Academic Requirements

In addition to the undergraduate coursework specified below, our admission pre-requisites are as follows:

Bachelor’s Degree (BA/BS)

A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college of arts and sciences in the United States or Canada by the time you matriculate is desirable. All courses offered in satisfaction of the requirements for admission must be taken in or accepted as transfer credits by an accredited college in the United States or Canada and must be acceptable to that institution toward a baccalaureate degree in arts or sciences. Students who have not yet received their Bachelor's degree, but have completed at least 75% of their undergraduate credits, can ask to be considered for admission.

Dental Admission Test (DAT)

All candidates are required to take the Dental Admissions Test recommended and approved by the American Dental Association (ADA). This test is viewed by the Admissions Committee as evidence of minimal academic competence and as a standardized test that allows appropriate comparisons. The Dental Admissions Test must be taken between January 2022 and January 31, 2025. In cases where students have taken multiple DAT examinations, the most recent score will be used to assess candidate performance.

Grade Point Average (GPA)

Although the TCDM will evaluate each student’s record on an individual basis, the candidate must have achieved a minimum science GPA of 2.7 and an overall GPA of 2.7 on a scale of 4.0 in a professional or graduate or undergraduate studies program to be eligible for consideration to the DDS program.  Students success in undergraduate science courses will be evaluated based on increasing academic performance over time.

Letters of Evaluation

You will need to include one (1) Pre–Dental Committee letter of evaluation OR three (3) letters of evaluation from undergraduate faculty.

• If you opt for the three letters of evaluation from undergraduate faculty, two (2) letters must be from science faculty who taught the applicant or supervised independent research for credit. Acceptable science courses include: biology, chemistry, physics, biomedical engineering, or bio-engineering, etc. (Math is not considered a science course for purposes of letters of evaluation.) The third letter of evaluation can be from a non-science course or volunteer work done in a dental office/clinic. One (1) of the letters of evaluation must be from the applicant’s major.
• If your date of graduation is prior to 2021 (this does not include 2021), and you are unable to obtain letters of evaluation from your undergraduate or graduate school, we will accept other academically oriented letters. However, keep in mind providing us with the requested letters will strengthen your application.

Graduate School

If an applicant is completing or is currently completing a graduate degree, in addition to the undergraduate letters outlined above, a graduate premedical advisory committee or individual graduate letters of evaluation is required.

Optional Letters of Evaluation

Letters of evaluation from employers and/or volunteer clinical or community service experiences are highly recommended but not required.

Undergraduate Coursework

Students interested in the DDS program need to meet the following prerequisites in their undergraduate or post-baccalaureate study. The Admissions Committee has no preference for a major field of undergraduate study, but any college work submitted must include specified credits in chemistry, physics, biology and English. Science courses must include substantial laboratory work.

• General Biology, 2 semesters or equivalent, with labs
• General Chemistry, 2 semesters or equivalent, with labs
• Organic Chemistry, 1 semester or equivalent, with lab
• Biochemistry, 1 semester, with or without lab
• Physics, 2 semesters or equivalent, with labs
• English, 2 semesters or equivalent (or successful completion of the English requirements of your undergraduate institution’s requirement for graduation)

TCDM reserves the right to waive any of these requirements for an individual applicant.