Can you guys opinions for deciding between these two Dental School?

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sugdhe

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I was accepted to these two programs: Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC and Penn Dental Medicine.
At the moment, I live in near Orange County (like 40 minutes away from Los Angeles) and I have been talking to different dental students and dentists about this but it seems that I can't clearly make a decision.

In the future, I want to practice in California where majority of my friend and family is living in. And I've heard that if you want to practice in California, it is more advantageous to go to California Dental School because of the connection opportunities here. And I do know the cons for USC (high tuition/PBL) but I am not really worried about the transition from tradition lecture education that I had in undergrad to PBL. And the tuition wise, PENN and USC is pretty much similar (I think PENN is slightly cheaper)

But USC is a good school (besides the tuition and education system) because the students will have lot of clinical opportunities and I guess it has a good reputation too ( I am not too sure about this). Penn is also a good school with great patient pool, (the one test per week policy?), and also good reputation.

Anyone please give me some opinions? I guess the decisions really depends what I want to do in the future, but I want to hear how did you guys choose your schools.

Thank you in advance! :)

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From what I've heard USC has had difficulty with faculty retention. Their faculty turnover rate is pretty high. Penn on the other hand has a lot of really exciting stuff going on and offers a really strong education both in terms of preparation for GP and preparation for specializing. I'm a CA resident and didn't apply to USC, but I applied to Penn (and all the other SoCal schools). The bad things I'd heard about USC in conjunction w/ the cost were enough for me to look the other way.

I would go for Penn and not think twice, I'm sure others would say the same.
 
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