Applicants to U.S. dental schools: an analysis of the 2002 entering class

In 2002, there were 7,537 applicants to all entering dental school classes in the United States. This represents a 1.7 percent increase over the number of applicants in 2001. Between the peak of applicants in 1997 (at 9,829) and 2001, the number declined 25.0 percent. (This is similar to the percent decline that occurred in medical school applicants since their peak in 1996, at 46,968.) Dental schools reported 4,372 first-time, first-year enrollees in 2002. This is an increase of 105 first-time, first-year enrollees over the number reported in 2001. With the 1.7 percent increase in applicants and the 2.5 percent increase in first-time, first-year enrollees over last year, 58 percent of the dental school applicants were enrolled in 2002. This is up very slightly from 57.6 percent in 2001. Since 1989 when dental school enrollment once again began to increase, the number of first-time, first-year enrollees has increased 17.7 percent. (Total first-year enrollment, which includes first-time enrollees and repeat students, has increased 11.8 percent since 1989.) The number of applicants per first-time, first-year position was 1.72 in 2002. It was 2.31 in 1997. (The most recent low was 1.34 in 1989.) The average GPA and DAT scores of first-time, first-year enrollees in 2002 were essentially unchanged from what they were in 2001. Women were 43.7 percent of the applicants and 42.7 percent of first-time, first-year enrollees in 2002, slight increases from what they were in 2001. Underrepresented minorities comprised 12.8 percent of the applicants and 11.4 percent of the first-time, first-year enrollees in 2002. These percentages are little changed from those reported in 2001.