PathNewUpdated with 2026 data: the 2025–26 admissions cycle, tuition and rankings for all 76 schools→The numbers behind
Data for future dentists · by Dr. Charley Levy, DDS
The numbers behind
dental school
Admissions, rankings, tuition and income for every U.S. dental school, from 75 years of national data. By a dentist, for future dentists.
13,657applied for the 2025-26 class
53%started dental school (7,296)
76U.S. dental schools, every one profiled
$185Kmedian general dentist income, 2025
Interactive tools
Play with the numbers
Admissions CalculatorYour GPA, DAT and home state in. Your chance of getting in, at every school, out. Then simulate a whole application cycle.Check your chances →Dream School NewSo you're saying I have a chance? Pick your #1 school, see every applicant as a dot and where you land, then roll the dice on getting in.Find out →Spin the StatsSpin the wheel and watch all 76 schools line up on one chart. Compare any stat with any year back to 2001.Spin the wheel →Where Students Go NewClick any state and watch its dental students fan out across the map to the schools they chose. Or click a school to see where its class came from.Open the map →Dentist Life SimulatorPress a button to meet a random practicing dentist: specialty, school, loans, practice and income. Can you find all the wildcards?Meet a dentist →Loan CalculatorWhat $100K to $500K in dental school loans really costs: interest through school and residency, and your monthly payment after.Run your numbers →
Everything on Path32
Find what you need
1
Explore schools
Where you could go
- School Profiles26 years of data on every school76 schools
- Compare SchoolsUp to 5 schools side by side
- Dental School MapNewEvery school on one clickable map
- Where Students GoNewWatch each state's students fan out to their schools
- Spin the StatsNewAll 76 schools on one chart, any year back to 2001
- New Dental SchoolsEvery school opened since 2000
2
Get in
Your odds and how schools rank
- Admissions CalculatorNewYour chance of getting in, at every school
- Dream SchoolNewSo you're saying I have a chance?
- Admissions Rankings 2026All 76 schools ranked, with five years of history
- Out-of-State RankingsWhich schools take non-residents, and what it costs
- StatesWhere each state's students go, and who stays home
- DAT Score ConverterOld 1–30 scores to the new 200–600 scale
3
Pay for it
Tuition and loans
4
After dental school
Residency, specialties and pay
- After Dental SchoolNewGPR, AEGD or a specialty, and every program753 programs
- Want to Specialize?NewWhere oral surgery and ortho residents went to school
- Dentist IncomeEvery specialty, owners vs. employed, every stateGP median $185K
- Take-Home Pay CalculatorA dentist's real monthly paycheck
- Dentist Life SimulatorNewMeet a random practicing dentist
Path32 Admissions Rankings 2026
All 76 schools →The top 10
Ranked on DAT, GPA, acceptance rate and enrollment rate. Gold marks the best in each column.
Swipe the table for GPA and rates →
| DAT | GPA | Rate | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | School | Academic | Science | PAT | Overall | Science | Accepted | Enrolled | vs. 2025 |
| 1 | HarvardMA · Private#1 five years running | 500 | 510 | 500 | 3.94 | 3.93 | 3.7% | 70% | – |
| 2 | UNCNC · Public | 460 | 470 | 440 | 3.81 | 3.75 | 7.5% | 91% | ▲5 |
| 3 | UCLACA · Public | 470 | 480 | 470 | 3.87 | 3.85 | 7.4% | 63% | – |
| 4 | UConnCT · Public | 450 | 457 | 435 | 3.81 | 3.75 | 3.6% | 79% | ▲2 |
| 5 | UT HoustonTX · Public | 470 | 480 | 470 | 3.88 | 3.83 | 8.9% | 63% | ▼1 |
| 6 | FloridaFL · Public | 459 | 469 | 456 | 3.81 | 3.76 | 6.7% | 65% | ▼4 |
| 7 | Texas A&MTX · Public | 460 | 460 | 440 | 3.84 | 3.78 | 7.9% | 65% | ▲12 |
| 8 | ColumbiaNY · Private | 510 | 530 | 470 | 3.84 | 3.80 | 9.1% | 54% | ▼3 |
| 9 | UICIL · Public | 440 | 450 | 430 | 3.80 | 3.74 | 5.7% | 67% | ▲4 |
| 10 | UCSFCA · Public | 475 | 486 | 469 | 3.77 | 3.71 | 8.1% | 53% | ▼2 |
The big picture, 1951–2025
Applications are back near their peak
13,657 people applied to dental school for 2025, the most since 2007. With 7,296 seats, 53% got in. The tightest year was 2007, at 3.0 applicants per seat.
ApplicantsEnrolled (first-time, first-year)
Source: ADA and other published data, compiled by Dr. Charley Levy. Hover a year for the numbers.
By the numbers
Worth knowing before you apply
$545Kthe most expensive four years of dental school: Ohio State University, out-of-state. The least: West Virginia University, $124K in-state.$259Kmedian net income of specialists in 2025, vs. $185K for general dentists.Missouripays employed general dentists the most, $242K on average (BLS, May 2025).79%of applicants with a 3.75+ GPA started dental school (2021–2025), vs. 30% with 3.00–3.24.
About
Join free →Hi, I'm Dr. Charley Levy
I'm a dentist and a data nerd. Path32 started as a spreadsheet I wish I'd had when I was applying: real numbers from the ADA, BLS and other published sources, cleaned up, checked against each other and explained in plain English. More than 2,500 people read the Path32 newsletter.