Questions to Ask Dental Schools
Questions to ask dental schools while you are comparing programs: at a fair or open day, on interview day, or with an offer in hand. The list opens with five to put to every school, then works through the curriculum, the clinic and its patients, outcomes, cost and admissions, and culture and fit. The good questions to ask dental school admissions staff are the ones about your application and anything with a published figure behind it, while how a clinic afternoon really goes is for a third or fourth year student. If a dental admissions person at a fair table is the only one you can reach, start with prerequisites, test scores, shadowing, letters and timing in the cost and admissions group.
The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Ask every school
When do students start treating patients, and what does the first year in clinic look like?
Why ask it
Some schools have students in clinic in their first year and others not until their third, so 'early clinical experience' needs pinning down. Find out in which term students observe, when they assist, and when they first carry out a procedure on a patient of their own.
Where do student patients come from, and how do students find them?
Why ask it
The easy version is a screening clinic that assigns patients to each student. The hard version is students bringing in friends, relatives or strangers to meet their requirements. A third-year can tell you which this school is by describing how they found their last few patients.
What is the total cost of the degree, including fees, instruments and living expenses?
Why ask it
The figure to compare is the school's published cost of attendance for all four years, not one year's tuition. Have it broken down by year, because the years are rarely priced the same, and check whether the summer terms are counted.
What is the first-time board pass rate for the last three classes?
Why ask it
Three years show a trend that one good year can hide. Check that the figure counts everyone in the class on their first attempt, since a rate based only on the students a school cleared to sit will flatter it.
How is grading handled, and does the school rank students?
Why ask it
A school can be pass/fail on paper and still keep a class rank that it sends to residency programs. If you might specialise, find out what those programs receive in place of a rank, and have a student say whether pass/fail has made the class any less competitive.
Curriculum
How are the first two years organised: separate courses in each science, or blocks built around body systems?
Why ask it
Neither design is the better one, but they make for different terms. A block that ends in a single large exam is nothing like weekly quizzes in five subjects, so have a second-year describe an ordinary month.
How many hours a week do first-years spend in the simulation lab, and can they practise there after hours?
Why ask it
Scheduled sessions are rarely enough for a student whose hands are slow to learn, and nobody knows in advance whether that will be them. Find out when the room is open, whether practice teeth cost extra, and whether an instructor is ever there outside class.
Is attendance at lectures required, and are they recorded?
Why ask it
Required attendance from morning to late afternoon pushes all lab practice and study into the evening. Recordings give some of that time back, though a school can record every lecture and still take a register, which is why the question has two halves.
What time does a normal day start and finish in each of the four years?
Why ask it
The hardest year is not the same at every school: for some it is second year with lab work piled on lectures, for others the first year of clinic. Put it to a student from each year you meet and line the answers up.
If a student fails a course in the first two years, what happens before a repeated year is on the table?
Why ask it
The policy is normally written in the student handbook, and a copy is worth requesting too. A retake exam or a summer course in between is the reassuring answer, because repeating a year means paying for it twice and earning a year later.
How do students who want research find a project, and is a summer of it paid?
Why ask it
This matters if a specialty or teaching is on your mind, and a short answer will do if it is not. A student who has done a project can say how they found a supervisor and whether the stipend covered rent.
Do dental students share any teaching or clinics with medical, nursing or pharmacy students?
Why ask it
Schools call this interprofessional education, and it covers everything from one workshop a year to treating patients together in a joint clinic. Have someone describe the most recent session, and you will know which end this school is at.
Can students take electives or add a master's alongside the dental degree, and how many do?
Why ask it
A second degree in public health or business can add a year, a heavier timetable and its own tuition, so the detail matters more than the offer. The number who finished one last year shows whether it is a working route. Electives deserve the same test, since some exist on paper and clash with clinic.
How does the school teach the business of dentistry: contracts, insurance, running a practice?
Why ask it
Clinical skill and reading an employment agreement are separate abilities, and school mostly teaches the first. The details to get are how many hours the subject has, in which year, and whether students ever work through the accounts of a real practice.
Is anything major due to change while I would be here: the curriculum, the clinic building, the dean?
