The Ideal Dental School Application Timeline (2024-2025)

What to do each month of the 2024-2025 application cycle to ensure timely, high-quality materials and maximize your odds of getting accepted into dental school

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Part 1: Introduction to the dental school application timeline

Part 2: Dental school application timeline (2024-2025)

Part 3: Frequently asked questions

Part 4: Dental school application deadlines (2024-2025)

Part 1: Introduction to the dental school application timeline

The road to becoming a dentist is long—from discovering your interest in dentistry to engaging in dental-related extracurricular activities to completing your pre-dental requirements and, finally, to the dental school application itself. This guide will walk you through the dental school application year, presenting an ideal timeline to complete and submit all of your application materials.

One piece of advice that all dental school advisors agree on is that the earlier you submit your application, the better. This is because most dental schools practice rolling admissions, meaning that they review applications and offer interviews and admissions decisions continually—as opposed to waiting for all applications to be submitted before beginning to review them. This means that if you submit your application early you will be competing against fewer applicants for the greatest number of available seats.

It’s important, however, to balance the quality of your application materials with the benefits of submitting early. You don’t want to submit sub-par essays. Rather, you should aim to get ahead of things so that you can produce high quality materials, with a minimum of anxiety, and submit them as early as possible. Since secondary essay prompts are not released until your primary application has been processed, this will mean pre-writing responses that you can then adapt to each school’s specific prompts.

ADEA AADSAS is the centralized application system for most U.S. and Canadian dental schools and TMDSAS is the centralized application system for public dental schools in Texas. While this dental school application timeline will detail the deadlines for these two systems, we also encourage you to consult their websites for further information.

Part 2: Dental school application timeline (2024-2025)

January to April 2024

• Register with your school’s pre-health/pre-dental advising committee (if one exists).
• Request and obtain letters of recommendation.
  • (Suggested reading: Dental School Letters of Recommendation: The Ultimate Guide)
  • In order to submit your dental school application on the earliest possible date, we recommend taking your final DAT by January or February.
  • (Suggested reading: When Should You Take the DAT?)
  • (Suggested reading: The Ideal DAT Study Schedule (1 Month, 2 Months, 3 Months, 4 Months))
  • (Suggested reading: DAT Test Dates: A Complete Summary (Score Release Timeframe Included))
  • (Suggested reading: What DAT Score Do You Need to Get Into Dental School?)
  • (Suggested reading: How to Get a 26+ DAT Score: Strategies From Top Scorers)
  • (Suggested reading: Should I Retake the DAT?)
  • (Suggested reading: Dental School Personal Statement: The Ultimate Guide (Examples Included))
  • *Note: In the past, the ADEA has provided a yearly list of all dental schools and whether or not they require a supplemental application. The most recent “supplemental report” published by the ADEA, however, applies to the 2019–2020 application year. You can use this report as a baseline, but be sure to cross-reference the information with individual dental schools’ websites. We will update this guide when a new report becomes available.
  • (Suggested reading: The Best Dental Schools: Dental School Rankings)
  • (Suggested reading: Ivy League Dental Schools: How to Get In)

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  May 2024

  • Submit your TMDSAS application.
    • The application becomes available on May 1 and application submission opens on May 15.
    • We recommend you take the Casper Test no later than late June. You want your scores to reach schools by the time you submit your AADSAS application and this process generally takes 2-3 weeks. So, if you want to submit your AADSAS as early as possible (on or around June 1) we would recommend taking the Casper Test by early May.
    • (Suggested reading: How to Prepare for the Casper Test)
    • (Suggested reading: Casper, Snapshot, and Duet: Everything You Need to Know)
      • *Note: Because Casper began as a medical school admissions tool, these guides were written with med school applicants in mind. Nevertheless, 100 percent of the advice in them applies to the dental school admissions process as well.

      June 2024

      • Submit your AADSAS application (as early as possible in the month, without sacrificing quality).
        • The AADSAS application cycle generally opens on or around June 1. The exact date will be announced in the following months—in 2023 it opened on May 30. While each dental school has its own deadline, we strongly recommend submitting your AADSAS application no later than July 15.
        • For the 2023-2024 cycle application fees were $264 for the first school applicants applied to and $115 for each additional school.
        • *Note: Do not assume that your application is complete until you receive an email or notice confirming this. Check in with individual schools and/or the ADEA if you have any questions in this regard.
        • *Note: You should not send in transcripts for TMDSAS until they request them.

        July 2024

        • Submit supplemental applications as soon as possible after receiving them (without sacrificing quality).
        • Begin preparing for dental school admissions interviews.
          • *Note: Be sure that you have professional business attire for your interviews.

