Leading up to the first dungeon, should i be focusing more on leveling up my characters and persona's or increasing my social link status?

Focus primarily on getting through the dungeon. Your characters should level up naturally as long as you don't avoid fights all the time. You can work on your Social Links when you're done. Once Yukiko is rescued, your party members will be available for Social Links more often.

Thank you sir for your help.

As LA said friend, work on pushing your way through the dungeon first, and build links as you go. By the time you get to around level 40, you should have some substantial links to go off. Don't gimp your character levels for social links, or it will be very hard to get through. And enjoy the game! My friend phoned me up before and said "OH GOD I THINK I GOT THE BAD ENDING!"

I think you can only get the bad ending on the first play through. And ya you really don't ever need to grind levels if you don't avoid fights and CLEAR all the floors instead of just rushing to the stairs. I also always re-clear dungeons after I complete them for the shadow at the top floor and the extra item and courage they give, doing this helps tremendously with experience and completing the side quests. About 28 hours in myself and my "charlie" is currently level 40.

No you can get the other endings, its just hard to get anythinmg beside the bad ending.

Yeah, with all due respect to Jeff and Vinny, don't follow the Endurance Run's example and leave everything to the last minute.  Always strive to clear the dungeon in one day if possible (although this really only becomes possible after you meet fox and get his SL to like level 5 or so).  If you can't, then take advantage of the random rainy days that appear throughout the time you have, because most of your SLs close down on those days so you really don't have much to do anyway.

"Yeah, with all due respect to Jeff and Vinny, don't follow the Endurance Run's example and leave everything to the last minute.  Always strive to clear the dungeon in one day if possible (although this really only becomes possible after you meet fox and get his SL to like level 5 or so).  If you can't, then take advantage of the random rainy days that appear throughout the time you have, because most of your SLs close down on those days so you really don't have much to do anyway.

And in regards to the Normal/True Ending, it's very hard to get them without consulting an FAQ.  Without trying to spoil anything, there's a very very emotionally charged and amazing scene where you have to select several dialogue options correctly in a row, otherwise it cuts straight to the bad ending and you miss out on 7-8 hours of gameplay.

"

The game doesn't really say this is it, but they do have exams right before that so most people are going to save right before it just because its the first time they can in like a week and few want to have to go through exams again.

Well once I see the end of the exams i'll know to keep that save file backed up lol; I do know the game ends around Christmas Time of 2011. Guess i'll just make tons of save files and back up on my PC lol after exams.

The game actually can end in March of 2012, but only if what you seek is "truth", but your search is definately harder.

For all dungeons you should do them right away, don't wait to the last minute, you only shoot yourself in the foot. Well don't do them right away but crack away at them little by little.

The social link status will always be there.

No you shouldn't do them little by little.  Doing them right away is fine if overblown (only the Dojima SL is really affected) but you should do it in as few days as possible.

"No you shouldn't do them little by little.  Doing them right away is fine if overblown (only the Dojima SL is really affected) but you should do it in as few days as possible."

For me, I did the first couple of dungeons over the course of a couple of days. Thought by the time I hit June/July, I was able to breeze through dungeons in one visit. Of course I had a decently leveled Fox Link.