UW (OOS) vs UNLV (OOS) vs LECOM (OOS) vs Touro (OOS)

[myortholife]

Hello,

I would like to have some input on where to attend between UW, UNLV, Touro & LECOM.

UW:
Pros:
- Very established program
- Have all specialty programs in the SOD
- Safe area around the school
- Great faculty, numerous research opportunities, great board passing rates and based in a more well-known university
- Student body is diverse with a solid Asian community - easier to find good friends as an Asian student?
- Possibly better clinical experience (?)

Cons:
- Based in Seattle (coming from California - seems too rainy and not much to do)
- Really expensive for a state school: $80,000-$90,000 tuition for first 2 years and $66,000 tuition for last 2. They said $350K was average OOS debt (may take 2 years to establish residency and not guaranteed)
- Cost of living in Seattle is higher
- Students have to find their own patients for evaluations and have to look for their own research opportunities
- Grad students for in house specialties take most of the complex cases

UNLV
Pros:
- ~$310K average OOS debt according to them, (tuition is $100K first year but IS $60,000 after first year guaranteed)
- Based in Las Vegas (closer to home in SoCal, nice weather, low cost of living and more fun)
- Assign students patients automatically because of the population need in Las Vegas area
- Assigns their students research projects automatically
- Has many specialties in SOD
- Has a lot of breaks in the academic calendar year
- Clinic starts in 2nd year? More time to practice but could be a con too
- Students can handle some more complex specialty cases (?)

Cons:
- Not as established of a school as UW - a harder time specializing?
- Student body (Diverse which is good, but as an Asian student I'd want some Asian community - is it easy to make long-term friends?)
- Poor safety around Las Vegas area, and there is no city infrastructure besides the Strip
- Heard it was very stressful the first 2 years especially because of the addition of clinic 2nd year

LECOM
Pros:
- Cheapest ($58,000 tuition per year, lowest cost of living)
- Great clinical experience that produces general dentists without a need for GPR/AEGD
- Specialists on site but no residents, so students can handle many complex cases
- Students choose to move to PA or stay in Florida in their D4 year to gain more experience in clinic
- Great weather in Florida (besides storms) and Bradenton is generally a safe area

Cons:
- PBL learning where students need to read through textbooks themselves to understand the material and exams are based on board questions instead of lecture slides (could also be a pro because there is more free time apparently because of the self-study structure)
- Heard that some members of the class failed board exams in prior years, maybe because of the curriculum (?), but it could be because they were a newer school back around 2015
- Bradenton is next to the beach but not known as an exciting area, however it's 45min away from Tampa, 2hr away from Orlando, and 4hr away from Miami
- No in-house specialties, known for producing competent GPs (but apparently if you want to specialize the school will help you get there)
- Florida has political viewpoints very different from where I grew up, and also I am unclear on how big of an Asian community there is, but I also agree that I can make friends with many types of people

Touro
Pros:
- Recorded lectures and class attendance is not mandatory (students I talked to there said they had a lot of free time and liked it)
- Faculty that make adaptations to the school's structure based on student opinion because it is a newer school
- 45 minutes away from NYC
- Very new facilities and in general students just seem happy

Cons:
- Most expensive (~$88,000 in tuition per year, more expensive cost of living in upstate suburban NY)
- No in-house specialties, but faculty and students said that if you want to specialize they will help you get there
- Large class size - half the class is sent to New Mexico in D3/D4 while the other half stays in NY - could make it harder to stand out for specializing
- Students need to do a GPR/AEGD in New York state after they graduate because the state mandates it, unless they want to practice elsewhere

EDIT: My parents are willing to help me pay for part of my tuition costs but I will also be taking loans that will accumulate interest starting from my first year. To me, tuition is important, but location, difficulty of the program, whether students need to do a GPR/AEGD after the program, how easy it will be to potentially specialize, weather and ability to find community in the dental school class are also especially important to me.

I calculated total COA for all of these schools and it comes to around this based on information on their websites:
UW: $340734 tuition, $481483 COA [if I can get residency after my first year, $448362 COA]
UNLV: $280971 tuition, ~$450000 COA
LECOM: $240579 tuition, $391598 COA
Touro: $356385 tuition, ~$480000 COA

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[macsak]

Hello,

I would like to have some input on where to attend between UW and UNLV!

UW:
Pros:
- Very established program
- Have all specialty programs in the SOD
- Safe area around the school
- Great faculty, numerous research opportunities, great board passing rates and based in a more well-known university
- Student body is diverse with a solid Asian community - easier to find good friends as an Asian student?
- Possibly better clinical experience (?)

Cons:
- Based in Seattle (coming from California - seems too rainy and not much to do)
- Really expensive for a state school: $80,000-$90,000 tuition for first 2 years and $66,000 tuition for last 2. They said $350K was average OOS debt (may take 2 years to establish residency and not guaranteed)
- Cost of living in Seattle is higher
- Students have to find their own patients for evaluations and have to look for their own research opportunities
- Grad students for in house specialties take most of the complex cases

UNLV
Pros:
- ~$310K average OOS debt according to them, (tuition is $100K first year but IS $60,000 after first year guaranteed)
- Based in Las Vegas (closer to home in SoCal, nice weather, low cost of living and more fun)
- Assign students patients automatically because of the population need in Las Vegas area
- Assigns their students research projects automatically
- Has many specialties in SOD
- Has a lot of breaks in the academic calendar year
- Clinic starts in 2nd year? More time to practice but could be a con too
- Students can handle some more complex specialty cases (?)

