You will learn basic science courses through PBL system instead of learning each subject such as taking biochem, etc. PBL is also used by Case and other dental schools.
Since I have not started dschool yet so I cannot comment on its effectiveness yet, but from my research on the topic (which I did before choosing USC) it seems that most students at USC I talked during interview actually like it very much and they said it prepared them well enough for board 1 without wasting time by learning unnecessary information. This could be biased because these students chose USC because they liked PBL system, but nonetheless as long as system fits your learning style, it could be an effective way of learning.
A student I talked with (an alumni from my undergrad which I found on facebook) told me that you have much free time during your first and second year but in order to excel, you will have to discipline yourself and make sure you do your part. If you lack self-discipline or time management, this could be a very bad idea. Some students are more used to attending lectures and learning by memorizing instead of learning the process and these students will probably struggle and complain about the system.
Therefore, whether you would like PBL system or not I am not sure. I suggest if you get a chance, visit the school talk to current students and see if you can get some real ideas.
I also heard that starting with my class, it would be more of a hybrid system with regular lectures and PBL classes so expect there to be some changes coming.
As far as training to become a 'dentist,' USC is known for producing very well trained dentists and BossOfFloss's comment on you have to teach yourself to become a dentist is definitely false since the faculty at USC is actually one of the best (many worldly renowned researchers and clinicians are at USC). They also made some changes to their patient scheduling which will help us with more effective patient flow (if you are still curious about USC, search on this forum there are many threads about this topic and PBL).
Western has a potential to become a very great school so I would suggest that you include them when you're applying, but I personally chose USC over Western b/c I didn't want to choose a new school over a well-established school. Also, even though school's reputation has changed in recent years, it is still the very first dental school in LA (and in fact southwest US) and its network and alumni base are one of the largest. I also preferred large campus with more chances for social life compared to Western's Pomona campus that used to be a shopping center turned into school building (which I was told from the interview guide).
But most of students at Western I see on SDN seem to really enjoy their experiences there and b/c it's a new school it would send out more acceptances due to people declining their offers so I suggest you keep it on your list.
Western is not fully accredited yet. They have the initial accreditation and it cannot be fully accredited until they graduate a class (same goes with Midwestern).
http://www.ada.org/267.aspx - this link shows you about dental school's accreditation status
But its dean being a member of ADA Committee, I believe they will have no problem with being fully accredited. And also there is a California law that guarantees that those students who attend the school while it's still not fully accredited will still receive their DDS degree because otherwise noone would ever go to new schools (there is also a thread about this on SDN forum here).
BossOfFloss - Please do some real research before replying/commenting on questions since you can give some false answers to those that are new to the forum and cause confusion. SDN already has so many false rumors that has been stated by different people that they actually become facts over here (e.g. NYU drops 20% of class after the first year which is a complete false)
