It would depend on how important going to dental school is for you, I think.
If I were in the position where USC was the only school I got into, I would, without a doubt, DEFINITELY GO THERE!
I'd be lucky enough to have gained admission to a dental school, which is extremely competitive as it is. And if I turned USC down to reapply to dental school, I'd be wasting one of my last years of potential income (which would probably be the highest) as well as a year of my life reapplying. More importantly, there is no guaranteed that USC nor any other dental school would ever accept me again. I'm not saying that you definitely wouldn't be accepted, but there is no guarantee that you would be, especially if you're not doing things to improve your application and with the process becoming more and more competitive. And with the economy being the way it is, state schools may be even more competitive than most private ones, because people would rather not be in debt. So it's gonna be tougher getting in next year as it is. I'm not saying you can't do it, but I'm trying to tell you to be VERY cautious with this decision. You don't want to be in a situation where you turn down an acceptance and then get no acceptances the next year. How horrible would that be?
For example, I know a predent who was accepted to a dental school, but he decided to reapply to see whether he could get into a "better" school the next cycle, since he retook his DAT and got better scores than he expected. He didn't get in ANYWHERE the next cycle and after that he gave up on being a dentist and decided to follow another path. I'm not close friends with this guy, so I don't know what his thoughts at the end of the process were, but when I heard about his situation I was thinking, "Wow, if he had just gone to the school that had accepted him in the first place, he'd be on his way to being a dentist now!"
There are options for people who do not want to be in debt after dental school and don't want to carry that burden after they graduate. I recommend you look into these. The military is the only thing I can think of right now (I haven't applied to dschool yet so I don't know all the specifics about the finances yet), but realistically if I look at the military and evaluate it, it isn't a bad deal at all. They pay for school and give you a stipend, and you do have to work back the years after you graduate, but this also means you have a job after graduation (so you'll get a good deal of work experience under your belt before you open a practice) and you're going to be debt free. That's pretty significant, especially with the cost of schools like USC.
I would therefore strongly encourage you to attend USC. If I were in your shoes I definitely would, no second thoughts, no regrets. I hope you make the right decision for you, and even if you don't agree with my opinion that I helped you in some small way. Congrats on your acceptance! 😀
