I was just looking at Pre-Dents and the poll on SDN and it made me wonder - why is Pacific so popular? Is it people's 1st choice or a safety?
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Why Pacific?
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Three years is probably appealing to some (although not necessarily the case for everyone).
Pacific usually gets a ton of applicants and fills up its seats very fast so i don't think it would be considered a safety. 😉
3 years is the biggest reason for most people, but mostly it's the awesome people at the school. When you go there, people go out of their way to help you and everyone seems to be in a good mood even when they have tests all week long. Plus they have a pretty cool group of alumni and grat alumni events...including alumni gatherings that will also provide CE credits that cover almost half the credits you need in a 2 year period. It costs a lot of money, but the school gives a lot to you as well.
The thing that sold me a while back was meeting dentists from various schools. Everyone from UOP has only had the best things to say about the school. dentists who graduated from other schools, NYU, Nova, USc, etc. often have good things to say about the schools, but then they will add comments like:
"No matter what school you go to, you're going to hate it most of the time, you just have to get through it."
"I spent so many more hours doing lab work that other schools didn't force their dental students to do."
"I wouldn't go to the school now ofr give a penny to them."
after you meet enough people and alumni, you start to get a sense of which schools treat their students with respect.
The thing that sold me a while back was meeting dentists from various schools. Everyone from UOP has only had the best things to say about the school. dentists who graduated from other schools, NYU, Nova, USc, etc. often have good things to say about the schools, but then they will add comments like:
"No matter what school you go to, you're going to hate it most of the time, you just have to get through it."
"I spent so many more hours doing lab work that other schools didn't force their dental students to do."
"I wouldn't go to the school now ofr give a penny to them."
after you meet enough people and alumni, you start to get a sense of which schools treat their students with respect.
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Is the 3 year curriculum intimidating to anyone else? I mean, dental school is demanding enough, how do you go about cutting a year off what every other dental school has deemed necessary for proper dental education? 
University of Pacific is probably my number one for next years cycle, but I'm a bit worried that I won't be able to handle the load.
Most students say they get excellent clinical training, which is what I want. I'm just amazed that students make it out of their sane, the fact that most say they enjoyed it is the icing on the cake!!! They must be doing something right.
NOw, if only I can get a 27 on the DAT, I will be shoe-in.
University of Pacific is probably my number one for next years cycle, but I'm a bit worried that I won't be able to handle the load.
Most students say they get excellent clinical training, which is what I want. I'm just amazed that students make it out of their sane, the fact that most say they enjoyed it is the icing on the cake!!! They must be doing something right.
NOw, if only I can get a 27 on the DAT, I will be shoe-in.
Pacific is my first choice for the above mentioned reasons. Price is also not a big deal if you think about the totals, not the actual tuition. You have to adjust it to 4 years to compare to other shools. So Pacific adds up to more than $200,000 over 3 years of tuition...but the "4th year" you make ~$100,000. So after 4 years the average is very competitive with any other school public or private, plus you got to start your life a year earlier than everyone else. That's just my opinion, but hey, I'm 29 and to me every year counts!🙂
Is the 3 year curriculum intimidating to anyone else? I mean, dental school is demanding enough, how do you go about cutting a year off what every other dental school has deemed necessary for proper dental education?
University of Pacific is probably my number one for next years cycle, but I'm a bit worried that I won't be able to handle the load.
The 3 years intimidates me. I applied because like you guys have said, it seems like they respect their students and people have a good experience there. But yeah, 3 years...
Are they really just all about DAT score?
The 3 years intimidates me. I applied because like you guys have said, it seems like they respect their students and people have a good experience there. But yeah, 3 years...
Not all. like most schools, they consider your overal package. course, they seem to have a strong emphasis on the DAT and the PAT.
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If you want to become a GP it's a good school but chances are going to UoP will not enhance your odds of getting into a good specialty program
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Which is perfect!! My head is big enough, if I specialize I will lose all touch with the world. 🙂
Seriously, I am not going to specialize. Perhaps take extra courses in cosmetic dentistry and learn a few extra things after getting out of school, but specialties are for the gunners. I want to be a good general dentist, please my patients and enjoy life. So UoP is perfect for someone like me. Of course I don't think you would be worse off if you graduated in the top 5% of your class.
I'm assuming you would still be competitive for specialty programs, especially if you do really well on the california boards!!!
Won't state boards be obsolete by the time we are taking boards? God I hope so. Here's to standardization 😀
I've heard that before about specializing, which worries me because I would like to have that option. There seems to be some bias against UoP from established dentists and people representing other schools. I've heard a lot of them say they don't think you can get a proper education in 3 years. You think thats what the specialty adcoms think too?
