La Trobe Dental and UQ Dental are both UK dental schools, but the path to an offer at each is meaningfully different. Both sit in England, so location and clinical-placement breadth are similar — the differentiation comes from selection methodology, interview style and curriculum philosophy. Their A-Level requirements (Year vs ATAR) place them in slightly different academic-strictness tiers.
| Comparison field | La Trobe DentalBendigo | UQ DentalSt Lucia |
|---|---|---|
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| Location | Bendigo, Australia | St Lucia, Australia |
| Entry pathway | Undergraduate | Undergraduate |
| Admission tests | None | UCAT-ANZ |
| GAMSAT | - | - |
| UCAT-ANZ | - | Mandatory. All applicants at/above the ATAR floor are ranked directly on UCAT-ANZ aggregate — ATAR acts as a hurdle, not a differentiator. UCAT section scores may separate tied applicants. Discrete percentile cut not officially published; broadly cited as 89th percentile equivalent (GradReady summary). |
| ATAR | ATAR range 99.00-99.85 at Bendigo (selection rank floor with adjustments, to highest ATAR offered excluding adjustments). Confirmed via La Trobe FAQ + OzTREKK + MedView. | 2026 entry: lowest rank offered 95.70 (unadjusted) → 99.00 (with adjustments); median rank offered 99.30 (unadjusted) → 99.95 (with adjustments); highest rank offered 99.95. ATAR floor 99.00 adjusted for QLD Year 12 — one of the highest in Australian dentistry. |
| Interview format | Academic results only (no MMI / no formal interview) | No interview — ATAR threshold then UCAT-ANZ aggregate ranking |
| Post-interview chance | N/A — academic results only. | N/A — no interview. |
| Decision date | November | January |
Bendigo
Quick comparison
St Lucia
Quick comparison
La Trobe Dental requires Year 12 ATAR typically 99.00-99.85 (selection rank with adjustments). English (study score 25) or EAL (30) prerequisite. No UCAT required for Year 12 entry; required only for non-Year-12 applicants. NO GAMSAT. International intake ~25 places. Next available intake 2027.. UQ Dental requires ATAR 99.00 adjusted floor + UCAT-ANZ aggregate ranking (no interview). English + Chemistry prerequisites (Units 3/4, C); Biology recommended.. UQ Dental is the stricter A-Level offer; La Trobe Dental is slightly more forgiving. If your predicted grades are borderline, La Trobe Dental carries the lower academic-rejection risk pre-interview.
Both La Trobe Dental and UQ Dental use Interview interviews, so the underlying prep approach is the same — practise ethics frameworks, NHS hot-topic answers and (for MMI) structured station responses against a timer. That said, the specifics differ slightly: La Trobe Dental runs academic results only (no mmi / no formal interview); UQ Dental runs no interview — atar threshold then ucat-anz aggregate ranking. Mock practice tailored to each school's exact format is the highest-leverage prep. Interview windows: La Trobe Dental interviews in No formal interview; UQ Dental in No interview.
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 (Honours). Bendigo is the sole campus for the degree. Annual indicative international tuition (2026) A 5-year undergraduate Bachelor of Dental Science (Honours). Years 1-2 foundations and pre-clinical simulation at St Lucia. Years 3-5 clinical placement Intake size: La Trobe Dental — International intake 25 places (OzTREKK). Domestic intake not publicly disclosed by La Trobe.; UQ Dental — 2025 intake: 75 admitted total (QTAC); ~60% international. International total program fee AUD $94,856.. A larger cohort means more peer breadth; a smaller cohort means more tutor contact.
La Trobe Dental: N/A — academic results only.. UQ Dental: N/A — no interview.. 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.
La Trobe Dental: 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). UCAT is NOT required for Year 12 applicants (required only for non-Year-12 entry). ATAR-only selection at Year 12; Regional Benefits Program drops the ATAR floor to 85 for rural applicants. UQ Dental: UQ Dental is the most ATAR-competitive dental program in Australia: 99.00 adjusted ATAR floor with 99.95 median offer rank (2026 intake). No interview — selection runs on the ATAR hurdle + UCAT-ANZ aggregate. Co-located with the Oral Health Centre at Herston — Queensland's largest dental teaching facility.
For applicants with predicted A-Level grades at the lower end of the AAA-A*AA range, La Trobe Dental is the lower-risk academic option. Both schools sit in the same England foundation-programme catchment, so post-graduation training paths overlap heavily. Your firm/insurance choice should ultimately weight: where your UCAT and predicted grades sit relative to each school's threshold, which interview format you can prepare for most credibly, and where you'd actually want to live for five years.
