University of Mississippi Medical Center School of Dentistry: Average DAT, GPA, and How to Get In

UMMC's School of Dentistry is Mississippi's only dental school, and that single fact shapes who gets in. Per the school's official Admissions Criteria page, "in recent years, nonresidents have not been considered for admission" to the DMD program — so if you're not a Mississippi resident, your odds here look very different from the numbers below.

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.

What DAT score does UMMC's entering class average?

Per the school's official "Doctor of Dental Medicine Program General Information" brochure, the "Composite Profile of the Recent Entering Class" lists a DAT Overall Academic Average of 20 and a DAT Overall Science Average of 19.3, both on the old 1–30 DAT scale, not the new 200–600 scale. The brochure doesn't name a specific class year — it only says "the recent entering class" — though its tuition table is labeled 2022–2023, suggesting this profile reflects a class admitted around the 2021–2022 or 2022–2023 cycle. This brochure is the only place UMMC publishes a DAT average; no fresher class-profile page exists on umc.edu, so check the school's admissions page for anything more recent before you apply.

For context on what a 20 AA (old scale) actually means: our breakdown of the ADA's official concordance and percentile tables converts an old-scale 20 Academic Average to 420 on the new 200–600 scale, roughly the 65th–70th percentile nationally — see the full DAT score percentiles guide, or run your own score through the DAT score converter to see where you'd stand next to UMMC's published average.

What GPA do you need?

The same brochure section reports an average overall GPA of 3.73 and an average science GPA of 3.63 for that same recent entering class, immediately alongside the DAT figures above — so treat this GPA snapshot as coming from that same undated but likely 2021–2022 or 2022–2023 cohort.

Class size and who actually gets in

Per the brochure, UMMC accepted 40 students out of 136 applicants for that entering class, with an average student age of 22. Two things stand out about how UMMC evaluates applicants. First, interviews are conducted as multiple mini-interviews (MMI) with members of the Dental School Admissions Committee, per the school's official Applicant Evaluation and Decisions page. Second, non-academic requirements have gotten stricter recently: the current Admissions Criteria and Applicant Evaluation pages call for a minimum of 70 hours of clinical shadowing with at least 4 licensed dental providers (one must be a general dentist, effective June 1, 2025) and a minimum of 100 hours of community service, at least 30 of which must serve vulnerable or disadvantaged populations (effective June 2024) — both higher than the 70-hour shadowing and 80-hour service figures still printed in the older brochure PDF.

Deadlines and tuition

UMMC's official How to Apply page lists the ADEA AADSAS application deadline as October 1 and UMMC's supplemental application deadline as November 1, as standing dates rather than dates tied to one cycle; earliest acceptance notifications go out in early December. The older brochure PDF lists slightly different dates (AADSAS Oct 2, UMMC Nov 2), so treat the How to Apply page as the more current source.

On cost, UMMC's official Cost of Attendance page lists 2026–2027 tuition of $41,123 for the D1 year, followed by $39,523 (D2), $38,577 (D3), and $38,573 (D4) — roughly $158,000 in tuition alone across four years. The page shows only one figure per year, no resident/non-resident split, which tracks with UMMC's policy of admitting almost exclusively Mississippi residents — so this is effectively the resident rate.

The bottom line

UMMC is a small, state-focused program: one dental school for Mississippi, a class built almost entirely from in-state applicants, MMI interviews, and shadowing/service-hour bars that have been rising. Its published DAT and GPA averages look older than current (likely 2021–2023), and no fresher class profile has replaced them — use the numbers above as a floor to aim above, and verify anything time-sensitive directly with UMMC's admissions office.