With only ten accredited dental programs in Canada – and only eight English programs – the Canadian dental school admissions process is incredibly competitive. Each school receives an enormous number of applications each year but typically only enrolls less than twenty percent of their applicants.
Because of this, your academic standing and your performance on your Dental Aptitude Test (DAT) performance are incredibly important in setting you apart from the rest of your peers. To give you a better understanding of the student profile these schools are looking for, we have assembled all of the available English dental programs’ admissions statistics in a handy little chart. Before diving into the admissions statistics, we have a few notes on the chart to help you better understand the information we’ve compiled.
The majority of Canadian dental schools have strict admissions requirements including minimum GPA and DAT score criteria. However, due to the sheer number of applications they receive every year, the scores that they consider competitive are often much higher than their minimum requirements. To give you as much information as possible to help you choose which schools to apply to, we have included any available information regarding minimum GPA and DAT requirements as well as the scores that these schools consider to be competitive.
We’ve also chosen to include the individual DAT section scores in this chart as most of these programs take individual scores into consideration in their admissions process. The individual sections mentioned below are Reading Comprehension (RC), Perceptual Ability Test (PAT), and Survey of Natural Sciences (SNS). These three are the mandatory sections of the DAT.
The DAT usually has an additional optional section called the Manual Dexterity portion. As the Canadian Dental Association is not administering this portion of the exam in 2021, many schools have neglected to include a discussion of this portion of the exam on their sites, regardless of whether or not they previously required it. McGill University has gone so far as to remove the DAT from their 2021 admissions requirements all-together and their website doesn’t currently have any information on the average DAT scores of their first-year.
Without further ado, let’s get into the Canadian dental school admissions statistics!
Schools | Minimum GPA (4.00) | Competitive GPA (4.00) | Minimum DAT Scores | Competitive DAT Scores | Average Class Size | Average Number of Applicants | Admission Rate (%) |
3.00 | 3.90 | Overall: 15 RC: 14 PAT: 14 | Overall:20.56 RC: 21.86 PAT: 19.61 | 34 | 280 | 12.1 | |
3.5 | 3.94 | RC: 15 PAT: 15 SNS:15 | RC: 22.7 PAT: 22.9 SNS: Information Unavailable | 30 | 424 | 7.1 | |
2.8 | Information Unavailable | Information Unavailable | Information Unavailable | 60 | 550 | 10.9 | |
3.48 | 3.72 | Overall:18.50 | Overall: 22.5 | 29 | Information Unavailable | Information Unavailable | |
No Minimum | 3.7 | Overall: 20 RC: 15 PAT:15 SNS: 15 | RC: 20 PAT: 19 SNS: 19 | 40 | 411 | 9.7 | |
3.00 | 3.94 | Information Unavailable | Information Unavailable | 96 | 550 | 17.4 | |
3.70 | 3.90 | Overall: 18 | RC: 21 PAT: 21 | 56 | 500 | 11.2 | |
3.50 | 3.70 | Information Unavailable | Information Unavailable | 40 | 827 | 4.8 |
Now that you have a rough idea of what would make you a competitive applicant from these schools’ perspectives, we encourage you to peruse the programs’ sites to better understand all of their admissions requirements including all of the documents they require and any prerequisites you need to take.
Remember: it’s never too early to start planning. The sooner you develop a plan that includes everything from prerequisite courses to extracurriculars, the stronger your application will be . Be sure to give yourself plenty of time to assemble your autobiographical sketch, references and various test results. This isn’t to say that not having a multi-year plan will prevent you from getting into dental school, you just might need a little extra support to help get ready. No matter where you are in your journey, don’t hesitate to reach out for help. This is a stressful process; getting a little help can ease the pressure and ensure that you are ready to take on the challenge of dental school applications.
Above all: Good luck!