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Griffith's Reputation

rolftina

Member
So I plan to go to Griffith next year but it kinda concerns me that in a lot of threads that I've been reading online (mostly whirlpool), people seem to always refer to Griffith as a not-so-great uni. The saying "Grifftafe" is everywhere (n)

Also, most of my friends have been trying to persuade me not to go there next year because apparently "they've never heard of it" and that I should go to a more "well-known" uni like UQ instead. It's not really a big deal that Griffith's not a Go8 uni, is it?

I'm from Melbourne, so I haven't heard a lot about the reputation Griffith has. I'm starting to think that it might be equivalent to what us kids in Melbourne think of Victoria Uni. :unsure:

Assure me that Griffith isn't as "bad" as people say, please!
 

mighty

Regular Member
*sigh* It should be plenty obvious from searching around MSO that a university's reputation means squat. As long as the courses are accredited by the ADC, it doesn't matter which university you graduate from, you will still be a qualified dentist. When you start working, very few people (if any) will be asking you what uni you graduated from. As long as you can improve their oral health I'm fairly sure most patients won't care.

Judging a university based on their "reputation" is a bad idea. A university might have an absolutely amazing health sciences department, but still have a 'crap' reputation, so honestly I wouldn't worry about it. Maybe it matters in other fields, e.g. law or commerce, but for dentistry it really doesn't matter.

So just ignore your friends and Whirlpool and get your degree. :)

PS. Hope you realise the last 2 years of Griffith dentistry are full-fee.. ie. you'll have to pay $100 000 in tuition fees for the last 2 years!
 

motivate123

Regular Member
My family dentist said usually around 20% of patients actually mind which uni you graduate from.

Food for thought. But as mighty said, it doesn't really matter for dentistry. I would think a lot of patients probably do not even know which uni has a dentistry course, let alone which uni has the best dentistry program.
 

godoftoast

Señor Member
Emeritus Staff
My family dentist said usually around 20% of patients actually mind which uni you graduate from.

Food for thought. But as mighty said, it doesn't really matter for dentistry. I would think a lot of patients probably do not even know which uni has a dentistry course, let alone which uni has the best dentistry program.

I doubt that very much. When has anyone ever gone into a dental clinic and asked where the dentist graduated from? I always look for experience + friendliness and price when I visit.
 

mighty

Regular Member
Knowing which uni you graduated from isn't going to magically improve their quality of treatment (but I do know that there is that academic elitism anyway). There is no way to judge which uni has the "best" dentistry program, as nobody has done a dentistry degree at 2 universities. I personally think that to get into dentistry is an achievement in itself, and if you get an offer then take it. Silly to be picky (unless you have multiple offers) and base your decision off so-called "reputation".
 
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Hutcherson

Emeritus Staff
Emeritus Staff
The question is are you competent enough to treat patients? and not what university you attended. Mighty perfectly answered this ^^.
 

motivate123

Regular Member
I doubt that very much. When has anyone ever gone into a dental clinic and asked where the dentist graduated from? I always look for experience + friendliness and price when I visit.

I agree, most patients would look for experience and friendliness, price, comfort, etc.

However, it could depend on the suburb in which you are practising and the demographic therein?
 
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BigRedSky

Regular Member
My family dentist said usually around 20% of patients actually mind which uni you graduate from.

I'd be thinking anyone that says 20% care where you studied is far more invested in where they studied than even that 20%... if that makes sense.

Also: care... to what degree? (pun accidental). Like, care to the extent that they ask? That they're interested? That they glance at the degree on the wall? Or that they make the "purchase decision" based on it?

Most people book into a dentist for the first time on the phone, usually on a referral from a friend / family member. Next time you're in there in the waiting room, see how many times when the receptionist answers the phone he or she ends up saying "yes, Doctor Jones went to University ABC". I'm betting it'll be somewhere between zero and 2 times zero.
 

chinaski

Regular Member
Right now, UQ's hardly in a position to be acting holier-than-thou. In Queensland at least, reputations are an iffy thing - one stuff up by staff and they hit rock bottom - sandstone can't save you from a scandal or guarantee excellence by that alone. As per the others, reputations don't matter, of course - but people who care about those sorts of things can hardly point at UQ and say compared to Griffith, things are just peachy. ;)
 

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KIWIpride

Regular Member
@rolftina

On a more serious note, I don't think you should worry about dental school's reputation. A dentist is a dentist, and in the end, once registered, jobs will open up because our job prospects are that amazing.

