I am currently a UCLA dental student. I think UCLA is an excellent school. It was my first choice when I was applying and I have no regrets coming here. I believe we have a very well rounded curriculum. We do not take classes with the med students, but instead we take the same classes taught by the same professors, with an emphasis on dentistry in addition to our dental classes. You get a very early clinical experience, as I was assisting since my first quarter (UCLA is on the quarter system) and did my first operative procedure (drill and fill with amalgam) on a patient fall of my second year.
The program has a very good reputation and many people specialize. The price is also great if you are a Ca resident. I think the total tuition with living expenses is under $110k ($90k less than some private schools). These things also make it very competitive to get into. My class' average GPA was about 3.6 and DAT was 21.
How the professors treat you depends on the professor. Some of them are extremely nice, while some can be hard on you...but I still respect them.
There are really only a couple things that I would say are bad about the school. The preclinical lab is very old, although it is planned to be remodeled into one those nice simulation labs within the next couple years (I don't know when you are applying). On the other hand the clinic is brand new and very nice as it was finished being completely redone only 1 year ago. The only other thing is that the workload is very large, as sometimes I feel like they try to teach us absolutely everything by taking every medical school class and teaching us every aspect of dentistry (one quarter you take 13 classes!-although the average for the first two years is about 9. Anyway, sorry if I went on too much, but if you get accepted, I think it is a great school for it offers every oportunity no matter where your interests in dentistry lie.
