Applying to dental school is a long, stressful,

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1 From the Students Corner Enrollment, Cost, and Academic Admission Criteria of U.S. Dental Schools by Geographic Region and Institution Type Michael R. Markiewicz, B.S. Abstract: This article presents the academic qualifications of matriculating dental students (as indicated by overall undergraduate GPA, undergraduate science GPA, average DAT scores, and average PAT scores) and total cost of education for students at U.S. dental schools according to geographic location and funding sources. Dental schools were divided on the basis of geographic location (Northeast, South, Central, or West) and principal means of funding (public versus private). Average four-year total educational expenses as reported in the and matriculation years were compared as well as undergraduate overall GPA, science GPA, DAT academic average, and PAT score. Public dental schools in the southern region cost significantly less than any other region of any funding type. Public dental schools in the western region had significantly higher average GPA, average science GPA, DAT academic average, and PAT scores among their matriculating classes than did any other region. Public dental schools from the western region also had the least amount of increase in projected four-year expenses between the two matriculation years compared. Excluding PAT scores, western public dental schools had the highest academic admission criteria of any region of either funding type. Mr. Markiewicz is a sophomore dental student at the School of Dental Medicine, State University of New York at Buffalo. Direct correspondence and requests for reprints to him at 71 Bory Dr., Depew, NY 14043; phone; fax; MRM25@buffalo.edu. Key words: demographic trends, dental school, applicant, acceptance, admission Submitted for publication 4/6/04; accepted 8/20/04 Applying to dental school is a long, stressful, and costly process for the applicant. 1-3 Applicants must decide what region of the country in which they want to attend school and determine whether they will apply to a public or a privately supported dental school. Applications to dental schools increased throughout the 1990s until In 1998 this pattern reversed, and the number of dental school applicants declined annually from 1998 through However, the number of applicants is again on the rise. 5 The purpose of this article is to provide information about regional and institutional funding type differences in academic criteria and dental education costs to assist the decision making process of individuals considering applying to dental school. The information may also be of value to dental schools to help them understand how they compare to other competing programs at the regional and national level. Methods This study uses retrospective data from the American Dental Education Association s Official Guide to Dental Schools from the years and ,7 to compare regional differences in academic qualifications of incoming first-year students and total educational costs between public and private dental schools in the United States during this time period. The University of Nevada at Las Vegas and the University of Arizona were not included in the study because neither school was operational in The schools were divided into four categories based on geographic location referenced from the ADEA s Faculty Salary Report: Northeast, South, Central, and West. 8 In addition, schools were categorized on the basis of funding sources: those funded mainly by the public sector, and those funded mainly by private contributions. November 2004 Journal of Dental Education 1133

2 Total expenses is defined as projected tuition and mandatory fees over a four-year period as reported by dental schools in the Official Guide to Dental Schools for the matriculation years and I decided to use only the matriculation year for comparing enrollment characteristics and academic qualifications among regions due to the irrelevance of a chronological analysis. Mean number of enrollees was defined as the percentage of applicants who actually matriculated as first-time, first-year dental students out of all of those who applied to each institution in the matriculation year Many applicants did apply to several schools, yet figures were only given for the average number that applied and the average number that matriculated as first-year dental students in each school in the region for that year. Data were not given for number of applicants actually accepted. Percentages were given for total number of enrollees out of the number that applied to each institution and for the number enrolled that resided in the same state of the institution out of the total number enrolled. Mean academic qualifications of the incoming classes of the year were compared by region and institution type. These qualifications include overall GPA, science GPA, DAT-academic average, and PAT average. Results The analysis focused on two questions: 1. Were there regional differences in total student expenses between and ? Were there regional differences between percent enrolled or percent in-state enrolled in ? Separate analyses were performed for public and private schools. 