12. Are charts and x-rays and things like that paperless? yes, and I love it! it was difficult to get the hang of it at first... this is the first year we have had paperless... they tested the waters last spring with it, so they started doing some things with it then, but everything is paperless now at least for all new patients, existing patients still have a paper chart... but it is awesome to have paperless charts... and we have had digital x-rays for quite some time now
SA and BCD were my first two interviews so I really didn't know what I was supposed to be asking/paying attention to when I was there, so any help is appreciated. I'm sure any responses will help myself and lots of other people. Thanks!
(Oh and if you respond, please let us know which school you go to and what year)
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