wanting to hear dental students' thoughts on having to choose...

[Career Change]

...between school reputation & being near friends/family

hello, so i'm sorry to post another "which school should I go to?" kinda thread, but here's my version of it.

i'm not looking for info on a couple of schools insomuch as i'm hoping to hear input/advice on how to weigh some tradeoffs.

i suppose if you've read up on other threads, you'd know where i've gotten in so i'll just list it here & what i've gathered so far.

i got into UPenn awhile ago - totally psyched
i just got into USC - and I"m from SoCal

so here seems to be some issues:

Penn's got a better reputation; it'd be cool to get outta Cali for a bit
USC's keeps me near friends n family; prob get better connections if I want to practice here.

So while I hear that Penn's reputation might be better; I also hear that once you're practicing, it doesn't matter where you went to dschool (which makes sense, very few ppl can say where their dentist went)

SO - what I'd like to hear from ppl here would be along the lines of:

1. how much "reputation" trade off would you make for being near friends/family?
2. if USC's has fallen that much, will it affect practicing afterward?
(or has it really fallen that much? i've heard greatly varying thoughts)
3. how many of you find support from w/in dschool? without?
4. for the more outspoken ones, where would you go & why?

anyways, if you've read this far & have any thoughts, it'll be greatly appreciated.

i've got 7 days left to decide...

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[Lesley]

...between school reputation & being near friends/family

hello, so i'm sorry to post another "which school should I go to?" kinda thread, but here's my version of it.

i'm not looking for info on a couple of schools insomuch as i'm hoping to hear input/advice on how to weigh some tradeoffs.

i suppose if you've read up on other threads, you'd know where i've gotten in so i'll just list it here & what i've gathered so far.

i got into UPenn awhile ago - totally psyched
i just got into USC - and I"m from SoCal

so here seems to be some issues:

Penn's got a better reputation; it'd be cool to get outta Cali for a bit
USC's keeps me near friends n family; prob get better connections if I want to practice here.

So while I hear that Penn's reputation might be better; I also hear that once you're practicing, it doesn't matter where you went to dschool (which makes sense, very few ppl can say where their dentist went)

SO - what I'd like to hear from ppl here would be along the lines of:

1. how much "reputation" trade off would you make for being near friends/family?
2. if USC's has fallen that much, will it affect practicing afterward?
(or has it really fallen that much? i've heard greatly varying thoughts)
3. how many of you find support from w/in dschool? without?
4. for the more outspoken ones, where would you go & why?

anyways, if you've read this far & have any thoughts, it'll be greatly appreciated.

i've got 7 days left to decide...

If the costs are about the same and you are close to your family, I would chose CA. The weather is much nicer in CA. Philadelphia is nice when it's a nice spring, summer or fall day, but they seem to getting fewer and far between. If you have family in CA, you would not have all the traveling issues and expenses of flying from the east to west coast and back again. You can always visit Phila! If you plan on practicing in CA you will be preparing for and taking the boards you need. As far as reputation, I'm not sure, if you plan on specializing maybe UPenn would be better, but class rank is going to be a much bigger factor. In the end, go with the school and location you prefer, you will be getting a good education at either school. Just my opinions. Good Luck deciding!

 

[jmjfb23]

I would base this decision on where you want to spend the next 4 years and possibly where you want to practice. If you have lived in so cal all of your life, you might regret this chance to go and try something different, if you went out of state for undergrad then maybe you already got that out of your system (or maybe you never had the desire to try living somewhere new in your system). If there is a big price break for staying in state (not sure), then stay for sure, its not worth paying twice as much just to try something new. If you plan practicing in cali, then maybe it is better to make connections there, but probably not that important. I'm guessing even going out of state it is still very possible to come back and get a good job, alot of graduates do this every year. So basically, if all else is equal, go where you want to spend the next 4 years, which ever school/city you felt all warm and tingly about. Just my 2 cents, I'm sure plenty will have other opinions.

 

[armorshell]

Here's some improtant questions you can ask yourself to help make your decision:
1. How much faith do I have in myself to do well under PBL?
2. Where do I want to practice?
3. How much are the schools going to cost me?
4. What do I think about class size?
5. What do I think about the facilities?
6. What do I think about my future classmates? (Might want to surf SDN for the class threads and check out facebook, knowing who my classmates were going to be made my choice a lot easier)

Remember, even if you do plan to practice in cali, there's hundreds of people every year who go east for training and come back to practice. If you plan to go on to residency training, this may even be a moot point. Good luck with your decision.

