Graduate Dental Education Program Admissions Requirements
A U.S. or international dental degree is required for admission to all Penn Dental Medicine Graduate Dental Education (GDE) programs with the exception of the Pediatric and Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (OMFS) Residency programs, which will only accept a U.S. dental degree.
Applicants who do not have a U.S. DMD/DDS degree (e.g. individuals holding a BDS or other international dental degrees) must provide additional documentation in order to be considered for admission. This additional documentation requires evaluation of their academic credentials by an approved agency.
Application Procedures
Please note that the application includes two components:
- PASS (Postdoctoral Application Support Service) through the American Dental Education Association (ADEA)
- Penn Dental Medicine GDE Supplementary Application
PASS Application
Penn Dental Medicine participates in ADEA’s centralized application PASS program. The application must be completed via the ADEA PASS website. For more information or questions regarding the application service, contact PASS customer service by email: passinfo@passweb.org to:passinfo@passweb.org or telephone: (617) 612-2065 (9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (ET) Mondays through Fridays except U.S. federal holidays). The 2021-2022 PASS Application Cycle will open May 15, 2021.
The PASS application must be submitted to the centralized application service by the specified program deadline. Applications received after the deadline by the centralized application service will not be processed.
The following documents must be submitted with the PASS Application to ADEA’s centralized application service:
- Official dental school transcript is required to complete the ADEA PASS application: one of the following must be received to fulfill this requirement: official U.S. dental school transcript or foreign dental school transcript.
- Institution Evaluation Form: IEF (also called the dean’s letter) is an evaluation of the applicant completed by the dean or designated official of the dental school attended. NBDE scores or results, GPA and class rank (if applicable) are also included in the IEF.
- Professional Evaluation Form: PEF is the traditional letter of evaluation that is required for every applicant. Penn Dental Medicine requires 2 PEFs for applicants.
- Unofficial Undergraduate Transcripts: applicants must upload unofficial transcripts for each undergraduate college attended to the ADEA PASS Search Engine. Do not send official college transcripts directly to the Office of Student Admissions.
- Official National Dental Board Scores (NBDE) Part I: An official NBDE Part I passing score from January 2012 – present is required for all U.S.-educated dentists. Applicants must submit official NBDE Part I scores electronically by the program application deadlines through ADEA PASS. Although an official NBDE Part II score is not required for admission, it is required from U.S.-educated dentists for matriculation into Penn Dental Medicine’s GDE programs. Internationally educated dentists may submit official NBDE scores in support of their application if available. For NBDE information and registration materials, visit the American Dental Association-Testing or contact: The Joint Commission on Dental Examinations, 211 East Chicago Avenue Suite 600, Chicago, IL 60611; (800) 324-1694.
- ADA ADAT Scores (ADA Advanced Dental Admission Test: ADAT Scores are not required for admission to Penn Dental Medicine Graduate Dental Education Programs. ADAT scores will be accepted if available through the ADEA PASS application when released by the ADA.