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Dentistry Entry Discussion and Questions

Hutcherson

Emeritus Staff
Emeritus Staff
Observation usually has no issues. However "dental assisting" - direct contact with patient - can cause issues if you are not covered by insurance. Official volunteering positions usually have this sorted, its the unofficial ones that don't.
 

Yamster

Dental Moderator
Emeritus Staff
Thanks Hutcherson, would it be easy for people interested in dentistry as a future career option to "observe" at say their local dental practice?
 
Hi guys,
Next year I'm starting my first year of engineering/ science at monash but I am really hoping to transfer to a dentistry course after my first year.
I've been reading through a few forums and Im a bit foggy regarding the details as to how this whole transferring works which I was hoping someone could please clarify.
Will I be able to transfer to a dentistry course despite its engineering aspects if I fulfill the necessary prerequisites via the science part of my degree?
Which unis will allow me to transfer and which require ucat/ interviews?
If I don't get in after my first year, can I keep on trying each subsequent year untill I hopefully do?
What is the required or general cutoff WAM or GPA to ur knowledge? And ucat score?
I hear some courses consider a masters as a 7.0 gpa so if I pursue a masters in engineering will that count as a 7.0 gpa for my dentistry school application?
Sorry for the bucket load of questions guys. I am very passionate about dentistry and am doing a double degree in engineering only as a backup, plus I also like math haha.
I look forward to your replies and am also a first time poster so if I messed up where I posted or something sorry about that haha.
 

Kai2020

Member
Hi! I'm a non-standard student who's done around 2 years of full time study at university but I'm really wanting to go into dentistry! I'm re-sitting the HSC this year and UCAT to attain a better score for applying (since my GPA is not that good). Could anyone give me some pointers where it will be the best to apply in a circumstance like mine? I've read a couple of criteria for a range of universities for medicine and they say that they either don't accept people who have started tertiary education or take the recent year's marks. I only know of one university, WSU who take the more competitive mark out of all secondary/tertiary marks for medicine. Would this be the case for most/all dentistry courses?
Looking forward to any advice out there! :)
 

A1

Rookie Doc
Moderator

wgp

Member
Thanks Hutcherson, would it be easy for people interested in dentistry as a future career option to "observe" at say their local dental practice?
which one would be preferred by CSU, observing or dental assisting. in case they don't let me to be an assistant but only to observe.

also do i require a letter from them about me, to attach to my application or not.
 

wgp

Member
Sorry for chiming in again. I don’t think universities have any preference - I think it’s just about using your experiences to express why you want to do dentistry. A lot of people applying for dentistry will be school leavers so they won’t expect them to have dental assisting experience. I have a few recommendation letters but it won’t be much use at CSU seeing as they no longer have a written application component.
thanks heaps. i meant JCU ( sorry not CSU ), can you please send the recommendation letters to me,
 

Yamster

Dental Moderator
Emeritus Staff
Hi guys,
Next year I'm starting my first year of engineering/ science at monash but I am really hoping to transfer to a dentistry course after my first year.
I've been reading through a few forums and Im a bit foggy regarding the details as to how this whole transferring works which I was hoping someone could please clarify.
Will I be able to transfer to a dentistry course despite its engineering aspects if I fulfill the necessary prerequisites via the science part of my degree?
Which unis will allow me to transfer and which require ucat/ interviews?
If I don't get in after my first year, can I keep on trying each subsequent year untill I hopefully do?
What is the required or general cutoff WAM or GPA to ur knowledge? And ucat score?
I hear some courses consider a masters as a 7.0 gpa so if I pursue a masters in engineering will that count as a 7.0 gpa for my dentistry school application?
Sorry for the bucket load of questions guys. I am very passionate about dentistry and am doing a double degree in engineering only as a backup, plus I also like math haha.
I look forward to your replies and am also a first time poster so if I messed up where I posted or something sorry about that haha.

1. Will I be able to transfer to a dentistry course despite its engineering aspects if I fulfill the necessary prerequisites via the science part of my degree?

Yes.

2. Which unis will allow me to transfer and which require ucat/ interviews?

Please refer to the admissions guide linked by A1, the ones which previously required UMAT probably require UCAT this year (I haven't had a look yet admittedly but you can look this up on the uni website).

3. If I don't get in after my first year, can I keep on trying each subsequent year until I hopefully do?

Yes.

4. What is the required or general cutoff WAM or GPA to ur knowledge? And ucat score?

Look into the offers subforum for previous ATAR/GPA's required, you can use the previous UMAT percentiles to guesstimate if your UCAT score is competitive enough once the UCAT percentile bellcurve is released in September.

5. I hear some courses consider a masters as a 7.0 gpa so if I pursue a masters in engineering will that count as a 7.0 gpa for my dentistry school application?

Griffith allocates a GPA of 7.0 to Masters by Research only - not Masters by Coursework. They also allocate a GPA of 7.0 to Class I Honours. I'm not sure if any other university do this.

Note: Downside to this plan, Your Masters is covered by the postgraduate FEE-HELP scheme which has a $ limit (vs. HECS which has no limit). The Griffith dentistry program utilises basically all of your FEE-HELP (this also limits your post-graduate dentistry training if you intend to specialise afterwards as you've no FEE-HELP left to specialise) so if you studied a previous Masters program then you'd be paying out of pocket and that's $$$.

