Pre-Dental

[Ms. Shaikh]

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Anyone here going into dentistry? If so, where have you applied so far?

 

[sidewalkman]

I am. 99% chance I'll be at Harvard Extension in the fall. I got rejected from Penn and accepted to Temple (second degree) last year. This year, I'll just be signing up a la carte at HES and opting out of an application process. There are so many advantages to going the informal (and cheap) route, especially for dental.

 

[Mackchops]

I'm pre-dent and have been accepted to UMass boston. Right now I'm waiting to hear from Tufts and Brandeis (Brandeis is cool because it's a graduate program so you're eligable for graduate fin aid -- not this fifth-year bull...) Sure they're expensive programs but the way I see it I graduated from a well-respected liberal arts college where it would appear I didn't have the ability to do well. I want to limit any doubt adcoms may have to the possibility of my success in post-bac being a fluke so I need to ROCK my classes at a school that is recognized for being a similar academic challenge. Besides, if you live on a quarter of a dentist's salary for a few years you can knock out your loans pretty easily... just don't expect to live a dentist's life-style right out of your board exams.

-Mack

 

[danala78]

One of my dentist friends who went to Penn dental (he's in a graduate dental program at Temple now) told me to forget about Penn's post bac program and to go to a community college! He told me that I just need to get really good grades so I should go where it's cheap to take classes.

I was very surprised. I've been thinking about applying to various post bac programs in Philly for almost 3 months now!

I only ever took 2 science classes as an undergrad, graduated with a 3.6, currently work as a IT manager, and have no experience with anything remotely related to the health profession, so I'm wondering if he's right. I mean the programs seem to be quite adamant about experience in healthcare...and I don't see how I can possibly obtain that with a (more than) full time job in IT.

Are good grades in the requisite science classes regarded equally regardless of school? Are certain schools easier than others?

I'm mostly wondering because of costs. How do the more expensive schools justify their high tuition costs?

Would it be more advantageous to go to an "easy", cheaper school?

 

[sidewalkman]

I went down this exact road a while back.

First of all, if you have no healthcare experience, then how do you know that this is what you want? Surely you have some shadowing or something else? Just saying, is all. It's harder to get dental experience than med experience during nights and weekends, but you should have something before starting a program.

Anyway, the community college and strength of school topics are ones that will never truly be settled. We both know that hard schools have easy profs and easy schools have hard profs. I say that going to a CC is incredibly lame if you went to a great undergrad due to perceived difficulty, but that there isn't much of difference between which 4-year school you do a post-bacc at. Therefore, the major issues are location (Philly only, right?) and...

Expense. Med students have linkage programs, which are great b/c they save you money long-term. That is one justification for paying a high tuition, but it doesn't apply to us. The other justification is small class size/advising/rep, which I don't think is that important anyway, and which many expensive post-baccs don't even have/aren't good at. So it doesn't make sense to shell out 25k in tuition when plenty of schools have the same thing for much less. Drexel costs more than Penn and Temple by a good margin, so I didn't even consider the school. At Penn, you'll be taking classes through CGS, which is about as cheap as Temple (9k/year, not bad). So with these two, it comes down to where you feel most comfortable at. I didn't like Temple at all. Penn seemed fine, but I got rejected. 🙁

It's advantageous to go to a cheaper school, but an 'easier' school? Depends on how you feel about the easier school.

 

[danala78]

First of all, if you have no healthcare experience, then how do you know that this is what you want? Surely you have some shadowing or something else? Just saying, is all. It's harder to get dental experience than med experience during nights and weekends, but you should have something before starting a program.

I have not shadowed anyone. However, several of my friends are doctors, my brother is a doctor (and he has been trying to convince me not to go into healthcare b/c he thinks healthcare industry is a nightmare) and I know several dentists personally. I have discussed this career change with them, and they support me, but they also pointed out this lack of experience. Unfortunately, they live and work in distant areas (northern NY, VA, MA).

Still, I'm trying, but it's pretty hard to convince dentists to let a stranger shadow them. I found a college alum who works in a dental office, but I feel quite hesitant to ask for a shadowing experience since I haven't met this person. Of course, I need to take off work...but it would be worth it for an apparently precious experience.

One more thing....why did you dislike Temple?

 

[sidewalkman]

One more thing....why did you dislike Temple?

At Temple, you will be taking classes strictly with the undergrads. I wasn't a fan of that, especially since the school admits a lot of transfer students who have different goals than a typical post-bacc. The area's not the greatest, as you know. The teaching quality I thought was mediocre. Overall, the setting just didn't 'click' with me; I didn't get a gut feeling that I belonged there.

It's not all bad though. The flexibility in when you can take lecture and lab is impressive. There are honors sections. The med/dental school is seperate from main campus, but they have regular shuttle service between them. The research/volunteer opps are good, especially when you factor in the other schools in the area. Still, since Penn is the same price, I though Penn was the stronger program for my needs.

Now, there is at least one person I remember reading about here who did a post-bacc at Temple, liked it, and got in to Temple Med. So it does its job. It just wasn't for me.