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ceraaadin said:
I got accepted to a state school I never thought I would. I can get in-state tuition after year 2 which is very generous. I am really happy with the fact that i have a place to go and at the same time, i dont know if I should wait for other schools that I wanted to go originally. They are usually private, located in big cities, have higher tuition and larger class size like NYU, Columbia, Tufts or BU.

Is it worth waiting? (Columbia is kinda competitive so I almost gave up, bu I still have a hope for Tufts. Yes, tufts is very expensive school, but it has some reputation in New England, and I know they still have many post-December interviews).
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Just curious, what do you mean waiting? So long as you don't withdraw your application from your original schools, you still have a shot to get interviews/acceptances. I would suggest putting a deposit down at the cheaper, state school you got into, wait to see if you get interviews at your desired schools, then go from there.
BUT
more than likely the state school will end up being significantly cheaper, and as had been said on here ad nauseum, would be the suggest route.

Plan to go to the state school in which you were accepted, then wait and see if maybe you get scholarships or grants that could make COA at the private schools more competitive.
 
Any dentist with 2 years of experience knows more about dentistry and have better hand skills than any dental graduate of any dental school. So yes, the price is the better indicator
 
DiscoverWeakly said:
more than likely the state school will end up being significantly cheaper, and as had been said on here ad nauseum, would be the suggest route.

Plan to go to the state school in which you were accepted, then wait and see if maybe you get scholarships or grants that could make COA at the private schools more competitive.
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Not necessarily that the state school will be significantly cheaper, because OP still has to pay OOS for the 1st year (or 2? OP said they’ll get in-state after year 2?). For example, at my state school OOS cost is $100k/year, which is certainly on par with the expensive private schools. And also make sure it’s easy to switch your residency status, at my state school they make it very hard for you to do so.
OP, my advice is to carefully do a 4-year cost analysis of all the schools that you get accepted into before committing to one. Don’t forget to take into account different cost of living in different areas because that might make a big difference in the total cost. If you will be happier at a school that is $30k more expensive, I’d say go for it. If the price difference is more than $30k, go for the cheaper one.
 
AONLINE said:
Not necessarily that the state school will be significantly cheaper, because OP still has to pay OOS for the 1st year (or 2? OP said they’ll get in-state after year 2?). For example, at my state school OOS cost is $100k/year, which is certainly on par with the expensive private schools. And also make sure it’s easy to switch your residency status, at my state school they make it very hard for you to do so.
OP, my advice is to carefully do a 4-year cost analysis of all the schools that you get accepted into before committing to one. Don’t forget to take into account different cost of living in different areas because that might make a big difference in the total cost. If you will be happier at a school that is $30k more expensive, I’d say go for it. If the price difference is more than $30k, go for the cheaper one.
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New York, Boston and LA... my bet is that the state school is cheaper.

You're right though that the OOS cost should be taken into account.
 
ceraaadin said:
I got accepted to a state school I never thought I would. I can get in-state tuition after year 2 which is very generous. I am really happy with the fact that i have a place to go and at the same time, i dont know if I should wait for other schools that I wanted to go originally. They are usually private, located in big cities, have higher tuition and larger class size like NYU, Columbia, Tufts or BU.

Is it worth waiting? (Columbia is kinda competitive so I almost gave up, bu I still have a hope for Tufts. Yes, tufts is very expensive school, but it has some reputation in New England, and I know they still have many post-December interviews).
Click to expand...

A dental license is a dental license, no matter what you paid for it. Lowest price is not always the right choice, but it's almost always the right choice. The second determining factor is how easy is the dental school. If the school is easy, you should put that into consideration. Who wants to go to an unnecessarily difficult school? An easy school is a school that gives you the freedom to practice like a dentist with minimal bureaucracies of dental school. I got extremely lucky in that my school was easy (not anymore because they changed the curriculum largely due to our class) and cheap. That's one of the reasons I turned down UOP was due to strict attendance and cost.

To the posters above, 40k isn't much, even 80k w/ accumulated interest isn't too bad if your 4 year education is going to be a smoother ride. I'd rather pay the extra 40k than go to an unnecessarily bureaucratic and difficult school/administration.
 
Many of those schools you mentioned will leave you $500,000 to $600,000 in debt. Think about that for a minute. At $600,000 your monthly loan payment will be around $4,500/month...for twenty years! That’s $55,000/year. And of course that’s with after tax money, so you’ll need to earn almost $70,000/year just to cover your student loans. Imagine having to earn more than the median US household income just for your student loans. How much will life’s other expenses run you? It’s not a pretty a picture.

Big Hoss
 
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