Applying to Dental School

The process of applying to dental school has been centralized to a great extent by the American Dental Education Association (ADEA). The ADEA runs an online application service called AADSAS (Associated American Dental Schools Application Service) that allows students to initiate the process of applying to many dental schools at once through one initial primary application. Most dental schools participate in AADSAS, although there are some that do not.

The process of applying to most dental schools works like this: 1) you fill out one online primary application, choose the schools you would like to receive the application, and send any supplementary materials requested by them; 2) those schools receive your application, review it, and if they would like to consider you further for admission they send you secondary application materials or contact you to schedule an interview.

For the AADSAS primary application you will create your own User Name and Password that will allow you to create your online application. You can log in and out of your online application as many times as you like while you enter information and make sure that everything is accurate and complete. When you are satisfied with the application you submit it electronically and it is sent to AADSAS for processing. Once you submit the application you cannot make changes on it.

The AADSAS online application can be found online here.

If you are getting ready to apply to dental school please plan to attend one of the HPPLC Application Workshops in the spring semester and obtain a current edition of the HPPLC publication, "A Guide for Applicants to Dental Schools." Watch for announcements on the HPPLC email list or consult the HPPLC events calendar.