Does Age Play A Factor In Dental School?

[claudiadent]

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Hello everyone;

I have seen that the dental school average age has been increasing over the years. It's kind of cool to see how "older" yet not so old by our social standards are making career changes. I remember at one of my interviews, there were like two people that were traditional applicants. I want to know what schools are tending to accept older, non traditional applicants because one of my co-workers who has been a dental assistant for over 10 years is looking to go back to school. She is 35 years old, and wants to apply to an "older average age university". Any ideas?

claudia
Tufts 2008

 

[HBomb]

I have nothing to support my statement, but I don't think that the age of a 35 year old candidate will negatively affect his/her admission. At some point in time, I think it will...like maybe 45, 50, 60+. Again, this is just what I think.

In the case of your friend, I think it will actually help her because of her level of experience in the industry and because of her likely higher level of maturity (than other candidates).

Of the schools I personally looked at, I think UOP has a good pool of above average age students. I think older students favor UOP because of the 3 year program and to some degree it's humanistic approach.

Good luck always.

 

[Mo007]

Hello everyone;

I have seen that the dental school average age has been increasing over the years. It's kind of cool to see how "older" yet not so old by our social standards are making career changes. I remember at one of my interviews, there was like one person that was a traditional applicant. I want to know what schools are tending to accept older, non traditional applicants because one of my co-workers who has been a dental assistant for over 10 years is looking to go back to school. She is 35 years old, and wants to apply to an "older average age university". Any ideas?

claudia
Tufts 2008

Your friend should call the schools he/she is interested. Majority of the schools have average ages of about 24-26. I personally saw students who were in their late 30's and early 40's during my visit at Tufts. I honestly believe older applicants have an advantage (if they have some background experience), as long as their stats are competitive too.

 

[datu]

We've got quite a few thirty and forty-somethings in the class here at NYU.

 

[ToothMonkey]

According to the ADEA Official Guide to Dental Schools the schools with the most first-time enrollees over 30 (in 2001) were:

NYU (23)
Howard (11)
Oregon (9)
Temple (9)
USC (9)
Baylor (8)
Boston (8)
Tufts (8)
UOP (8)
Virginia (7)
UNC (7)
Colorado (6)
Creighton (6)
Indiana (6)
Loma Linda (6)
LSU (6)
Louisville (6)
Texas - Houston (6)
Case Western (5)
Michigan (5)
OSU (5)

The schools with the highest mean age for that same class:

Oregon (26)
UMKC (26)
Virginia (26)
Boston (25)
Howard (25)
Loma Linda (25)
MCG (25)
NYU (25)
Texas - Houston (25)
UCLA (25)
UCSF (25)
UOP (25)
USC (25)
UNC (24.8)
Case Western (24.7)
Tufts (24.5)
Baylor (24.2)
Many schools (24)

 

[trypmo]

Which Texas do you mean when you say "Texas"? There's both Houston and San Antonio (aside from Baylor, which you mentioned separately) -- or do the stats reflect both combined?

Very interesting stats.

 

[ToothMonkey]

Which Texas do you mean when you say "Texas"?

Oops, sorry about that...I didn't realize there were two of them. In both lists "Texas" refers the Houston branch. Texas at San Antonio is clearly a much younger class (3 enrollees over 30, mean age 23).

The ADEA guide also lists the range of enrollee ages at each school, and it's worth noting that over half the schools (32) enrolled at least one person over 35 years of age (the age of claudiadent's co-worker). What's more, for that 2001 entering class only Columbia failed to enroll at least one 30+ year old, and it didn't miss by much (29 y.o.).

 

[claudiadent]

Thanks to all of your help everyone! Toothmonkey, that info is awesome, I will definitely be printing it out and giving it to her.

Claudiadent

 

[ItsGavinC]

Our average age at AZ is 25.6 for the next incoming class.