The Dental Schools With the Lowest Published DAT Averages

Let us be honest about what this page can and cannot tell you, because almost every other list ranking the “easiest” dental schools is guessing.

There is no easy dental school. What there is, is a published number: the average DAT academic average of the class each school actually admitted. Some schools publish a lower one than others — the range runs from 19 to 26 — and that is a real, sourced, checkable fact. It is the closest thing to an answer that exists. Below is every school that publishes one, ranked lowest first, with what the seat costs next to it.

What a low average does and does not mean

Read the table with three things in mind, or it will mislead you.

An average is a midpoint, not a cutoff. If a school's average is 19, roughly half of the students it admitted scored below 19. Clearing an average does not get you in, and missing it does not keep you out. It is not a threshold and this page is not an admissions prediction.

A low average often means harder, not easier. Many of the schools near the top of this list admit overwhelmingly in-state, or admit to a specific mission. If you are not a resident of that state, a school with a 19 average can be far more difficult for you than a private school with a 22. The number tells you about the class they admitted, not about your odds.

Committees are not calculators. GPA, experience, interviews, letters and residency all move the decision. The DAT is one input — but it is the input you still control, and the only one you can materially change in eight weeks.

All 51 schools that publish a DAT average, ranked lowest first

27 of the 78 schools publish no academic average we can verify — some publish only a section score, a minimum, or a range. They are left out rather than estimated. Percentiles are the official ADA figures. Cost is estimated from cost-of-attendance data published circa 2022, almost all at out-of-state or private rates. Full cost model →

The number that should actually change your plan

Look down the last two columns together, because that is the part nobody tells you: the schools with the lowest averages are not the cheapest schools. A lower bar to clear and a lower price are different things, and chasing the first without checking the second is how people end up paying six figures extra for the same license.

This is the whole argument for taking the DAT seriously. A score that just clears someone's average gets you a seat. A score well above it gets you a choice of seats — and the gap between the cheapest and priciest seat in the country is about $368,000, for the identical degree and the identical license. Moving an academic average from 19 to 20 — one point — takes the cheapest school whose published average you meet from $467,217 to $349,857. That single point is worth $117,360.

Put your score in the ROI calculator → and see which of these schools open up, and what the next point is worth to you.