2. Were there regional and/or institution type differences in overall GPA, science GPA, DAT academic average (DAT-AA), PAT in the academic year , or percent change in total expenses from to ? One-way ANOVAs were conducted to test the first set of questions. Two-way ANOVAs (region by type of institution) were used to test the second set of questions. When appropriate, follow-up multiple comparisons using the Tukey HSD method were used. A significance level of.05 was used for all tests. The public and private dental schools located within each of the four geographic regions are listed in Table 1. Descriptive statistics for estimated expenses are reported in Table 2. Table 3 presents the average number of applicants to each of the dental schools in each region and the average enrollment rates of these schools. For example, in the matriculation year , the five public schools in the Northeast averaged 861 applicants per school, sixtynine students per school were then enrolled, and forty-nine of those enrollees per schools resided from within the same state as the institution. Table 4 presents the descriptive statistics for overall GPA, science GPA, DAT-AA, and PAT for the matriculation year. Significant regional differences in total expenses were found for both (F 3,31 = 5.30, p <.01) and academic years (F 3,31 = 6.16, p <.01) among all the dental schools in the study. Follow-up analyses indicated significantly lower costs for southern compared to central schools in (p =.01). In , total costs were significantly lower for southern schools than for either central (p =.003) or northeastern schools (p =.024). Because of a violation of the equal variance assumption, data for percent enrolled were transformed to log values. ANOVA results for the transformed variable were statistically significant (F 3,31 = 4.02, p =.016). Follow-up comparisons showed a difference only between southern and western schools (p =.031), with southern schools enrolling a significantly higher percentage of applicants (17 versus 7 percent, respectively). There were no significant regional differences in the percent of in-state enrollments (F 3,31 = 1.38, p =.266). Among the eighteen private dental schools, the only significant regional difference was for percent of in-state enrollment (F 3,14 = 4.57, p =.02). Followup tests revealed a significantly higher enrollment rate for western schools (73 percent) than either northeastern (27 percent, p =.02) or southern schools (20 percent, p =.027). There were no regional differences for expenses (F 3,14 = 1.65, p =.22), expenses (F 3,14 = 1.46, p =.27), or percentage of applicant enrollment (F 3,14 =.91, p =.46). A two-way ANOVA examining regional and school type differences in overall GPA indicated significant main effects for both region (F 3,45 = 6.69, p =.001) and school type (F 1,45 = 21.28, p <.001), with public schools having a significantly higher average GPA than private schools. The interaction effect was also statistically significant (F 3,45 = 5.24, p =.003). Follow-up tests comparing regions within institution type found no significant differences for 1134 Journal of Dental Education Volume 68, Number 11

3 Table 1. Geographic grouping of dental schools Geographic Region Public Private Northeast (13) University of Connecticut Boston University University of Maryland Harvard University University of Medicine & Dentistry, New Jersey Tufts University SUNY, Stony Brook Columbia University SUNY, Buffalo New York University Temple University University of Pennsylvania University of Pittsburgh South (20) University of Alabama Howard University Medical College of Georgia Meharry Medical College University of Kentucky Nova Southeastern University University of Louisville Louisiana State University University of Florida University of Mississippi University of North Carolina University of Oklahoma Medical University of South Carolina University of Tennessee Baylor College of Dentistry University of Texas, Houston University of Texas, San Antonio West Virginia University University of Puerto Rico Virginia Commonwealth University Central (13) Southern Illinois University Marquette University University of Illinois University of Detroit Mercy Indiana University Creighton University University of Iowa Case Western Reserve University University of Michigan University of Minnesota University of Missouri-Kansas City University of Nebraska Ohio State University West (8) University of California, Los Angeles University of the Pacific University of California, San Francisco University of Southern California University of Colorado Loma Linda University University of Oregon University of Washington public schools. However, among private schools, southern institutions had significantly lower overall GPA than all other regions. A two-way ANOVA for science GPA also indicated significant main effects for both region (F 3,45 = 4.27, p =.01) and school type (F 1,45 = 19.85, p <.001), with higher science GPAs for public schools. The interaction effect was also statistically significant (F 3,45 = 3.31, p =.028). Follow-up tests comparing regions within institution type found no significant regional differences for public schools. Among private