Penn and USC - Pros and Cons

[JRogoff]

Both awesome schools, i don't think you can go wrong.

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[scandalouslj]

Penn CONS: Price, but I think USC is even Worse
Weather compared to Cali
Facilities, they are still working on redoing the school, obviously some of it is gorgeous, some of it is old. They are redoing each section per season. The plus is that there isnt much left to redo. This back courtyard will be done in about 2 months and then they will start the Ortho Clinic, the Endo and Main clinic are the ones that are left after that.

PROS: Obviously the new facilites. Top 5 specialty placement rates in the country. Very down to Earth Professors. Great Grad social Programs, plus its right on the undergrad campus. Great Patient Pool. Pretty safe campus, over USC from what I heard ( I have a cousin that goes to Grad school there and heard from her.)

 

[ziptree]

You can't forget that USC is PBL whereas UPenn is the traditional lecture format.

IMO, you can only tell if you're more adept to PBL by actually being exposed to it. I tried it at their interviews and I decided it wasn't for me. But if you're self-motivated and think you can excel at PBL, I hear USC students get a lot of free time.

Penn, on the other hand, like scandalous said, has great matching rates for a lot of the specialties. It's also located in Philly which is great for you history buffs. Oh, I love the look of the old buildings...if any of you ever get a chance to visit, look outside at the old building. There's gargoyles pulling teeth! I never noticed until my interviewer told me about it!

 

[ecdoesit]

Both are great clinical sch and do significant research.
It depends on weather and PBL vs traditional.
I heard from my dental advisor that people from Penn probably wont have a huge problem with CA board.