Why ask it
A renovation can take chairs out of use for a year, and a new curriculum makes your class its trial run. Neither is a reason to cross a school off. What you need is the dates, and whether current students heard about the plans before you did.
Clinic
What are the clinical requirements to graduate, and how are they counted?
Why ask it
Requirements can be a count of procedures, a set of competency exams, or both. The written list is worth seeing, because it decides what you chase for two years and how much say you have in which patients you treat.
How many crowns, root canals and extractions does a typical student complete before graduating?
Why ask it
Get the typical figure and the lowest one that still graduated, since the two can be far apart. Low numbers in one area are not a scandal, but they show what you would still be learning in a first job or a residency year.
How many half-days a week do third and fourth year students spend with a patient in the chair?
Why ask it
A timetable can show clinic every day while a student has a patient in only some of those sessions. Have a fourth-year count last week's, leaving out the ones lost to a cancelled booking or a full clinic.
Would I see the same patients from first exam to finished treatment, or hand them on for each specialty?
Why ask it
Keeping a patient through the whole plan is closer to how a general practice runs, and it teaches you to put treatment in order. Where patients are handed between departments, ask who keeps track of the plan and how often a patient drops out halfway.
Do students treat children, older adults and medically complex patients, or mostly healthy adults?
Why ask it
Who walks into a student clinic depends on where it is and who refers to it, so the mix differs a good deal between schools. Where children or patients with complicated medical histories go mainly to residents, get the number a dental student treats, and whether that is in the main clinic or only on a rotation.
What happens when a patient does not show up for an appointment?
Why ask it
Broken appointments are a common reason for falling behind on requirements. You want to know who fills the chair, whether the school keeps a list of patients who can come at short notice, and whether a lost session counts against the student.
How many faculty cover a clinic session, and how long do students wait for a check?
Why ask it
With too few instructors on the floor, a student can wait much of an hour, patient in the chair, for one step to be approved. Students know the usual wait to the minute and the admissions office generally does not, so this one is for them.
Who teaches in clinic: full-time faculty, part-time practitioners, or residents?
Why ask it
A mix is normal, and part-time dentists bring in what happens in practice. The cost can be a different instructor each day giving different advice on the same case. Two things settle it: whether one person follows your work across a term, and whether any clinic teaching posts are vacant now.
Besides the treatment itself, what falls to students: sterilising instruments, booking patients, lab work, collecting fees?
Why ask it
Each of those comes out of a session that is only a few hours long. No single one should decide anything, but a student doing all four has far less of the afternoon left for the patient than one with staff behind them.
Which specialty residencies does the school run, and can dental students work in those clinics?
Why ask it
Where residents train in endodontics or oral surgery, the difficult root canals and wisdom teeth may go to them. The other side of it is access: a student who can assist or take an elective there finds out what a specialty is like before applying to one.
What equipment will I actually use, and how much of it is shared?
Why ask it
The intraoral scanner, cone beam machine and milling unit shown on a tour may be the only ones in the building. Get the number of each, how students book them, and whether you would use them on your own patients or only watch a demonstration.
What rotations happen away from campus, and who pays for the housing?
Why ask it
A few weeks at a community clinic or a hospital can be the busiest of the whole degree, and also a bill nobody planned for. The details are how many weeks, how far away, and whether the school houses you or you pay rent in two places.
What happens when a student is struggling clinically?
Why ask it
Hand skills come slowly to some capable students, and grades do not predict who. A good answer names who notices, what extra chair or lab time is offered, and how many students used it last year without losing a term.
Outcomes
What proportion of each class graduates in four years?
Why ask it
Have the school take one named class and set the number who started against the number who finished on time. Where there is a gap, the follow-up is how much of it was students kept back a term to finish requirements and how much was students who left.
Why have students left the program in the past few years?
Why ask it
Academic dismissal, clinical failure, health, money and a change of mind are very different explanations. A school that answers this openly is easier to trust on its other numbers.
When do students sit the board exam, and is there protected time to study for it?
