Don't get me wrong, you're not destined to be a crappy dentist if you graduate from BU. A couple of my classmates are very good dentists/ specialists that I would personally see; the majority of my class, well in terms of skills and professional maturity, I'd only send my very worst enemies to. It's just that BU is kind of F'd up and well, doesn't really influence the profession in a positive way.
And it's pretty hard to get over the major shortage of chairs and patients.
And at the current price of $500,000 for 4 years at BU, damn; I can't think of anything any D-school could do to justify picking them over something cheaper. Really, WTF is going on with the astronomical tuition hikes?
And regarding the faculty/student relations...ummm...well that's...as the OP said but didn't realize..."what the school is known for" and might explain why they seemed so "friendly and welcoming."
I just saw this on their website and I'll just post some quotes from it: BU Dental's ASP published report.
http://www.bu.edu/dental/about/documents/ASPReportMarch2011_002.pdf
-Inadequate out-dated plant – too many people in too little space
-Inadequate clinical lab space and availability, negatively impacting learning
-The patient pool is too narrow and small. Many have Mass Health with too complex needs
-Fair to poor patient access to School via public transport
-Clinical systems that result in an excessively long time to actual treatment
-High cost of dental education
-An inbred faculty leading to lack of ideas from outside the Institution
-The Dubai cost to income ratio and affect of current economic conditions
-Tuition costs may steer students to high income careers and away from research and community services.
-Lack of adequate accountability at many levels
-A lack of "customer service attitude" across the clinic
-Low staff salaries lead to problems recruiting trained, competent staff
-Uncertainty around how to rate GSDM's educa- tional performance against other schools
-Support staff feels excluded and "second class"
-APEX, not well planned, monitored, and structured for maximum value
-Little sense of community within the School
-Inferior quality and outdated supporting materials in several courses
Pretty much verifies most of their issues. How much more proof do you need?
Guess what they publish for the #1 strength of the school?: They love their Dean. I mean, are you serious, in the face of all those negatives which he implemented? I guess those starving North Koreans refer to their dictator as the "Dear Leader" but c'mon, this is America.
Sorry for the rant but reading that really made me think that BU might be hopeless. Very depressing.
sigh.