Under Construction

Application:
At the South Dakota State University PreDental Page they say: Acceptance into dental school is based primarily on four criteria:
1) grade-point average, 2) Dental Admission Test (DAT) scores,
3) recommendations from employers and faculty, 4) a personal statement

Average scores for Dental Admision (Baylor and U. Texas)
Univ. of Corpus Christi study
Age %
appl
% Accepted
2003 2004
21 - 23 48% 48% 47%
24 - 26 26% 26% 33%
27 - 29 12% 28% 32%
30 - over 15% 19% 14%
GPA DISTRIBUTION
AVERAGE GPA   3.57 3.53
4.00 - 3.76 14% 79% 69%
3.75 - 3.60 12% 59% 71%
3.59 - 3.51 8% 57% 50%
3.50 - 3.41 8% 30% 36%
3.40 - 3.31 8% 23% 43%
3.30 - 3.16 15% 20% 31%
3.15 - 3.01 12% 24% 16%
3.00 - 2.76 15% 15% 8%
2.75 - 2.60 5% 6% 11%
2.59 - Under 5% 0 4%
DAT 2003 2004
Academic Average   19.2 19.0
26 - 30 0.1%   50%
21 - 25 9% 79% 78%
16 - 20 68% 41% 43%
11-15 21% 3% 1%
Perceptual Ability   17.3 17.0
21 - 25 4% 56% 50%
16 - 20 59% 44% 44%
11-15 33% 23% 26%
Total % Accepted   36% 36%

- University of Nevada, Las Vegas, School of Dental Medicine Admision vs performance corelation study.

Highest R scores were:
0.38 DAT-BIO
0.37 DAT-RC (Reading Comprehension)
0.29 Cumulative GPA
0.28 Science GPA

DAT-OC (Organic Chemistry) and other variables were < 0.15

Interview:
According to the Journal of Dental Education (www.jdentaled.org/cgi/reprint/67/3/348.pdf) Over 95 percent of schools interview candidates as part of their selection process for admission, and nearly all of them conduct semistructured interviews with all candidates. Interview ratings ranked first in importance among five preadmission variables in selecting candidates.

Another web site said they only reject 20% at the interview, which doesn't match with the statement above that it is most important.

Some things that may require early preparation (like now) are: How to answer the hobbies questions, how do you know you have manual dexterity? At the University of Cincinnati (www.uc.edu/sas/preproadvising/predent.html) they say:
"It is also important that you engage in activities that require good manual dexterity and hand-eye coordination."


Links:
How to Prepare for the MCAT, DAT, etc at Xavier
American Association of Dental Schools Application Service
Get information for specific schools at predents.com/
American Dental Education Association
Frequently Asked Questions About Applying to Dental School at U. Tenn.
Return to Education

last updated 3 Jan 2009