schools, southern institutions showed a significantly lower average science GPA than either northeastern or central regions. A two-way ANOVA for DAT-AA indicated significant main effects for both region (F 3,45 = 12.88, p <.001) and school type (F 1,45 = 7.38, p =.009), with public schools showing higher average DAT-AA scores than private schools. There was no significant interaction effect (F 3,45 = 2.35, p =.085). Multiple comparisons for the region main effect showed higher average DAT-AA for western versus southern and central region schools and a higher average DAT-AA for northeastern schools compared to southern schools. Two-way ANOVA results for PAT indicated a significant main effect for region (F 3,45 = 15.04, p <.001), but no significant effect for school type (F 1,45 = 1.05, p =.31). The interaction between region and school type was statistically significant (F 3,45 = 3.46, p =.024). Multiple comparisons examining differences among regions within institutions November 2004 Journal of Dental Education 1135

4 Table 2. Mean total dental school expenses, in dollars, and by geographic region and school type Geographic Region Percent Change Northeast Public (n = 5) 98, , Private (n = 8) 179, , South Public (n = 16) 74,468 85, Private (n = 3) 148, , Central Public (n = 9) 99, , Private (n = 4) 142, , by either region (F 3,45 = 1.19, p =.33) or school type (F 1,45 =.006, p =.94) and no significant interaction effect (F 3,45 =.54, p =.66). However, it should be noted that all regions, both public and private, experienced a mean increase in total expenses related to dental education in this time period (public: t 34 = 4.93, p <.01, private: t 17 = 11.35, p <.01), with all but one group (public schools in the western region) experiencing double-digit increases. West Public (n = 5) 96, , Private (n = 3) 174, , Overall Public (n = 35) 87, , Private (n = 18) 165, , Table 3. Mean number (percent) of applicants, number enrolled, and in-state enrollees by geographic region and school type for the matriculation year Geographic Region Number Number Number of of Applicants Enrolled In-State Enrolled N (percent) N (percent) Northeast Public (n = 5) (8) 49 (69) Private (n = 8) 1, (7) 32 (27) South Public (n = 16) (17) 55 (85) Private (n = 3) 1, (6) 17 (20) Central Public (n = 9) (10) 58 (75) Private (n = 4) 1, (6) 27 (35) West Public (n = 5) (7) 57 (83) Private (n = 3) 1, (8) 92 (73) Overall Public (n = 35) (12) 55 (80) Private (n = 18) 1, (7) 38 (35) type found significant differences between southern and western regions for public institutions, with higher PAT scores for the western region. Among private institutions, the southern region showed significantly lower PAT scores than all other regions. There was a regional main effect that showed higher average PAT scores for private schools of the western region than all other regions. There were no significant differences in percent increase in total expenses ( to ) Discussion There were not many profound differences when comparing expenses between regions or types of institutions. Among public dental schools, the southern region in both academic years had a significantly lower projected four-year budget then the central region. Among privately supported dental schools, there was no significant difference when comparing projected four-year costs between regions in either year. Southern public schools have consistently cost less then any other region of any institution type. Southern publicly supported institutions had a significantly higher enrollment rate of those that applied than western public institutions, and they also had the highest in-state enrollment rate compared with any other region. Although the southern public dental schools had the lowest number of applicants than any other region, the combination of having such a high in-state enrollment rate along with the lowest reported expenses for their prospective students appears to be a large motivator for those applying from within state to stay home for their dental education. Among private schools, the western regions showed significantly higher enrollment rates then the northeastern or the southern region. While western privately supported dental schools have the highest number of applicants of any region of private schools, they also have the highest in-state enrollment and highest total enrollment rate of any region. Interestingly western private schools had a higher enroll Journal of Dental Education Volume 68, Number 11

