predent Posted June 25, 2007 Report Share Posted June 25, 2007 I copied the following questions from SDN website and it turned out to be an extremely informative thread on SDN. I think it might be a good idea to start a similar thread here so that current applicants holding multiple acceptances (btw, congrats! ) can have some in-depth knowledge about the schools to make the best decision. To current/former dental students: your inputs will be extremely valuable to us. Thank you in advance for taking the time to help your future colleagues Here are the questions: 1) Name of Your Dental School 2) What's your workload like? Do you generally have enough time to learn everything you need to do well? 3) What is your examination schedule like? Block Schedule (midterms and finals week) or several every week? 4) Are your classmates generally gunners and try to sabatoge each other? If not, is the culture one where everybody tries to help everybody out? 5) Are the class notes based primarily on textbooks? or based on lecture powerpoints made up by professors? 6) Are there any classes taken with medical students? If so, which ones? 7) What is the grading system? Pass/Fail/Honors? Letter Grades? Percentages? 8) Is there a notetaking service for lecture available? 9) Is class attendance mandatory? 10) In general, are teachers approachable for questions? Or are they for the most part very busy and unreachable (research, etc...)? 11) Is there a big brother/big sister program that pairs you with an upperclassman or professor who "mentors" you? 12) What is the % first time board pass rate? What is the average score? 13) When do you take the NDBE? 1st year or second year? 14) Do you get a block of time off before boards to study? If so, how long? If not, do you have to study simultaneously with classes? 15) Do most people study in the University Library? Or does the place clear out right after school and everybody studies on their own? 16) Are patients readily available to fulfill clinical requirements or do you have to do a lot of work to get them in? 17) Is it a hassle to get a chair once you get patients in? In your opinion, does your school have enough chairs? 18) What are the clinical requirements to graduate? (number of crowns, fillings, etc...) Is it reasonably attainable or pretty difficult? 19) Are there opportunities for different off-site dental clinic rotations? If so, what are they? 20) Are there opportunites for outreach trips to underserved areas or countries? If so, what are they and for how long? 21) Is there sufficent preparation for practice management? What career placement opportunites does your school offer? 22) What is the dress code at your school? Scrubs? For what years? Please feel free to add any other potentially helpful information about your dental school below! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koft Posted June 25, 2007 Report Share Posted June 25, 2007 Hey Predent. You exceeded your limit on the game of 20 questions!!! 1. UWO 2. 1st: Chill, 2nd: book heavy, 3rd: Transitional (most difficult year), 4th: dealing with board and clinic requirements to get the heck out!! 3. Mid-terms are random (likely Late Oct, early Nov or Late Feb, early Mar) Mid-year (normal exam weeks) Finals (first week of May till the weekend before Vic Day) 4. Depends on the year! 5. PPT, texts are for reference only for most and waste of money, except oral path! 6. NO 7. Percentage 8. I don't know! I am sure Western itself had that service, but you need to ask the registrar or counselling. 9. PreClinical Labs you better attend. But buddy, you paid more than 20k to skip class!!???? 10. Generally quick to response. Very helpful. Of course, barring that you wanted to be spoon-fed, if you try to understand and try to solve it, they will help you. 11. Paired up with the year ahead of you 12. Canadian board only (~95-98%), as long as you get 65% and up you pass. No one care what is your score on the canadian board 13. NDBE is american board, 2 parts (part 1, usually advise to take summer of 2nd year, part 2, end of 4th), unless you are going to the US, no need to take it. Unless you just like to write MC exam! 14. NO! Time management. 15. It depends on the person study style, some like library, other like starbucks/chapters, while I like it on my couch with the TV on! 16. This is a chronic issue with most dental schools in canada. Luck of the draw! You can have a dead beat, or a person that will come in every week to get everything done. 17. You have to book a patient and a chair, you don't get a specific chair to yourself. 18. Restorative: 40+ Comp fillings, 60+ Amalgam fillings (surfaces), 6 arches of complete dentures, 2 arches of partial dentures, 1 - 2 implant-supported crowns (just the restoration, not the implant insertion), 1 endo of each type of teeth, Incisor, Upper PM, Lower PM, Upper Molar and Lower Molar), Typical Perio, Night guard, transitional denture, hospital rotation, OS clinic. Pedo/ortho clinic. 19. 2 weeks at Sioux Lookout (rural), 1 day at a NH care. Other you have to arrange on your own 20. Yes, last was in Africa. 21. Weak, thru local dental association and word of mouth from dental suppliers. ( i am guessing you are asking about associateship?) 22. Clinic and preclinical lab scrub. otherwise up to you! Good luck. If anyone is from Western, and want to correct me please feel free to do so! ________ Health store Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
