Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso Woody L. Hunt 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.

The Woody L. Hunt School of Dental Medicine (WLHSDM) at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso is a public DDS program in El Paso, TX. It's also unusual on any target list: per the school's admissions FAQ, applicants apply exclusively through TMDSAS rather than AADSAS, with no secondary application required. Below is exactly what the school has told applicants about its own program, straight from its own pages — and where it doesn't publish a number, we say so plainly instead of guessing.

Texas Tech El Paso dental school stats at a glance

Texas Tech El Paso's average DAT score

WLHSDM doesn't appear to publish a dated "entering class profile" with a stated average DAT. That means we can't hand you a number here, and we're not going to invent one. The honest move is to check the school's admissions page for the current cycle directly, since figures can shift between cycles.

Even without a school-published number, you can use the ADA's national data to know where you stand. Our DAT score percentiles guide walks through the ADA's official percentile tables so you can see where any score falls nationally, and our DAT score converter translates practice scores between the old 1–30 scale and the new 200–600 scale.

Texas Tech El Paso's average GPA

Same story here: the school's admissions pages don't list an average or minimum GPA figure tied to a specific entering class. Until WLHSDM publishes one, check the school's admissions page for the current cycle before you apply.

Class size and application process

Per the school's own admissions FAQ, each entering (D1) cohort is stated directly as "60 students per dental cohort," with a non-resident limit of 6 students (10% of the class) under Texas law. That's a growth story: the inaugural class in 2021 was 40 students, and it has since grown to the current 60. Also worth knowing before you apply — per the same admissions FAQ, WLHSDM does not participate in AADSAS at all. Applicants go through TMDSAS exclusively, and no secondary application is required, a meaningfully different process than most U.S. dental schools outside Texas.

Application deadline

The school's admissions FAQ doesn't state a specific application deadline for WLHSDM. Because the program only accepts applications through TMDSAS rather than AADSAS, the usual "AADSAS deadline" framing that applies to most U.S. dental schools doesn't apply here — check TMDSAS and the school's admissions page directly for the current cycle's submission dates before you build your timeline.

Tuition

Per the university's official Tuition and Fee Estimates page for the Hunt School of Dental Medicine, first-year (D1) students in the 2026-2027 academic year pay resident tuition of $32,197 (total estimated annual cost including fees of $46,095.61) or nonresident tuition of $53,496 (total estimated annual cost including fees of $67,394.61). Nonresidents pay roughly $21,299 more per year in tuition alone, largely a "Designated Nonresident Supplemental Tuition" charge of $10,499, per the school's tuition page. Given the seat cap above, most of each class pays the resident rate.

What makes Texas Tech El Paso's DDS program distinct

A few things worth knowing beyond the raw numbers. WLHSDM was the first dental school to open in Texas in over 50 years, and it's the only U.S. dental school located on the U.S.-Mexico border, per a studentdoctor.net school detail page. It welcomed its inaugural class of 40 students in July 2021, since grown to today's 60 seats. And as noted above, it's a TMDSAS-only program with no secondary application — a detail that changes how you plan your timeline versus schools that run through AADSAS.

FAQ: Texas Tech El Paso dental school admissions