7 tips for deciding on your best dental school fit

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Getting accepted into dental school is an incredible milestone in your journey to becoming a dentist! After spending so much time studying for the DAT, preparing applications, and interviewing, receiving an acceptance is both a major accomplishment and a relief. But what do you do when you’re deciding between more than one school? How do you decide where you want to spend the next four years of your life? Although choosing the dental school that is the best fit for you is a completely individual decision, we’ve compiled seven tips to guide you if you are deciding between schools, so read on!

1. Determine your priorities and future goals.

Dentistry is an extremely diverse field, so no two sets of priorities and goals will align. First, ask yourself what you value in a future dental school. What kind of location do you want? How much does cost matter to you — or is cost your most important factor? Do you want a school with a medically-integrated curriculum? Do you want a school that will give you clinical experience as early as possible? As you list out these factors, you can then rank them in order of importance. While you’re researching the schools you were accepted to, you can keep track of how well each school fits with these priorities.

This is also the time to think about your future goals. While it’s perfectly normal to not know exactly what path within dentistry you want to follow (e.g., general dentist, specialist, academics/research, etc.), it can be helpful to think about what you might want to do in the future. Also consider what kind of dentist you want to be or where you might want to practice in the future. All of this can help guide your decision.

2. Talk to current students or alums.

Current dental students are an amazing resource! Not only were they in your position not too long ago, but they are also able to offer honest firsthand experience about what life is like at their dental school. Some schools will get you in contact with current students when you’re accepted. If not, you can email admissions to ask if they can connect you with current students or school ambassadors, or you can find current students via social medial (dental Instagram accounts) or Facebook groups (for starters, Crack the DAT’s Facebook group is a community of pre-dental and dental students).

When you talk to students, you can ask them questions and get a sense of how happy they are at their school. You can also ask them what they wish they had known when they were in your position!

If you can’t schedule a one-on-one chat, you can also check out YouTube channels — for example, FutureDDS posts interviews with dental students at schools all over the country.

3. Think about location.

Location is a factor you might value very highly or not much at all. Know that you will be very busy throughout dental school, so you might have less time than you think to explore a new area, but that doesn’t mean that location can’t be a huge part of your dental school experience! Consider whether your prefer urban, suburban, or rural areas. Consider the cost of living, the ease of finding apartments, the availability of on- or off-campus housing, and the availability of transportation. Will you need a car? Will you need to take public transportation and commute to school every day if you can’t secure nearby housing? What is the typical weather where your dental school is located? All of these factors might be important to consider as you weigh your options.

4. Think about how you will finance your dental education.

It’s no secret that dental school is very expensive. Additionally, tuition can vary greatly between schools depending on where they are located or whether they are public, private, or in-state. Determine the estimated cost of attendance of every dental school you’re considering, taking into account any scholarships or grants you may have received. Then, compare schools based on cost. As you’re comparing costs, remember that if you plan to take out loans, you will have to repay them with interest. This means that differences in cost can be much more than they initially seem.

There are several scholarship programs available for pre-dental students. In addition to scholarships which may be offered by your dental school and other private scholarships, other options for financing your dental education include the Health Professions Scholarship Program (HPSP) and National Health Service Corps (NHSC). Both programs can cover up to the full cost of attendance and provide stipends, so if you’re a recipient of either scholarship, you might worry much less about cost. However, both programs require commitments post-graduation, so be sure to research these options fully.

5. Plan a (virtual) visit.

Of course, during a typical application cycle, you would have visited each school while interviewing. If this were the case, you would have had the opportunity to check out the surrounding area and the school’s facilities. If you weren’t able to visit the schools you were considering and can’t plan an in-person visit, you can still learn about the campus and its surrounding area! YouTube will be your best friend here — look up video tours of the campus and surrounding city. You might even be able to do a Google Street View walkthrough of the area.

6. Seek out answers to your questions.

Don’t be shy about asking questions that are important in informing your decision! Here are some questions you might ask:

• What is the student body or campus culture like?
• How much exposure do students get to the different dental specialties?
• How would you describe the clinic and the facilities?
• Do students get access to lots of technology and digital dentistry, or does the school take a more traditional approach?
• What is your favorite and least favorite thing about your school?
• What is the location and surrounding area like?
• Are graduation requirements competency-based or based on the number of procedures completed?
• Are students responsible for finding and recruiting their own patients? What about scheduling their own patients?
• Are there opportunities for research? What are those opportunities like?
• Are there opportunities for service and community outreach? What are those opportunities like?
• How would you describe the faculty-student relationships?
• How do you feel about the class size at your school?
• Why did you choose this dental school?
• What portion of students specialize versus do general dentistry?
• How are students prepared to take the board exams?
• What support and resources are offered to help students make the transition from undergrad to dental school?
• What is the work-life balance like?

This is truly just a sampling of the questions you can ask—it really depends what matters most to you.

7. At the end of the day, do what’s best for you.

No matter where you decide to attend dental school, you WILL become a dentist. This is just the next step in your journey. While choosing a school is a serious decision, do what you think is best for you and know that wherever you go, your experience will largely be shaped by what you put into it.

To the students deciding where to attend, we wish you luck in your decision process. To those still waiting on an acceptance — this cycle isn’t over! Remember, Decision Day was the FIRST day acceptances could be released. It will not be the last.

If you have any questions, or have other advice regarding factors to consider when deciding on a school, please let us know in the comments. Wishing you the very best!

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