I had the same decision to make & ended up fedexing my deposit on the last possible day.
Alot of the feedback I was hearing was that Penn's a better place if you want to specialize & that Tufts does a better job of clinical training for practice right out of school. Numerically, I looked at the "future plans" sheets that both schools gave out & the last class had almost the same # of ppl specializing (Tufts sent 27 while Penn sent 33). I guess historically the #'s were more uneven? So because Tufts has a larger class, it has a smaller % of specialization, but it still sends nearly the same #.
Aaaanyways. I've also been told that Tufts has nicer/newer facilities.
After about 10 days of agonizing over this & talking to the whole world (ppl who went to Penn, ppl who went to Tufts; one fellas who went to Penn dental & did his residency at Tufts; dentist friends, etc) it kinda came down to a totally subjective "feel".
the most common feedback I got was that it doesn't matter where you went to school once you're out practicing. how many ppl know where their dentist went to school? unless you want to go into academia or research or something where 'name' matters.
On top of that, these two schools are both excellent. If there were other factors regarding reputation & all, then that'd be something else.
Given these last two ideas, the decision that was posed to me was "where did you feel more comfortable? where did you see yourself liking it more?" Since all the objective stuff kinda evens out, go with the comfort factor.
It seemed like the ppl at Tufts were a little happier; but for me, it kinda came down to City life vs Campus life - in terms of walking distance. I'm crazy - I even went onto google maps & "browsed" the surrounding neighborhoods.
So I went with Penn (ok, i'll be honest, the whole Ivy league thing was enticing too; along w/ international externships & the opportunity to take education & public health classes)
Anyways, I hope that helps some.
Tough decision! You'll get great training & education at either!