Your Experience so far

[J2AZ]

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Hello All,

I am interviewing right now and as you know it is difficult to get a true feel for a program until you are a student. At the interview everybody puts their best foot forward. So, how has your experience been at your school? Are you treated with respect by the faculty and staff or are you made to feel an inch tall? Are your fellow students supportive or overly competitive? Is your school focused on training a good GP or preparing you to specialize? If given the choice to attend your school or another what would you do? I only ask this b/c many dentists I have spoken with love their profession but hated the experience of dental school. I know a great deal has changed over the years and the schools of today are different. However, I also know a few schools may still have a very punitive educational system that does not show a great deal respect for the student. So what's your opinion? Be as unbiased as possible.

 

[toothcaries]

you'll find that a large percentage of dental students and practicing dentists hated dental school.
don't sweat it.

there are no "bad" dental schools in the usa or canada.
...just go to the one that extracts the least amount of $$$ from you.
🙂

 

[joel4sale]

I HATED dental school when I was in it.

I LOVE IT once I got out! My school had prepared me well for the real world! Just wish I paid more attention in the class...... 😀

Like TC said....there is NO BAD dental school....

 

[J2AZ]

Hi,
Thanks for your reply. I appligize if I infered that there is such a thing as a "bad" dental school. Every dental school will teach you what you need to know. However I know for a fact that UoP treats their students very well while...with the chance of starting a war...U of Okl still tends to haze its students. I have gathered this from unbiased opinions from recent graduates. Dental School is 4 years of ones life. I know all schools provide excellent didactic and clinical training but not all treat their students well. So aside from the money and education...I refine my question and ask who is happy at their school, why, and what school are you attending? If you do not wish to post your schools name I ask that you privately tell me. I will not post its name.

 

[adamlc18]

I am at UNC and I think it is a great school. The faculty are nice and willing to be very helpful. The students have representatives that meet with all the faculty once a week to give feedback and ask for changes in the schedule and such if needed. The administration works with the students. Everyone seems to like the school here. It isn't cut-throat at all. We all work together and help each other out.

 

[45540]

I'm a first year at Tennessee and so far it has been a great experience. There is a good relationship between students and faculty for the most part; except for the D2 class, but that's their own fault. I believe that most every dental school will prepare students for life in the real world, it's all dependent on how much the student wants to work.

From the interview I expected the courses to be much harder than they actually are, but then again it's only my first semester. For now it's just college courses all over again, just a couple more than i'm used to.

I think at most every school people work together so that everyone succeeds. I'm not competing against everyone else for a residency post, i'm competing against myself to get high marks.

 

[aphistis]

I'm a first year at Tennessee and so far it has been a great experience. There is a good relationship between students and faculty for the most part; except for the D2 class, but that's their own fault. I believe that most every dental school will prepare students for life in the real world, it's all dependent on how much the student wants to work.

From the interview I expected the courses to be much harder than they actually are, but then again it's only my first semester. For now it's just college courses all over again, just a couple more than i'm used to.

I think at most every school people work together so that everyone succeeds. I'm not competing against everyone else for a residency post, i'm competing against myself to get high marks.

Your remark about the D2 class has me curious; what'd they do to generate animosity against themselves?

 

[ItsGavinC]

I'm at Arizona, and love school. We've had some bumps along the way, and we'll have some bumps in the future, but that's to be expected for a new program. Largely I've been impressed with the way we've been able to address issues, although there are certainly things that still need fixing.

But above all I realize that this isn't the real world. 😀

 

[drPheta]

If their D2 class is anything like our D2 class, they probably pissed off the faculty by complaining about every little thing that doesn't go their way, expecting to be spoon fed every tid bit of information, hexing/badmouthing every student that didn't hand out personal notes (which they worked extremely hard to make themselves) to the lazy/incompetent classmates, or something along the unprofessional, immature lines. Mind you, this isn't the entire class, but it only takes one bad apple to spoil the bunch.

Yeah, school's cool here if you don't let the politics, complaining, and INEVITABLE administrative mishaps bother you. What I like about my experience so far is how well the faculty works to help you clinically grow. Their view of the big picture makes it that much greater, and the (as our Medicine prof said) "myopic" view of the students is what makes dental school suck most of the time. That's how I see it.

