Question 1

What admission tests do La Trobe Dental and Melbourne Dental use?

Accepted Answer

La Trobe Dental uses no admission test. Melbourne Dental uses GAMSAT. 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.

Question 2

What GAMSAT score do I need for La Trobe Dental vs Melbourne Dental?

Accepted Answer

La Trobe Dental — does not publish a GAMSAT cut-off (may not use GAMSAT; check the admission-test question above). Melbourne Dental — No minimum GAMSAT score — UoM publishes no DDS cut-off and ranks competitively. Domestic applicants and international applicants residing in Australia must use GAMSAT. International applicants residing outside Australia may use GAMSAT, UK GAMSAT, the US DAT, the Canadian DAT or the UK BMAT. UoM publishes no DDS-specific GAMSAT weighting — treat the section weighting as unstated (the equal-section rule that circulates belongs to the Melbourne MD). ACER computes the overall score as (1 × Humanities and Social Sciences + 1 × Written Communication + 2 × Biological and Physical Sciences) ÷ 4; results are valid for up to four consecutive years in Australia, and admissions bodies automatically take the highest-performing whole score set rather than a mix of best sections. These are the requirements on record for 2027-entry applicants. GAMSAT results are valid for four years with ACER, but some graduate MD programs accept only the most recent two cycles — verify before relying on an older sitting.

Question 3

What ATAR do I need for La Trobe Dental vs Melbourne Dental?

Accepted Answer

La Trobe Dental — 2026 intake (most recent completed cycle), ATAR-based offers only, across all offer rounds. Standard code 2100211491 — highest 99.95 ATAR / 99.95 selection rank; median 99.80 / 99.95; lowest 95.85 unadjusted, with the lowest selection rank reported as 99.55 by La Trobe's own Student Profile and ATAR Distribution report (July 2026) and as 99.95 by CourseSeeker and La Trobe's course-page widget. Regional Entry code 2100211501 — highest 99.95 / 99.95; median 95.8–95.90 / 99.95; lowest 83.65 / 99.05. First Nations Australian Entry code 2100213601 — suppressed (fewer than five ATAR-based offers). These are last-cycle outcomes, not published 2027 cut-offs: La Trobe publishes no guaranteed entry rank for this course. Melbourne Dental — ATAR data not published in the structured AU requirements; see free-text admission requirements on the school page. These are the requirements on record for 2027-entry applicants. Selection rank typically includes Educational Access Scheme bonuses, rural-origin uplift, and (where applicable) Indigenous-pathway adjustments — your raw ATAR is rarely the final figure used.

Question 4

What GPA do I need for La Trobe Dental vs Melbourne Dental?

Accepted Answer

La Trobe Dental — GPA not published in the structured AU requirements. Melbourne Dental — No fixed minimum — competitive ranking only. UoM ranks Standard and Indigenous pathway applicants on an entry score its Handbook calls a GPA and its course page now calls a Weighted Average Mark (WAM), computed the same way: the most recent bachelor degree (including Honours) regardless of later graduate study, over the last three undergraduate years, weighted 1 : 2 : 2 from the first of those three years to the final year. Guaranteed pathway applicants are exempt — their whole bachelor-degree WAM is the entry score. 2020 results are treated specially: honours completed in 2020 counts, and subjects completed before the pandemic count, but all other 2020 subject results are excluded. Offers — not interview invitations — are made on a combined ranked list where rank by GPA and rank by GAMSAT (or DAT/BMAT) are given equal weighting; there is no interview component at all. Up to 2 places per year may go to applicants re-ranked on strong cognate postgraduate study. These are the requirements on record for 2027-entry applicants. Many AU graduate MD programs treat the GPA as a hurdle (above the floor, all candidates are weighted equally on GAMSAT and interview) rather than as a sliding-scale rank — confirm each school's specific model.

Question 5

How do interviews differ between La Trobe Dental and Melbourne Dental?

Accepted Answer

La Trobe Dental uses: Academic results only on the standard and Regional Entry codes (no MMI, no interview); First Nations Australian Entry applicants may be required to attend an interview. Melbourne Dental uses: Academic ranking only (no MMI / no interview). Different formats reward different skill sets. Plan separate prep streams for each. Interview windows: No formal interview (La Trobe Dental); No interview (Melbourne Dental).

Question 6

What place types (CSP / BMP / Full-fee) do La Trobe Dental and Melbourne Dental offer?