predent Posted June 25, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 25, 2007 Thanks a lot koft, for your thorough answers and your patience to go thru all the questions. I'm sure current applicants will find these info to be very helpful (I, for one, am leaning strongly towards UWO after reading your post). I apologize for the long list of questions. Future posters: please feel free to omit questions you feel are irrelevant. Any input you can provide regarding your school is welcome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllSmiles Posted June 25, 2007 Report Share Posted June 25, 2007 Thanks a lot Koft That was really helpful~ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GTimes Posted June 26, 2007 Report Share Posted June 26, 2007 Hi there, Can somebody please answer the provided questions for U of T. Thanks very much in advance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRevolution Posted June 26, 2007 Report Share Posted June 26, 2007 Anyone from U of T have the time to fill this baby out? I would love to learn more about my school before I get there. I am for the first time ever looking forward to the summer ending just so I can get started (totally out of character)... Thanks for the help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllSmiles Posted February 23, 2008 Report Share Posted February 23, 2008 I know this is old...but I thought it would be helpful...so Bump~ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smilee Posted May 19, 2009 Report Share Posted May 19, 2009 I'd like to bump this again! Also if anyone from UofT (or anyone else from UWO) would like to add their two cents, that would be great Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bright_Smile Posted May 20, 2009 Report Share Posted May 20, 2009 I have some time on my hands tonight, so I will attempt for you: 1) Name of Your Dental School - U of T 2) What's your workload like? Do you generally have enough time to learn everything you need to do well? - Workload is very reasonable in first year, except Gross Anatomy is brutal. Second year, second semester is tough. You juggle 11 courses, plus clinic time with real patients. But it is manageable, and you can do well. 3) What is your examination schedule like? Block Schedule (midterms and finals week) or several every week? - Tests (midterms) happen sporadically throughout the year. They try and spread them out for us. Exams happen in a block. This year, they were nice and made our exams every other day, so we never had any back to back. 4) Are your classmates generally gunners and try to sabatoge each other? If not, is the culture one where everybody tries to help everybody out? -There are always going to be competitive people, but nobody sabatoges anybody else. There is a spirit of family, and people do help each other lot's! 5) Are the class notes based primarily on textbooks? or based on lecture powerpoints made up by professors? -Powerpoints, for sure. 6) Are there any classes taken with medical students? If so, which ones? -Nope. 7) What is the grading system? Pass/Fail/Honors? Letter Grades? Percentages? -Letter grades 8) Is there a notetaking service for lecture available? -Not sure. I don't think so. Perhaps if you have a disability? 9) Is class attendance mandatory? -Only for clinical work, and seminars. Not for lectures. 10) In general, are teachers approachable for questions? Or are they for the most part very busy and unreachable (research, etc...)? -Very approachable 11) Is there a big brother/big sister program that pairs you with an upperclassman or professor who "mentors" you? -Yup 12) What is the % first time board pass rate? What is the average score? -Don't know, sorry! I'm only finishing 2nd year. 13) When do you take the NDBE? 1st year or second year? -Most people do American Boards summer of 2nd year. 14) Do you get a block of time off before boards to study? If so, how long? If not, do you have to study simultaneously with classes? -Canadian boards are written in 4th year. You don't get much time off. Honestly, I think they only give 1 or 2 days off! 15) Do most people study in the University Library? Or does the place clear out right after school and everybody studies on their own? -There are so many libraries at U of T. Most people study at Gerstein, the science library. 16) Are patients readily available to fulfill clinical requirements or do you have to do a lot of work to get them in? -Toronto has a big patient pool. You can get your credits. 17) Is it a hassle to get a chair once you get patients in? In your opinion, does your school have enough chairs? -Tons of chairs. Maybe it's tough to get an endo chair. You have to book an endo chair specially in advance. 18) What are the clinical requirements to graduate? (number of crowns, fillings, etc...) Is it reasonably attainable or pretty difficult? -Don't know the specific numbers, but everybody does it! 19) Are there opportunities for different off-site dental clinic rotations? If so, what are they? -You do rotations at Mount Sinai hopistal. You can do externships in the summer, too. 20) Are there opportunites for outreach trips to underserved areas or countries? If so, what are they and for how long? -There is an externship up north in Canada, summer of 3rd year. But it is competetive to get a spot. 21) Is there sufficent preparation for practice management? What career placement opportunites does your school offer? -There is a management class. Don't know about placement opportunities. 22) What is the dress code at your school? Scrubs? For what years? -Scrubs for all clinical and pre-clinical labs. Regular clothes for lectures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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