The Official "Which Dental School Should I Apply To?" Thread

This is a thread for all prospective dental students and hopeful applicants to post their academic + UCAT stats if unsure or confused about where to apply and want some advice.

Ask any questions you might have about applying to dental schools here. Please give details about your GCSE grades, UCAT score with SJT band and A Level predictions.

Click here for details on standard dentistry entry requirements.

Click here for graduate dentistry entry requirements.
Click here for pre-dental/ gateway entry requirements.
Click here for alternative dentistry entry requirements.
Click here to read a useful dentistry applicant FAQ.

The 2021 interim UCAT test statistics can be accessed here.


Some dentistry forum house rules

Disclaimer

Hello.
Where would be realistic to apply with these statistics
2A* 1A
98887776665 (6,6 english 9,8,8 bio chem physics 7 maths)
UCAT 2950
2 weeks work experience 6 months volunteering

I was thinking Newcastle, Queen mary’s, Leeds and Bristol

Any dental schools I could apply to?
Fee: RUK
UCAT: pending, 27-3000 in practice tests
A-Levels: A* / A* / A* Bio Chem Language
GCSE: 998888877776644
Maths is 6, Chem is 7, Bio and English are 8

Really depends on UCAT - you should be fine for all of them - just check your maths gcse for eligbility

Even with the bad GCSEs? Looking at Dundee and Glasgow mostly.

Not really sure, but here are the entry requiremnts:
Dundee: GCSE: Biology and Chemistry at A/7 and English, Mathematics and one other subject at B/6.
Glasgow: 6 GCSE subjects at Grade A/7. Must include: Maths or Physics, English Language or Literature (accepted at grade B/6 provided 6 other GCSE's have been attained at A/7).
So your GCSEs should be fine...
Here is a link to look through but honestly just do your UCAT - many unis just rank you based off of your numerical score and won't look at your GCSEs other than checking they meet minimum requirements: https://www.dentalschoolscouncil.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/DSC-Entry-Requirements-entry-2024.pdf

Great, you’re good to apply to those schools then

Hello OM, more than happy to help, thank you for tagging me
Hi @TwoThirty, welcome to TSR
For dentistry, at the moment, all dental schools require AAA except the two London dental schools QMUL and KCL which require A*AA. Plymouth also favours A*AA but they refuse to explicitly announce this (!).
In terms of GCSEs, I would encourage your son to aim as high as he can. As you’ve said, dentistry is a very competitive course, so generally, the better his grades, the greater his chances are, especially if he can exceed the minimum requirements to enter dental school. This also goes for A Levels.
This link lists the A Level and GCSE requirements for every dental school in the U.K. but please note that these were correct as of 2020. Most of the info will still be correct but I would encourage you to double check the info for any schools you’re interested in by visiting their websites.
To strengthen his application:
- Secure some work experience. In person W/E is the gold standard but this may not be possible due to the effects of the pandemic, so if your son is unable to get this, universities will understand. There is also online work experience, including companies which organise virtual work experience for applicants - some of which can be found on Instagram. Unfortunately I can’t remember their names exactly but I think it’s something along the lines of Dental Mentor. SAMDA might also be worth searching for.
- Develop manual dexterity: this could be by playing an instrument, origami, cake decorating, knitting/crocheting, anything requiring the use of careful hand-eye coordination.
- Volunteering: in charity shops, for a local cause/charity, care homes, hospitals
- Online MOOCs - Future Learn has a good free online course about dentistry which may be useful
- UCAT prep: your son is quite a while away from this and does not need to worry about this now at all, but be aware that he will need to sit the UCAT in the summer before year 13 after he has finished year 12. The testing period this year was between August-September and it’s a similar period every year. It’s mostly recommended that applicants spend 6-8 weeks preparing for the UCAT.
Note: he your son wants to apply to Leeds dental school, he will need to take the BMAT instead. This usually has one sitting in September (which was cancelled this year) and one in November.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask

Which unis aren’t heavy on gcses. I got 8777776554 because I slacked off in gcses and revised the night before. If my predicted is A*AA and I get a ucat of 2900+ which unis would give me an interview?

Hi @Mesopotamian… & @Oxford Mum, thank you for your help a couple of years ago on the information about dentistry. We've used them and supported my son to apply for 4 dentistry courses this year. He was fortunate enough to have been invited for 3 interviews but got 2 rejections out of the 3 and now, he's been "pooled" by Newcastle University, which is his last hope. We are anxious and trying to plan ahead for the "what if" situation. Would you have some advice to give us as to what we should do if he doesn't get an offer from Newcastle? Do you know any more information on Newcastle "pool" process? Thank you.

Hi @Mesopotamian… & @Oxford Mum, thank you for your help a couple of years ago on the information about dentistry. We've used them and supported my son to apply for 4 dentistry courses this year. He was fortunate enough to have been invited for 3 interviews but got 2 rejections out of the 3 and now, he's been "pooled" by Newcastle University, which is his last hope. We are anxious and trying to plan ahead for the "what if" situation. Would you have some advice to give us as to what we should do if he doesn't get an offer from Newcastle? Do you know any more information on Newcastle "pool" process? Thank you.

Which unis aren’t heavy on gcses. I got 8777776554 because I slacked off in gcses and revised the night before. If my predicted is A*AA and I get a ucat of 2900+ which unis would give me an interview?

Most dental schools have minimum GCSE requirements for maths and eng (and some sciences), only a couple select you based off of your GCSEs and UCAT but in different ratios (e.g. Cardiff, QUB, KCL)...
Many dental schools rank purely off of UCAT (e.g. Manchester, Bristol, Newcastle) - just call up admissions/ read admission policies/ attend open days to see how they select people for interviews and select dental unis you like and also play to your strengths.
After interviews people are given offers depending on their interview scoree.

Thanks for the reply, do you know if unis like Sheffield rank purely on the ucat as they don’t state it on their website unlike Queen Mary which say they rank on ucat & ucas tariff points

Hi @Mesopotamian… & @Oxford Mum, thank you for your help a couple of years ago on the information about dentistry. We've used them and supported my son to apply for 4 dentistry courses this year. He was fortunate enough to have been invited for 3 interviews but got 2 rejections out of the 3 and now, he's been "pooled" by Newcastle University, which is his last hope. We are anxious and trying to plan ahead for the "what if" situation. Would you have some advice to give us as to what we should do if he doesn't get an offer from Newcastle? Do you know any more information on Newcastle "pool" process? Thank you.