Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC: 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.

USC's Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry runs a private DDS program in Los Angeles, and unlike a lot of dental schools, it publishes its entering class stats right on its main admissions page rather than burying them in a separate PDF. That makes USC one of the more transparent schools to research — here's exactly what it says, with nothing added.

USC dental school stats at a glance

Average DAT score at USC

USC's Class of 2028 entering class averaged a 21 Academic Average, 20 PAT, and 21 Total Science, per the school's published class profile. That's an important detail to catch: USC reports these numbers on the old 1–30 DAT scale, not the newer 200–600 scale that the ADA rolled out for scores reported after March 1, 2025. USC hasn't updated its page to the new scale as of this writing, and we're recording the number exactly as USC published it, without converting it ourselves.

If you're studying now and only know your score on the new 200–600 scale, don't try to eyeball the comparison. Our DAT score percentiles breakdown lays out the ADA's own official concordance table, and per that table, a 21 AA on the old scale converts to a 440 on the new scale — which sits at roughly the 81st percentile nationally. So USC's published class average, in new-scale percentile terms, is comfortably above the middle of the national test-taking pool. You can run your own score through the exact same conversion with our free DAT score converter before you compare it to USC's number.

Average GPA at USC

The Class of 2028 averaged a 3.76 total GPA and 3.70 science GPA, per USC's official admissions page. USC doesn't publish a stated GPA floor — this is the average of the students who actually enrolled, not a minimum requirement.

Class size and who gets in

USC enrolled 144 students in the Class of 2028 — 53% female and 47% male — per the school's official class profile. That cohort came from 21 U.S. states and territories and 36 different undergraduate majors, per the same source, with UCLA (22 students), UC San Diego (13), and UC Irvine (12) as the top three feeder schools. USC's admissions page doesn't publish total applicant counts or an acceptance rate, so we can't report one; if that number matters to your decision, check USC's admissions page directly for the current cycle.

One process detail worth knowing: USC's interviews are by invitation only and held on the USC campus, typically running from October through April, per the school's admissions page.

Application deadline

USC's AADSAS application opens June 1, and the deadline to submit is February 1, per the school's official admissions page. The DAT itself must be taken no later than February 1 of the application year, and your score can't be more than 3 years old at the time you apply.

Tuition

USC's Office of Financial Aid lists an estimated cost of attendance of $128,547 per year for Years 1 through 3, and $85,698 for the fall/spring terms of Year 4, for the 2026–2027 academic year. As a private school, USC doesn't publish a separate resident/non-resident DDS tuition split — it's a single flat rate for everyone.

The bottom line

USC gives you more of its class profile than most schools bother to publish — DAT, GPA, gender split, feeder schools, and interview timing are all sitting on one page. What it doesn't give you is an applicant pool size, an acceptance rate, or a DAT number on the current 200–600 scale, so build your application strategy around the averages above, not around a cutoff that USC has never stated. And because those Class of 2028 numbers are already a snapshot in time, always check USC's own admissions page for whatever cycle you're actually applying to.