          September 2024 to March/April 2025

          • Continue preparing for interviews.
          • Complete interviews.
            • Most dental schools begin interviewing applicants in September and, while they may continue interviewing as late as the following April, the strongest candidates tend to be interviewed in September, October, and November.
            • Send letters of interest, with updates, prior to receiving interviews if the school accepts them and they are appropriate to your situation (i.e. if you have significant updates to share and at least a month has passed since submitting your supplemental application).
            • Send letters of interest/intent after completing interviews/getting placed on the waitlist, if the school accepts and they are appropriate to your situation. (A letter of interest communicates fit and interest to attend the school if admitted, whereas a letter of intent communicates fit and intention to attend if admitted. You should only send a letter of intent to one school.)

            December 2024 to May 2025

            • December 15th (or the following Monday if December 15th falls on a weekend), sometimes known as “Decision Day,” is traditionally the first day that dental schools begin extending offers of acceptance.
              • If you do not hear from any schools on December 15th, however, it doesn’t mean that all hope is lost. Most programs continue sending offers into March or even April as waitlists move and students decide which school to attend.
              • Most schools require a financial deposit, usually between $500 and $1000, to secure your seat in the class. If you get your offer in January, February or March, you may have only 10 days to confirm your spot. Have a very clear sense of your top choices so you can prioritize and make a quick decision.
              • If you receive an offer, but not from your top school, pay up and reserve your seat at the lower-choice school, and then wait to hear back from your top program. If you get a yes from your dream school later, you can always accept it—though this will mean losing the earlier deposit. Paying a three- or four-figure sum to ensure a safety net is usually a good idea.
              • Review admission and financial aid offers.
              • Negotiate financial aid (this means engaging in an honest discussion and recognizing that your offer may or may not be negotiable).
              • Attend accepted student events and, if you wish, discuss the program in more detail with faculty, current students, and/or alumni.
              • Select a program to attend, put down your deposit, and withdraw applications from other schools.
              • Enjoy this major accomplishment and rest easy, knowing you are on the path to becoming a dentist. Congratulations!

              Part 3: Frequently asked questions

              When does AADSAS open for the 2024-2025 cycle?

              While this has not been officially announced for the 2024-2025 cycle, in 2023 AADSAS opened on May 9th, with submissions beginning on May 30th. We will update this guide as soon the new dates are announced.

              When is the absolute last time I can take the DAT and still be competitive for the upcoming/current cycle?

              We typically recommend taking your final DAT no later than April so that you can focus on essay writing for some of April and in May and June.

              It takes about 3-4 weeks for your DAT scores to be returned, so if you take the test in May you should still receive your scores by June. Again, we recommend submitting your AADSAS application by July 15th at the latest (though closer to June 1st is ideal), so if you take the DAT in early June it is still possible to meet this deadline.

              Taking the DAT in May or June, however, makes for greater time pressure. You might be able to mitigate this pressure by writing your essays earlier in the year and devoting March, April and some of May to DAT prep.

              I’m struggling to decide whether to apply this year or next. What advice do you have?

              Dental school applicants are often able to strengthen their admissions profiles by waiting to apply during a future cycle, assuming they use this time to deepen their extracurricular involvements, boost their grades, or improve their DAT score. You can look at the average GPA and DAT scores of accepted students at the schools to which you are applying to see how you stack up. If your “counting stats” are significantly below the schools’ averages it might be in your interest to spend an extra year strengthening your application.

              This decision also depends on how eager you are to start dental school and whether you would like to delay the start of your career. Some students appreciate taking a short break from coursework in order to explore their own interests and come back to school with renewed excitement.

              When is my dental school application considered late?

              While the AADSAS application does not technically close until the beginning of February, for all intents and purposes, we consider applications submitted after July 15 to be “late.” This is because it takes time for your application to be verified.Many schools will then invite you to submit their supplemental applications, after which they will review your application and decide whether or not to offer you an interview. As mentioned previously, interviewing early will greatly improve your chances of receiving a coveted acceptance offer on December 15th.

              So, while an application submitted in August or later will not necessarily be disqualified on grounds of tardiness, submitting your application at such a late date leaves you at a serious disadvantage. Due to rolling admissions, there are simply fewer and fewer available seats as the admissions cycle progresses.

              It’s also important to remember that your full application will not be reviewed until your supplemental application has been received. Students often submit their primary AADSAS application as early as possible but then take extra time with school-specific supplemental essays, thereby negating any benefit of submitting early.