5 ment rate than public schools in the northeast region, which in this study was infrequent. Students who matriculated at public schools had a significantly higher average GPA, average science GPA, and DAT academic average than students at private schools. Private schools had more than double the number of applicants of public schools, but the latter apparently were able to be more selective and matriculated candidates with stronger academic credentials. Private schools in the southern region showed a significantly lower average overall GPA then all other regions, a significantly lower average science GPA than the northeastern and central regions, a significantly lower DAT-AA then the western and northeastern regions, and a significantly lower PAT score average then all other regions. Among other regions, the South averaged the lowest number of applicants per school. Therefore, private dental schools in the South were less able to be selective in comparison to the private schools in other regions of the country. Private schools in the western region also showed significantly higher DAT-AA scores than the central regions and significantly higher PAT scores than all other regions. All public and private dental schools had similar increases in projected four-year expenses between the academic years and , with all institutions increasing an average of about 20 percent. The public schools in the western region were the only group of private or public schools that failed to show a double-digit increase between the two academic years. The stability of tuition of the public schools in the West (4 percent increase) is another incentive for an applicant. However, only 7 percent of their applicants were enrolled, and 83 percent of their matriculating classes were in-state residents. Table 4. Mean (SD) academic characteristics by geographic region and school type for the matriculation year of Geographic Region Overall Science GPA GPA DAT-AA PAT Northeast Public (n = 5) 3.41 (.10) 3.35 (.13) (.91) (.64) Private (n = 8) 3.37 (.15) 3.28 (.22) (1.40) (1.19) South Public (n = 16) 3.43 (.10) 3.35 (.10) (.73) (.48) Private (n = 3) 2.99 (.38) 2.98 (.21) (1.50) (1.70) Central Public (n = 9) 3.46 (.10) 3.36 (.11) (.71) (.57) Private (n = 4) 3.40 (.07) 3.31 (.11) (.67) (.63) West Public (n = 5) 3.56 (.06) 3.50 (.04) (1.45) (.97) Private (n = 3) 3.34 (.06) 3.23 (.06) (.75) (.61) Overall Public (n = 35) 3.46 (.11) 3.37 (.11) (1.15) (.81) Private (n = 18) 3.31 (.22) 3.23 (.20) (1.60) (1.47) and PAT score can determine, to a degree, how well students will succeed during dental school It would therefore be likely that regions with stronger admission criteria would have a higher percentage of matriculants who actually graduate. Whether or not this is true would require follow-up investigation. Clearly the financial assistance needed throughout dental school will be higher in the private sector, than in the publicly supported sector. 16 This is most likely the reason that public institutions are able to be more selective. There are no longer any third-party publications that rank dental schools subjectively, with the last being US News and World Report in 1993 and the Gourman Report, which is published on a periodic basis since that same year. Therefore, the admission criteria of schools are the only source an applicant has to compare public and privately located schools in the different geographic regions. Although this study found significant trends when comparing geographic location and financial institution type, there are exceptions. Consequently, applicants are encouraged to apply to public and private dental schools in every region to find out which one is right for them. Conclusion There is some evidence that matriculants average college overall GPA, science GPA, DAT-AA, Acknowledgments This article could not have been written without the guidance of Dr. Elaine Davis. November 2004 Journal of Dental Education 1137

6 REFERENCES 1. Humphris G, Blinkhorn A, Freeman R, Gorter R, Hoad- Reddick G, Murtomaa H, et al. Psychological stress in undergraduate dental students: baseline results from seven European dental schools. Eur J Dent Educ 2002;6: Henning K, Ey S, Shaw D. Perfectionism, the imposter phenomenon and psychological adjustment in medical, dental, nursing and pharmacy students. Med Educ 1998;32: Whitehead AW, Novak KF, Close JM. Identification of factors influencing matriculation decisions by dental school applicants. J Dent Educ 2002;66: Weaver RG, Haden NK, Valachovic RW. U.S. dental school applicants and enrollees: a ten-year perspective. J Dent Educ 2000;64: Weaver RG, Ramanna S, Haden NK, Valachovic RW. Applicants to U.S. dental schools: an analysis of the 2002 entering class. J Dent Educ 2004;68: Official guide to dental schools, Washington, DC: American Dental Education Association, Official guide to dental schools, Washington, DC: American Dental Education Association, faculty salary report. Appendix: distribution of dental schools by school type and region. Washington, DC: American Dental Education Association, Myers DR, Zwemer JD. Cost of dental education and student debt. J Dent Educ 1998;62: Hardigan J. The costs and financing of dental education. J Dent Educ 1999;63: Hartle TW. The cost of higher education. J Dent Educ 1998;62: Sandow PL, Jones AC, Peek CW, Courts FJ, Watson RE. Correlation of admission criteria with dental school performance and attrition. J Dent Educ 2002;66: Evans JG, Dirks SJ. Relationships of admissions data and measurements of psychological constructs with psychomotor performance of dental technology students. J Dent Educ 2001;65: Scheetz JP. Predicting graduation from dental school using admissions data. J Dent Educ 1987;51: Staat RH, Yancey JM. The admission index in the dental school admissions process. J Dent Educ 1982;46: Weaver RG, Haden NK, Valachovic RW. Survey of dental student financial assistance, J Dent Educ 2004;68: Journal of Dental Education Volume 68, Number 11