We're going to Dental School in San Fran!

April 6, 2008

After much thought and patient waiting we have decided to attend dental school in San Francisco at the University of Pacific Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry!  We are really happy to have finally made the decision and we’re excited to start July 11^th!

 

 

 Pacific dental school has been preparing dentists for over 100 years andhas a rich history.  It is the only dental school in the nation that condenses a four-year education into 3 calendar years!

 

Here are some of the reasons why we chose Pacific and San Francisco:

1. Clinical Education - At this point we have no ambitions to specialize and are more interested in getting the best clinical education we can and Pacific offers a great clinical education.
2. Humanistic Approach - The humanistic model “directs faculty members to treat each student with respect and as colleagues, encouraging constructive feedback, high ethical standards and increased independence through the attainment of competency”.  Please see the previous post on what dental school will be like.  Any school that attempts to ease the pain of dental school gets my vote.  It is interesting that the opinions of dental students from Pacific are very positive, in contrast with the opinions of students at other schools.
3. Pacific Family - The one thing that really impressed me about Pacific was how happy and friendly the students, administrators and faculty were at the interview.  I interviewed at several schools and the Pacific interview was by far the most pleasant.  I guess this is what they term the “Pacific Family”, this feeling of togetherness and mutuality.  I’m excited to be a part of it.
4. 3-years - Obviously, it will be great to finish my dental education in 3 years, rather than 4.
5. Rejections - Some of the other schools I was interested in (UNLV, Arizona) rejected me, making the decision to attend Pacific a little easier.  In fact, once we were accepted to Pacific we were secretly hoping that our other “top” schools would reject us - an acceptance would have only complicated things.
6. O-chem Lab - It’s weird, but one of the biggest factors that swayed the decision was that Pacific does not require the second half of the organic chemistry lab, which I would’ve had to take for other schools.  The O-chem lab has the reputation of being the nastiest, crustiest class at BYU and I’m very glad that I don’t have to experience it.
7. Morgan’s Major - When we are initially looking at possible dental schools we also looked at other schools with Morgan’s major, which is a little rare.  Luckily, San Francisco State University has her major, so we are set.
8. San Francisco - We wanted to live somewhere that would be exactly like Provo, Utah - so, we choose San Francisco.   Actually, it will be awesome to live in San Francisco.  Here is where we want to live, we hear it has great housing ———————–>
9. The Ocean - I figure this will be my only chance to live near the ocean.

 

 Look at all that ocean!!!!!