University of Southern California School of Dentistry

From Student Doctor Network Wiki

1) Name of Your Dental School USC

2) What is your examination schedule like? Block Schedule (midterms and finals week) or several every week? midterms/finals in first 2 yrs only

3) What is the hardest class? Why? removable

4) What is the easiest class? Why? perio block 5) Are your classmates generally gunners and try to sabatoge each other? If not, is the culture one where everybody tries to help everybody out? no sabotage 6) Are the class notes based primarily on textbooks? or based on lecture powerpoints made up by professors? pbl - information is found in textbooks or internet researched by students on their own. 7) Are there any classes taken with medical students? If so, which ones? no 8) What is the grading system? Pass/Fail/Honors? Letter Grades? Percentages? letter grades that dont really mean anything 9) Is there a notetaking service for lecture available? no 10) Is class attendance mandatory? yes 11) In general, are teachers approachable for questions? Or are they for the most part very busy and unreachable (research, etc...)? some can be assholes but in general they are approachable 12) Is there a big brother/big sister program that pairs you with an upperclassman or professor who "mentors" you? we have teams with 1 freshmen, 1 soph, 1 jr, 1 sr. but its pretty useless. 13) What is the % first time board pass rate? What is the average score? not sure but our school does really well with part 1 scores 14) When do you take the NDBE? 1st year or second year? end of 2nd year 15) 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? 3 weeks off for part 1. none for part 2. 16) Do most people study in the University Library? Or does the place clear out right after school and everybody studies on their own? everyone studies on their own. 17) Are patients readily available to fulfill clinical requirements or do you have to do a lot of work to get them in? there are not enough patients for every student 18) Is it a hassle to get a chair once you get patients in? In your opinion, does your school have enough chairs? there are not enough chairs for all the students 19) What are the clinical requirements to graduate? (number of crowns, fillings, etc...) Is it reasonably attainable or pretty difficult? 20 crowns 10 units of fpd 11 arches removable 125 amalgams/composites 6 root canals 25 extractions 20 quads of SRP 15 perio re evals 5 perio maintenance 16 competencies (5 crown preps, 3 amalgam, 3 composite, 3 cementation, 2 perio)

20) Are there opportunities for different off-site dental clinic rotations? If so, what are they? Mobile clinic, URM, Queenscare 21) Are there opportunites for outreach trips to underserved areas or countries? If so, what are they and for how long? they are week long rotations about once a semester 22) Is there sufficent preparation for practice management? What career placement opportunites does your school offer? no placement, but we have a strong alumni 23) What is the dress code at your school? Scrubs? For what years? scrubs or business casual

Please feel free to add any other potentially helpful information about your dental school below!