400,000 dollars? I would like to know how your friend came up with that? Maybe he bought an SL-500 with some of that loan money. You have a point though, it is VERY expensive, specially given that it is a PBL curriculum, but the amount you are giving is simply not correct. I don't want people to obtain the wrong information on these message boards, so let me shed some light on this:
The tution money itself is around 50,000/year ( thats right !!) except your 4th year which is only two semesters --> around 33000 for 4th year. If you add these up you would be around 185,000. with to insruments and the interest on them you are looking at about 225,000 max. Lets say you decided to take out the maximum allowance that they give out in private loans as well to cover living expenses ( which is what I'm doing !!) and it does provide for a pretty comfortable living, you are looking at 290-300,000 max. The school DOES NOT allow you to borrow more than this unless you petition to take more living expenses out due to family/kids. So I don't see how your friend is coming up with 400 G's where the worst case senario is 300,000. Just doesn't make sense to me. Is this alot? of course it is. We look at it as an ivenstment in our future. You don't want to do it, thats cool, more power to you, but lets say you're from CA ( your profile says you are) and you wanna end up working down here after its all said and done, WHAT ARE YOUR ALTERNATIVES IN ORDER TO SAVE YOU MONEY?
lets take a look. your best would be if you get into a UCLA/SF. Both very reputable school, UCLA is in a great location, and even after the recent tuition raise it comes alot cheaper that USC. That is for sure. I think if you take out all the living expenses there, you're looking at maybe around 190-200,000. you would save 100 G's. If you have that option, take it. I know I would. The clinical skills however of an average ucla grad cannot be compared to that of a SC graduate, but that's a different story, we're just talkin money here. but what if you didn't get into of the UC's, what other options do you have in order to save money and not come to SC? UOP, about the same price except that you do it in 3 years so you can add an extra year to your working years, so you can save a little there, but what if you have to pick between USC and going out of state? again we're just talking money here , not quality of education since thats what you're point was.
NYU, Columbia, TUFTS, BU.... and every other east coast school that I can think of (except maryland), the total cost given the same conditions you had living here would run you between 250-325,000. Thats not taking into account the price you have to pay for hollidays, coming back home, and also the frustrations of living in a cold weather. BUT here is what alot of people don't take into consideration and I'm glad someone made it clear for me when I was going through my decision making, the CA boards. Given twice a year, can't work here without it. So you graduate from an east coast school, gotta come back here wait for a CA board exam date to take. You would have to learn alot of things since things are taught differently in ca schools (lots of preps, dentures....are done differently) and then take the test which very subjective and biased towards people who got their degree from CA. On average, alot of people don't pass this their first time around ( i said on average) and have to hang around and around to repeat and all this time you're NOT working, and the interest on those loans is piling up. This is when that 300,000 from SC doesn't sound all that bad. AFter all, they are still considered one of the best clinical schools in the country. I didn't mean to bring down people who go to east coast for their dental education, I have lots of friends that are doing it right now, and they have my outmost respect. But you were just talking about money and justifying going east coast based on one factor only, the COST, which in my opinion is wrong, and in most cases ends up being more costly.
I am a second year at USC and would be more than happy to answer any questions anybody has about the school.