 

[PChemGrad]

Have you always lived in Cali?
I feel one aspect of getting a well rounded education involves experiencing different aspect of the US. Living in different parts of the US will allow you to grow as a person. I know I had to look into this when applying to grad school, it came down to 3 schools for me, CU Boulder, UCLA or UCSD, since I grew up and went to undergrad in Cali, i decided to move to Colorado to try a different part of the US, since when I get older it will be hard to do this. Now I am going to d-school in Philly (I did get into USC as well) this Fall and will enjoy it. But I want to end up back in Cali when all is said and done. I just feel it will help me grow as a person (and all that bull****), but i will be able to experience a different part of the US, and do something i will never have a chance to do again.

I would say go with the program you like the best, seeing which one suits you better and if you feel you enjoy both go with UPenn, just to experience something different for a change. it is only 4 years. besides when you move back to cali you will learn to love it even more.

 

[2006Grad]

...between school reputation & being near friends/family

hello, so i'm sorry to post another "which school should I go to?" kinda thread, but here's my version of it.

i'm not looking for info on a couple of schools insomuch as i'm hoping to hear input/advice on how to weigh some tradeoffs.

i suppose if you've read up on other threads, you'd know where i've gotten in so i'll just list it here & what i've gathered so far.

i got into UPenn awhile ago - totally psyched
i just got into USC - and I"m from SoCal




so here seems to be some issues:

Penn's got a better reputation; it'd be cool to get outta Cali for a bit
USC's keeps me near friends n family; prob get better connections if I want to practice here.

So while I hear that Penn's reputation might be better; I also hear that once you're practicing, it doesn't matter where you went to dschool (which makes sense, very few ppl can say where their dentist went)

SO - what I'd like to hear from ppl here would be along the lines of:

1. how much "reputation" trade off would you make for being near friends/family?
2. if USC's has fallen that much, will it affect practicing afterward?
(or has it really fallen that much? i've heard greatly varying thoughts)
3. how many of you find support from w/in dschool? without?
4. for the more outspoken ones, where would you go & why?

anyways, if you've read this far & have any thoughts, it'll be greatly appreciated.

i've got 7 days left to decide...

Thats an easy choice. Cali vs. Penn. Well Cali has a lot of good looking people and Penn. doesn't. In Cali you dont have to pay to get access to a beach but in Penn you have the Deleware river or you can drive to NJ and pay to access the beach. And do I have to mention the CarbideConnection? After watching that it should be an easy choice. USC all the way. (I was not payed for this endorsement and I do not attend either school)

 

[CranioFacial]

Penn for the venue change...purely. I would not even consider reputation...especially if you know that you want to be GD. You can always opt to move if you specialize. Cali would be my choice for location, family, "connections". My only question you may have to ask yourself is being close to family going to be a distraction or an aide to your studies. Anyway, those are my random thoughts.

 

[armorshell]

Thats an easy choice. Cali vs. Penn. Well Cali has a lot of good looking people and Penn. doesn't. In Cali you dont have to pay to get access to a beach but in Penn you have the Deleware river or you can drive to NJ and pay to access the beach. And do I have to mention the CarbideConnection? After watching that it should be an easy choice. USC all the way. (I was not payed for this endorsement and I do not attend either school)

Nothing like choosing your dental school based on criteria completely unrelated to dentistry.

 

[Flyguy]

g

 

[Cyclysm]

Not sure if anyone has said this but here is what i suggest: go where you will be happiest. A good reputation does not make up for being miserable for 4 years. I fully believe that being happy comes out in your work. Unhappy students, I believe, do not thrive as much as happy students.

 

[pacbum]

honestly, i highly considered going to penn over ucla. as great of a school as ucla is, i wanted to go to penn for a venue change, as someone said above. i even considered foregoing to difference in prices, because to me, life is not about your final goal, it's the pursuit of the goal. if i weren't to go away for dental school, chances are i'd stay here forever, and i really think that it's worth it to explore a little more. everyone was telling me ucla was the logical choice because it was close to home and such a great school. but i simply didn't want to restrict myself to california my whole life. in talking to many dental students that went to penn while they were orginally from california, they all recommended a change of scene. they said they loved it there, and were able to make great friends because they were out of their comfort zone. i recommend that...get out of your comfort zone and explore. forget about reputation. doesn't mean too much in the real world. i will say though that penn seems to have many more opportunities than usc. ucla and penn were pretty equivalent in that respect, so i didn't have to think about that.

