The Best Dental Schools: Dental School Rankings
/What are the best dental schools? Learn about dental school rankings and how to choose the best dental program, plus a list of top-tier dental schools
dental school rankings are one of several factors to consider as you decide where to apply
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Part 1: Introduction
Dental school applicants often ask questions like: “What are the best dental schools?” and “What are the top-ranked dental schools in the U.S.?” Rankings have become commonplace among undergraduate colleges and graduate programs, and students often focus on getting accepted into the highest-ranked program possible. And why not? You’ve worked hard and, all other things equal, you might as well attend the most reputable dental program.
A quick Google search of “dental school rankings” will bring up a few websites, most notably QS World University Ranking, which provides a list of the top 80 dentistry and oral sciences programs worldwide. This list factors in a school’s academic and employer reputation, research citations and international research network, as well as the ‘H-index’ a method to measure the productivity of a department.
Yet these factors don’t necessarily reflect the dental community’s perception of a school’s academic quality, clinical training, or the ability of its graduates to match into residencies. Plus, employability is a less meaningful statistic in dentistry given that a significant percentage of dentists are self-employed.
What about U.S. News and World Report? The publication is widely recognized as the most prominent source of rankings for American colleges and graduate programs, yet rankings for dental schools are noticeably absent. That’s due to the fact that, back in the 1990s, a majority of dental schools boycotted the rankings over what they viewed as an overly simplistic methodology, leading U.S. News to cancel their dental school rankings permanently.
This lack of rankings leaves dental school applicants in a somewhat unique—and often confusing—position among students pursuing an advanced degree because top dental schools are less clearly designated. As an excellent student looking to get into the best dental school possible, how do you know where to apply?
In this guide, we’ll go over the ins and outs of dental school rankings, including whether or not they matter, how to assess what a “good” dental program is, and factors to consider as you decide which dental schools to apply to. Finally, we’ll leave you with a list of our picks for the best dental schools in the U.S.
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Part 2: Do dental school rankings matter?
Are rankings important to your future career in dentistry?
Plenty of graduate programs like law, business, and medicine do have rankings, which help applicants build school lists and help employers sift through graduates, judging them on the prestige or perceived rigor of their education.
Rankings are imperfect and can cause plenty of anxiety for both applicants and current students, but one thing they offer is a shorthand for reputation. Having a prestige stamp can often make postgraduate opportunities available.
So what do dentistry students do, absent rankings?
Let’s take a step back. Dentistry graduates follow two basic career paths. The most common path is to graduate and work as a general dentist. Whether you are looking to work for a large corporate dental chain or open your own private practice, the school’s name on your diploma typically has little significance as long as your DMD or DDS comes from a CODA-accredited dental school.
For those students interested in attending a dental residency program following graduation, dental school reputation may have slightly more importance. Dental residency programs exist for those interested in specializing (e.g., orthodontics, oral surgery, endodontics, pediatrics, etc.) as well as for students seeking additional training before entering practice as a general dentist (AEGD or GPR).
Because residency programs can be extremely competitive, dental school reputation is sometimes cited as a factor in an applicant’s ability to match with a specific residency. As such, looking at dental school rankings and reputation makes the most sense when viewed through the lens of residency program acceptance.
How important is dental school reputation for residency applications?
In 2018, the National Matching Services conducted a survey of dental residency programs to understand how program directors make decisions about which applicants to interview. The survey included the following nine dental residency program types:
AEGD: Advanced Education in General Dentistry
ANES: Dental Anesthesiology
CDNGPR: Canadian General Practice Residency
GPR: U.S. General Practice Residency
OMS: Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
ORTH: Orthodontics
PED: Pediatric Dentistry
PERIO: Periodontics
PROS: Prosthodontics
When dental residency program directors were asked to rate factors influencing their decision to interview an applicant on a five-point scale (1 being “not at all important” and 5 being “extremely important”), they found that “Dental School of Graduation” ranked merely 8th of 14 on the list with an average score of 3.4—somewhere between “moderately” and “quite” important.
The most important factors, according to the NMS report, were applicants’ class ranking and their GPA, with professional evaluations coming in at number three. This tells us that, when it comes to getting into residencies, how you perform in dental school is significantly more important than where you go to school.
However, it’s worth noting that these two key factors (school and performance) are sometimes inversely related for a few reasons.
The dental schools with the best reputations often boast the highest average DAT and GPA among their student body. In theory, this means that these schools would have a more academically accomplished student body, which in turn would make it more difficult to rank among the top of your class.
