WesternU vs. Loma Linda

[greentiger1]

Hey SDN,

I'm looking for some thoughts from y'all. I'm deciding between these two schools at the moment and would to get your input. Is the quality of each program substantially different? I see myself fitting well in both schools in terms of culture and vision, and I know the cost of attendance is similar, but I would like to know if the more established LLU program is worth it over WesternU. Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[lemoncurry]

I'm biased, but the program at LLU is excellent.

 

[AlecGaro]

My uncle can also vouch for LLU's dental school. He said the clinical experience and curriculum is fantastic. Also as you said LLU is a much more well established program as a dental school so I could imagine it would be easier to get into residency programs later.

 

[lemoncurry]

You will get as much exposure to procedures as you're willing to put in the time for and schmooze with profs. Tons of opportunities for service learning, both local and abroad. I know the clinic and radiology depts have been renovated.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[greentiger1]

My uncle can also vouch for LLU's dental school. He said the clinical experience and curriculum is fantastic. Also as you said LLU is a much more well established program as a dental school so I could imagine it would be easier to get into residency programs later.

You will get as much exposure to procedures as you're willing to put in the time for and schmooze with profs. Tons of opportunities for service learning, both local and abroad. I know the clinic and radiology depts have been renovated.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

Thank you both for your input! I'd love to hear input about WesternU if anyone out there is willing to share 🙂

 

[Hi Im Dent]

I'm a first year at WesternU so it'd be better if there were upperclassmen or graduates who could give input too but the school is great especially if you prefer a block curriculum over a traditional curriculum. For example, I only have 2 finals next week since our curriculum forces you to finish a full course in 6 weeks rather than use a full term to complete a course.

We also have a lot of exposure to community clinics due to how 3rd and 4th year works. There are numerous offsite rotations as well as externships in your 4th year all over California. A lot of our 4th years are very confident in their skills right now. As for residencies and specialties, I know that last year's class had a lot of people go off into general residencies as well as a few go into perio, ortho, and 1 into OMFS. Considering the class size is 70, I'd say WesternU isn't really disadvantaged when trying to specialize. In fact we have a lot of faculty who are specialized including Prost, Ortho, OMFS, and Endo even though we don't have our own specialty programs.

Also we have a few faculty who graduated from LLU if that matters too as well as USC and UoP. It's very diverse.

Let me know if you have more specific questions, I'm just naming general things I can think of hahaha.