Admission Requirements
While the majority of accepted applicants have completed requirements for a Bachelor of Arts or a Bachelor of Science prior to matriculation at the School of Dental Medicine, the absolute minimum prerequisite for admission to the School of Dental Medicine is successful completion of three academic years – 90 semester or 135 quarter hours – of undergraduate coursework. This includes the specified subjects listed below, at an accredited college or university in the United States. Credits are accepted from community and junior colleges, but it is recommended that most work be completed at a four-year institution. In addition to the stated prerequisites, preference will be given to applicants demonstrating exemplary academic performance in additional higher-level science courses while taking full academic loads. Science courses should not be survey courses or other such courses designed for non-science majors.
Applicants are required to complete the following coursework with a C or better by July of the intended entering year. Grades of D or lower and courses taken pass/fail or credit/no credit will not be accepted.
The specific subjects or equivalents which must be included are:
- *General Chemistry (8 semester or 12 quarter hours)
- *Organic Chemistry (8 semester or 12 quarter hours)
- Biochemistry (3 semester or 5 quarter hours)
- *Biology/Zoology (8 semester or 12 quarter hours)
- *Physics (6 semester or 9 quarter hours)
- English (6 semester or 9 quarter hours)
*For the English requirement, 6 semester hours are accepted or the completion of a Bachelor of Arts or a Bachelor of Science. The remainder of the pre-dental program should be designed to contribute a broad cultural background; however, the program should not exclude courses related to the SDM curriculum such as anatomy, microbiology, physiology, genetics, etc.
We strongly suggest selecting several additional higher-level courses, as listed below:
- Anatomy (1 semester)
- Physiology (1 semester)
- Microbiology (1 semester)
- Cell and Molecular Biology (1 semester)
- Histology (1 semester)
- Immunology (1 semester)
- Genetics (1 semester)
- Neural Science/Neural Physiology (1 semester)
- Statistics (1 semester)
Minimal Academic Expectations of Students/Graduation Requirements
All students are expected to progress through the School of Dental Medicine program in good academic standing. Good standing is defined, minimally, as earning:
- Passing grades in all courses (defined as 70.00% or higher);
- A minimum semester GPA of 2.25, in each semester;
- A minimum cumulative GPA of 2.25;
- Passing grades on all competency exams;
- A minimum requirement of discipline-specific and comprehensive patient care points as described in the Student Interactive Learning Progress System (SILPS) document for clinical students in Year III and Year IV;
- Free of academic sanctions.
Note: The dental curriculum is designed to move the student from required foundational knowledge to more advanced clinical applications. As such, each semester presents a fixed set of courses that are prerequisite to the subsequent semester. There is no flexibility in the schedule of courses and all courses can be offered only one time per academic year. All courses must be successfully completed each semester in order to advance to the next semester. Therefore, a failure in a single course can prevent the promotion of a student. Single course withdrawals are not permitted. A student must be in good standing to be eligible for unconditional promotion from one academic year to the next and for graduation from the program.
