absolutely great selflessness 3

BU – Completely personal interview! Yes their criteria is 90 and above…. So you can be sure of admission into this school if you have a 90 and above whereas it doesn’t work that way in the other schools… though I don’t agree with this criteria because I think its simple to get a 95 + if you sit at home and prepare for 6 months (like most of us married Indian women do ). I think we are capable of achieving more than that … I know the reason everyone is going to give is - "I am on H4 I cannot do anything" Well, be glad you are on H4. I was on change of status .. means no status for 10 months and I volunteered at a free dental clinic... it was tiring! No driver’s license... had to take the public transport for 4 hours everyday. Anyway, let me not bore you with my life story . What I want to say is hardwork pays in some form. So if there is a will there is a way... don’t say you don’t have anything to do etc. if you are really set on something you can achieve whatever you think is impossible.
Back to the topic - I really liked the school.
PROS -
Yes a lot of preclinical, but they do have amazing faculty. There is one Dr. Mcmanama (sp? … sorry Dr. if you are reading this) .. everyone praises him like he is god and probably he is! So some excellent faculty.
Great mentor programs
They train you to WREB.
Nice city.
Everything is computerized and modern technology
Cheapest program in the country after Lomalinda.
CONS -

Overall I think the school is GREAT!! except of the very less clinical experience – we see around 10 patients only when we graduate! I don’t that is going to make me competent!

Edit - Great Research opportunities. Only thing is you have to allocate 12 hours a week for research (it is mandatory) and maintain a B+ to remain in the program

UMN –
Awesome school, very friendly people. It was a day’s interview that started with some history and pride of
Minnesota. There were three interviews all personal one-on one. Again, remember if they are picking at the faults in your application, they just want to know more about you. How you face criticism. Just answer those like you would to a friend. They are really nice people.
Pros – Awesome program.
Lots of opportunities to do research and externships.
Amazing patient pool – over 5 community rotations – lots of exepreince – we see almost 50 to 60 patients when we graduate! You also have a chance to go abroad for a couple months! I think that’s cool!
State of the art dentsim lab being built
Only school that said we have more chairs than students!! That was hilarious when I heard that!
Amazing faculty
I don’t know if they have ADLEX… I will find that out.
Dr Berthold is for Advanced standing as Dr. Dugoni is for the regular dental program.
Cons - New program… so you maybe doubtful about the quality but I am not
Weather – I hate it ! Gave me a headache
You never know what they are looking for, so present your best self as your best package, if it is for you it will
happen!

UMICH –
They did call me this year… I am not sure if I am going to go. I attended the interview last year. I don’t clearly remember but I will write what I remember. The day starts with an introduction and program overview. Followed by Multiple – Mini Interviews. You will go through 6 stations 10 minutes at each. At two you will have a written scenario – read and give YOUR opinion - let your answers be casual, confident and crisp. At one is a role play – basically you have a written scenario. You read it and then assume that the interviewer in front of you is the other person in the scenario and act out the play. If you have no clue of what they are talking about, you can explain the situation. At two they ask you ethical questions related to dentistry like X-ray exposure or holistic dentistry and you give them your opinion again. The last one is a general 10 minute conversation with an interviewer – what do you like about dentistry?, what you don’t like?, tell me about yourself and where are you from and so on .. personal interview. Lunch with the students followed by OSCE – which is basically treatment planning. They give you everything – case history, models, radiographs etc and ask you questions based on either treatment planning, or what is the mistake, or calculating some insurance costs, or some oral pathology question and so on. There are 10 station in total with 20 minutes at each station. It is very tiring! Next day is the practical exam – class II, classII with fill, molar endo access preparation, PFM, Class IV… they change it every year. The previous year they had 9 or 10 preparations in 4 hours! We got lucky last year with 4 or 5. Then we meet and talk with the director and Ms. Pattie Katcher. Talk… they want you to talk … ask questions and know more about the school.

PROS – Excellent clinical experience. Similar to the UMN program with lots community programs
Great faculty
Intensive summer semester for preclinical
I don’t remember a whole lot but I was definitely impressed with the school

CONS – New program (relatively)
Weather – it is freezing cold

All the best folks...