Hey waiting,
AUGHH!!! i get different opinions from every single person i talk to... whether it be pre-dents, dentists, dental school students, or "normal" people in general. I'm going nuts over this UCLA/UCSF thing. I can totally see why UCSF would be a good choice for you... seeing that your family might be relocating there. Also, if you plan on living in sf/bay area later on, then it might be a good idea to go to school there to get used to it. As for me, i'm from the bay area, so i've been here all my life and totally see myself settling down here as a dentist. That's why UCLA is so appealing, because it gives me an excused to get away for four years, knowing that i'll be back in the bay area after that. I've also experienced SF and the people, clubs, etc... and find LA exciting everytime I visit. The Pass/Fail system still looks appealing to me, despite the whole EPR thing... I just think it alleviates SOME of the competition and stress. But i definitely agree with you that UCSF is in a class of it's own... but i'm still trying to decide whether or not that's enough to get me to go. A student there mentioned to me that their facilities are better than LA's... not sure if it's true... looked comparable to me. Still undecided and will remain that way til I near jan. 15th
I'm also visiting UCLA and UCSF again this break to get a "better look" at the schools. Let me know what you decide to do as well!
caligirl,
What's up? So if you get in to UCSF will you be going there over UOP and U. Mich? I have to admit that i LOVED u. of mich when we went there for our interview. I loved their curriculum, facilities (altho the preclinical lab is pretty old)... and the overall atmosphere of the students and campus. However, i've been born and raised in "sunny" california my entire life, and couldn't even stand the low 40 degree weather while i was there (and i heard it was supposedly great weather for that time of year!). In short, I could not survive four years of extreme coldness. As for UOP, coming from their undergrad institution, i feel it almost my duty to clarify the whole 3 year thing. The year-round school year gets the didactics done with earlier than other schools... they don't "cut" out any courses or condense them (a friend of mine at UCLA compared lecture and lab times for these courses to his own schedule and found that both schools allocate the same amount of time to each science course). I don't know specifically how they do it, but they manage to cover it all. So if that's your only concern, i say go to UOP... it's in california so you don't have to move very far, and it'll make it a whole lot easier if you plan on working in cali later on. The major drawback I had with UOP was just their tuition, and the fact that they have fewer students getting into specialties than the UC's (something I kind of want to keep in mind). Hope this helps... lemme know how it all works out