Why ask it
A pass rate says nothing about what it cost the students to get there. Clear weeks before the exam are one thing and revising around a full clinic schedule is another. It is also fair to ask who pays for the exam and the review materials.
How do graduates get licensed where I want to work, and does the school host the clinical exam?
Why ask it
Licensing rules are set by each state or country and they change, so ask how it works for the place you have in mind. Hear which route last year's graduates took, then confirm it with that licensing board yourself before you rely on it.
Where did last year's class go after graduation?
Why ask it
You want the real split: private practice, a group or corporate practice, public health, the military, a general residency, and each specialty. If the school has no figures, a fourth-year can usually say what their own classmates have lined up.
What share of the students who aim for orthodontics, oral surgery or another specialty get in?
Why ask it
A list of students who matched is half a number, so get how many applied, specialty by specialty. If one of them is your goal, find out who advises those applicants and how early a student has to start building an application.
What are this school's graduates known for among the dentists who hire them?
Why ask it
Every school's graduates carry a local reputation, whether for good hands, an easy manner with patients or needing a slow first year, and faculty usually know theirs. Put the same question to a dentist or two in the region, who have no reason to flatter the place.
What did the last accreditation review ask the school to change?
Why ask it
Whether a program is accredited is public, so look it up first with the body that accredits dental schools in that country. The better conversation is about what the reviewers flagged. For a new school, ask how far it is from full accreditation and what happens to its students if that is delayed.
Cost and admissions
What was the average debt of last year's graduating class?
Why ask it
The financial aid office will usually have this figure, though it rarely comes up unless you ask. Check whether it averages the whole class or only those who borrowed, then set it against what a new dentist earns in the region where you want to work.
What am I required to buy myself?
Why ask it
Whether the instrument kit is bought, rented from the school or covered by a fee changes both the bill and what you own at graduation. Get the list with the term each item falls due, and whether students may shop around for loupes or must use the school's supplier.
How much has tuition gone up for the current fourth-years since they started?
Why ask it
Asking about one class turns tuition policy into arithmetic that someone in the building has lived. If the rise was steady, allow for something like it in your own four-year estimate, and check whether fees went up separately.
How many students in a class hold a scholarship from the school, and what is it typically worth?
Why ask it
A scholarship page can list a dozen awards that reach a handful of people. The share of the class and the usual amount tell you whether to plan around one, and whether it renews each year or covers only the first.
If I move here for a public school, can I ever pay in-state tuition, and what would it take?
Why ask it
Some public schools allow it and some rule it out for anyone who moved there to study, and the rules belong to the state and the institution. Have the requirements and deadlines sent to you in writing, because the saving over three years can be larger than any scholarship.
What does a student pay if they need an extra term to finish their requirements?
Why ask it
Finishing a few weeks late for want of one procedure does happen, and schools differ on whether it costs a fee, a term's tuition or nothing. It can also delay getting licensed or starting a residency. The last student in that position is the example to ask about.
What does a month really cost students here: rent, parking, getting to clinic?
Why ask it
The school's living allowance is an estimate, and in some loan systems it also limits what you can borrow. Two students' real rents will show whether the allowance is close. Whatever it misses has to come from somewhere else, usually savings or family.
Does the financial aid office advise on borrowing and repayment, or only process the paperwork?
Why ask it
Loan terms, service scholarships and forgiveness programs differ by country and change from year to year, so nothing in a brochure should be taken as current. An office with a named adviser who meets each student before they borrow is a real asset, and you can ask to speak to that person now.
What does the admissions committee look for beyond grades and test scores?
Why ask it
This belongs at a fair or an open day, while the answer can still shape your next year. Listen for specifics such as shadowing hours, work that trains the hands or service in the region, and read the published class profile for the numbers.
Which prerequisite courses do you require, and would any of mine be too old or not count?
Why ask it
Prerequisite lists differ from school to school, and some put an age limit on science credits or will not take a course done online or at a community college. Bring your transcript and have the admissions person go through it line by line. A missing lab is a small problem a year before you apply and a large one in the middle of a cycle.
If I sit the admission test more than once, which score does the committee use?