As class rank is the number one factor considered by program directors, attending a prestigious dental school appears to be less important than maintaining a high GPA and competitive class rank. That said, the best possible combination would be a strong class rank and GPA from a highly reputable dental school.
If there are no meaningful rankings, what are “good” dental schools?
There is no straightforward answer to this question when it comes to dental schools. Perceptions of dental school reputations among the dental community are highly variable and differ depending on geographic location and whom you ask.
There are, however, a few general guidelines to consider:
Dental school reputations generally mirror the reputations of the overall university and tend to be most closely associated with their medical school counterpart. This is in large part due to the fact that medical and dental schools often have overlap in faculty, research, and curriculum.
A quick review of the U.S. News and World Report Rankings for medical schools provides a general idea of the associated dental school reputations. That said, there are now multiple standalone dental schools with no associated medical school that would not be reflected in these rankings.
University-based dental schools generally carry a stronger reputation than standalone dental schools. University-based programs have typically been around much longer and had more time to develop their reputations than newer, standalone schools. Additionally, university-based programs typically have a stronger research component and can draw on resources from other academic departments.
When it comes to Ivy League dental schools, these are typically always top-ranked, much like their host institutions. That doesn’t mean that they’re necessarily the best, but they may be among the hardest dental schools to get into.
That said, there are several very strong public universities with dental programs whose reputations are at least as strong and sometimes stronger than the Ivies.
Look to residency programs for clues about reputation. Let’s say you know you want to specialize and you even have an idea of which residency or residencies you are interested in attending. As you’re applying to dental school, look at your dream residency programs and find out what schools their residents have come from over the last five to ten years. Residency program directors often develop their own methodology for ranking dental schools, and patterns sometimes emerge relating to where their residents attended school.
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Part 3: What should you consider when selecting a dental school?
As discussed above, dental school rankings and reputation are at best moderately important, and they primarily come into play for residency applications. There are, however, several other factors to consider when selecting a dental school that are often far more important, particularly for those who want to practice general dentistry.
1. Cost of tuition
Attending dental school is costly. The sky-high tuition numbers are often so overwhelming that applicants struggle to grasp the financial implications of selecting one school over another.
The difference between $300,000 and $500,000 of student debt is quite dramatic, and yet you might actually end up choosing between those two realities, particularly if you have the option to pay in-state tuition at a public university.
As you’re doing your research, remember to compare not just tuition but also fees and cost of living. Dental fees are often in the tens of thousands of dollars per year and comprise a significant portion of dental school expense.
Geographic cost-of-living variability is also significant as spending four years in a large metropolitan city can add another $50,000–$100,000 of student debt compared to living in a smaller college town in the South or Midwest.
For students interested in specializing, keeping debt as manageable as possible is critical, especially for specialties that require additional tuition and, therefore, taking on additional debt.
2. Graded vs. pass/fail programs
Traditionally, dental schools have been graded on the 4.0 scale. However, many programs have recently shifted to a pass/fail grading system.
A pass/fail program may be more conducive to your learning style and reduce your stress about grades during dental school. Alternatively, grades can be motivating and rewarding as well as provide an academic metric that sets you apart and is useful when applying to dental residency programs.
3. Class rank
Unlike undergraduate programs where GPA is typically your only academic benchmark, many dental schools also provide a class rank. As with reputation, class rank really only matters if and when you’re applying to residency.
Schools with class rank tend to have a more competitive environment. Choosing a school without class rank may reduce your overall stress level; on the flip side, having a class rank could be motivating as well as help set you apart when applying for residency.
4. Class size
Dental schools vary significantly in class size from 375 students each year at NYU to just 35 students per class at Harvard. Class size impacts many elements of your school experience, from lecture style to curriculum to relationships with your classmates. Be sure to consider your personal preferences regarding class size when selecting a school.
5. Location
Do you want to attend school close to home or are you looking for an adventure? Are you more comfortable in an urban setting or would you prefer a smaller college town environment? Select a program in a location where you have opportunities outside of school for relationships and activities that will help you manage your stress.
On top of this, keep in mind that some public dental schools have extremely low acceptance rates for out-of-state students. For example, it’s well known that dental schools in Texas are very difficult to get into if applying as a non-resident. Conversely, applying to those schools is a wise choice for Texans, especially given that in-state tuition at Texas dental schools is among the lowest in the United States.
