NYU vs WesternU

[nevrgiveup]

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Hey guys,

I got into both programs and been having trouble deciding between the two. I am a resident in California and would love to stay in stay within the state, but I would not mind going to New York for school if NYU is "worth it". Any suggestions?

 

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NYU

 

[Gaucho4Life]

Wow I never knew what the cost of attendance was at WesternU... would you rather live in Pomona or Manhattan?

 

[nevrgiveup]

Wow I never knew what the cost of attendance was at WesternU... would you rather live in Pomona or Manhattan?

I would rather live in Pomona as its not too far from home. WesternU is a bit cheaper but not by much in terms of just tuition.

NYU

What makes you choose NYU?

 

[Gaucho4Life]

Yeah Pomona is like an hour away from home for me but I'd pick Manhattan everyday. Maybe you're not familiar with Pomona haha. And I disagree with you about the cost of attendance WesternU being cheaper...

 

[DMDDSdreams]

Here's my 2 cents...I have an acceptance at Western and i'm wait-listed at NYU. Prior to Dec 2nd, I decided that IF I had to choose between the 2 schools, I would choose Western and here's why:

1. I'm from Los Angeles and unless you're really looking for a new experience and want to move, nothing beats being near friends and family.
2. Tuition is basically the same for both schools but cost of living in NY is ridiculous. You'll be paying triple what you'll be paying in pomona/surrounding areas.
3. Class size. It's no secret that NYU's class size is huge. For me, this translates into fewer intimate (not in a weird way) relationships with faculty and other students. During my interview at NYU, I was told that because the class size is so large, family and friends aren't allowed to attend your white coat ceremony. Also, and this was VERY surprising and i'm not 100% sure if it's true, but one of the students told me that family can't even attend your graduation. This was a huge turn-off for me as I have worked really hard to get to this point and would love to share important times like my white coat ceremony and graduation with my loved ones.
4. Western schedules your patients for you. Dental school is stressful enough and I don't want to worry about scheduling patients on top of everything else.

All in all, NYU has the name and Manhattan is a fun city. I think both schools are great but Western definitely has more pros (in my eyes, at least) than NYU does.

 

[BlueBeetle]

Here's my 2 cents...I have an acceptance at Western and i'm wait-listed at NYU. Prior to Dec 2nd, I decided that IF I had to choose between the 2 schools, I would choose Western and here's why:

1. I'm from Los Angeles and unless you're really looking for a new experience and want to move, nothing beats being near friends and family.
2. Tuition is basically the same for both schools but cost of living in NY is ridiculous. You'll be paying triple what you'll be paying in pomona/surrounding areas.
3. Class size. It's no secret that NYU's class size is huge. For me, this translates into fewer intimate (not in a weird way) relationships with faculty and other students. During my interview at NYU, I was told that because the class size is so large, family and friends aren't allowed to attend your white coat ceremony. Also, and this was VERY surprising and i'm not 100% sure if it's true, but one of the students told me that family can't even attend your graduation. This was a huge turn-off for me as I have worked really hard to get to this point and would love to share important times like my white coat ceremony and graduation with my loved ones.
4. Western schedules your patients for you. Dental school is stressful enough and I don't want to worry about scheduling patients on top of everything else.

All in all, NYU has the name and Manhattan is a fun city. I think both schools are great but Western definitely has more pros (in my eyes, at least) than NYU does.

Are the last two points true? Not having family at the white coat/graduation seems to defeat the whole purpose of said ceremonies. That just seems wrong IMO.

Also, at my interview, I asked Dean Bertolami about patient scheduling and he seemed to indicate that the school schedules your patients for you? Unless I was a bit mislead, if anyone could clarify on this subject.

And to answer OP's question, I think if I got into both, I would choose Western mainly because it is cheaper and closer to home. I am from the Pomona area and it is quite nice, especially if you choose to live in an area such as Chino Hills.

 

[DMDDSdreams]

Are the last two points true? Not having family at the white coat/graduation seems to defeat the whole purpose of said ceremonies. That just seems wrong IMO.

Also, at my interview, I asked Dean Bertolami about patient scheduling and he seemed to indicate that the school schedules your patients for you? Unless I was a bit mislead, if anyone could clarify on this subject.

And to answer OP's question, I think if I got into both, I would choose Western mainly because it is cheaper and closer to home. I am from the Pomona area and it is quite nice, especially if you choose to live in an area such as Chino Hills.

The student who sat down with us for lunch during the NYU interview specifically told us that no one was allowed to invite guests to her white coat ceremony. She explained it was because there was no space to host such a large event...that's when I asked her about graduation and where that was held. She didn't know the answer to that (which was weird considering she was a 4th yr) and so she asked another one of the dental students who was sitting with us and he said he didn't think family was invited to that either. He wasn't sure though.

I'm pretty sure I remember them mentioning they don't schedule patients for students. I could be wrong, but it makes sense because scheduling patients for 360 students is a lottttt of work.

 

[djd0516]

I'd much rather live in Pomona, but I'd probably go with NYU in this situation. I think the school has a great reputation, despite the class size being so large while WesternU is still quite new. You'll also be dealing with a much more diverse student body and patient base in Manhattan, which could be a positive or negative depending on what you're looking for. I would also say that if you want to specialize then going to NYU over Western would be much more advantageous. Just my opinion.

