For me it's really hard to compare Penn to UCSF because I know little about that place, however I can talk about the things I like and dislike about UCSF which is where I go to school.
UCSF pro's :
Living in San Francisco (and in a nice part of it too.)
Brand new simulations lab
I love my classmates, really nice people.
No class ranking = everybody cooperates and helps each other out.
Research powerhouse = lots of people to potentially write letters for you, a good stepping
stone to specializing.
Independent Study Option (ISO) = you get 8 hours per week (sometimes more) to do
whatever the heck you would like.
UCSF con's:
1) NOT ENOUGH $$: this has resulted in limited amount of faculty and also in laying off more senior, experienced professors to hire younger, more junior faculty who have less experience but probably also charge less money. When I was in sim lab we had a row faculty checking 14 students, and if someone called in sick that would be 21 students.
In clinic they try to keep it at 8 students per faculty, which is not enough to begin with IMO, sometimes we get people checking on 12-16 students too if faculty can't make it that day.
As if the number of teachers was not enough you also have to consider I can count the nice ones with my fingers. The majority of teachers are not really nice and most of the feedback you get is on why your work sucks, not useful advice on how to do things different.
2) I didn't think much of the didactic courses the 1st 2 years, mostly PhD coming to give one lecture a year and never seeing you again, doing powerppoints that were half put together as a crutch. Many instructors don't even care to write new exams every year and people just study old tests (they give them to us) and do very well because faculty are too lazy to write a new one. I think I learned more from the dental decks and books I bought to study for boards...
3) Not enough chairs : people are trying to open chairs all the time to bring in new patients, the waiting lists are more than 10people long! The clinic here cannot hold all the D3, D4 and IDP at the same time.
4) They don't give you procedures. : some schools keep count of all the procedures new patients need and they spread them out to all students to make sure everyone gets at least one amalgam, one crown, one denture, etc. NOT THE CASE HERE you are given a list of patients and whatever they need is what you get to do , hope you get lucky. On the last quarter of dental school there is a free for all trade amont students switching patients among themselves like they are baseball cards (my denture for your 2 crowns, etc) They do however come up with lists of stuff you need to do if you want to pass the quarter/year or graduate for dental school. How you get to do them is entirely up to you.
5) The school does not have a financing program: I know patients at UOP can do a payment plan to afford the more expensive treatment. Not the case here, patients have to pay full cost up front or pay half in the beginning, and half at the end. Some patients can't afford to pay this way so you dont get to do any dentistry.
6) The school thinks very highly of itself. Every time someone complains they basically tell you it's your own d#$@ fault. "Your are not motivated", " You are not organized", "You are not working hard enough" "Trust the program" are some of the ones I have heard so far.
This is all I can come up with top of my head. If I think of more stuff I will post it later.
