Nyc is more expensive, however Columbia does offer on campus housing (temple does not), which is like 10 or 12 grand a year I believe, which would make the cost of living similar I think. Philly is still an expensive place to live, and getting an apartment, well one in a decent area at least, in philly will cost a lot. I think Columbia actually projects a lower "cost of living" than temple does by a few grand, but idk how true that is.
It is one hundred thousand percent possible to specialize coming from temple. In my opinion, where you go to school wont "really" matter when it comes to specializing. If you can do it at Columbia, then you can do it at temple. It just depends on how hard you are wiling to work, but the same thing applies to anywhere you go.
And lastly, idk how competitive it is really. The people I know say its not too bad, everyone helps each other and what not. Ive heard D2 is hard and that's about it haha, but ive heard the exact same thing at every other school. At the end of the day, how much more competitive can it be than undergrad. Idk about your university, but at my school every single bio major comes in as the child of some type of doctor, with the intention of becoming a doctor or dentist. So I would imagine there is a lot of competition, but at the same time, everyone has always been super nice and no one has ever tried to screw me over to get themselves a better grade or anything like that. At this point your already in dental school, so I feel like the competition shouldn't be too bad. Especially at temple, where a much lower number of people are looking to specialize compared to Columbia or penn.
I guess what im trying to say in the last 2 paragraphs (in simpler terms) is, whatever you make of it is what you will get. If you work hard to specialize than youll be able to. And if you are super competitive, than im sure it will seem super competitive.
