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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
December-January (Curtin published 2027-entry rounds: Round 1 offers 10 December 2026, Round 2 offers 14 January 2027; TISC publishes its own school-leaver offer dates and the WA main round is in December)

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 — UCAT ANZ Total Score alone decides who is invited to GUDAP. No Tier-1 source supports the "~78th percentile" or "90th+ percentile" figures, so both are dropped. For scale only, the official UCAT ANZ 2026 distribution (17,341 candidates, three cognitive subtests scored out of 2700) has a mean total cognitive score of 1,964, a median of 1,950 and a 9th decile of 2,340. Scores from the 2022–2024 sittings were on the retired /3600 four-subtest scale (2024 mean 2,588) and cannot be converted to the current scale.
ATAR
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 2026 with no values, and records 0 recent-secondary students admitted solely on the basis of ATAR/rank and 0 admitted where ATAR/rank plus additional criteria were considered — so neither a floor nor a median ATAR can be quoted. Academic attainment is only one weighted component alongside UCAT ANZ and GUDAP.
Interview format
GUDAP — Griffith University Dental Admissions Process (recorded, asynchronous multi-scenario online interview via SAMMI; no live interviewer)
Post-interview chance
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.
Decision date
January

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 — 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.

ATAR and academic profile

Curtin Oral Health Therapy requires Minimum ATAR / Selection Rank 80 on Curtin current course page (Semester 1 / Year Long 2027 entry); TISC listed 83.00 as the minimum rank for consideration for 2024-2026 admission and has published no 2027 figure. Meeting the minimum does not guarantee selection.

Curtin lists no admission test and no interview for this course — Selection is based on academic performance: no UCAT-ANZ, no GAMSAT, no Casper, no portfolio route. (By contrast, TISC SLAR 2027 states that for Curtin Medicine/Surgery all applicants are required to undertake the UCAT and Casper test and are then selected for interview.)

No essential prerequisite subjects (Human Biology or Biology ATAR desirable); English via a scaled score of at least 50 in WACE ATAR English/Literature/EALD or IELTS Academic 7.0 with 7.0 in each band. ATAR is not the main route in practice: in Curtin latest published student profile only 5 of 32 commencing students entered solely on ATAR.

Curtin also admits on completed higher education study (Curtin course switcher: 100 credits, a 70% weighted average over the four most recent units and Good Standing; switchers from another provider need a Selection Rank of 80 and can only start in Semester One), an AQF Diploma or Advanced Diploma, STAT (WE plus V or Q), and bridging or enabling courses including UniReady and the Indigenous enabling courses.

Fieldwork clearances are compulsory before placement: student declaration, AHPRA registration, criminal record screening, immunisation, first aid, hand hygiene, manual handling and communicable-disease screening, with a Senior First Aid Certificate required before second year, second semester.

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. Curtin Oral Health Therapy — no published cut-off. 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.

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 (recorded, asynchronous multi-scenario online interview via SAMMI; no live interviewer)). 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 (2027-entry cycle).

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: Reaccredited by the Australian Dental Council for five years from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2030, with no outstanding conditions and Dental Board 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: Curtin Oral Health Therapy — 32 commencing students in the most recent intake period Curtin publishes (Curtin Undergraduate Student Profile; Curtin does not name the year —…; 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.

Post-interview offer rate

Curtin Oral Health Therapy: N/A — no interview. 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.

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, 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.

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.

School data reviewed by the NextGen MedPrep editorial team — last reviewed .