I've heard that before about specializing, which worries me because I would like to have that option. There seems to be some bias against UoP from established dentists and people representing other schools. I've heard a lot of them say they don't think you can get a proper education in 3 years. You think thats what the specialty adcoms think too?
There is always a bias against things that are different...My dentist went to UOP and she's awesome, does great work. You hear the complaint all the time about new dentists from older dentists about the new dentists coming out of dental school and being slow or doing bad clinical work, it's not just UOP students you hear this about...but generally, UOP is considered a good clinical school.
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There are quite a few of my classmates choose UCSF over UOP. The two reasons are:
1. They are concerned about the fast pace at Pacific.
2. They want to look better on paper (for specializing)
Pacific is a great school. All the people I know over there and graduated enjoy the environment. Their schedule is crazy. They do not cut a whole year. They start early and have less summer time (I think). Regardless, their students still have time to enjoy the education. I don't see how. Maybe they are too smart to start with. My dentist, however, said he didn't have enough time to eat. He loved it regardless. They pump out some solid clinicians too.
1. They are concerned about the fast pace at Pacific.
2. They want to look better on paper (for specializing)
Pacific is a great school. All the people I know over there and graduated enjoy the environment. Their schedule is crazy. They do not cut a whole year. They start early and have less summer time (I think). Regardless, their students still have time to enjoy the education. I don't see how. Maybe they are too smart to start with. My dentist, however, said he didn't have enough time to eat. He loved it regardless. They pump out some solid clinicians too.
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Yup, Pacific is high on my list because I'm a couple years out of school as it is (one of my highschool friends has already started his prost speciality in texas!) and hope that the Navy only counts UoP as a three year commitment. I don't mind busting my ass if it means I get done with schooling a year earlier 🙂
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I went to UOP for their Pacific Pride Day so I hope that I can help out.
Pacific is the only 3-year dental school in the country. They advertise themselves as the cheapest dental school in the country (yearly tuition is $78000) because they "give back a year to you." In short, they feel that the earlier you start working, the better for you monetarily and they definitely have that to offer.
Pacific takes very good care of their students. Should you be in a difficult academic position, they will actually personally work with you to sort out the issues and to make sure that you are on target. They really don't want anyone to be left behind.
They start calling you "Doctor" the first day of school. Kinda nifty hearing "Dr. Quackdentist your mom is calling you" on the intercom.
Awesome location. The school is in San Francisco. There is a hospital next door and they also work closely with hospitals in Oakland. This is especially awesome when you do rotations in oral surgery.
Great clinical experience. You get to jump right in and start working on your sim-lab. The school may not be the best if you really want to focus on research just because you only spend 3 years there and everything is kind of crammed in and sped up. But, they do bring out really great general practitioners.
Since they aren't heavily based on research, students who want to do research can certainly play a bigger part in that field. Not everyone is competing for the positions, so it's more open for everyone.
Hope this helped. And feel free to ask me for anything else.
Pacific is the only 3-year dental school in the country. They advertise themselves as the cheapest dental school in the country (yearly tuition is $78000) because they "give back a year to you." In short, they feel that the earlier you start working, the better for you monetarily and they definitely have that to offer.
Pacific takes very good care of their students. Should you be in a difficult academic position, they will actually personally work with you to sort out the issues and to make sure that you are on target. They really don't want anyone to be left behind.
They start calling you "Doctor" the first day of school. Kinda nifty hearing "Dr. Quackdentist your mom is calling you" on the intercom.
Awesome location. The school is in San Francisco. There is a hospital next door and they also work closely with hospitals in Oakland. This is especially awesome when you do rotations in oral surgery.
Great clinical experience. You get to jump right in and start working on your sim-lab. The school may not be the best if you really want to focus on research just because you only spend 3 years there and everything is kind of crammed in and sped up. But, they do bring out really great general practitioners.
Since they aren't heavily based on research, students who want to do research can certainly play a bigger part in that field. Not everyone is competing for the positions, so it's more open for everyone.
Hope this helped. And feel free to ask me for anything else.
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Congrats to all who received interview invitation. We'll starting seeing you guys around in the beginning of next quarter. We're in the finals week of the first quarter, then a week off. Yes, the schedule is insane. We get 1 week off for every quarter, 2 weeks for Xmas, 1 month for summer. I'm 1 quarter (10 weeks) into dental school, and have already done many different kinds of preps and also wax-ups. School treats us really nice, and they seem to genuinely care about our education. The class however is very competitive. Classes start at 8am almost everyday, and afterwards a lot of people still hang around the sim lab late into the evenings. If you can't handle extremely fast-paced curriculum and constant sleep deprivation, perhaps a 4-year program would be better.
Good luck to all! 🙂
Good luck to all! 🙂
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