Why ask it
The latest sitting, the best one, or every attempt laid side by side: schools handle it differently, and the answer decides whether a retake is worth the risk. Find out as well how old a score can be on the day you apply.
How many shadowing hours do admitted students usually have, and does it matter where they did them?
Why ask it
A published minimum and what the admitted class brought are often two different numbers. Check whether hours with a single general dentist count the same as time split between a specialist's office and a community clinic, and whether paid work as a dental assistant is counted at all.
Whose letters of recommendation does the committee want, and what if my college does not write a committee letter?
Why ask it
Some schools want science professors, some want a dentist, and some will take a college committee letter in place of both. Applicants who graduated years ago or changed careers should say so here, because a school may accept a supervisor's letter without having written that allowance down anywhere.
Does applying early in the cycle improve my chances, and when did interview invitations start last year?
Why ask it
Where files are read in the order they arrive, a late application competes for the seats that are left. Last year's first and last invitation dates give you a working deadline, which may be well ahead of the printed one.
How many seats go to applicants from outside the state or region?
Why ask it
Publicly funded schools often keep most places for their own residents, and each sets its own rules, so ask how it works at this one. A straight answer before you apply can spare you a fee and a wasted essay.
How many students are in each class, and are there plans to admit more?
Why ask it
Class size only means something against the number of clinic chairs and instructors. A school that grows its intake without adding either is spreading the same patients and faculty across more students, and the classes ahead of you will not have felt it yet.
How is interview day run: one conversation, a panel, or a circuit of short stations?
Why ask it
An hour with one faculty member and a run of timed stations call for different preparation. Admissions staff will generally say who the interviewers are and whether they have read your file or meet you knowing only your name.
When will I hear a decision, and how does the waitlist work?
Why ask it
A date range, and how you will be told, is a fair thing to ask of any admissions office. If there is a waitlist, the useful details are whether it is ranked, whether an update letter is welcome, and how late in the summer seats have opened in past years.
If I am offered a place, how long do I have to decide, and what does the deposit commit me to?
Why ask it
Deadlines and deposit rules vary by school and by the application system it uses, so get the dates in writing. The amount, whether any of it comes back and whether a second payment follows all matter when you are holding one offer and waiting on another.
If I am turned down this year, will someone go through my application with me?
Why ask it
Some schools give unsuccessful applicants a feedback call, some send a form letter, and some say nothing. A reapplicant who acted on the school's own advice has something concrete to put in the next application, so find out when those appointments open and who gives them.
Culture and fit
Do students share notes and old study materials with the whole class, or keep them to themselves?
Why ask it
Every school describes its students as supportive, which is why this asks about something that can be checked. A student can say whether last year's class left its notes for this one, and whether that sharing cooled once class rank was at stake.
Does every student have a faculty adviser, and how often do the two really meet?
Why ask it
An adviser assigned at orientation and never seen again is a familiar story. Ask a third-year for their adviser's name. If it comes quickly the scheme works, and that is the person who will later write a letter for a residency or a first job.
What mental health support is available, and is it separate from the people who grade me?
Why ask it
A counsellor who sits outside the dental faculty and keeps separate records is easier to approach than one down the corridor from the clinic directors. Find out where the service is, how long the wait for a first appointment runs, and whether using it ever appears in a student's file.
Can you put me in touch with a current student whose situation is like mine?
Why ask it
Say what the situation is: a parent, a career changer, the first in your family at university, a dentist trained abroad. One conversation with that student covers childcare, commuting, money and belonging better than a diversity statement can, and a school that cannot find one has also given you an answer.
Which student-run clinics, clubs or trips do most of the class take part in?
Why ask it
'Most of the class' is the filter. A free clinic that half the students staff on Saturdays is part of the school, and a club with four members is a line on a website. Find out too whether the hours are voluntary or count toward a service requirement.
How much free time do students really have, and what do they do with it?
Why ask it
Put this to students in more than one year, since a first-year's evenings and a third-year's are not alike. Answers that involve the city, a sport or friends outside the class suggest there is room for a life. If every answer is about catching up on sleep, you have learned something as well.
What is the school's mission, and where would I see it in an ordinary week?
