Dental School Requirements and Prerequisite Planning
A course can count toward your bachelor's degree and still not meet a dental school's prerequisite. A school may accept a type of credit while preferring a different route. These small details can change which class you take next semester.
That is why the most useful list of dental school requirements starts with the schools you might apply to. In this guide, you will learn how to find the right requirements for each program, which conditions to read closely, and how to build a simple course worksheet you can review with an academic advisor. The school examples below come from official admissions pages. Recheck them for your own application cycle, because policies change.
Start with the right program and application cycle
Before you collect requirements, write down the exact program name. A university may publish separate rules for its DDS or DMD program, dental hygiene, international dentist programs and advanced training. Make sure every page you save describes the program you plan to enter.
Keep U.S. and Canadian applications in separate sections of your plan. ADEA's school directory shows which programs use ADEA AADSAS and which do not. Using the same application service does not mean schools share the same prerequisites.
For each program, record both the application cycle and your intended entry year. This prevents a common mistake: confusing the deadline to finish a course with the deadline to submit your application. For a year-by-year view, read our pre-dental timeline.
Read the conditions behind each requirement
ADEA's prerequisite overview describes a common foundation: biology, general chemistry, organic chemistry and physics, each with labs. Some schools add subjects such as English composition or upper-level biology. Use this list as a starting point. The final list must come from each school.
The notes under a school's course table often matter most. A few real examples show why:
- Acceptance versus preference. The University of Michigan's DDS applicant page accepts community college prerequisites but recommends a four-year institution. AP credit can count when college credit was awarded and appears on your transcript. CLEP credit is not accepted.
- Exceptions tied to specific terms. Penn Dental Medicine accepts pass/fail prerequisites only for courses taken in 2020 and 2021. That exception does not apply to a course you take now.
- Score conditions for credit. UBC's DMD program accepts AP credit in English, biology and chemistry with a minimum score of 4, with different thresholds for IB.
Read GPA and test information carefully too. Penn publishes no GPA minimum but gives special consideration to overall and science GPAs of 3.2 or higher. A preference is not a guarantee, and a class average is not a cutoff. Test policies differ as well: Penn accepts Canadian DAT scores from Canadian applicants, while Michigan does not.
If you are still choosing a major, our guide to the best pre-dental majors explains how to fit prerequisites into any field.
Build a course acceptance worksheet
Create one row for each course you plan to use toward a school's requirement. Include:
- Program and cycle: school, degree, application cycle and entry year
- Requirement: subject, credits, semester or quarter units, lab and minimum grade
- Your course: institution, course code, credits, grade and term
- Credit conditions: AP, IB, transfer, community college, online or pass/fail
- Evidence: policy link, date checked and course description
- Next step: what is unresolved and who can answer it
Give each row a status: documented match, planned course, needs clarification or gap. "Needs clarification" means you have a likely course but are missing a detail. "Gap" means you have no course yet. These are different problems, so they need different next steps.
Suppose you are unsure whether your chemistry lab counts with its lecture. Put both course codes in one row and compare them with the school's rule. If it is still unclear, ask the school a precise question through its published process. Bring unresolved rows to your advisor before you register.
When you apply, ADEA AADSAS lets some programs show a prerequisite section where you match courses. The AADSAS instructions note that matching a course does not necessarily mean the requirement is met. Your worksheet helps you explain each choice.
Keep service and shadowing in their own categories
Coursework, shadowing and service are checked separately. Penn, for example, does not count volunteering, pre-dental club activities or mission trips toward its dental observation minimum, though applicants still report them in AADSAS. Record how each school defines its experience categories. Our guide on how to track volunteer hours explains how to keep accurate records.
Service can still help you understand dentistry and community oral health. A dental service learning trip is one option. On Smiles Movement trips, students shadow local dental professionals at mobile clinics and help with oral health education for children in partner communities.
Turn requirements into a plan
When every row in your worksheet has evidence and a next step, the requirements become a plan you can follow. If you want to add meaningful experience in dental settings along the way, Smiles Movement can help. Fill out the form on this page to get more information about upcoming programs.
Frequently asked questions about dental school requirements
What are the basic requirements for dental school?
Most schools require biology, general chemistry, organic chemistry and physics with labs, plus the DAT. Many add courses such as biochemistry or English. Each school sets its own final list.
Does AP credit count toward dental school prerequisites?
Sometimes. Policies differ by school. Some accept AP credit when it appears on your college transcript, and some set minimum scores. Check each school's admissions page.
Does a service trip count as dental shadowing?
It depends on the school. Some schools count only observation of a dentist and list service separately. Check how each program defines its experience requirements.