Gateway/Access to Dentistry Courses

I have currently finished year 12 and tbh my predicted grades are not the best (BBC). I have resits on the first week back in Year 13 to have a chance at boosting them.

Anyways, I am still sitting my UCAT and I was wondering if it would be better to apply to dental therapy and hygiene whilst applying to dental surgery bds access courses. I know they have quite limited spaces (e.g plymouth only has 10 for BB) OR try and boost my predicted so that I can apply to dental surgery access/gateway courses and regular dentistry with contextuals?

Are my chances slim or?
The only WP i qualify for is free school meals, 16-19 bursary and some contextual offers from programs.

Reply 1

McGinger

You need to check the specific eligibility criteria for Gateway courses on each individual Uni's website - they will all be slightly different and you may need to meet more than one criteria.
Example - Gateway courses - eligibility | Study at Bristol | University of Bristol

"Access to...." are usually widening-participation programs offered to Year 12/13 students from disadvantaged backgrounds to encourage them to apply to the 5-year Dentistry course at that Uni. Again you need to check the eligibility criteria for each Uni very carefully - example Access to Sheffield (Dentistry) | Schools and colleges | The University of Sheffield

There are also Dentistry courses 'with Foundation year' - these will usually not have the same contextual/widening participation application criteria, but you still need to check carefully that you meet any specific conditions as they usually exclude those with high enough predicted grades for their 5-year course. Example - BDS Dental Surgery with Integrated Foundation Year - University of Plymouth

Reply 2

nasiki

Original post

by McGinger

You need to check the specific eligibility criteria for Gateway courses on each individual Uni's website - they will all be slightly different and you may need to meet more than one criteria.
Example - Gateway courses - eligibility | Study at Bristol | University of Bristol
"Access to...." are usually widening-participation programs offered to Year 12/13 students from disadvantaged backgrounds to encourage them to apply to the 5-year Dentistry course at that Uni. Again you need to check the eligibility criteria for each Uni very carefully - example Access to Sheffield (Dentistry) | Schools and colleges | The University of Sheffield
There are also Dentistry courses 'with Foundation year' - these will usually not have the same contextual/widening participation application criteria, but you still need to check carefully that you meet any specific conditions as they usually exclude those with high enough predicted grades for their 5-year course. Example - BDS Dental Surgery with Integrated Foundation Year - University of Plymouth

thank you so much for your help! for some of these access programs, you have to be applying to the university in order to be accepted such as the leeds one that you linked. do you think it is worth signing up for it if i know i meet the criteria for it?