I'll talk on behalf of Penn... im a first year here.
- i'd agree we have pretty early clinical experience, and we are one of the only schools to have a dent simulation lab.. however, I hear it is nowhere near representative of the real thing.. second weak we got to learn a bit about class 1 amalgams and then started drilling in a plastic dummy.
- all schools have a good deal of 'medical involvement'. i don't know why, but we are learning about nerves that run down the arms and stuff. apparently we need to know this for the boards.. so whatever.. but yes, we have 120 students, and we don't share classes with any other people. same 120 all the time.. is that still a pro? hmm
- indeed. there are a lot of GREAT GAPSA (Graduate student organization-whatever) events planned by the school. A couple weeks ago, they rented out a docked boat, and it was free for all grad students, and we had a blast. They organize (generally free) events every couple weeks. also, it is close to penn main campus so you can meet people from other grad programs easier than other schools. great bonus in my opinion. albeit, how much time do we have to meet other students? not a lot.. hopefully soon we will reap these benefits.
- yeah, area is pretty ghetto. if you live on like 45th or higher, you can get a pretty nice studio for about 550, but if you want to live like a block away in a fairly new appartment building, can be 850-1000 for a similar 1 studio or 2-4 bedroom suite. but probably still not as expensive as NYU (but would you still call this 'reasonable living'?). Penn does a pretty decent job at having security on many corners up until 43rd and all around the campus once dusk hits - they stay around till 3 am... you can also chose to live downtown, which would start at 24th or so, and the school is on 40th, so that gives you an idea of how far the walk/bike ride/bus would be... (not far) and the area is somewhat nicer.
- I have never heard that chairs are hard to come by in 3rd year. they are currently implementing a new system where you sign up your patients online. all the upper years are struggling as they go through this change, but they are telling us scheduling will be a lot easier and streamlined for our year (and thus of course yours).
- why is high clinical requirement for graduation a con? the school finds our patients for us.. which is good.
some asides:
- we have the block system at Penn, we have one test every week after the 2nd week of school. I like it a lot because you can focus and there aren't areas of high stress like 'exam periods' or 'midterm seasons' that I had in undergrad. i know someone who has friends at columbia, and she was saying how they had 3 exams last week. and i couldnt imagine studying for 3 exams in 1 week. however.. that pass/fail system seems awfully tempting. mind you.. i hear they have honours as 90+, so there is still pressure to achieve/compete in that sense..
- im working hard, but im also having fun. i enjoy it here... hope this helps.