Quite obviously at the moment USC is a work in progress. You don't fire (er...put on sabbatical) your Dean if he was doing a good job. PBL is still a valid method of education (it was pioneered by HARVARD, and is still the educational model at Hahvard). PBL is also used at Case, Indiana, and in a small way at Michigan. And as I have pointed out before...graduating late doesn't mean a whole year late. Just like finishing college by graduating in the Winter quarter still means statistically it took you 5 yrs to complete undergrad. And quite logically it doesn't make any sense for a school to have a large number of late graduates. It boggs down the clinic and it hampers residencies that start in July. So quite logically the school cannot tolerate a pattern of late graduation. Just as it wouldn't make any sense for NYU to get rid of tuition paying students, it doesn't make sense to overburden your clinic with "super-seniors". (Oh, I guess the NYU Dean had to make a special effort to dispel a common misconception about the attrition there).
So is USC a crap shoot? Most definitely. Is it as bad as some of these posters make out? Of course not. Also be warned...tuitions are bound to increase at all schools. In this economic environment less money will also be flowing into their clinics and tuition can increase or staff and faculty be cut. None of these schools (USC, NYU, UPenn, Columbia,UOP) have actually guaranteed that the tuition they quote will remain thoughout your 3-4 yrs. And if NYU retains all 248 members of their class...do they have sufficient clinical facilities to handle that many students? That has got to be one mother sized clinic and logistically be a challenge to manage. USC would have half that many students. The bottom line is go where you would be comfortable. Go where you would like to spend 4 yrs of your life. Those 4 years will be very challenging and can be filled with frustration, dispair, exhiliration, epiphany. Good Luck to you.