Another new dental school just received accreditation and will be welcoming its first students in a few months: Yeshiva University in New York City.
Increasing # of Dental Schools
A wave of dental school closures in the late 80’s and early 90’s led to a low of 54 schools in 1992.
The next 15 years were relatively stagnant.
Since 2008, there has been an explosion of New dental schools- 22 New dental schools have opened, rapidly expanding the pool of dental schools from 56 to 78.
8 New dental schools have opened in just the last 3 years.
Increasing Enrollment
Since 2008, 1st year enrollment has risen from 4,600 to 7,300 students, a 60% increase.
Over 2/3 of that increase in enrollment is entirely from New dental schools.
In our projections, over 25% of first-year students enrolling in 2026 will be attending a New dental school.
New schools are defined as dental schools that have opened since 2008. All other dental schools are considered Established schools.
Dental School is Increasingly Private
The Established dental schools are mostly Public (37 out of 56 are Public).
The New dental schools are overwhelmingly Private (18 out of 22 are Private).
All of the New & mostly Private dental schools that have opened are rapidly changing the composition of the incoming 1st year class.
In 2006, about 42% of the incoming class attended Private dental schools.
We project that in 2026, over 55% of the incoming class will be attending Private dental schools.
Submit your mailbag questions for next week's newsletter to [email protected]. Let us know which topics from today’s newsletter you’d like us to dive deeper into.
More and More Students are Paying Private/Out-of-State Tuition
With almost all of the New dental schools being private, students are increasingly paying Private/Out-of-State Tuition.
In 2000, about 46% of students were paying a reduced in-state tuition at their Public dental school.
In 2026, we project that less than 35% of incoming students will be paying in-state tuition.
This decrease is mostly due to the influx of New Private dental schools.
There is also a concerning trend of Public schools being less Public. In 2000, 78.5% of students at Public schools were in-state. In 2024, that had dipped to 75%. Public schools are slowly opening their doors to more out-of-state fully paying students.
Admissions
The number of 1st year positions has been steadily rising since 1989.
The number of 1st year positions has been rapidly increasing since 2008 as a result of all the New dental schools.
How about applicants? The most recent peak in applicants was 2007, totaling almost 14,000. Since then, there was a decline followed by a plateau. Applicants have remained at about 11,500 for the last 15 years.
Acceptance Rate
We project that in 2026, over 63% of students who apply to dental school will be accepted.
This is the highest Acceptance Rate since the mid 90’s.
In 2007, the Acceptance Rate was only 33.6%.
In the last 20 years, the Acceptance Rate has nearly doubled!
This number will only continue to rise if 2 things hold true
Total applicants continue to stay stagnant as they have over the last 15 years (~11,500 a year)
1st year spots continue to increase as a result of New dental schools opening (and to a lesser degree dental schools slowly increasing their class size).
Ask a Dentist…
There are 200,000 practicing dentists in the US. We want to take a look at a few anonymous dentists each week
GP or Specialist? GP
Years out since dental school graduation? 3 Years
Age/Gender? 33 y/o M
Practice location? coastal Carolinas, urban city
Practice owner/associate/DSO? work for a regional DSO
How many days/hours do you work? 4-5 days a week. I have every other F off
Income? 2024- $375,000, 2025- $510,000
Student Loans? $465,000 total. Monthly repayments of $2700 a month
Career Satisfaction (1-10)? 9
Would you become a dentist again if you could go back to college? ‘Would I be a dentist for $200K a year? No I would not. I for the most part really like the job and really like helping people, but it’s high stress and fast paced. I wouldn’t do this for anything less than $300K’
New Schools- what do their DAT scores look like?
The New dental schools have some of the lowest DAT scores.
In particular, the New & Private dental schools have fared the worst, with very low incoming DAT scores.
The New & Public schools have been more middle of the pack.
New Schools- what do their GPA averages look like?
This chart tells a very similar story to the previous chart that looked at DAT scores.
The New dental schools have some of the lowest GPA’s for their incoming class.
In particular, the New & Private dental schools have fared the worst, with very low incoming GPA’s.
The New & Public schools have been more middle of the pack.
New schools- how do their DAT score rank?
This table shows how each school ranks for incoming DAT Academic averages. We only have data through 2024- we do not have data on the 5 new dental schools that have opened up in 2025 & 2026.
The New Public schools (East Carolina University, University of Utah, Texas Tech University) have been able to attract much more competitive applicants than the New Private schools.
Touro College of Dental Medicine in NY has been able to break the mold, attracting above average candidates despite being a New Private dental school.
Some of the newest Private dental schools (Lincoln Memorial University- TN, Kansas City University- MO, Ponce Health Sciences University-PR, Universidad Ana G. Mendez-PR) have some of the worst admissions standards for DAT scores.
New schools- how do their undergrad GPAs rank?
This table shows how each school ranks for incoming undergrad GPAs for their incoming class.
The New Public schools (in particular University of Utah) have generally fared better than the New Private schools.
Some of the newest Private dental schools (California Northstate University-CA, Lincoln Memorial University- TN, High Point University-NC, Ponce Health Sciences University-PR, Universidad Ana G. Mendez-PR) have some of the worst undergrad GPA scores for their incoming class.
Submit your mailbag questions for next week's newsletter to [email protected]. Let us know which topics from today’s newsletter you’d like us to dive deeper into.
— Path32
Ask a Dentist…
There are 200,000 practicing dentists in the US. We want to take a look at a few anonymous dentists each week
GP or Specialist? Peds
Years out since dental school graduation? 8-10 Years
Age/Gender? mid-30’s M
Practice location? mid-sized Southeastern US City, mix of Urban/Suburban/Rural
Practice owner/associate/DSO? owner, group practice
How many days/hours do you work? 4 days a week
Income? $850,000-1,000,000 range (combination of actual dentistry production- about $1,500,000-2,000,000 a year and business profits)
Student Loans? started w/ $250K of loans, refinanced during Covid to under 3%. Monthly repayments of $1200 a month
Career Satisfaction (1-10)? 9
Would you become a dentist again if you could go back to college? ‘Absolutely’
If you are a practicing dentist and would like to be featured anonymously in ‘Ask a Dentist’, submit your answers to [email protected] or reach out to me on Reddit (Path32DDS).
Other Path32 news
Dental School Admissions Rankings- Path32’s Admissions Rankings for all Dental Schools- DAT scores, undergrad GPA, Acceptance Rate, Enrollment Rate
Out-of-State Rankings- which dental schools accept the most Out-of-State students
What does $500K in loans look like?- a breakdown of monthly repayments at various term lengths for $500K in loans.
Dental School Admissions Calculator- enter in your DAT scores and undergrad GPA to see your chances