So, there. I said it. My class is starting to suck! I know, it seemed great at the beginning of first year, but things went downhill once I got fed up with people complaining about everything and being extremely unappreciative/disrespectful of their classmates who took the time and effort to produce quality notes and freely distribute to the class to make learning and passing collaborative and easy. And trust me, we had a great thing going. a good handfull of us were just collaborating and making sure accurate info was being spread out to the entire class to make learning the difficult material easier. It really brought the majority of the class together... the majority. I still like my class, it's just everytime I hear about someone saying "we didn't get that slide in our syllabus" or "your notes that you gave us are missing some info." Let me get this straight. The prof went out of his way to GIVE you verbatim notes so that you have an easier time picking out the relevant material and succeed in clinic, and you're too incompetent to quickly jot down that little bit of information or ask your neighbor for it? I'm sorry, but undergrad should have engrained into your head that you're responsible for getting your own notes, and everything that's given to you is a gift.

So much for that trend. I stopped doing that once I found out (after the fact) the gunners were giving out false information during gross anatomy to gain an advantage, as well as other malicious things, and people complained about missing every ppt slide/picture/sentence/word in a syllabus (rather than copying the info down) and expecting to be spoon fed every piece of note out there. Most of the generous did. So, now I give out stuff to my close friends and let them distribute things as freely as they wish (with the hopes that my classmates will realize that other people's notes are the result of their hard work and effort).

Our class also had a very unprofessional problem that involved a (few) students and some very prominent faculty members. So, our prior (good?) reputation was shot to hell immediately. It's not the entire class that pisses me off, it's just those few who don't take dental school for what it is. A professional school - something that's not meant to be easy, supposed to work you and mold you, expose you to various challenges beyond dentistry, and give a vivid dental career.

For me, that's how it's been so far, and I've been taking in and enjoying as much of it as I can w/o letting the dirt spoil it.

NOTE: Gunners = those who shoot for top, but do so without class/ethics. There's nothing wrong with trying to be the best, but when backstabbing comes into play, that's no longer cool

I should add that my positive dental school experience stems very much from the curriculum, faculty, and administration. My classmates also present a very favorable picture, but I get very peeved with the above. Like I said, the school will work with you, as long as you're willing to work with them.

 

[45540]

Our D2 class got into trouble out of sheer stupidity. I don't know how it works at other schools but ours has a fair amount of Old Test material floating around which we call TR. Apparently some students, "gunners", weren't sharing the information and some students felt left out. So instead of taking it up within the class, they go to the dean of academic affairs to say that they're not getting illegal information that all the other classmates have. On top of that, class members would go to a teacher with the old test to ask questions and dispute test questions.

Also, anything sent on our school email accts are a matter of public record, so we have a PhD who sits around and reads our email to intercept any old tests being sent around.

The D2 class also showed no respect to instructors, would have 20 people in attendance and 77 people signed in on the roll. They extruded all teeth for their wax up grades. They stole old tests and quizzes from the Academic Support office, and they did a fair amount of cheating. Granted this wasn't the class as a whole, but there were people who made the class look bad.

But our class has bonded fairly well and any "TR" is posted on our course website for anyone in the class to access. I know there are gunners, but those people will eventually realize that it won't help in the long run.

It's meaningless to come in the first day and say you're going to specialize; you have to wait and see if you're really going to put in the effort needed to be in the top of the class and ace the boards and have the hand eye coordination/control needed for clinical work.

I think the faculty realizes that our class shouldn't be judged by the performance of the upper classmen and have started all over, but they said they won't be as lenient on any honor code issues like they have been in the past.

 

[aphistis]

Our D2 class got into trouble out of sheer stupidity. I don't know how it works at other schools but ours has a fair amount of Old Test material floating around which we call TR. Apparently some students, "gunners", weren't sharing the information and some students felt left out. So instead of taking it up within the class, they go to the dean of academic affairs to say that they're not getting illegal information that all the other classmates have. On top of that, class members would go to a teacher with the old test to ask questions and dispute test questions.

Also, anything sent on our school email accts are a matter of public record, so we have a PhD who sits around and reads our email to intercept any old tests being sent around.

The D2 class also showed no respect to instructors, would have 20 people in attendance and 77 people signed in on the roll. They extruded all teeth for their wax up grades. They stole old tests and quizzes from the Academic Support office, and they did a fair amount of cheating.

So no one likes them. Our class has bonded fairly well and any "TR" is posted on our course website for anyone in the class to access. I know there are gunners, but those people will eventually realize that it won't help in the long run.

It's meaningless to come in the first day and say you're going to specialize; you have to wait and see if you're really going to put in the effort needed to be in the top of the class and ace the boards and have the hand eye coordination/control needed for clinical work.

I think the faculty realizes that our class shouldn't be judged by the performance of the upper classmen and have started all over, but they said they won't be as lenient on any honor code issues like they have been in the past.

Wow. Gusty. Stupid, but gutsy.