6. Specialties a school ranks highly for
Many students considering a career in dentistry intend to become general dentists or open their own practice, but if you’re attracted to one of the 12 specialties recognized by the ADA you should further evaluate schools based on how they rank for that career path.
For example, if you’re interested in a career as an oral surgeon, attending one of the best dental schools for oral surgery rather than any school with an oral/maxillofacial program could give your future prospects a significant boost. Universities.com lists some of the best dental schools for oral surgery with UPenn, Texas A&M, and the University of Illinois - Chicago rounding out the top three.
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Part 4: List of the best dental schools in the U.S.
Not only are dental schools difficult to rank, rankings are simply less valued in dentistry than they are in many other fields. That said, many students still come to us wanting to know what we consider to be top-tier dental schools, particularly those who plan to go on to specialized residency programs. While we advise these students that rankings and tiers are far from universally agreed upon in dentistry, we also recognize that they may serve as useful roadmaps for applicants looking for guidance.
Bearing all this in mind, below are our picks for the ten best dental schools in the U.S., based on a combination of the following criteria: academic reputation, educational resources, clinical opportunities, research opportunities, the DAT scores and GPAs of incoming students, and the reputations of associated medical schools.
The costs of attendance listed below are estimated total costs for four years of dental school, which include tuition, fees, books, instruments, housing, meals, and other expenses.
For public dental schools, we’ve listed the percentage of incoming students that are typically drawn from the school’s in-state applicants. If no percentage is listed, it means that the school is private and therefore does not use residence as one of its admissions factors.
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Harvard School of Dental Medicine
Average GPA: 3.85
Average DAT score: 22
Class size: 35
Four-year cost of attendance: $470,380
University of Michigan School of Dentistry
Average GPA: 3.81
Average DAT score: 22
Class size: 109 (approximately 50% in-state)
Four-year cost of attendance: $422,894 (in-state); $497,152 (out-of-state)
University of California—Los Angeles School of Dentistry
Average GPA: 3.72
Average DAT score: 22
Class size: 88 (approximately 70% in-state)
Four-year cost of attendance: $432,359 (in-state); $481,399 (out-of-state)
University of California—San Francisco School of Dentistry
Average GPA: 3.76
Average DAT score: 22.6
Class size: 88 (approximately 66% in-state)
Four-year cost of attendance: $443,208 (in-state); $492,188 (out-of-state)
University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine
Average GPA: 3.7
Average DAT score: 22
Class size: 135
Four-year cost of attendance: $555,922
Columbia University College of Dental Medicine
Average GPA: 3.7
Average DAT score: 23.4
Class size: 84
Four-year cost of attendance: $557,614
University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill Adams School of Dentistry
Average GPA: 3.6
Average DAT score: 22
Class size: 82 (approximately 75% in-state)
Four-year cost of attendance: $330,805 (in-state); $485,861 (out-of-state)
University of Washington School of Dentistry
Average GPA: 3.5
Average DAT score: 20.9
Class size: 63 (approximately 85–90% in-state; the remaining 10–15% are primarily drawn from WICHE states [Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota and Wyoming])
Four-year cost of attendance: $420,265 (in-state); $551,983 (out-of-state)
University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine
Average GPA: 3.74
Average DAT score: 21.6
Class size: 80 (approximately 55% in-state)
Four-year cost of attendance: $427,404 (in-state); $471,660 (out-of-state)
New York University College of Dentistry
Average GPA: 3.5
Average DAT score: 21
Class size: 375
Four-year cost of attendance: $626,384
Final thoughts
Dental school is unique among professional graduate programs in that there are no rankings in U.S. News and World Report. While the lack of concrete rankings might understandably leave you feeling unsure of where to apply, overall it can be viewed as a positive element of the dental profession as academic rankings are never perfect and are sometimes based on criteria that don’t necessarily correlate with the quality of education that you’ll receive.
This is especially true for dental school applicants who aim to work in general dentistry rather than go on to specialize in a residency program. For these applicants, the rankings and prestige of dental schools are relatively unimportant, and more meaningful factors such as cost, curriculum, and location should be prioritized in selecting a program.
If you’re a dental school applicant who does intend to specialize, rankings may be useful as one of several criteria used to determine which dental schools best fit your education and career aspirations.
About the Author
Dr. Shirag Shemmassian is the Founder of Shemmassian Academic Consulting and one of the world's foremost experts on dental school admissions. For nearly 20 years, he and his team have helped thousands of students get into dental school using his exclusive approach.