so i would say chose penn hands down over usc. they are 4 years of an unforgettable experience, and the class of 2011 seems like a great group of people. academically, i think penn is a better and more sound dental school. if you are worried about being out of your comfort zone, don't be. it's your chance to experience something new, and love it. plus penn is still cheaper than usc, so in terms of the cost of traveling back and forth, don't worry about that.

in the end, i chose ucla, not because i wanted to stay in my comfort zone, but because it was much cheaper, and an equally great, if not better program (and the class of 2011 is a great group of people!). i couldn't give that up just because i wanted a change of scene. plus i already had the chance to experience life outside of california (although for a short while). but i don't feel that usc has the opportunities and experiences available at penn, and i think despite the benefit of being close to home, usc will not provide you with as good of a dental experience.

at the end, the choice is up to you. but from my experience, you go away, have an amazing time, come back, and everything is still the same at home. you stay here, and still nothing has changes at all. i'd go with the former.

 

[johntara04]

SO - what I'd like to hear from ppl here would be along the lines of:

1. how much "reputation" trade off would you make for being near friends/family?

No reputation would be worth it for me. Reputation doesn't mean squat in dentistry, and from what I've heard, USC has a really good clinic, which is what you are paying $200,000 for. If you can't do it in the clinic, you can't make money. So, in my opinion, reputation is not worth it.

2. if USC's has fallen that much, will it affect practicing afterward?

I don't think USC has fallen at all, and NO it won't affect your practice at all.

3. how many of you find support from w/in dschool? without?

You will find support if you want to, but again, if I were you, I would stay home.
4. for the more outspoken ones, where would you go & why?

anyways, if you've read this far & have any thoughts, it'll be greatly appreciated.

i've got 7 days left to decide...

..

 

[shabu2]

I agree with everyone. Reputation does not matter. You would give up livin in SoCal to go to Philly? Stay west. Also close proximity to family and friends is a luxury you won't realize until second year.

 

[KOM]

Depends how good of a relationship you have with your family. For me, the best thing in the world was to get out of dodge for a while and get away from a lot of negative influences...Now that things have mellowed down I tend to think that family might provide a very comforting and supportive lifeline.

 

[Lesley]

I think you should go where you will be happiest, where you will like and enjoy your environment, good weather never hurts too! If you can go inexpensive that's great too. Enjoying your surroundings while you are in school will go a long way to make school enjoyable. I was browsing the dental sites and recently stumbled upon this. I know I'm old and all of these prices seem off the wall to me, but when costs for out of state students at state schools are over $90,000 for one year, it really piques my interest. At least U of Minn is upfront about their costs. As I recall, Minn has a large percentage of out of state students. Have a nice day everyone.

http://www.dentistry.umn.edu/img/assets/20705/fees_2007.pdf

 

[sumluck]

I think you should go where you will be happiest, where you will like and enjoy your enviornment, good weather never hurts too! If you can go inexpensive that's great too. Enjoying your surroundings while you are in school will go a long way to make school enjoyable. I was browsing the dental sites and recently stumbled upon this. I know I'm old and all of these prices seem off the wall to me, but when costs for out of state students at state schools are over $90,000 for one year, it really piques my interest. At least U of Minn is upfront about their costs. As I recall, Minn has a large percentage of out of state students. Have a nice day everyone.

http://www.dentistry.umn.edu/img/assets/20705/fees_2007.pdf

OMG, that is insane for a state school. Even the resident costs are exorbitant ~ 220K! The out of state prices are around 320K...this rivals USC, NYU, Pacific, etc. I'm not old and these prices are definitely off the wall to me. To the OP, try experiencing something new. Since they are roughly the same price that is not an issue really (unless you also got into a cheaper school), and like everyone said, you can always come back to CA. Good luck

 

[thedentist2005]

i guess when u chose a school it all comes down to looks right 06 grad (SARCASTIC) i guess everything comes down to the best looking people lol usc has the best loking while the penn doesnt!!!

 

[2006Grad]

i guess when u chose a school it all comes down to looks right 06 grad (SARCASTIC) i guess everything comes down to the best looking people lol usc has the best loking while the penn doesnt!!!

Sad but so true

 

[Career Change]

for all who've posted, thanks for the input!

i think now i've just gotta make some decisions. (of course, if any new readers have input, i'm still open to more thoughts!)

i'll admit, however that the level of complaints at usc has me concerned (despite those who come to their defense). i'm curious whether every school has that (and these few at usc just happen to be outspoken) or if there really is a worse prob at usc than at other schools...

think i'll start another thread...haha