 

[Zurik5]

Our D2 class got into trouble out of sheer stupidity. I don't know how it works at other schools but ours has a fair amount of Old Test material floating around which we call TR. Apparently some students, "gunners", weren't sharing the information and some students felt left out. So instead of taking it up within the class, they go to the dean of academic affairs to say that they're not getting illegal information that all the other classmates have. On top of that, class members would go to a teacher with the old test to ask questions and dispute test questions.

Also, anything sent on our school email accts are a matter of public record, so we have a PhD who sits around and reads our email to intercept any old tests being sent around.

The D2 class also showed no respect to instructors, would have 20 people in attendance and 77 people signed in on the roll. They extruded all teeth for their wax up grades. They stole old tests and quizzes from the Academic Support office, and they did a fair amount of cheating.

So no one likes them. Our class has bonded fairly well and any "TR" is posted on our course website for anyone in the class to access. I know there are gunners, but those people will eventually realize that it won't help in the long run.

It's meaningless to come in the first day and say you're going to specialize; you have to wait and see if you're really going to put in the effort needed to be in the top of the class and ace the boards and have the hand eye coordination/control needed for clinical work.

I think the faculty realizes that our class shouldn't be judged by the performance of the upper classmen and have started all over, but they said they won't be as lenient on any honor code issues like they have been in the past.

The same thing happened at UIC. What a bunch of hosers, I think our class wanted to stone them to death...

 

[Biogirl361]

this all sounds terrible 😡 😡 😡
one of my favorite things about undergrad has been that classes are so big that there isn't a chance for high school-like animosities and immaturities to build up. i'm not really looking forward to that aspect of d school. lesson learned from this thread: i won't even begin to share notes with anyone! unless they are usually in class and had a good reason for being gone or something. i am usually one of those people that is always in class and takes notes and stuff, and i can't stand people that try to mooch and cheat. you would think by the time they are d school they would have learned to work for themselves. oh well...

 

[hockeydentist]

heheheeehheheeeee

Can't wait to get into dental school. This whole back stabbing and ruckus should be fun.

Biogal-hows interviewing going, etc did you visit Marquette.

HD

 

[Jediwendell]

you guys wanna know what to expect from dental school? REad the part about half way down under "junior year" It is deado on




http://www.dentalcomfortzone.com/archive/HowDentalSchoolWorksNS.html

 

[coodoo]

heheheeehheheeeee

Can't wait to get into dental school. This whole back stabbing and ruckus should be fun.

Biogal-hows interviewing going, etc did you visit Marquette.

HD

Hey HD, I might have seen you at the Houston interview. Your interview was on the 27th right? We had some incoming students come and visit the basement labs that day. I might have seen ya.

 

[ItsGavinC]

Our D2 class got into trouble out of sheer stupidity. I don't know how it works at other schools but ours has a fair amount of Old Test material floating around which we call TR. Apparently some students, "gunners", weren't sharing the information and some students felt left out. So instead of taking it up within the class, they go to the dean of academic affairs to say that they're not getting illegal information that all the other classmates have. On top of that, class members would go to a teacher with the old test to ask questions and dispute test questions.

Also, anything sent on our school email accts are a matter of public record, so we have a PhD who sits around and reads our email to intercept any old tests being sent around.

The D2 class also showed no respect to instructors, would have 20 people in attendance and 77 people signed in on the roll. They extruded all teeth for their wax up grades. They stole old tests and quizzes from the Academic Support office, and they did a fair amount of cheating. Granted this wasn't the class as a whole, but there were people who made the class look bad.

But our class has bonded fairly well and any "TR" is posted on our course website for anyone in the class to access. I know there are gunners, but those people will eventually realize that it won't help in the long run.

It's meaningless to come in the first day and say you're going to specialize; you have to wait and see if you're really going to put in the effort needed to be in the top of the class and ace the boards and have the hand eye coordination/control needed for clinical work.

I think the faculty realizes that our class shouldn't be judged by the performance of the upper classmen and have started all over, but they said they won't be as lenient on any honor code issues like they have been in the past.

You're only a D1, so how much of the above is hearsay and how much is the truth without a doubt? I know that rumors often spread like wildfire among classes.

Also, it seems that the Tenn. students have always had a fair amount of disdain for their professors.

 

[45540]

You're only a D1, so how much of the above is hearsay and how much is the truth without a doubt? I know that rumors often spread like wildfire among classes.

Also, it seems that the Tenn. students have always had a fair amount of disdain for their professors.

True, I'm only a D1, but we've had multiple meetings with the president of the honor council who has given examples of what happened in the past year and explained that it won't be tolerated this year. The dean also has talked to us about the honor code and basically gave us the same message.

So some might be hearsay, but the D3 class overall agrees with the opinion, and the people i know who are D2's say it's basically what happened.

