Charles Sturt Dental vs Griffith Dental

UCAT-ANZ cut-offs. Charles Sturt Dental — UCAT-ANZ is required on both the general and rural pathways; First Nations applicants are exempt, and UAC tells current Charles Sturt students on the internal GPA pathway that they do not need it.

No… Griffith Dental — No discrete numerical cut-off published by Griffith — UCAT ANZ Total Score alone decides who is invited to GUDAP. No Tier-1 source supports the "~78th percentile" or "90th+ percentile" figures, so…

Timing shapes the choice as much as the score. GAMSAT is graduate-only and sits in March and September; UCAT-ANZ is mostly undergraduate and sits in July. A few schools run their own selection model with no national test at all.

Charles Sturt Dental requires Charles Sturt publishes no ATAR requirement for the BDS (its entry score is listed as "TBA") and there is no portfolio. Selection for interview runs on UCAT-ANZ for the general pathway, on UCAT-ANZ plus the Rural and First Nations Applicants Supplementary Form for the rural pathway, and on GPA for current Charles Sturt students.

UAC publishes an ATAR profile for ATAR-based offers in semester 1, 2026 (2026 entry): lowest ATAR 97.70, median 98.20, highest 99.70.

Treat that as descriptive, not as a cut-off - UAC's student profile for the same cohort shows fewer than 5 of 45 commencing students were admitted solely on the basis of ATAR (22, or 48.89%, came from prior higher education study and 19, or 42.22%, were international), so the profile reflects a very small school-leaver subgroup rather than a selection threshold.

The ~93-95 aggregator figure has no Tier-1 basis and should be dropped. UAC lists assumed knowledge of Chemistry, Mathematics Advanced and Physics, with English Standard recommended. Applications for the 2027 intake close through UAC at 11.59pm AEST on 13 September 2026; no late applications are accepted.

Griffith Dental requires BDHS selection is a combined weighted score of three components — academic attainment, UCAT ANZ and the GUDAP interview — with invitations to GUDAP issued on UCAT ANZ Total Score alone. Griffith publishes no ATAR or selection-rank threshold, and QTAC states that Griffith's Guaranteed Admission Schemes do not apply to this program.

English plus one of Biology / Chemistry / Physics / Maths Methods (Units 3/4, C) is ASSUMED KNOWLEDGE, not a prerequisite — Griffith's degree page lists prerequisites as "NIL" and QTAC's Prerequisites field names only the minimum age requirement and the interview. BDHS is the entry point; the 2-year Master of Dentistry (5703) is the continuation.

No direct-entry BDS or DMD.

ATAR. Charles Sturt Dental — Charles Sturt publishes no minimum ATAR for the BDS and lists the course entry score as "TBA"; its published selection criteria use UCAT-ANZ (or GPA for internal applicants) to select for interview… Griffith Dental — Griffith publishes no ATAR or selection-rank threshold for BDHS.

QTAC renders both the "Minimum Selection thresholds (ATAR/Selection Rank)" and "ATAR/Selection Rank profile" sections for Trimester 1…

Read every ATAR figure as a selection rank, not a raw score. Educational access bonuses, rural-origin uplift and Indigenous pathways all adjust it, so the published number is rarely the one that decides your application.

Charles Sturt Dental uses Panel (In-person panel interview at the Orange campus (late November/early December)); Griffith Dental uses MMI (GUDAP — Griffith University Dental Admissions Process (recorded, asynchronous multi-scenario online interview via SAMMI; no live interviewer)).

These two formats reward different skills — Panel emphasises narrative coherence and the ability to develop a thread under follow-up questioning, while MMI rewards breadth and quick recovery.

If your strengths lie in conversational depth, Charles Sturt Dental may suit you more. If you prefer discrete capsule answers under time pressure, Griffith Dental is the better fit.

Interview windows: Charles Sturt Dental interviews in November-December; Griffith Dental in 23–27 November 2026 (2027-entry cycle).

Both schools deliver a Integrated-style curriculum, so day-to-day study habits will feel similar across years 1-3.

Specifics: 5-year undergraduate Bachelor of Dental Science (BDS) at the Orange campus with clinical placements at Albury-Wodonga, Bathurst, Dubbo, Orange, Wagga Integrated pathway: 3-year Bachelor of Dental Health Science (BDHS, 1577) → 2-year Master of Dentistry (MDent, 5703). No direct-entry BDS or DMD. Both

Intake size: Charles Sturt Dental — Charles Sturt does not publish an annual number of places for the BDS - no figure appears on the course page or…; Griffith Dental — QTAC: 125 students admitted to BDHS for Trimester 1 2026, of whom 52 (41.6%) were international.

A larger cohort means more peer breadth; a smaller cohort means more tutor contact.

Charles Sturt Dental: Charles Sturt does not publish interview-to-offer conversion for the BDS - treat any percentage quoted elsewhere as guesswork, not data. Griffith Dental: Not published. For scale only: Griffith interviews around 300 candidates, and QTAC records 125 BDHS admissions for Trimester 1 2026, of whom 52 were international and 42 came from a higher-education background.

These are not comparable populations and must not be divided into an interview-to-offer conversion rate.

Post-interview odds give you the clearest signal of how competitive each school is at the final stage — a school with a 60% post-interview success rate is structurally easier to convert than one at 25%, even if the interview thresholds look identical on paper.

Charles Sturt Dental: Charles Sturt was established with an explicit rural workforce mission — a dental program built around rural and regional practice, developed in cooperation with the Australian Dental Council, the Australian Dental Association, local dentists and oral health practitioners.

Placements anchored at Orange and Wagga Wagga campus dental clinics with strong community engagement across Central West and Riverina NSW. Charles Sturt publishes no bonded or return-of-service condition on its dental places - the Commonwealth's Bonded Medical Program covers medical courses only.

What is real is the sub-quota: at least 50% of places each year are set aside for applicants with a significant rural background or First Nations applicants.

Griffith Dental: Griffith offers a single integrated dental pathway: 3-year Bachelor of Dental Health Science (BDHS, program 1577) → 2-year Master of Dentistry (MDent, program 5703). There is no direct-entry BDS and no DMD. Co-located with Gold Coast University Hospital and the Griffith Health Centre 117-chair dental clinic.

Selection is a combined weighted score of academic attainment + UCAT ANZ + the GUDAP interview, and QTAC confirms Griffith's Guaranteed Admission Schemes do not apply to this program — QTAC publishes no ATAR/selection-rank profile or minimum threshold for this course, so no ATAR floor can be quoted.