There is this thought out there that its important to go to a esteemed or "Ivy league" dental school. IMHO, all dental school does is make you leagal to practice dentistry (of course after you pass boards). Most of your learning and fine tuning of skills occurs in practice. Pick a school with a good location, or thats affordable. I went to Kentucky, ( I know, your thinking what kind of location is that!) it was nice and cheap. But as far as the school is concerned, we started treating patients 2nd year, and each student was assigned a chair(with a locker to store whatever), that we used throughout dental school. Same chair. Of course as you proceed to 3rd and 4th years, your didactic courses decrease, and your clinic time increases, but there is NO waiting in line at 5:30 am. You get your new patients, treatment plan them (its comprehensive and the patient has to sign off on the entire treatment plan to stay in the program), and start treatment. If they need a RCT, your scheduler schedules it, and you treat it. If they need an implant, the scheduler calls the OSG department, schedules it, and you treat them. I can't imagine going to a school where its first come, first serve. Unless you are convinced that you want to specialize, really look at the clinical facilities, class sizes, and teacher:student ratios. Dental school should be busy, but LOTS OF FUN. Kentucky is LOTS OF FUN.