I look forward to your replies and am also a first time poster so if I messed up where I posted or something sorry about that haha.

All good, I wish you all the best with your academic goals and hope that you get in! :)
 

Yamster

Dental Moderator
Emeritus Staff
Hi! I'm a non-standard student who's done around 2 years of full time study at university but I'm really wanting to go into dentistry! I'm re-sitting the HSC this year and UCAT to attain a better score for applying (since my GPA is not that good). Could anyone give me some pointers where it will be the best to apply in a circumstance like mine? I've read a couple of criteria for a range of universities for medicine and they say that they either don't accept people who have started tertiary education or take the recent year's marks. I only know of one university, WSU who take the more competitive mark out of all secondary/tertiary marks for medicine. Would this be the case for most/all dentistry courses?
Looking forward to any advice out there! :)

I've never heard of this being done before. I wasn't even aware that you could re-sit the HSC after having a tertiary record. My only recommendation is that you double (maybe triple check) that the tertiary institutions which you intend to apply will indeed take your score from the re-sitting of the HSC (make sure you also highlight that you already have a pre-existing tertiary record).

We've heard of people repeating Year 12 (Year 13 as it's commonly referred to in Adelaide which does re-write your old HSC score) but I've no idea about this one, sorry!
 

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Rawa

Lurker
Hi I have completed first semester science /Major Chemistry at JCU with GPA 6.25. Is this GPA competitive enough to apply for dentistry?
I have already written my application. Could you please refer me to expert people who could review and give advise on my application?
Much appreciated
 
Hi guys, I'm currently a 1st year at UoA in NZ, looking to study dent in Australia in Semester 1 2020 after I complete my 1st year.
I'm expecting a (Australian) gpa of 7 and I have sat my UCAT and got 2940.
I have my eye on UQ dent at the moment, do I have a chance there?
Also is there any other unis I might have a chance at? I know as a non-standard my options are a bit more limited.
Thanks :)
 

hotdog88

Member
Hello any chance someone can provide last years umat cut off for CSU dentistry interview offers? Ive researched a bit and saw 83 percentile though that seems really quite low....
I sat my ucat today and got 2770 but I also did badly in the SJT section :^(.
(Content deleted by moderator)
Thanks for the replies.
 
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Yamster

Dental Moderator
Emeritus Staff
Rawa - I'd say you've got a good chance if you're already rural and planning to apply to JCU's dent program (with a good written application ofc). You can also apply to LaTrobe, CSU & Adelaide from memory pending a competitive UCAT score.

hotdog88 - ~83%ile would have been a rural applicant. Have a look in our offers forum and go to 2019 collated data for previous entrant scores based on our user data.
 

hotdog88

Member
Rawa - I'd say you've got a good chance if you're already rural and planning to apply to JCU's dent program (with a good written application ofc). You can also apply to LaTrobe, CSU & Adelaide from memory pending a competitive UCAT score.

hotdog88 - ~83%ile would have been a rural applicant. Have a look in our offers forum and go to 2019 collated data for previous entrant scores based on our user data.
Rural cutoff was 50 percentile in 2017 however.
According to NIE:
In 2017 the minimum UMAT of those selected for interview was percentile 83 and for those entering through the Rural and Indigenous Pathway, percentile 50.

However, please correct me if I am wrong!
 
Rural cutoff was 50 percentile in 2017 however.
According to NIE:
In 2017 the minimum UMAT of those selected for interview was percentile 83 and for those entering through the Rural and Indigenous Pathway, percentile 50.
The cutoff increased last year. This might in part be due to CSU increasing their rural quota (from 25% to 50% IIRC).
 

Yamster

Dental Moderator
Emeritus Staff
Yeah, we'll we also had a 39%ile rural applicant get an offer here last year which goes in hand with what umatresults.jpg is saying. We've only got a small proportion of actual applicants posting here so the actual cut-offs might be lower. The non-rural offers were all made to 91%ile+.
 

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Nee

Member
hey guys, dose JCU dent looks at your most recent tertiary degree cause i have a 2 years of uncompleted degree prior to my current one which will be 1FTS by the end of this year.
 

Crow

Staff | Junior Doctor
Moderator
hey guys, dose JCU dent looks at your most recent tertiary degree cause i have a 2 years of uncompleted degree prior to my current one which will be 1FTS by the end of this year.
I believe they only look at the most recent degree, however say that "all previous tertiary study may be considered". I'm inclined to believe the latter would only come into consideration if one has completed an honours year or a higher degree, or if they were trying to choose between two applicants with the same ranking.

ETA: The direct quote from the dentistry admissions guide (accessible here: https://www.jcu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/272763/BDS-Information-Sheet_2020-Intake.pdf) is:
The most recent course GPA (Grade Point Average) score will be used to rank applicants who have commenced or completed tertiary studies. While an applicant’s most recent GPA is given the most weight, the applicant’s complete academic profile as supplied by QTAC may be considered. An applicant’s other studies/qualifications that do not generate a GPA score will not be considered.
 
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wgp

Member
Hi everyone, will i still be eligible for JCU dentistry if i have 7 units. But have two units from advanced standing. So total 9 units.
 

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