I received quite a few requests asking me to elaborate. I wasn't trying to be all enigmatic; I just didn't want to go bashing or praising schools all over the place.
But anyway, I'm a Massachusetts resident, so I was thrilled to be visiting my "in-state" school (New Englanders get discounted admission since there's no other public school!), and I had heard amazing things about it.
This is going to sound petty, but hear me out: I was terribly disappointed with the setting and environment. What I've learned from my interviews is that there is no program so poorly organized that it will NOT prepare you to be a dentist. Some aim for sending you right into private practice, others aim for a strong general background so that you can go into specialties with ease, others push right for top specialties from the beginning, etc. etc. But many schools are similar in that you can make what you want to within them, just like any place. So what I find VERY important, is to think of which dental school building I'd be content in for 4 years! I mean, we'll be standing in these same labs, classrooms, cafeterias, for a long, long time. So I am paying close attention to aesthetic things like lighting, windows, cleanliness, functional things like layout, facilities, closeness to everything, and personality things such as student and faculty dynamics, general happiness, comraderie, etc. Because as we all know from undergrad, you forget what school you're going to a few weeks into your first year. Your environment makes the difference!
So, that said, I didn't like the building. None of the rooms I saw, including the interview room, most offices, some labs, and the clinics, had windows!! And there was only fluorescent lighting. For those who don't know, it is in an enormous concrete building that houses a hospital, medical school, and dental school. The whole place felt somewhat like a hotel, with no feeling of a dental community or campus. It's great to be so close to so many clinical things happening, but I felt like I would have become lost in the shuffle and that I was only a visitor. I KNOW I'm going to get bashed by UConn students who will write and say that there's a rich community, but remember, I only had a few hours to see the place and compare it with others!!
Also, if I may say a few words about the academics itself (and I know I'll get more angry remarks, so I apoligize now for any offense I cause), I felt that UConn has a massive inferiority complex. And they don't need one!!!!!!! They've always had one of the BEST programs around, but the Dean gave a terribly arrogant introduction....he kept saying things like "And of course few schools can boast that they get 75% of the people applying to each specialty into their first choice. Now let's see...last year...what was that again? Oh right, we fitted 100% of our potential ortho specialists into their #1 pick! I forgot!" and presented other stats in the same way. He would constantly compare UConn to other schools, and I felt very uncomfortable, like a businessman was trying to sell me something I didn't want. Perhaps that's just him, but UConn has recently changed a lot about their curriculum that matches other schools, and it seems like they suddenly got concerned about adding more when they had a fine thing already, and it results in them giving up other things. Like they constantly say the phrase "extremely rigorous curriculum"....of course it is! It's dental school! But they feel the need to brag that their students are stressed out...both the faculty and the students said this. Perhaps they don't feel that they're providing enough if the students are NOT stressed, and I KNOW that every student can balance his or her life, but it just all didn't seem necessary. They put their students through more class time, add PBL on top of that, community service, extra dental classes above the medical classes, lots of lab work, etc. etc. I'm noticing differences between schools that let their students go into as much depth as they want and those that feel like that want to prove that they are effective to the outside world.
OK, other smaller problems are things like: using the phrase "produce great dentists" (sounded somewhat like a factory), the Hartford area (I'm from nearby, so I know the place, and there's really very little of a student community or activities), lack of public transportation, fewer on-site specialty clinics
There were some significant PROS, so I definitely want to give the school justice: They have a great philosphy of creating excellent general dentists regardless of whether or not you go into a specialty, saying that all specialists need to first be generalists. They have an optional chance to do an implant! (Wooo!!), they student tour guides were very kind and friendly, CT has a great Medicaid program so that you can do more than extractions for those on welfare, GREAT board scores (#1 in some years), very inexpensive (You can become a CT resident after one year), and pretty cheap student housing nearby.
So again, this is MY opinion, and I know that everyone school is an amazing fit for some and a poor one for others. Hell, don't kill me if I end up GOING to UConn!! I'm having a terrible time weighing one school over another. This is just how my opinion changed once I went....
i think i woke up thinking about them
