Pre Dent Majors and DS Admission-04-08

Every year there are several posts claiming biology as the best major for ds admission. The statistical information available from the 2006 to 2010 ADEA Official Guide to Dental Schools does not support the bio notion. The misconception may due to the fact ~50% of the applicants are bio majors. This belief may be compounded by encouragement from admission deans for upper division bio courses. The advice may be misinterpreted. How adcoms make decisions is anyone's guess, however, the closeness of the percentages of the applicant and enrollee pools represented by a particular major appears to suggest that a particular applicant pool of major is being compared only to that subgroup rather than across the entire spectrum of applicants. Thus, a business major with upper division bio may be a more competitive candidate than a business major without those courses. While engineering majors represent a small portion of both the applicant and enrollment pools, they appear to have a slight edge. "Pre-dent", and no major appear to be at a more significant disadvantage than any other group. Notwithstanding this information, it is risky to choose a major only as a means to improve one's chance of acceptance since the choice may end up being the terminal degree.