Why exactly is the average age of acceptance into dental school about ~24yr old?

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This was just an interesting pattern that I am seeing and would like to hear any comments about it.

The age of 24 seems to be something that is overwhelmingly present for dental school acceptance from anecdotal experience to calculations of most dental schools from Dental School Explore (where mean=23.91 median=24).

If the estimation was closer to 23, I would understand that to be a balance between undergrad acceptance (22) and students who took a year or two in masters/post-bacc, but it simply isn't. Is this really the case that most pre-dents just aren't cut out for dental school after their senior year/22? And if so, do you think this is a good or bad thing systemically?
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Personally I think having a year or two of real life outside of school is good to develop more life skills and figure out if dental school is what YOU want to do, not your parents or just going through the motions. This is my first time applying and I am 27.
 
Average age of med school is like 25, so they like seeing students take gap years and getting more experiences. During my interviews more than half the students had taken a gap year which surprised me at first too but thinking back it makes more sense. Some don’t decide to do dentistry until later in college or even after and so they gotta get everything done before they can apply, which does take time!
 
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I think I saw that about two thirds of matriculants to medical school took at least a gap year, so I think the pattern would be similar for dental school matriculants. As pointed out, many switched to predent while in college so they also need time to work in a dental setting. That usually takes about a year.
 
Kenshen said:
Personally I think having a year or two of real life outside of school is good to develop more life skills and figure out if dental school is what YOU want to do, not your parents or just going through the motions. This is my first time applying and I am 27.
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Yes. It would be a good experience if the kid gets a job...at least a PT job during a gap year (if he's not in school for research or for a post bacc program) and does not rely on his parents for financial support.
 
Depends on the program and the year you apply. At my school, the matriculating age of our 2026 class is 26 years old!
 
There is no age discriminations in dental school.
You can get in at any age.
 
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