Columbia University College of Dental Medicine: Average DAT, GPA, and How to Get In

Columbia University College of Dental Medicine (CDM) is a private DDS program in New York City. Everything below comes straight from Columbia's own admissions, statistics, and financial-aid pages, cited line by line — and where Columbia's own numbers carry a caveat about scale or class year, we've kept that caveat attached rather than smoothing it over.

Numbers below come from the school's own published materials as of July 2026 (each is linked to its source). Admissions stats shift every cycle — treat these as a snapshot and confirm on the school's official admissions page before you apply.

Columbia average DAT score

Per Columbia CDM's official statistics page, the Class of 2029 — the most recent entering class shown on the page — posted an Academic Average (AA) of 26 and a Science DAT (SCI) score of 26. Columbia's page doesn't explicitly label which DAT scale it's using, but a 24-26 range is consistent with the traditional 1–30 Academic Average/science scale, not the newer 200–600 scale. The page also shows five entering classes of trend data: 2025 (AA 25 / SCI 24), 2026 (AA 24 / SCI 24), 2027 (AA 25 / SCI 24), 2028 (AA 26 / SCI 26), and 2029 (AA 26 / SCI 26). One more caveat worth flagging: Columbia's class-year labels appear to denote expected graduation year, so "Class of 2029" is the cohort that matriculated in Fall 2025, not students entering in 2029.

Columbia average GPA

The same official statistics page lists an overall GPA of 3.84 and a science GPA of 3.8 for the Class of 2029, per Columbia's statistics page. The five-year trend on that page runs: 2025 (3.7 overall / 3.75 sci), 2026 (3.74 / 3.7), 2027 (3.84 / 3.8), 2028 (3.8 / 3.9), and 2029 (3.84 / 3.8). The page implies the standard 4.0 GPA scale without stating it outright.

Columbia class size

Columbia's statistics page reports an entering class of 92 students for the Class of 2029, up from 84 in each of the four prior entering classes (2025 through 2028), per the official statistics page. That 84-per-class figure is corroborated separately by Columbia's DDS admissions FAQ page, which states the College received 1,669 AADSAS applications in the 2020-21 cycle, interviewed roughly 231 candidates, and enrolled 84.

Stats at a glance

Because Columbia's 24-26 AA range reads on the traditional 1–30 scale, it's worth translating it into national percentile context. Per the ADA's own concordance table, which we reproduce in full in our DAT score percentiles guide, an old-scale Academic Average of 26 converts to 520 on the new 200–600 scale — and 520 AA sits at roughly the 99th percentile of the ADA's national normative sample. If you tested on the new scale, or want to convert your own score to compare it against Columbia's published figure, run it through our DAT score converter.

Columbia application deadline

Per Columbia's official Apply page, the AADSAS application window opens June 1 and the final deadline is December 31. The $75 supplemental application is due concurrently with your AADSAS submission. Review is rolling and begins in August, with interviews held on Fridays from September through February — and the school itself says it strongly encourages submitting as early in the cycle as possible, ideally June through August, precisely because review moves on a rolling basis.

Columbia tuition

Columbia's DDS program lists tuition and fees at $125,320 for the academic year, plus an estimated $25,200 in living expenses, per an official Columbia International Students and Scholars Office (ISSO) PDF revised April 20, 2026 (so this figure most likely applies to the 2026-27 academic year). There's no separate summer tuition line for the DDS program. Columbia is private and does not distinguish resident from non-resident tuition — this single rate applies to every DDS student regardless of home state. Note that this figure combines tuition with required fees, so it runs somewhat higher than a tuition-only number would.

What else Columbia's admissions page tells you

A few details from Columbia CDM's own official pages are worth flagging if you're building an application timeline around this school. First, interviews are conducted as an online, asynchronous Kira Talent video assessment rather than a traditional in-person or live-video interview, per the school's admissions requirements page. Second, the prerequisite list has two features that trip up applicants used to a standard checklist: Columbia requires six credits (about one academic year) of English composition or literature, and a semester of biochemistry with no lab requirement, on top of the usual physics, biology, general chemistry, and organic chemistry sequence (all of which do require labs). Third, Columbia CDM runs extremely high-volume relative to its class size — in the 2020-21 cycle it received 1,669 AADSAS applications, which the school's own FAQ page describes as nearly one in seven AADSAS applications filed nationally that year, interviewed about 231 applicants, and enrolled 84, per the DDS admissions FAQ page.