Answer a few questions about your UCAT, GCSEs and predicted grades. We compare your profile against every UK dental school and show where you genuinely fit, and where you do not.
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18 UK dental schools 2027 Entry criteriaScottish schools keep a set number of places for Scottish students, with different entry requirements for everyone else. This changes your results.
Entry routeNot sure how to answer some of these, or what your grades and UCAT actually mean for each school? A 30-minute session with a strategic applications advisor walks you through your profile and where it fits.
Book an advisor sessionNo two dental schools pick students the same way. Some only care about your UCAT once you pass a minimum. Others, like Birmingham, Cardiff and Manchester, score your GCSEs directly, so a strong UCAT does not make up for a weak set. A few will not look at resits, and some reject anyone in SJT Band 3. Most people who miss out did not have bad numbers. They just picked four schools that all judged the one thing they were weakest at.
Dental school application guide
Your UCAT is only one part of the decision. Explore how UK dental schools use UCAT, GCSEs, grades, SJT and contextual criteria differently when selecting applicants.
You get four dentistry choices, so each one is a quarter of your application.
Eligibility and competitiveness are not the same thing. Clearing a school's published minimum tells you that you will not be screened out - not that you are likely to be invited to interview.
The stronger approach is to identify the schools whose selection method rewards the part of your profile that is strongest, and to avoid submitting four choices that all judge you on the same weakness.
Universities use the UCAT very differently. Broadly, a school will:
That means the same score can be strong at one school and uncompetitive at another. Rather than chasing a single national cut-off, look at how each school on your list uses the score - and see how your raw marks convert into a scaled UCAT score and percentile first if you are still estimating.
Some dental schools score GCSEs directly as part of the shortlisting formula, so the number of grade 7-9 passes materially changes your ranking.
Others treat GCSEs purely as a minimum entry requirement, and a handful place very little weight on them at all. If your GCSEs are the weakest part of your profile, that single fact should rule several schools out of your four.
Grades usually determine eligibility rather than ranking. Most schools will not shortlist an applicant whose predictions fall below the standard offer, and some will not consider resits or will require specific subjects.
If you are applying post-results, achieved grades can open up schools that would not have accepted the same profile on predictions.
Dental schools treat the situational judgement test differently:
It is worth checking before you commit a choice.
Contextual eligibility is based on factors such as school performance, household circumstances, care experience or widening participation postcodes.
It can lower the grade or UCAT threshold a school applies to you, or move you into a separately assessed pool. Criteria differ by university, so a contextual flag that helps at one school may not apply at another.
A shortlist has to balance two things: where you would genuinely want to spend five or six years, and how well your application fits each university's selection process.
Course style, dentistry interview format, location and teaching all matter - but so does making sure you are not spending all four choices on universities that shortlist in the same way.
You tell us the things dental schools actually select on:
The calculator then compares those inputs against the admissions criteria each UK dental school publishes, and groups the schools by how well your profile appears to align.
Nothing is hidden behind a payment: every school, and the reasoning behind its classification, is shown on screen.
The free calculator answers "which dental schools could suit my profile?". Our dental school application strategy service answers a harder question: which four should you actually apply to, and why.
That service is expert human analysis - an admissions advisor reviews your full profile, recommends a four with written reasoning, gives you backups and the universities they would approach cautiously, and talks it through on a 30-minute call.
It is not a paid unlock of this tool; everything the tool produces here is free.
There is no single right answer, because each UK dental school weighs the UCAT, GCSEs, A-levels, SJT and contextual data differently. The sensible approach is to work out which schools assess the parts of your profile that are strongest, rule out the ones with fixed rules you do not meet, and then choose four that spread your risk. The calculator does the first two steps for you in about a minute.
Almost every UK school will accept your application at any UCAT score, but the score that realistically gets you an interview varies enormously. Some schools rank purely on UCAT, some use a threshold and then look at academics, and a few barely use it. Enter your score in the calculator and you will see, school by school, where it sits against the way that school actually uses the UCAT.
Four. UCAS lets you list five choices, but no more than four can be dentistry, so the fifth is normally a related backup course. That limit is why shortlisting matters so much - a wasted choice is 25% of your application.
It takes the rules each school publishes - UCAT cut-offs, SJT bands, how much GCSEs count, resit rules, contextual offers and how many places are set aside for each type of applicant - and checks your numbers against them. So it can tell you where you clear the bar and where you would be rejected outright. What it cannot know is how strong everyone else applying this year will be. That is why we mark close calls as borderline instead of giving you a made-up percentage.
Yes. For graduate entry we check the degree class each school asks for and flag the ones that use the GAMSAT instead of the UCAT. If you are from England, Wales or Northern Ireland applying to a Scottish school, we score you against the places kept for non-Scottish students, which are much harder to get.
Yes, completely. Every school and every reason is shown on screen with nothing hidden and no email needed. You only give us your email if you want a PDF copy sent to you.
No. It shows where your profile appears to align with a school's published selection criteria. It cannot account for how strong the rest of this year's applicant pool is, and admissions criteria can change between cycles. No tool, and no tutor, can guarantee an interview or an offer.
Still unsure how all of this applies to you? Our strategic applications advisors read your full profile against every school's 2027 entry criteria and tell you where you genuinely stand.
Book an advisor sessionEvery school in the calculator has its own written guide: UCAT cut-offs, GCSE scoring, interview format and what they actually look for. Start with the UK dental school guides hub or jump straight in.
Queen's Belfast (QUB)BirminghamBristolCardiffDundeeGlasgowLeedsLiverpoolKing's College London (KCL)Queen Mary/BartsManchesterNewcastlePlymouthSheffieldPortsmouthUEAAberdeen (Graduate entry)UCLan (Graduate entry)Dental school admissions criteria can change between application cycles. The Dental School Chances Calculator is designed to help you explore potential options and should not be treated as a guarantee of eligibility, interview or offer. MedicHut is not liable for any application outcomes, and using this guide cannot guarantee any specific result. Always check the latest official university admissions requirements before applying.
We keep this tool updated as universities release more information for 2027 entry. If you spot anything that looks incorrect or out of date, use the "Spotted an error?" button on screen or email team@medichut.com and we'll check it against the university's official guidance.
Admissions information last reviewed: August 2026 · data set for 2027 entry (applications submitted in 2026)