I felt like NYU tries to differentiate itself with its large class size, research intensive background, and by being in The City.
I disagree about their class size being only a strength. It has its obvious weaknesses which I'll mention later. I agree that as a collective whole, having a larger class size is a benefit by bringing many diverse minds for unique research ideas and by bringing people in with diverse goals in community outreach and continued education programs. But individually, each student will have to fight for one of a limited number of open clinical chairs during certain times and will not be able to get to know every one of their classmates because of each class' sheer size. This may or may not be important to you.
It appears to be a very strong research school and has collaborative investigations with NYU's nursing school which I think is located within the same building. I thought this was interesting.
NYU's costs for instruments (rented) and books was raised from $4,985 to $6,010 to $12,131 for Class of 2012-2014, respectively. NYU is notorious for its total cost of attendance. This is probably important to most people.
Two of the dental students jokingly generalized that many (not all) students chose NYU because they were either reapplicants or had no other choice. These two dental students were also the ones who mentioned how it can be difficult finding an open clinical chair during certain peak hours. They were also harped by other interviewees about what they thought of NYU's tuition and they said they would prefer not thinking or talking about it. 😀
The positive things that they said was that they felt very clinical competent as fourth years because NYU required high quotas for certain procedures in order for them to graduate. They said they enjoy The City but one of them said that as a dental student you won't have much time to have fun outside of school if you're a normal student and plan on passing your classes. They also said NYU prepared them well for the boards, although I think this should rely more on the individual's responsibility rather than on the school's.
NYU also has international and nationwide outreach programs in addition to its immediate New York community outreach programs. But so do many other schools.
I think in order to be a good fit for this school, you'd have to love The City lifestyle, thrive in being one of hundreds of other students, be self-initiative because there's less intimacy between the staff, the students, and between student and student, be willing to bear a lot of debt after graduation, and enjoy the company of very diverse people.
I don't think you have to be research inclined although there are many opportunities for research and NYU does encourage their students to pursue research.
I don't like to mention facilities because this is one factor that really shouldn't bear much weight in the selection of a dental school. Having new facilities is nice in the way that old Catholic churches look nice. If there is no substance within the staff, the board's direction of the school, or curriculum, a beautiful facade is a meaningless investment. Everyone's opinion will vary about each school's philosophy and I don't think I'll share mine. 🙂