I would go to any school in your hypothetical situation, which until very recently was somewhat similar to my situation due to a late application.
I don't think tuition should be as much of a deterrent as you might perceive for two reasons,one, as people have already pointed out, most private schools cost about the same with a few exceptions. In fact the only exception on your list is Temple. Buffalo will offer you significant savings tuition wise since you are a resident of NY. The bigger point as to why tuition isn't as big of a factor is that you are losing around $110k (with 4 years of inflation) in earnings during that first year you be be practicing during. That might be around $70K after taxes. So you'd have to save $17.5k per year to make it worthwhile. Add to that the $30k that your grad school will cost you and you need to save $25k a year to compensate for not going to dental school this year. Few schools have an estimated budget of less than $50,000 a year anymore and you'd have to narrow your choices down to those schools if make the decision to wait a year solely for reasons of cost. Another thing to consider is that getting out of dental school a year earlier can make pursuing a specialty more palatable, and/or it can help you have an extra year of partying with your resources before having to devote those to setting up a family. If you consider a fixed working span of 30 years, then it gives you the opportunity to retire earlier or if have in mind a certain age to retire at it gives you an extra year of income when your practice is making the most money. This number can be quite sizable. Also keep in mind that savings grow exponentially, so whatever yo save that first year will be worth a lot at the end of your career.
