Where??

You are misisng a choice.......None of the above.........

 

You are out of state for all three schools since you indicate that you are in Florida. Of the three schools, UIC is by far the most expensive: $240,000. I understand picking between Buffalo and Pitt ($120,000 and $150,000). But why even consider UIC?

 

Honestly . . . you should never rely on HEARSAY from a chat board when making important decisions. Twiztedpaki . . . I'm not trying to knock you, actually I'm trying to help you. On that other UIC thread I did recommend you contact the school regarding in state tuition. However, since you seem to believe the one SDN poster who told you that you could get in state residency, I'm going to cut and paste quotes that are directly from UIC's website.

That whole bit about "residing in Illinois primarily for reasons that are not related to receiving an education" knocks out being able to receive residency for tuition purposes. And working for one year to meet the required "one-half of tuition, fees, normal living expenses" means you'd have to be pulling a pretty decent salary!

Sorry to disappoint you with this information. But hopefully knowing the facts will help you make an informed decision. And again . . . don't go on hearsay from a chat board when it's this important of a decision. It took me all of 30 seconds to look up that info on UIC's website. I was trying to be nice and help you out because I figured you'd be in for a rough surprise if you waltzed into UIC not expecting it to have one of the most expensive dental school price tags around.

 

If you can't get Illinois residency, which seems like you can't base on Diane's post, then Illinois is definitely not worth it. Just the tuition alone is $240,000 total (4 years). This makes it a lot more expensive that all private schools, including University of Pennsylvania. Buffalo's on the other hand is about $120,000 total just for the tuition alone not counting how easy it is to get residency (?). And Pitt is about $150,000 and I know that it is pretty difficult to get residency.

How good each school is varies depending on who you ask. I like Pitt because the living cost is pretty cheap, yet it is smack located in a decently sized clean and safe city. You could seriously get a two bedroom apartment for less than $700/month. They recently renovated their facilities and their sim-lab is pretty good. The school also has a pretty good reputation in healthcare (UIC and Buffalo are not ranked, nevertheless, they are still great schools):

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/med/brief/mdrrank_brief.php
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/health/best-hospitals/honorroll.htm

It is seriously one of the best bargains out there.

 

I picked Pittsburgh because I like the Steelers.

 

twiztedpaki . . . no problem!

Congratulations on getting in! I'm sure it's a good feeling to have three schools to choose from! You must be a pretty top notch candidate because UIC only accepts a fraction from out of state. I'm definitely impressed anyway!

Another thing to consider, how likely would you be to work in the state where you went to dental school? That could be another factor in your decision.

Chicago's a great sports town and if you like the midwest, it could be a good fit. If you think you might want to settle in Illinois, then it might be worth it for the contacts, friends you make, ect - despite the cost!