The average age of students matriculating into dental school is 24 demonstrating a national trend of students applying after graduation.
Admissions committees look for more mature candidates with real world experiences..
Between 2016 and 2021, an increasingly larger proportion of the senior students responding to the ADEA annual survey indicated they had decided to pursue a career in dentistry before college
Half of the 2021 respondents (50%) decided to become a dentist before going to college, significantly more than the percentage (44%) in 2016 (Figure 1)
The data collection in 2021 took place between March 18 and June 18
As part of the process, ADEA sent a message with an access link to the survey to a designated school representative, who then emailed this initial message and subsequent reminders to the senior students