Cons:
- Not as established of a school as UW - a harder time specializing?
- Student body (Diverse which is good, but as an Asian student I'd want some Asian community - is it easy to make long-term friends?)
- Poor safety around Las Vegas area
- Heard it was very stressful the first 2 years especially because of the addition of clinic 2nd year

cheapest...

 

[Ryxndek]

Would go to UNLV, UW is one of the most expensive OOS schools you can attend. You can specialize coming out of any school.

UNLV will also be warmer if that’s important.

 

[macsak]

Hello,

I would like to have some input on where to attend between UW and UNLV!

UW:
Pros:
- Very established program
- Have all specialty programs in the SOD
- Safe area around the school
- Great faculty, numerous research opportunities, great board passing rates and based in a more well-known university
- Student body is diverse with a solid Asian community - easier to find good friends as an Asian student?
- Possibly better clinical experience (?)

Cons:
- Based in Seattle (coming from California - seems too rainy and not much to do)
- Really expensive for a state school: $80,000-$90,000 tuition for first 2 years and $66,000 tuition for last 2. They said $350K was average OOS debt (may take 2 years to establish residency and not guaranteed)
- Cost of living in Seattle is higher
- Students have to find their own patients for evaluations and have to look for their own research opportunities
- Grad students for in house specialties take most of the complex cases

UNLV
Pros:
- ~$310K average OOS debt according to them, (tuition is $100K first year but IS $60,000 after first year guaranteed)
- Based in Las Vegas (closer to home in SoCal, nice weather, low cost of living and more fun)
- Assign students patients automatically because of the population need in Las Vegas area
- Assigns their students research projects automatically
- Has many specialties in SOD
- Has a lot of breaks in the academic calendar year
- Clinic starts in 2nd year? More time to practice but could be a con too
- Students can handle some more complex specialty cases (?)

Cons:
- Not as established of a school as UW - a harder time specializing?
- Student body (Diverse which is good, but as an Asian student I'd want some Asian community - is it easy to make long-term friends?)
- Poor safety around Las Vegas area
- Heard it was very stressful the first 2 years especially because of the addition of clinic 2nd year

oh, and there are tons of azns at unlv d school
plus, you don't only have to be friends with asians...

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I don't know where you get your information, but the metro area of LV has a lot of Asians. Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV Metro Area

 

[OncePreDent]

That $40k difference in tuition isn't anything major to me. I would rather pay $10k extra a year to a school that I would enjoy being at more. One huge perk if you do want to specialize and know that UW has your specialty is you should be able to do rotations or shadow there (ask the school before accepting). This could be extremely beneficial because you could get LoR, and get more experience in the specialty compared to a school that doesn't have it.

I don't know anything about UW, however, I went to UNLV, and I wasn't the most impressed. The faculty that I talked to were pretty nice, same with some of the patients that I interacted with as well. However, the clinic wasn't the nicest, and neither was the sim clinic compared to other programs that I looked at. I was also a little disappointed when I heard they only had 1-2 faculty members in the sim clinic while I was on the tour (not sure if this is still the case).

 

[macsak]

Hello,

I would like to have some input on where to attend between UW and UNLV!

UW:
Pros:
- Very established program
- Have all specialty programs in the SOD
- Safe area around the school
- Great faculty, numerous research opportunities, great board passing rates and based in a more well-known university
- Student body is diverse with a solid Asian community - easier to find good friends as an Asian student?
- Possibly better clinical experience (?)

Cons:
- Based in Seattle (coming from California - seems too rainy and not much to do)
- Really expensive for a state school: $80,000-$90,000 tuition for first 2 years and $66,000 tuition for last 2. They said $350K was average OOS debt (may take 2 years to establish residency and not guaranteed)
- Cost of living in Seattle is higher
- Students have to find their own patients for evaluations and have to look for their own research opportunities
- Grad students for in house specialties take most of the complex cases

UNLV
Pros:
- ~$310K average OOS debt according to them, (tuition is $100K first year but IS $60,000 after first year guaranteed)
- Based in Las Vegas (closer to home in SoCal, nice weather, low cost of living and more fun)
- Assign students patients automatically because of the population need in Las Vegas area
- Assigns their students research projects automatically
- Has many specialties in SOD
- Has a lot of breaks in the academic calendar year
- Clinic starts in 2nd year? More time to practice but could be a con too
- Students can handle some more complex specialty cases (?)

Cons:
- Not as established of a school as UW - a harder time specializing?
- Student body (Diverse which is good, but as an Asian student I'd want some Asian community - is it easy to make long-term friends?)
- Poor safety around Las Vegas area
- Heard it was very stressful the first 2 years especially because of the addition of clinic 2nd year

don't compare average debt, ESPECIALLY if it is reported by the schools
look ONLY at total cost of attendance...

 

[OncePreDent]

don't compare average debt, ESPECIALLY if it is reported by the schools
look ONLY at total cost of attendance...

Very good point, it is much more important to look at this.

 

[T_Doctor]

Why do you say LECOM is low cost of living? When I was there for my interview, the admissions lady straight told us that rent was $1600 a month for an apartment nearby.

 

[OncePreDent]

Why do you say LECOM is low cost of living? When I was there for my interview, the admissions lady straight told us that rent was $1600 a month for an apartment nearby.

LECOM will cost about the same as any of those programs for living. Get a roommate(s) and your rent will go significantly down as well. I just looked on Zillow and they have 3-5 bedroom homes going for $2,000-$3,000. Get some roommates and live for under $1,000 a month. Just go to Zillow and look at the places around the area of the school to get a good idea of the cost of living.