I am a DS2 at San Antonio.
PROS
laptop curriculum -- we still get printed manuals in our classes to read from, so if it's not your thing, you still have hard-copy materials to study from, and you can always print stuff off, it's so much better than having to bring all your textbooks to school if you plan on studying at the library in the evening or using them to refer to stuff during class
clinic bays -- every student is assigned to a GPG that has DS3 and DS4, every student is guaranteed a chair during clinic time
instrument leasing -- no need to worry about paying a huge sum of money when you start school to buy instruments you probably won't use after you are graduate
rotations starting first year -- assist in the clinic, learn to take x-rays, learn how to do head and neck exams, health history, charting, perio exams, etc, rotations during second consist of expanding on the ones from first year plus oral surgery rotation where we learn how to give intraoral injections on patients at the downtown clinic, and when you don't have a rotation scheduled, you have the afternoon off to do whatever you want, study, workout, relax, etc.
faculty -- the faculty are wonderful... especially DS2... some of the operative professors established a tutoring program for the class to practice and get feedback on our projects and skills assessments, and almost everyone has attended one of the sessions, in fixed, the director of our course voluntarily meets with students the night before our skills assessments to give feedback on our crown preps/provisionals, he has been there until 9 at night sometimes, the faculty are willing to help, they want you to do well in pre-clinic so you can be successful in clinic
students -- my class is great, you are always going to have your gunners, but everyone gets along, shares study guides/reviews, etc
gross lab tutoring -- upperclassmen who made A's help the DS1 students, by far one of the best investments I made, it was really good to have someone show you structures in small groups and not having to worry about going to the next group like you would during class time
there is also dental anatomy tutoring available
CEREC and Invisalign certification electives
Tons of electives and community rotations
CONS
I have not had experience with this yet, but molar endo is not required to graduate, so some see that as a potential disadvantage, however, if you want to do molar endo, you can take an elective during 3rd year that will allow you to do so
The grading scale in several of our classes this year make it harder to get A's, B's, and so forth (i.e. all prosthodontics classes have a scale of 82 to get a B and 75 to get a C, our perio class was 93 to get an A, and maybe 84 to get a B, I don't remember), so it makes it a little more stressful depending on how you want to do, whether you want to specialize, etc
Burs and teeth -- for fixed prosthodontics we don't get extra teeth supplied to us to practice for practicals, so we have to buy them on our own at $2 each, we only have what is required to complete the daily assignment, and beyond that, we have to purchase more on our own, in operative though, we always get 2 extra teeth to practice for the upcoming skills assessment
and burs... we are given a bunch at the start of the year, you find ones you like to use for certain things, and you obviously use them more than others, well they tend to burn out pretty quickly on plastic teeth, so you end up buying more burs throughout the year
That's all I can think of right now.
Oh yeah, and I had a difficult decision between Baylor and San Antonio for the same reasons... my family is from Dallas, I grew up there, etc. I would have been happy at any of the 3 schools, but I am really glad I chose to go to San Antonio. It has been a good experience thus far, and plus, there is tons to do when you do get free time... and you will. You just have to make time for yourself. And cost of living is cheaper.
Hope it helps. Good luck in making your decision and maybe I'll see you around next year