But i'm just going with the flow for now and doing the best i can. I haven't had any bad experiences so far, and that's fine by me.

 

[txdent2be2007]

Our D2 class got into trouble out of sheer stupidity. I don't know how it works at other schools but ours has a fair amount of Old Test material floating around which we call TR. Apparently some students, "gunners", weren't sharing the information and some students felt left out. So instead of taking it up within the class, they go to the dean of academic affairs to say that they're not getting illegal information that all the other classmates have. On top of that, class members would go to a teacher with the old test to ask questions and dispute test questions.

Also, anything sent on our school email accts are a matter of public record, so we have a PhD who sits around and reads our email to intercept any old tests being sent around.

The D2 class also showed no respect to instructors, would have 20 people in attendance and 77 people signed in on the roll. They extruded all teeth for their wax up grades. They stole old tests and quizzes from the Academic Support office, and they did a fair amount of cheating. Granted this wasn't the class as a whole, but there were people who made the class look bad.

But our class has bonded fairly well and any "TR" is posted on our course website for anyone in the class to access. I know there are gunners, but those people will eventually realize that it won't help in the long run.

It's meaningless to come in the first day and say you're going to specialize; you have to wait and see if you're really going to put in the effort needed to be in the top of the class and ace the boards and have the hand eye coordination/control needed for clinical work.

I think the faculty realizes that our class shouldn't be judged by the performance of the upper classmen and have started all over, but they said they won't be as lenient on any honor code issues like they have been in the past.

We just finished an exam 45 minutes ago in a fairly easy diagnosis class -- five minutes before the exam started a gunner (and very "whiney") girl in our class took an old test to the prof, in full view of the class, and asked him if her answers were correct. What's worse, the test we took was IDENTICAL to this old test, and apparently has been for years. And yeah, we have a final coming up. I think she took a lot of heat from the rest of the class because she went home. What should we do with this girl!!??!! 😱

 

[EHA DDS]

Although I've been here a mere 2 months, I feel like the faculty here at NYU treat us quite well. As far as being treated as "equals", there is one professor who actually calls me Dr. (Lastname) when he replies to my e-mails. Another professor told us, "I am here to work for you". Most of the professors are very friendly and as helpful as they can be in a class our size, so it was a welcome surprise.

Now, how it will be when we get into the clinics or in upper years is a different question, but so far so good.

Competitive students also does not seem like an issue IMO. There are 3 categories of students:

Gunners: People who are constantly studying and aiming for 4.0. They probably want to specialize. Not necessarily "unethical", just desire to do well.

General Dentists: People who are satisfied with average grades, or evenjust passing. They usually just want a career in general dentistry.

Slackers: Self-explanatory.

 

[Zurik5]

We just finished an exam 45 minutes ago in a fairly easy diagnosis class -- five minutes before the exam started a gunner (and very "whiney") girl in our class took an old test to the prof, in full view of the class, and asked him if her answers were correct. What's worse, the test we took was IDENTICAL to this old test, and apparently has been for years. And yeah, we have a final coming up. I think she took a lot of heat from the rest of the class because she went home. What should we do with this girl!!??!! 😱

The same thing happened in one of my classes, as well. A gunner (also a girl) complained to a professor, after we took a test earlier this week, that the test was too much like the old exams. I wouldn?t be upset, but this is not the first time that something like this has happened. In fact, I've come to the realization that there are a lot of anal people who lack common sense, but will do anything it takes to get that coveted ortho spot, in dental school. I take satisfaction in the fact that I do better than they do and I have twice as much fun. I suggest publicly calling this girl out and telling her how much of a ******* she is 😉

 

[psiyung]

The same thing happened in one of my classes, as well. A gunner (also a girl) complained to a professor, after we took a test earlier this week, that the test was too much like the old exams. I wouldn?t be upset, but this is not the first time that something like this has happened. In fact, I've come to the realization that there are a lot of anal people who lack common sense, but will do anything it takes to get that coveted ortho spot, in dental school. I take satisfaction in the fact that I do better than they do and I have twice as much fun. I suggest publicly calling this girl out and telling her how much of a ******* she is 😉

good thing im not in your school...telling your teacher the tests "are too similar"?

Man, someone please slap her around

 

[ToothMonkey]

a gunner (and very "whiney") girl in our class took an old test to the prof

We had a similar situation in our class (except it was on a weekly quiz, not an exam). Guess what the prof did? The following day, he finished lecture early and asked us to use the remaining time to create ten new questions from the lecture notes. He then used those exact questions for the next quiz!

I suppose that's one gunner who'll think twice before running her mouth again...