2012 is Griffith dental school's 8th year so compared to the closely located "dental rival" UQ, our history is incredibly shorter. Nonetheless, our school has begun making impacts right across the dental world. For example, installation of world class simulation equipment, simodont, 5 active research groups have recently opened up within the school, in 2013, we are relocating to Griffith health centre connected to the 1.7 billion dollar gold coast university hospital including 100 chair dental clinic, a simodont lab, a sim lab with 100 phantom heads, and most importantly, our tutors, lecturers, clinic supervisors are superbly world class. If you have time, browse through the dental staff portfolio on the griffith website.

So i guess i am pretty happy here.
So don't worry too much rolftina, because no doubt you will be impressed when you step inside the dental school =]. I assure you it's better than griffTAFE. Hope that helped
 

kashmuq

U mad?
So I plan to go to Griffith next year but it kinda concerns me that in a lot of threads that I've been reading online (mostly whirlpool), people seem to always refer to Griffith as a not-so-great uni. The saying "Grifftafe" is everywhere (n)

Also, most of my friends have been trying to persuade me not to go there next year because apparently "they've never heard of it" and that I should go to a more "well-known" uni like UQ instead. It's not really a big deal that Griffith's not a Go8 uni, is it?

I'm from Melbourne, so I haven't heard a lot about the reputation Griffith has. I'm starting to think that it might be equivalent to what us kids in Melbourne think of Victoria Uni. :unsure:

Assure me that Griffith isn't as "bad" as people say, please!

I'm also from Melbourne and had never heard of Griffith until I heard it was a med school. Not going to deny it when I came up here I was surprised at how much crap Griffith got about it's rep. Fact is, Griffith does have quite a bad rep in Qld (esp amongst UQers) but so what? Dent is Dent, it has the same accreditation so as far as the ADC is concerned Griffith graduates = Go8 graduates and that's all that matters in terms of rep.

Base your decision on more important factors like location and cost etc.
 
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miss_universe

muse.
Emeritus Staff
Yes, and base your decision on if you are lucky enough to get a place in the first place.
 

l2009

Regular Member
Unless there's really compelling facts (read: FACTS, not rumours) that would tarnish a university's dental program, I don't think it really matters. Griffith's course is accredited, so there's no strong reason why it would be significantly inferior to other Group of 8 schools.

In my opinion, if you get offers from multiple dental schools then pick whichever is most convenient i.e. location and cost. If I had offers from UQ and Griffith dent (and without any knowledge of how fun it would be at Griffith dent :)), then I would've picked UQ based on the fact it's closer to me and cost. Still .. at this stage, if I were to miraculously be allowed to transfer into 4th year UQ, I'd still stay in Griffith. I generally like living away from home, and I've grown to like it here too much, haha.

I wouldn't listen to people in whirlpool. I'm sure there would be a few dental students there (no-one from Griffith from the few posts I've made in there regarding dental schools) ... but for advice on Griffith, you're better off asking people who actually study at Griffith. If you asked me to describe things I don't like about the course ... I could definitely think of some things. But I've spoken to people from UQ, and it's not like everything over there is perfect. At the very least, I've seen the negatives here at Griffith being addressed and improved upon the following year, which is definitely a positive thing.

As for the Grifftafe comments ... at least here within the GU dent school, it's more-so a joke that we don't take seriously. Most of us acknowledge that we aren't a Group of 8, nor even a prestigious university, but we don't give a crap anyway and use it for the rofflewoffles. I'm sure there are people out there who actually use it seriously, but the best way to take a joke is to roll with it, yeah? :lol:
 

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dent_guy

Member
@rolftina On a more serious note, I don't think you should worry about dental school's reputation. A dentist is a dentist, and in the end, once registered, jobs will open up because our job prospects are that amazing.2012 is Griffith dental school's 8th year so compared to the closely located "dental rival" UQ, our history is incredibly shorter. Nonetheless, our school has begun making impacts right across the dental world. For example, installation of world class simulation equipment, simodont, 5 active research groups have recently opened up within the school, in 2013, we are relocating to Griffith health centre connected to the 1.7 billion dollar gold coast university hospital including 100 chair dental clinic, a simodont lab, a sim lab with 100 phantom heads, and most importantly, our tutors, lecturers, clinic supervisors are superbly world class. If you have time, browse through the dental staff portfolio on the griffith website. So i guess i am pretty happy here.So don't worry too much rolftina, because no doubt you will be impressed when you step inside the dental school =]. I assure you it's better than griffTAFE. Hope that helped
Could not disagree more. The first year is terrible with little to no actual dental exposure and the subjects were the equivalent of year 11/12 content. This should be your last preference
 

miss_universe

muse.
Emeritus Staff
Wow dent guy, finally a differing opinion. Any more insight?
 

KIWIpride

Regular Member
Could not disagree more. The first year is terrible with little to no actual dental exposure and the subjects were the equivalent of year 11/12 content. This should be your last preference

Can't wait to start this year then huh?
 

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