Where is the last official ranking of dental schools?

[RU1992]

Anyone know where I could find the last official ranking of dental schools by the US News and World Report? I know its back in the late 90's, but I can't seem to find it. It would still give me a good idea as to what schools were considered elite a few years back.

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[NDPitch]

I know it's been said before, but there are no official dental school rankings. Even if you can find old "rankings", I wouldn't look too much into them.

That said, I wasn't able to find much of anything on what you're looking for.

 

[pinpoint212]

I would find rankings based on best facilities, professors, and living.

 

[RU1992]

I'd prefer a ranking based on the amount of students that graduate and feel competent enough to practice.

 

[Zbtb7]

I'd prefer a ranking based on the amount of students that graduate and feel competent enough to practice.

Schools that are "prestigious" tend to be didactic-focused at the expense of clinical preparation. Many graduates of Harvard, Columbia, Penn, and UConn go into GPR/AEGD residencies if they don't specialize rather than enter private practice. Schools that give excellent clinical preparation as general dentists are schools like Temple (low percentage of the class enter GPA/AEGD residencies).

Schools usually provide these statistics when you go interview. I don't know if there's a compiled source of this information for all schools. Your best bet is to ask during your interviews what percentage of the class does general practice based residencies after graduating. If the percentage is high, then more of their graduates are not confident enough in their hand skills to enter private practice.

The best ranking of schools is the one you make after you interview at several schools and assess their strengths and weaknesses. Then you can pick off the top of your list based on your acceptances.

Also, please stop double posting.

 

[RU1992]

I didn't double post. If you were to just take the time to read into my two posts, they are completely different. One post asks about the latest ranking of the dental schools by the US News and World Report, while the other post asks if there are statistics related to how many students enter private practice upon graduating from dental school. It doesn't take much to understand that these are two completely different topics. But none the less, thanks for your input.

 

[UltimateHombre]

I'd prefer a ranking based on the amount of students that graduate and feel competent enough to practice.

There is no ranking on something like this... because most often, the feeling of competence is a function of the individual, not the school. Ie: Student A might have excellent hand skill and get lucky with a more variety of procedures in the clinic, Student B might have very shaky hands and get mostly easy procedures in clinic.

It can also not be measured by the number of students who pursue a GPR/AEGD, because often these students will want further training in implants, molar endo, or surgical extractions. These procedures are often very rare to find in dschool, simply because there is not as many, or they get handed off to residents. They could also be fulfilling a state licensure requirement, that requires one to have a GPR to practice Ie: New York

When there was rankings back in the day they were usually based off research the dental school put out and status of professors, etc. That is why traditionally you had schools like: Harvard, Penn, Columbia, Michigan, etc high in the rankings. However, dental schools realized there there is much more to dental education than those things, not to mention dentistry has always been much less research oriented than medicine/science, thus they wanted no part of US News and Newsweek rankings. There is no way to really measure "clinical" strength of a school, its facilities, and how good it's staff is.

 

[UltimateHombre]

However, when you are trying to measure clinical strengths of a program... here are some things to think about when trying to compare schools. Mostly anecdotal... but still valid:

1. Average number of procedures (from talking to a dstudents)
- Especially advanced proceduers: surgical extractions, crown/bridge, endo, fixed/removable prosth
2. Size of patient pool
3. Location of school (usually ghetto is a good thing)
4. If you have to schedule your own patients or not
5. Number of chairs in clinic vs. number of students
6. When your start in the pre-clinic/sim clinic? D1, D2? How many times a week?
7. # of available off site rotations
8. Availability of specialty programs (could be good or bad)
9. # of students who proceed with a GPR/AEGD after graduation
10. General reputation amongst dental community
11. Diversity of cases and the frequency in which they are seen

These don't mean everything, but will point to the clinical strength of the school.

 

[dichloromethane]

However, when you are trying to measure clinical strengths of a program... here are some things to think about when trying to compare schools. Mostly anecdotal... but still valid:

1. Average number of procedures (from talking to a dstudents)
- Especially advanced proceduers: surgical extractions, crown/bridge, endo, fixed/removable prosth
2. Size of patient pool
3. Location of school (usually ghetto is a good thing)
4. If you have to schedule your own patients or not
5. Number of chairs in clinic vs. number of students
6. When your start in the pre-clinic/sim clinic? D1, D2? How many times a week?
7. # of available off site rotations
8. Availability of specialty programs (could be good or bad)
9. # of students who proceed with a GPR/AEGD after graduation
10. General reputation amongst dental community
11. Diversity of cases and the frequency in which they are seen

These don't mean everything, but will point to the clinical strength of the school.

So back to the OP, does a ranking like this exist?

 

[jpark1800]

However, when you are trying to measure clinical strengths of a program... here are some things to think about when trying to compare schools. Mostly anecdotal... but still valid:

1. Average number of procedures (from talking to a dstudents)
- Especially advanced proceduers: surgical extractions, crown/bridge, endo, fixed/removable prosth
2. Size of patient pool
3. Location of school (usually ghetto is a good thing)
4. If you have to schedule your own patients or not
5. Number of chairs in clinic vs. number of students
6. When your start in the pre-clinic/sim clinic? D1, D2? How many times a week?
7. # of available off site rotations
8. Availability of specialty programs (could be good or bad)
9. # of students who proceed with a GPR/AEGD after graduation
10. General reputation amongst dental community
11. Diversity of cases and the frequency in which they are seen

These don't mean everything, but will point to the clinical strength of the school.

This is good. Can't really think of how else you could measure a school. Obviously if you are interested in research or have the grades for Harvard then situation changes a little. But as I like to tell people: If Harvard is within 40-50K of your cheapest alternative, go to Harvard. If you have an alternative 50K+ cheaper than Harvard, go to the cheaper one.

 

[UltimateHombre]

So back to the OP, does a ranking like this exist?

No rankings exist for dental school period.

It's nearly impossible to compile all those statistics into something quantifiable and meaningful. So you just have to gather them on your own and try and use your best judgment.