which to choose marquette, tuft, pitt

Mayra,

I can help you out for Marquette University School of Dentistry (MUSOD) a little:

I was there the last summer for two months doing research and participating in their summer enrichment program. In my opinion, here are the positives and negatives:

POSITIVES:

1) You'll have diverse classmates. Since it's a private school, MUSOD recruits heavily on Minorities (Hispanics, African Americans, and American Indians). Out of the three groups that dental schools consider as minorities, it seems like Hispanic background is enrolled more. Diversity is prominent!

2) Heavily clinical emphasized dental school! Hands on, hands on, and more hands on! Not a research school, but MUSOD just recently hired a new research DEAN from Texas who plan on making MUSOD a stronger research school! Education stressed in clinics.

3) BRAND SPANKING NEW dental school/building starting in Fall 2002! MUSOD will be the newest dental building in the US. Although UNLV has their new dental program with its inaugural class starting fall 2002, but they do not have their dental building yet! If you think Nova had amazing facilities, MUSOD will top that!! BRAND SPANKING NEW dental building!

4) The city of Milwaukee! It's beautiful in the summer time! You'll love the beach area! Yes, there is a HUGE beach, even in the midwest region of the US!! Also, you're right next to Chicago, 45 minutes away, and you're in a nice sized population city where you can enjoy culture, diversity, and other fun stuff. Milwaukee is known as the city of "FESTIVALS"! In the summer, you'll have a different festival every week, Asian fest, Italian fest, Summer fest (BIG CONCERT, drunk fest), Gay fest, African American fest, and the list goes on! A great social city!

NEGATIVES:

1) Price ($) of attendance! MUSOD is pricy! AS other private dental schools, it's cost of attendance is over $200,000.00. I believe it's around $240,000.00 for 4 years.

2) Location of school. Some people would say it's in the GHETTOs, but personally, I don't think so at all. But MUSOD is right on the out skirts of Downtown Milwaukee so you'll have some common sense to apply at around 10 PM. DO NOT walk around by yourself type of thing.

3) A new curriculum style! MUSOD is starting to integrate PROBLEM BASED LEARNING (PBL) into their dental curriculum start next fall with their new dental building! Personally I enjoy PBL, but for some, it may be a negative! Definitely look into this factor and talk to other students more! The thing that I learned during my summer program at MUSOD, is that PBL is not only fun, but it will also provide you the opportunity to be in the clinics earlier and get exposed to patients verse the old traditional lecture curriculum! Again, I like it, but you may not.

4) Specialty exposure. While I was there shadowing/observing at MUSOD, I do hear complaints from 4th year students that they don't get enough specialty exposure. Since MUSOD has graduate programs, 4th years tend to compete with the graduate students for those patients with the appropriate oral conditions for exposure and training! Again, I would do more research on this factor for yourself, I'm just stating my experience from 4th year students.

Hope my personal experience helped you a bit, if not, try to contact BIG_POPPA in the dental forum! He's currently a 4th year at MUSOD, I'm sure he'll be glad to help you out and share more of MUSOD with you.

 

Yah zzz pretty much hit the nail right on. As a senior I pretty much feel prepared to start practicing except endo. With the grad endo program, you have to pretty much compete with them to get cases. Up until a week ago I had only done one root canal, but now I have finished 2 more, having done now one canine, one premolar and one molar.

Lots of removable cases and operative, some people had a lot of crown and bridge, I mainly had operative and dentures. Here's a breakdown of what I have done in 2 years of clinic:

over 70 extractions some surgical
70 - 80 operative cases (amalagam and resins)
5 crowns
1 bridge
4 dentures
2 partials
lots of perio, cleanings and root planning
3 root canals (and that is good for my class!!)

Thats pretty average for my class, some did more.

 

What exactly is PBL. I know its "problem based learning", but what sets it apart from the traditional methods. Any examples?

 

I am not american, so I don't get financial aid through the federal goverment. I live in the abbotsford appartments its about 405 a month for a large studio; however, with the new school this may be a little far.

Opportunities for dentists are good in wisconsin, I wouldn't let cost deter you too much if you like the program.\

Personally, I wish marquette had focused less on lab work and more on clinical skills in the first 2 years. Do I really have to know how to make a crown, bridge and denture in order to tell if the one you get back from the lab is good or not? I don't think so, but I should know how to seat a crown and look for trouble spots when crown don't seat.

I think this has all changed, I don't know what the new curriculum is like but I don't think the PBL will start next year. I saw a rough outline of a schedule in a seminar room and it looks pretty similar to what I went through with a few changes - the biggest being dental rounds. (presenting cases and getting asked questions about them).

The area is not too bad, but I would avoid walking alone in the dark, although I have done it. There were a few muggings last year, a senior dental student but he was not injured and this year there was a problem with car vandalisms, break ins and thefts. If you are street smart you should be ok, its really not that bad.

 

I decided to go to Tufts for the following reasons:
1. The location; Boston, I think thats the city I would love to spend my 4 yrs, as it has a lot to give.
2. The facilities at the school were phenomenal, so that does lead me to choose this school.
3. People were very nice, I have never seen an Associate Dean knowing every students name. Mark Gonthier is awesome.
4. The program itself is been ranked in top 10 for last 10 years. It was #5 last year.
5. You will take NERB's that will enable you to practice in I think 14 states. They also teach for CA boards, so...
6. Good clinical school, so it would help me in practicing dentistry with a ease.
That are some of the good things that made me choose Tufts.
I think Pitt has all the same choices, except the location. Also Pitt is a state school, so a little less tuition, and small class size is also a big plus for Pitt.
I have no idea about Marquette though.
Hope this helps.
Viraj