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Australian Dental school comparison

Curtin Oral Health Therapy vs Griffith Dental

Curtin Oral Health Therapy and Griffith Dental are both Australian dental schools, but the path to an offer at each is meaningfully different. Curtin Oral Health Therapy is in Western Australia while Griffith Dental is in Queensland. State of origin matters here: several schools rank local applicants ahead of interstate ones.

Curtin Oral Health Therapy uses no national admission test; Griffith Dental uses UCAT-ANZ. That mismatch means either preparing two assessments or choosing the school whose test suits you. The interview formats diverge — Interview vs MMI — and the prep approaches for the two are fundamentally different.

Side-by-side comparison

Curtin Oral Health Therapy

Bentley

Quick comparison

Location
Bentley, Australia
Entry pathway
Undergraduate
Admission tests
None
GAMSAT
-
UCAT-ANZ
-
ATAR
-
Interview format
Academic results only — ATAR-based selection rank
Post-interview chance
N/A — no interview.
Decision date
January

Griffith Dental

Gold Coast

Quick comparison

Location
Gold Coast, Australia
Entry pathway
Undergraduate
Admission tests
UCAT-ANZ
GAMSAT
-
UCAT-ANZ
No discrete numerical cut-off published by Griffith. 2022 cycle reported lowest threshold ~78th percentile; 2023+ realistic competitive range 90th+ percentile.
ATAR
BDHS school-leaver ATAR competitive floor 99.85 (GradReady cross-reference). 99+ effective.
Interview format
GUDAP — Griffith University Dental Admissions Process (multi-station scenario interview, online via SAMMI)
Post-interview chance
Not publicly disclosed.
Decision date
January
Compare different schools

Curtin Oral Health Therapy vs Griffith Dental - in detail

Admission tests compared

UCAT-ANZ cut-offs. Curtin Oral Health Therapy — no published cut-off. Griffith Dental — No discrete numerical cut-off published by Griffith. 2022 cycle reported lowest threshold ~78th percentile; 2023+ realistic competitive range 90th+ percentile.

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.

ATAR and academic profile

Curtin Oral Health Therapy requires ATAR / selection rank only. No UCAT-ANZ, no CASPer required.

Griffith Dental requires BDHS school-leaver ATAR competitive floor 99.85 + UCAT-ANZ + GUDAP interview; English + one of Biology / Chemistry / Physics / Maths Methods (Units 3/4, C) prerequisites. BDHS is the entry point; DMD is the postgraduate continuation. No direct-entry BDS.

ATAR. Curtin Oral Health Therapy — no published cut-off. Griffith Dental — BDHS school-leaver ATAR competitive floor 99.85 (GradReady cross-reference). 99+ effective.

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.

Interview formats

Curtin Oral Health Therapy uses Interview (Academic results only — ATAR-based selection rank); Griffith Dental uses MMI (GUDAP — Griffith University Dental Admissions Process (multi-station scenario interview, online via SAMMI)). These two formats reward different skills — Interview emphasises academic reasoning and thinking aloud through unfamiliar problems, while MMI rewards breadth and quick recovery.

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

Interview windows: Curtin Oral Health Therapy interviews in No formal interview; Griffith Dental in 23–27 November 2026 (March 2027 intake).

Curriculum and teaching style

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

Specifics: 3-year Bachelor of Science (Oral Health Therapy) accredited by the Australian Dental Council and Dental Board of Australia. 750+ clinical training hou Integrated pathway: 3-year Bachelor of Dental Health Science (BDHS) → 2-year graduate Doctor of Medicine in Dentistry (DMD). Direct-entry BDS not curr

Intake size: Curtin Oral Health Therapy — Not publicly disclosed by Curtin. Year-on-year selection rank not in publicly extracted TISC data.; Griffith Dental — 2025 BDHS intake 69 admitted (QTAC). BDHS → DMD integrated pathway (3+2 years).. A larger cohort means more peer breadth; a smaller cohort means more tutor contact.

Post-interview offer rate

Curtin Oral Health Therapy: N/A — no interview. Griffith Dental: Not publicly disclosed.

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.

What makes each distinctive

Curtin Oral Health Therapy: Important: Curtin does not offer a Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) or a Doctor of Dental Medicine (DMD). The only dental-track program at Curtin is the Bachelor of Science (Oral Health Therapy). It is a 3-year qualification, accredited by the Australian Dental Council and the Dental Board of Australia.

It leads to registration as an Oral Health Therapist, which is a separate AHPRA scope from a general dentist. Clinical training runs to over 750 hours, across the Oral Health Centre of WA at Nedlands, community clinics, private practices, and the Dental Health Services clinic at Mt Henry.

Griffith Dental: Griffith offers a single integrated dental pathway: 3-year Bachelor of Dental Health Science (BDHS) → 2-year graduate Doctor of Medicine in Dentistry (DMD). Direct-entry BDS not currently offered (any historical BDS-direct route is not in current QTAC course offerings). Co-located with Gold Coast University Hospital and the Griffith Health Centre 117-chair dental clinic.

ATAR floor 99.85 (school-leaver competitive) — the second-most ATAR-competitive dental program in Australia.

Which is right for you?

Start with the admission test: Curtin Oral Health Therapy needs no national admission test, Griffith Dental needs UCAT-ANZ. Preparing for one well beats splitting your time across two.

Check your state of origin before you apply — Curtin Oral Health Therapy draws heavily on Western Australia applicants and Griffith Dental on Queensland, and an interstate application often faces a materially higher bar.

Your preference list should ultimately weight: which admission test you can realistically score well in, whether your state of origin gives you a bonus at either school, and where you'd actually want to live for four to five years.

Common questions

Curtin Oral Health Therapy uses no admission test. Griffith Dental uses UCAT-ANZ. The test mismatch means you may need to prep two assessments simultaneously, or you can pick the school whose admission test you're stronger in. GAMSAT is graduate-only and sat in March/September; UCAT-ANZ is undergraduate-leaning and sat in July; some schools (notably Bond and JCU) run their own selection model with no national test.

Where to go next

Curtin Oral Health TherapyEntry requirements, interview format and key dates in fullGriffith DentalEntry requirements, interview format and key dates in full

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