Why ask it
A mission to serve rural or low-income patients tends to bring required rotations and a particular patient base, and a research mission brings something else. Read the statement before you ask. If nobody can point to a place it shows up, treat it as a slogan.
What do students get here that they would not get at another dental school?
Why ask it
Expect a prepared answer, and listen for something in it you can check: a clinic model, a patient base, a rotation, a way of grading. 'Our people' could be said anywhere. A request for one example usually shows whether there is more behind it.
Who is this school a poor fit for?
Why ask it
Schools find the opposite question easy, so this one shows whether anyone has thought about fit. An answer such as students set on research, or students who need a big city, lets you place yourself faster than a ranking does.
Can I sit in on a clinic session and talk with third and fourth year students on my own?
Why ask it
An hour on the clinic floor shows what nobody describes: how long students stand waiting, how instructors speak to them, whether the chairs are full. If staff sit in on every conversation with a student, note it and reach students another way, through a pre-dental club or the school's student association.
What would you change about this program if you could?
Why ask it
Put to a student and a faculty member separately, this often turns up the same complaint twice, and that one is worth believing. Someone who says there is nothing to change is selling, and the rest of what they told you can be weighed accordingly.
Comparing dental programs
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
What actually determines your four years
- How early and how often you treat patients, because hand skills come from hours in the chair.
- Where patients come from, and whether recruiting them is your problem or the school's.
- How the requirements are structured, since a rigid list dictates your last two years.
- Faculty availability in clinic, measured in how long you wait for a check.
- Total debt at graduation, which can narrow where and how you practise for years.
- Whether the class shares or competes, which has a lot to do with how grading and ranking work.
Do this before the interview
- Confirm the program's accreditation status with the relevant accrediting body, and check for any current reporting requirements.
- Read the school's own published outcome data: board results, on-time graduation, and where graduates go.
- Download the full cost of attendance for all four years and add instruments, exam fees and relocation.
- Work out licensure: whether the school's clinical exam route is accepted where you intend to practise.
- Ask practising dentists in the region what they know about the program and its graduates.
- Write down your three deciding factors before you visit, because a good tour is persuasive.
Who to ask, and when
- Before you apply, at a fair or an open day: your prerequisites, how a retaken test is read, shadowing and letters, what the committee looks for, how many seats go to outside applicants, and what the school's mission means in practice.
- Admissions staff: class size, on-time graduation, why students leave, accreditation, the interview format, decision dates, the waitlist, feedback for applicants who are turned down, and anything else with a published figure behind it.
- The financial aid office: the four-year cost of attendance, how tuition has moved, who gets scholarships, and what an extra term costs.
- Faculty: how the first two years are organised, the requirements list, licensing routes, and what is about to change.
- After an offer: the deposit and its deadline, and anything you were told that affects money or timing, asked again and answered in writing before you pay.
Ask students, not admissions
- How often a clinic session is lost to a broken appointment or a missing faculty signature.
- Whether they had to find their own patients, and how they did it.
- What they had to buy that they were not expecting.
- What happens to a student who fails a competency exam.
- Whether faculty are reachable outside scheduled clinic time.
- How much of a week is left once lectures, lab and clinic are done.
- Whether they would choose this school again, and what they would want to know first.
Warning signs
- Board pass rates or on-time graduation figures the school will not give you for specific recent years.
- No clear answer about where patients come from.
- A cost figure that covers tuition only, with fees and instruments described as minor.
- Students who are only available to speak with an admissions staff member present.
- Defensiveness about attrition, faculty vacancies, or accreditation.
- Heavy emphasis on new buildings and equipment with little detail about clinical volume.
Deciding
- Give clinical volume and patient access at least as much weight as reputation. Both matter, but only one is with you every week.
- Compare debt honestly against realistic earnings, including any service commitment attached to a scholarship.
- Take location seriously: four years is long enough that support networks and cost of living affect whether you finish well.
- Treat an uneasy feeling about the culture as a reason to ask more questions of students, not as a verdict on its own.
- Accept that no program is uniformly strong. Choose the one whose weaknesses you can live with.