UOP vs. UCSF vs Columbia vs penn?

[stitcherator]

Hello,

I was very fortunate to receive acceptances to these schools yesterday and never predicted to be in this situation. Heavily considering specializing in OMFS/perio. I feel very overwhelmed in choosing a school so I wanted to see what you guys thought. So far here are my pros/cons:

UOP:
Pros-

• close to family
• accelerated curriculum
• great clinical reputation
• great facility

Cons-

• graded A/B/C/D, class ranking 1-150
• I am heavily thinking of specializing so I think that the accelerated program could actually hinder this
• competition
• not many research options
• tuition $$$$$
• large class size

UCSF:
pros-

• Close to family
• Cheapest school by about 80k
• lots of opportunities to do research
• P/F, no ranking will allow me to focus on extracurricular
• small class size

cons-

• recent rumors about low specialization rates (?)
• old equipment
• may have trouble "standing out"

Penn:
pros-

• honors in 4 different things
• great dual degree programs
• great name recognition
• high specialization rates

Cons-

• tuition $$$$$
• Graded A/B/C/D creates competition
• weather/philly sucks
• large class size

Columbia
Pros-

• great name recognition
• high specialization rates
• New York!!
• loved this school so much at my interview
• P/F no honors even!
• 1.5 years with med school may make CBSE easier to study for if i decide that route
• small class size

Cons-

• tuition $$$$
• far from family

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[O Gaúcho]

Congrats on all the acceptances! I'd go with UCSF due to the 80k savings. Those are all fantastic schools and you wouldn't go wrong choosing either of them. But the cheapest school always wins.

 

[Trave_]

Biased since I'm probably going to Columbia, but I'd say stick with Columbia since you sounded the most excited about it. Obviously a million people will tell you otherwise because of cost; at the end of the day some people value experiences (NYC!) over cost and vice versa.

If you're truly passionate about specializing then UoP should definitely be off the table.

 

[SweetMelonPreDent]

It looks like youre choosing between UCSF & Columbia.
with UoP at a close 2nd and Penn 3rd.

If UCSF have "low specialization" its because of the P/F system. But it seems thats what you want??

 

[stitcherator]

Biased since I'm probably going to Columbia, but I'd say stick with Columbia since you sounded the most excited about it. Obviously a million people will tell you otherwise because of cost; at the end of the day some people value experiences (NYC!) over cost and vice versa.

If you're truly passionate about specializing then UoP should definitely be off the table.

do you feel the cost is manageable at Columbia? That is the only thing I'm truly scared of.

 

[Trave_]

do you feel the cost is manageable at Columbia? That is the only thing I'm truly scared of.

To be frank I think only an alum would be able to provide a sufficient answer. I received a scholarship or else I would have been in a similar spot between Columbia and UCLA (although I still think I would have picked Columbia given the location and it is closer to family).

 

[stitcherator]

It looks like youre choosing between UCSF & Columbia.
with UoP at a close 2nd and Penn 3rd.

If UCSF have "low specialization" its because of the P/F system. But it seems thats what you want??

But columbia & UCLA also have P/F without hindering specialization rates?

 

[asdf1234qad]

To be frank I think only an alum would be able to provide a sufficient answer. I received a scholarship or else I would have been in a similar spot between Columbia and UCLA (although I still think I would have picked Columbia given the location and it is closer to family).

How did Columbia notify you of the scholarship?

 

[stitcherator]

How did Columbia notify you of the scholarship?

i thought they only gave need based scholarships?

 

[Alpha Centauri]

i thought they only gave need based scholarships?

I think there are a few non-need based. However the need based ones assigned as grants after the FAFSA are fairly common, with a decent amount of people receiving 12,500$ per year in grant money, and 6000$ in subsidized loans.

UCSF is a great school, so is Columbia. If you know you want to specialize, your money won't be wasted if you attend CDM

 

[Trave_]

How did Columbia notify you of the scholarship?

They sent me an acceptance email and a scholarship email, back to back. According to their letter they are relatively uncommon. I was also under the impression that they didn’t give these type of scholarships.

 

[Trigeminal08]

UCSF got brand new clinic chairs 2 weeks ago. Also, the top 10%(or 15%, not sure) of students get a letter of commendation, so that is one way of standing out. Also you listed "small class size" as a con for UCSF but a pro for Columbia. I can promise you, 80-90 students in a class is plenty

PM if you have any questions about UCSF, i might be able to help

 

[laundry]

RE UCSF's "low specialization rates" - all of my students just matched into their top Perio programs...just about everyone always matches from UCSF

 

[lz1988]

To be frank I think only an alum would be able to provide a sufficient answer. I received a scholarship or else I would have been in a similar spot between Columbia and UCLA (although I still think I would have picked Columbia given the location and it is closer to family).

May I ask your stats? I was also accepted by Columbia and I am curious about how they determined who will be qualified for a scholarship. Thanks!

 

[Trave_]

May I ask your stats? I was also accepted by Columbia and I am curious about how they determined who will be qualified for a scholarship. Thanks!

You can see my stats in the link below, but from my experience the attributes that most likely determined the scholarship were probably outside the realm of GPA, DAT scores and ECs, namely how my interview went (this is probably the biggest one), my 3-year career as an implementations consultant/PM for the country's leading EMR corp (which included dental EMRs), and my background as a Hispanic immigrant (though the scholarship is not need-based).

DAT Breakdown! 26AA/26 TS/24 PAT - You can do it!

 

[eldmd_32]

Some of the courses in our curriculum here at Penn are P/F! Just wanted to say that. But you sound pretty sold on Columbia. If I were you (literally) I’d go with Columbia over UCSF. Just solely off what you said about you wanting to specialize and UCSF potentially not benefiting you in that way with rumor of low match rates to specialties.

 

[1234abcd456]

Some of the courses in our curriculum here at Penn are P/F! Just wanted to say that. But you sound pretty sold on Columbia. If I were you (literally) I’d go with Columbia over UCSF. Just solely off what you said about you wanting to specialize and UCSF potentially not benefiting you in that way with rumor of low match rates to specialties.

Hi I am trying to decide if I should attend upenn or not and you're one of the first posters here who is at upenn! I was wondering what you like/dislike about the school so far? Thanks

 

[Likkriue]

Go to the cheapest one.