Accepted Answer

La Trobe Dental — All three VTAC codes (2100211491 standard, 2100211501 Regional Entry, 2100213601 First Nations Australian Entry) are Commonwealth Supported; international students pay full fees of A$86,000 per 120 credit points for 2027. La Trobe publishes no place quota for either group, but its Student Profile and ATAR Distribution report gives the Semester 1 2026 commencing cohorts: standard code 59 students, of whom 22 (37.3%) were international and 24 (40.7%) were admitted solely on ATAR; Regional Entry 67 students, of whom 54 (80.6%) were admitted solely on ATAR and none were international. (CourseSeeker itself records no student profile for these codes — the data comes from La Trobe's own report.) Melbourne Dental — UoM publishes a single course-wide quota of 91 places per year (2026 Handbook, MC-DDENSUR) and does NOT publish a CSP / Australian fee place / international breakdown. Commonwealth Supported Places are explicitly "limited" and to be considered you must submit a complete application before the deadline; domestic applicants are automatically considered for an Australian fee place if they meet entry requirements. There is no named bonded or rural DDS quota, but rurality is a recognised consideration — the Handbook directs the Selection Committee to weigh "evidence of rurality for rural applicants" under special entry schemes, and Graduate Access Melbourne lists a rural background as a category that may attract CSP consideration. CSP (Commonwealth Supported Place) is the lowest student contribution; BMP (Bonded Medical Program) adds a 1-year return-of-service obligation in a Modified Monash Model 2-7 area after Fellowship; Full-fee places carry no bond but the highest tuition.

Question 7

What Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander entry pathways do La Trobe Dental and Melbourne Dental offer?

Accepted Answer

La Trobe Dental — Dedicated entry stream: Bachelor of Dental Science (Honours) (First Nations Australian Entry), VTAC code 2100213601, Commonwealth Supported, open only to applicants who are First Nations Australian. It is the one stream where VTAC lists an Interview criterion — 'Applicants may be required to attend an interview' — applied across all five applicant categories, and it also carries the RRSAS regional adjustment. Fewer than five ATAR-based offers were made on this code in 2026, so its ATAR profile is suppressed. Aspire is La Trobe's general early-conditional-offer program, open to current Year 12 students only, with Community, Academic and Everyday streams and no Indigenous stream; La Trobe publishes no Aspire ATAR for this course. Melbourne Dental — Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander applicants are given priority access to the DDS via the University of Melbourne Indigenous pathway; a Confirmation document or Statutory Declaration goes to mdhs-indigenous-admissions@unimelb.edu.au. Unlike the Melbourne MD's Indigenous pathway, DDS Indigenous-pathway applicants are still assessed on the standard entry score — UoM states the WAM is used for "eligible Standard and Indigenous pathway applicants". UoM publishes no GAMSAT waiver and no minimum GPA for the DDS Indigenous pathway; the GAMSAT-waiver and GPA 5.0 rules that circulate belong to the Melbourne MD, a separate course with a separate selection process. Both schools accept ATSI applicants through the standard pathway as well; the dedicated pathway typically offers adjusted academic thresholds plus wrap-around academic support.

Question 8

Does La Trobe Dental or Melbourne Dental offer bonded / rural-entry places?

Accepted Answer

La Trobe Dental — No bonded or return-of-service scheme applies to this course — La Trobe attaches no bonding condition to any of the three dentistry codes, and the Commonwealth Bonded Medical Program covers medical school places, not dentistry. The rural route is the Regional Entry VTAC code 2100211501: eligibility is a principal home address in an ASGS-RA (2021) RA2–RA5 area, and the RRSAS adds 10 / 12.5 / 15 aggregate points for RA2–RA3 / RA4 / RA5. No published ATAR entry floor. Separately, La Trobe's Regional Benefits Program is a scholarship for students enrolling at a regional campus, requiring an unadjusted ATAR of 90 for Dentistry – Regional Entry — it is not an admission threshold and carries no service obligation. Melbourne Dental — bonded/rural data not published in the structured AU requirements. The federal BMP allocates ~28.5% of CSP places nationally; individual schools sit above or below that benchmark depending on their workforce remit.

Question 9

When does each school release decisions?

Accepted Answer

La Trobe Dental typically releases dentistry offers November. Melbourne Dental releases dentistry offers October (first round); November-December (subsequent rounds). AU MD offers run through GEMSAS (graduate consortium) or direct school portals; if one is earlier than the other you may need to defer a decision while waiting for the second.

Question 10

What curriculum style do La Trobe Dental and Melbourne Dental use?

Accepted Answer

La Trobe Dental runs a Integrated curriculum. Melbourne Dental runs a Integrated curriculum. Both schools deliver teaching in the same broad style, so day-to-day study habits will feel similar. La Trobe Dental specifics: 5-year undergraduate Bachelor of Dental Science (Honours). Bendigo is the sole campus for the degree. Indicative tuition for 2027 entry: A$86,000 per 120 credit points for international students (120  Melbourne Dental specifics: 4-year (48-month) graduate DDS, listed by UoM as on campus at Parkville. Year 1 is foundations plus pre-clinical simulation, including a haptic virtual-reality laboratory, at the Melbourne Dental Scho

Question 11

Should I apply to both La Trobe Dental and Melbourne Dental?

