Rutgers School of Dental Medicine: Average DAT, GPA, and How to Get In

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.

Rutgers School of Dental Medicine (RSDM) is a public DMD program in Newark, New Jersey. If you're building your school list, here's exactly what RSDM has told applicants about its own program, straight from the school's own pages, with nothing rounded or guessed — and where the school doesn't spell out a detail, like a single hard application deadline, we say so plainly instead of filling in a guess.

Rutgers dental school stats at a glance

Rutgers's average DAT score

RSDM's own admissions FAQ reports an "average DAT-Academic Average score of 22" and an "average DAT-Total Science score of 22" for the Class of 2028 (the 2024 entering cohort), per the school's admissions FAQ. The FAQ page doesn't restate which DAT scale that 22 sits on. The ADA moved DAT section scores to a 200-600 reporting scale starting with the 2023-2024 cycle, and a score in the low-to-mid 20s doesn't fit that range — so this figure reads as Rutgers reporting Academic Average the way schools have historically discussed it, on the legacy 1-30-style scale, rather than as a raw 200-600 number. We're quoting the value exactly as RSDM published it rather than guessing at a conversion on the school's behalf.

If Rutgers's reported 22 does reflect the old 1-30 Academic Average scale, our DAT score percentiles guide shows the ADA's own concordance table converting an old-scale 22 AA to 460 on the current 200-600 scale, which the ADA's percentile table places around the high-80s percentile nationally. Run your own practice scores through our DAT score converter before comparing them to Rutgers's published number, since the two scales aren't interchangeable one-for-one.

Rutgers's average GPA

Per the same admissions FAQ, the Class of 2028 came in with an average overall GPA of 3.7 and an average science GPA of 3.7. Both figures are tied to that one entering class rather than a published multi-year rolling average, so treat 3.7 as the most recent snapshot RSDM has made public rather than a fixed bar. One quirk worth planning around: per the school's admissions FAQ, AP (Advanced Placement) coursework does not count toward satisfying RSDM's pre-dental course requirements, so credits that show up on a transcript from AP exams won't substitute for the actual prerequisite coursework the school wants to see.

Class size and admission selectivity

RSDM's traditional DMD track enrolled 90 students in the Class of 2028, per the school's official news release announcing the class — 53 in-state and 37 out-of-state. That release also states RSDM received 3,709 applications for those 90 spots. Separately, the school's admissions FAQ notes that RSDM's Internationally Educated DMD (IED) program enrolls roughly 35 individuals per year on a rolling basis, a distinct track from the traditional DMD program covered by the stats on this page.

RSDM describes its process as a "holistic file" review with no stated minimum GPA or DAT score cutoff for consideration, per the school's admissions FAQ — though the published class averages (3.7 GPA, DAT AA 22) indicate the realistic competitive range applicants are landing in. Interviews are by invitation only: per the school's application and admissions page, "an interview will not be granted at the request of the applicant," and "no candidate will be accepted without an interview." Acceptance notices begin going out December 15.

Application deadline

RSDM doesn't publish one fixed calendar deadline on its official site. Per the school's application and admissions page, applicants should "check the AADSAS instruction booklet for the application opening date and filing deadline," and "after January 1, admission to the Rutgers School of Dental Medicine is on a rolling basis." So rather than a single hard date, treat this as a process: file through AADSAS as early in the cycle as you can, since RSDM's own acceptance notices begin going out December 15, and rolling review after January 1 favors applicants whose files are already complete.

Tuition and cost

Per Rutgers University Finance and Administration's official tuition and fees schedule for the RSDM DMD program, base tuition for the 2025-2026 academic year is $63,432 per year for New Jersey residents and $100,304 per year for non-residents. Those figures reflect base tuition only — the same schedule lists an additional campus fee of roughly $470 and health insurance of roughly $2,942, plus year-specific school fees, on top of the base rate. Confirm the current-cycle numbers directly on Rutgers's tuition and fees page before budgeting, since these figures are specific to the 2025-2026 academic year and will be updated for future cycles.

FAQ: Rutgers dental school admissions