La Trobe Dental and UWA 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 Bachelor) place them in slightly different academic-strictness tiers. The interview formats diverge — Interview vs MMI — and the prep approaches for the two are fundamentally different.
| Comparison field | La Trobe DentalBendigo | UWA DentalCrawley |
|---|---|---|
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| Location | Bendigo, Australia | Crawley, Australia |
| Entry pathway | Undergraduate | Graduate |
| Admission tests | None | GAMSAT |
| GAMSAT | - | Graduate DMD: minimum 50 overall (no section below 50). Interview short-listing: GAMSAT and GPA equally weighted (50:50). 2022 commencement median GAMSAT 68 — the only publicly disclosed cohort-level success figure for UWA DMD. |
| UCAT-ANZ | - | - |
| 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. | - |
| Interview format | Academic results only (no MMI / no formal interview) | Multi-Mini Interview (~8 stations) |
| Post-interview chance | N/A — academic results only. | ~33% interview-to-offer. |
| Decision date | November | December-January |
Bendigo
Quick comparison
Crawley
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.. UWA Dental requires Bachelor degree with minimum GPA 5.5/7.0; GAMSAT overall 50+ with section minima 50+; MMI; rural and Aboriginal Health pathways available.. UWA 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.
La Trobe Dental uses Interview (Academic results only (no MMI / no formal interview)); UWA Dental uses MMI (Multi-Mini Interview (~8 stations)). 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, UWA Dental is the better fit. Interview windows: La Trobe Dental interviews in No formal interview; UWA Dental in October-November.
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 4-year graduate Doctor of Dental Medicine (DMD). Year 1 foundations and pre-clinical simulation at Crawley. Years 2-4 clinical placements at the Oral Intake size: La Trobe Dental — International intake 25 places (OzTREKK). Domestic intake not publicly disclosed by La Trobe.; UWA Dental — ~36 places annually across all DMD quotas (Direct + Graduate combined; Fraser's UWA 2027). Domestic vs international split not publicly disclosed.. A larger cohort means more peer breadth; a smaller cohort means more tutor contact.
La Trobe Dental: N/A — academic results only.. UWA Dental: ~33% interview-to-offer.. 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. UWA Dental: UWA Dental runs a 4-year graduate Doctor of Dental Medicine (DMD) — Western Australia's only graduate-entry dental program. Co-located with the Oral Health Centre of WA at the Crawley campus. Pre-interview ranking weights GAMSAT and GPA; the MMI carries substantial weight in the final composite. Strong rural and Aboriginal Health pathways.
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.
