Tennessee Dental Schools
Q: I will be applying to dental school this summer for entrance in the fall
of 1996. I would appreciate any help anyone can give me about their
respective dental schools. I am applying to:
*UCLA *UCSF *Harvard *Penn *Tufts *Columbia *Northwestern *NYU
*Boston *Michigan
A:I might make a few suggestions to you...you should try to apply to as
many STATE schools as you possibly can. I'm sure I'll probably catch
some flack ( :-) ) from some folks on the forum but tuition at some of
these private schools is stiff. I know some folks who have >'er than 80
K of debt to pay off from some of these private schools and they're not
necessarily any better than some of the state schools. In fact, the
private schools are in jeopardy, since they must compete with state
schools, and they generally get first dibs on the top students. In the
past ten years Georgetown, Emory, Loyola, Oral Roberts, and a few more
have shut their doors...so better think twice about it!!
IMHO, some of the better dental schools in the country: Michigan, Ohio
State, Medical College of Virginia, University of North Carolina (my alma
mater), Baylor, UT-SanAntonio, UCSF, UCLA, IOWA, Connecticut, Alabama,
Florida, Minnesota, LSU and others. Generally if you're out of state you'll
need to be a more competitive student than in-state folks. I would
STRONGLY suggest you pursue the state schools, get residency, then get
state tuition. Since the health care scene is changing so very quickly,
I really think you would be ill advised to put yourself in a position
where you've got a huge amount of debt to retire - especially when you go
into practice and add 100K on top of it.
I heard that you cant get residency if you go there for school. For
example, if you go to UNC, if you just go there for school, you will not
be able to get residency, and you will not get in-state tuition. Many
state schools are just as expensive for non-residents as private schools.
Also, as a legal resident of NJ, there is a state school- U. of Medicine
and Dentistry of NJ. However, it was recently ranked as one of the worst
dental schools, plus it is in downtown Newark, which is worse than being
in bad parts of New York City. Thats why Im applying to so many private
schools--- do you know people who did get residency just by attending a
state school???
When I went to dental school my wife worked and we paid state income
taxes; if they didn't give me state residency status I would not have
paid my income taxes - that simple.
When I said that you could get residency when going to a state dental
school I assumed that you would work...
If your financial status in life is such that you can go to any school
and not have to worry about the debt then go for it. Most folks are not