 

[qutadelues]

would rather live in Pomona as its not too far from home. WesternU is a bit cheaper but not by much in terms of just tuition.

 

[lwen5]

Save a lot of money. Live in Pomona instead of NYC. With the money you save, you can make routine trips to NYC for leisure if you'd like.

 

[BYU4you]

And to answer OP's question, I think if I got into both, I would choose Western mainly because it is cheaper and closer to home. I am from the Pomona area and it is quite nice, especially if you choose to live in an area such as Chino Hills.

I'm from Chino, if you choose Western (which you should ) don't live in Pomona, it's really not nice. Luckily you can live somewhere like Chino Hills. Western being in Pomona definitely help the patients though. All together though you can't beat the area, especially the weather.

 

[IsaacYankem]

Also, and this was VERY surprising and i'm not 100% sure if it's true, but one of the students told me that family can't even attend your graduation. This was a huge turn-off for me as I have worked really hard to get to this point and would love to share important times like my white coat ceremony and graduation with my loved ones.

Know for sure that this is false. Good friend graduated from NYU 2 years ago. The graduation was @ Yankee Stadium. Plenty of room for friends and family

EDIT: Looks like the graduation is still @ Yankee Stadium http://www.nyu.edu/life/events-traditions/commencement/ceremony.html

 

[lwen5]

There are a lot of people here who are not giving you accurate information. Included in WesternU's cost is a transportation budget, room and board budget, and personal expenses budget that is overly exaggerated. WesternU will charge you exactly $282,859. The rest of the expenses are variable and depend entirely on how much money you personally want to spend/waste. Note that the cost of living is very low around WesternU. I don't know your situation about health insurance, but if your parents are covering you, then NYU costs $290k.

So you have WesternU which is $282,000. Then you have NYU which is $290k. The cost of living around NYU will be astronomically high. You will be paying double (maybe even more than double) for NYC living than Pomona/surrounding area living. Your decision should be to attend WesternU. Don't fall in the stupid trap of believing some SDN students who blindly say things that aren't true. I did and as a result, I suffered. Good luck.

 

[IsaacYankem]

Don't fall in the stupid trap of believing some SDN students who blindly say things that aren't true. I did and as a result, I suffered. Good luck.

Care to elaborate?

 

[hitmans45]

There are a lot of people here who are not giving you accurate information. Included in WesternU's cost is a transportation budget, room and board budget, and personal expenses budget that is overly exaggerated. WesternU will charge you exactly $282,859. The rest of the expenses are variable and depend entirely on how much money you personally want to spend/waste. Note that the cost of living is very low around WesternU. I don't know your situation about health insurance, but if your parents are covering you, then NYU costs $290k.

So you have WesternU which is $282,000. Then you have NYU which is $290k. The cost of living around NYU will be astronomically high. You will be paying double (maybe even more than double) for NYC living than Pomona/surrounding area living. Your decision should be to attend WesternU. Don't fall in the stupid trap of believing some SDN students who blindly say things that aren't true. I did and as a result, I suffered. Good luck.

$290k for NYU? Are you strictly speaking of tuition, fees not included?

 

[lwen5]

Here is what I got from NYU's website:

Tuition
$64,810 $64,810 $64,810 $64,810
Fees $1,706 $1,471 $1,471 $1,471
Instruments and Books $7,482 $5,256 $7,210 $5,235
Health Insurance** $3,354 $3,354 $3,354 $3,354
TOTAL Educational Expenses $77,352 $74,891 $76,845 $74,870

Each column represents a year. I included the fees as well. I took out ONLY the cost of health insurance, because if someone is getting health insurance thru their parents then this can be waived. I did not include living expenses as this can vary. However, we all know that NYU is going to have a very high cost of living, unless one is willing to spend 2+ hours a day commuting. I've talked to numerous NYU students who say it isn't worth commuting.

Care to elaborate?

Yea, some misguided SDNers and some rumors are absolutely unsubstantiated in how they paint certain schools. They don't get tuition numbers from schools directly and they don't take into account proper living expenses. As a result, some schools (such as WesternU) are made out to be a lot more expensive than they really are. Because I did not check the truth behind some SDNers claims' I didn't apply to certain schools. So it is partially my fault for not getting to the bottom, but SDNers should be careful in the claims they make.

 

[jeffity]

Yea, some misguided SDNers and some rumors are absolutely unsubstantiated in how they paint certain schools. They don't get tuition numbers from schools directly and they don't take into account proper living expenses. As a result, some schools (such as WesternU) are made out to be a lot more expensive than they really are. Because I did not check the truth behind some SDNers claims' I didn't apply to certain schools. So it is partially my fault for not getting to the bottom, but SDNers should be careful in the claims they make.

This is very true. Taking just a glance at the first number you see on a school's site or just taking what you see here as fact can be a costly mistake. They don't all list fees and such the same way if at all. It takes some digging sometimes to really get an idea of overall cost. And a little research on COL on your own is a good move. SDN makes things so much easier in general, but I can't help but think some users make some big decisions solely based on things they see here.