Accepted Answer

Yes — AU medical applicants typically lodge preferences across multiple schools via GEMSAS (graduate) or direct-undergraduate portals + state TACs (UAC for NSW, VTAC for VIC, QTAC for QLD, etc.). The two schools' selection mechanics differ enough that listing both is a legitimate diversification strategy. A common mistake is over-indexing on schools with the same test-and-interview profile; La Trobe Dental and Melbourne Dental differ in their selection mechanics, so prepping both adds genuine optionality.

Comparison field	La Trobe DentalBendigo	Melbourne DentalParkville
Quick comparison
Location	Bendigo, Australia	Parkville, Australia
Entry pathway	Undergraduate	Graduate
Admission tests	None	GAMSAT
GAMSAT	-	No minimum GAMSAT score — UoM publishes no DDS cut-off and ranks competitively. Domestic applicants and international applicants residing in Australia must use GAMSAT. International applicants residing outside Australia may use GAMSAT, UK GAMSAT, the US DAT, the Canadian DAT or the UK BMAT. UoM publishes no DDS-specific GAMSAT weighting — treat the section weighting as unstated (the equal-section rule that circulates belongs to the Melbourne MD). ACER computes the overall score as (1 × Humanities and Social Sciences + 1 × Written Communication + 2 × Biological and Physical Sciences) ÷ 4; results are valid for up to four consecutive years in Australia, and admissions bodies automatically take the highest-performing whole score set rather than a mix of best sections.
UCAT-ANZ	-	-
ATAR	2026 intake (most recent completed cycle), ATAR-based offers only, across all offer rounds. Standard code 2100211491 — highest 99.95 ATAR / 99.95 selection rank; median 99.80 / 99.95; lowest 95.85 unadjusted, with the lowest selection rank reported as 99.55 by La Trobe's own Student Profile and ATAR Distribution report (July 2026) and as 99.95 by CourseSeeker and La Trobe's course-page widget. Regional Entry code 2100211501 — highest 99.95 / 99.95; median 95.8–95.90 / 99.95; lowest 83.65 / 99.05. First Nations Australian Entry code 2100213601 — suppressed (fewer than five ATAR-based offers). These are last-cycle outcomes, not published 2027 cut-offs: La Trobe publishes no guaranteed entry rank for this course.	-
Interview format	Academic results only on the standard and Regional Entry codes (no MMI, no interview); First Nations Australian Entry applicants may be required to attend an interview	Academic ranking only (no MMI / no interview)
Post-interview chance	N/A — academic results only.	N/A — no interview.
Decision date	November	October (first round); November-December (subsequent rounds)

ATAR	2026 intake (most recent completed cycle), ATAR-based offers only, across all offer rounds. Standard code 2100211491 — highest 99.95 ATAR / 99.95 selection rank; median 99.80 / 99.95; lowest 95.85 unadjusted, with the lowest selection rank reported as 99.55 by La Trobe's own Student Profile and ATAR Distribution report (July 2026) and as 99.95 by CourseSeeker and La Trobe's course-page widget. Regional Entry code 2100211501 — highest 99.95 / 99.95; median 95.8–95.90 / 99.95; lowest 83.65 / 99.05. First Nations Australian Entry code 2100213601 — suppressed (fewer than five ATAR-based offers). These are last-cycle outcomes, not published 2027 cut-offs: La Trobe publishes no guaranteed entry rank for this course.	-
Contextual ATAR	Rural and Regional Student Access Scheme (RRSAS) via the separate Regional Entry VTAC code 2100211501 — the applicant must reside (principal home address) in an ASGS-RA (2021) RA2–RA5 area; the adjustment is +10 aggregate points for RA2–RA3, +12.5 for RA4 and +15 for RA5. On the standard code 2100211491 the SEAS equity and scholarship adjustment is capped at 10 aggregate points, within La Trobe's overall 20-point cap on combined adjustments. No ATAR entry floor is published for either code. La Trobe's Regional Benefits Program is a separate regional-campus scholarship ($2,000/yr at ATAR 80–94.95, $5,000/yr at 95+) that requires an unadjusted ATAR of 90 for Dentistry – Regional Entry; 85 is its Physiotherapy figure, not a dentistry entry threshold.	-
GAMSAT	-	No minimum GAMSAT score — UoM publishes no DDS cut-off and ranks competitively. Domestic applicants and international applicants residing in Australia must use GAMSAT. International applicants residing outside Australia may use GAMSAT, UK GAMSAT, the US DAT, the Canadian DAT or the UK BMAT. UoM publishes no DDS-specific GAMSAT weighting — treat the section weighting as unstated (the equal-section rule that circulates belongs to the Melbourne MD). ACER computes the overall score as (1 × Humanities and Social Sciences + 1 × Written Communication + 2 × Biological and Physical Sciences) ÷ 4; results are valid for up to four consecutive years in Australia, and admissions bodies automatically take the highest-performing whole score set rather than a mix of best sections.
UCAT-ANZ	-	-
CASPer	-	-
ISAT	-	-
GPA	-	No fixed minimum — competitive ranking only. UoM ranks Standard and Indigenous pathway applicants on an entry score its Handbook calls a GPA and its course page now calls a Weighted Average Mark (WAM), computed the same way: the most recent bachelor degree (including Honours) regardless of later graduate study, over the last three undergraduate years, weighted 1 : 2 : 2 from the first of those three years to the final year. Guaranteed pathway applicants are exempt — their whole bachelor-degree WAM is the entry score. 2020 results are treated specially: honours completed in 2020 counts, and subjects completed before the pandemic count, but all other 2020 subject results are excluded. Offers — not interview invitations — are made on a combined ranked list where rank by GPA and rank by GAMSAT (or DAT/BMAT) are given equal weighting; there is no interview component at all. Up to 2 places per year may go to applicants re-ranked on strong cognate postgraduate study.
Prerequisites	-	-
Place types	All three VTAC codes (2100211491 standard, 2100211501 Regional Entry, 2100213601 First Nations Australian Entry) are Commonwealth Supported; international students pay full fees of A$86,000 per 120 credit points for 2027. La Trobe publishes no place quota for either group, but its Student Profile and ATAR Distribution report gives the Semester 1 2026 commencing cohorts: standard code 59 students, of whom 22 (37.3%) were international and 24 (40.7%) were admitted solely on ATAR; Regional Entry 67 students, of whom 54 (80.6%) were admitted solely on ATAR and none were international. (CourseSeeker itself records no student profile for these codes — the data comes from La Trobe's own report.)	UoM publishes a single course-wide quota of 91 places per year (2026 Handbook, MC-DDENSUR) and does NOT publish a CSP / Australian fee place / international breakdown. Commonwealth Supported Places are explicitly "limited" and to be considered you must submit a complete application before the deadline; domestic applicants are automatically considered for an Australian fee place if they meet entry requirements. There is no named bonded or rural DDS quota, but rurality is a recognised consideration — the Handbook directs the Selection Committee to weigh "evidence of rurality for rural applicants" under special entry schemes, and Graduate Access Melbourne lists a rural background as a category that may attract CSP consideration.
Indigenous pathway	Dedicated entry stream: Bachelor of Dental Science (Honours) (First Nations Australian Entry), VTAC code 2100213601, Commonwealth Supported, open only to applicants who are First Nations Australian. I…	Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander applicants are given priority access to the DDS via the University of Melbourne Indigenous pathway; a Confirmation document or Statutory Declaration goes to md…
Bonded / rural	No bonded or return-of-service scheme applies to this course — La Trobe attaches no bonding condition to any of the three dentistry codes, and the Commonwealth Bonded Medical Program covers medical sc…	-

Interview window	No formal interview	No interview
Interview details	La Trobe Bachelor of Dental Science (Honours) selects on academic results only — ATAR for Year 12 applicants, prior academic record for eligible non-Year-12 applicants. No UCAT-ANZ, no GAMSAT, no ISAT…	Melbourne DDS runs no interview of any kind — no MMI, no panel, no communication-skills screen. Selection is a single combined ranked list in which rank by GPA/WAM and rank by GAMSAT (or, for internat…

Specialities	Rural Dentistry, Community Oral Health, Indigenous Oral Health, General Dental Practice	Oral Surgery, Orthodontics, Paediatric Dentistry, Public Dental Health, Dental Research
Established	2014	1897
Course type	Undergraduate	Undergraduate
What makes it different	La Trobe's sole dental program is a 5-year undergraduate Bachelor of Dental Science (Honours) at the Bendigo campus — NOT a graduate DDS (no graduate-entry DDS exists at La Trobe per public sources).…	Melbourne's dental school traces to the Australian College of Dentistry, founded 1897 and affiliated with the University in 1904; the graduate 4-year Doctor of Dental Surgery itself dates from the 201…
Official course page	https://www.latrobe.edu.au/courses/bachelor-of-dental-science-honours	https://study.unimelb.edu.au/find/courses/graduate/doctor-of-dental-surgery/

La Trobe Dental vs Melbourne Dental

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La Trobe Dental

Melbourne Dental

La Trobe Dental vs Melbourne Dental - in detail

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Interview formats

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What makes each distinctive

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