How do interviews differ between Melbourne Dental and UQ Doctor of Dental Medicine?

Melbourne Dental uses: Academic ranking only (no MMI / no interview). UQ Doctor of Dental Medicine uses: No interview — selection on GPA, GAMSAT and a situational judgement test. Different formats reward different skill sets. Plan separate prep streams for each. Interview windows: No interview (Melbourne Dental); see school page (UQ Doctor of Dental Medicine).

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Australian Dental school comparison

Melbourne Dental vs UQ Doctor of Dental Medicine

Melbourne Dental and UQ Doctor of Dental Medicine are both Australian dental schools, but the path to an offer at each is meaningfully different. Melbourne Dental is in Victoria while UQ Doctor of Dental Medicine is in Queensland. State of origin matters here: several schools rank local applicants ahead of interstate ones.

Both select on GAMSAT, so a single sitting can support both applications.

Side-by-side comparison

Show only differences

Side-by-side comparison: Melbourne Dental and UQ Doctor of Dental Medicine.
Comparison field	Melbourne DentalParkville	UQ Doctor of Dental MedicineBrisbane, Queensland
Quick comparison
Location	Parkville, Australia	Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Entry pathway	Graduate	Graduate
Admission tests	GAMSAT	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.	Minimum 50 in each section, sat within 4 years prior to the year of commencement.
UCAT-ANZ	-	-
ATAR	-	-
Interview format	Academic ranking only (no MMI / no interview)	No interview — selection on GPA, GAMSAT and a situational judgement test
Post-interview chance	N/A — no interview.	-
Decision date	October (first round); November-December (subsequent rounds)	-

ATAR	-	-
Contextual ATAR	-	-
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.	Minimum 50 in each section, sat within 4 years prior to the year of commencement.
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.	Minimum GPA 5.0 on a 7-point scale.
Prerequisites	-	University-level human anatomy and human physiology or cellular physiology within the preceding 10 years.
Place types	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	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	-	-

Interview window	No interview	-
Interview details	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	Oral Surgery, Orthodontics, Paediatric Dentistry, Public Dental Health, Dental Research	Dentistry, Oral health
Established	1897	1936
Course type	Undergraduate	Undergraduate
What makes it different	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://study.unimelb.edu.au/find/courses/graduate/doctor-of-dental-surgery/	https://study.uq.edu.au/study-options/programs/doctor-dental-medicine-5763

Melbourne Dental

Parkville

Quick comparison

Location: Parkville, Australia
Entry pathway: Graduate
Admission tests: 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: -
Interview format: Academic ranking only (no MMI / no interview)
Post-interview chance: N/A — no interview.
Decision date: October (first round); November-December (subsequent rounds)

ATAR: -
Contextual ATAR: -
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: 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: 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: -

UQ Doctor of Dental Medicine

Brisbane, Queensland

Quick comparison

Location: Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Entry pathway: Graduate
Admission tests: GAMSAT
GAMSAT: Minimum 50 in each section, sat within 4 years prior to the year of commencement.
UCAT-ANZ: -
ATAR: -
Interview format: No interview — selection on GPA, GAMSAT and a situational judgement test
Post-interview chance: -
Decision date: -

Compare different schools

Melbourne Dental vs UQ Doctor of Dental Medicine - in detail

Admission tests compared

GAMSAT cut-offs. 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… UQ Doctor of Dental Medicine — Minimum 50 in each section, sat within 4 years prior to the year of commencement.

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

Melbourne Dental requires Bachelor degree in any discipline completed within 10 years (or an older degree plus a graduate diploma, master's or PhD completed within 10 years); prerequisite subjects in anatomy, biochemistry and physiology at second-year level, also within 10 years — the anatomy subject cannot be completed entirely online and must include laboratory work with hands-on wet human cadaveric material; and GAMSAT.

UoM publishes no minimum GPA/WAM and no minimum GAMSAT score for the DDS — the Handbook states only that meeting the requirements does not guarantee selection. Holders of an accredited Australian or NZ Bachelor of Oral Health who can register and practise as an oral health therapist meet the prerequisite requirement via a special entry scheme.

English language requirement is IELTS 7.0 overall with writing 7.0 and no band below 6.5 (or equivalent). No interview.

UQ Doctor of Dental Medicine requires A bachelor’s degree in health, allied health, physical sciences or biological sciences with a GPA of 5.0 on a 7-point scale; university-level human anatomy and human physiology or cellular physiology completed within the 10 years before commencement; GAMSAT sat within 4 years prior to the year of commencement with a minimum score of 50 in each section; and completion of a situational judgement test in the year of application.

Applications are made directly to UQ, not through GEMSAS.

Graduate-entry GPA. 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… UQ Doctor of Dental Medicine — Minimum GPA 5.0 on a 7-point scale.

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

Melbourne Dental and UQ Doctor of Dental Medicine interview in the same broad format, so the underlying prep approach is the same — practise ethics frameworks, Australian health-system topics (Medicare, rural workforce, Indigenous health) and (for MMI) structured station responses against a timer.

That said, the specifics differ slightly: Melbourne Dental runs academic ranking only (no mmi / no interview); UQ Doctor of Dental Medicine runs no interview — selection on gpa, gamsat and a situational judgement test. Mock practice tailored to each school's exact format is the highest-leverage prep.

Curriculum and teaching style

Intake size: Melbourne Dental — 91 places per year — a course-wide quota published in the current (2026) UoM Handbook, last updated 4 August 2026 and still the governing edition for the 2027 intake. This is a quota ceiling, not a published enrolment count, and UoM does NOT publish a CSP / Australian fee place / international split.

The quota is capped by the availability of dental chairs at the Royal Dental Hospital Melbourne and the Melbourne Dental Clinic, and Commonwealth Supported Places within it are described only as "limited".; UQ Doctor of Dental Medicine — UQ does not publish the intake size for this programme..

A larger cohort means more peer breadth; a smaller cohort means more tutor contact.

Which is right for you?

Check your state of origin before you apply — Melbourne Dental draws heavily on Victoria applicants and UQ Doctor of Dental Medicine 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

Melbourne Dental uses GAMSAT. UQ Doctor of Dental Medicine uses GAMSAT. Both schools share the same test stack — your single sitting can support both applications. 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.

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. UQ Doctor of Dental Medicine — Minimum 50 in each section, sat within 4 years prior to the year of commencement. 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.

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. UQ Doctor of Dental Medicine — Minimum GPA 5.0 on a 7-point scale. 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.

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. UQ Doctor of Dental Medicine — place-type breakdown not published. 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.

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. UQ Doctor of Dental Medicine — pathway details not published in the structured AU requirements; see the school admissions page. Both schools accept ATSI applicants through the standard pathway as well; the dedicated pathway typically offers adjusted academic thresholds plus wrap-around academic support.

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; Melbourne Dental and UQ Doctor of Dental Medicine differ in their selection mechanics, so prepping both adds genuine optionality.

Where to go next

Melbourne DentalEntry requirements, interview format and key dates in full UQ Doctor of Dental MedicineEntry requirements, interview format and key dates in full

Melbourne Dental vs UQ Doctor of Dental Medicine

Side-by-side comparison

Melbourne Dental vs UQ Doctor of Dental Medicine - in detail

Admission tests compared

ATAR and academic profile

Interview formats

Curriculum and teaching style

Which is right for you?

Common questions

What admission tests do Melbourne Dental and UQ Doctor of Dental Medicine use?

What GAMSAT score do I need for Melbourne Dental vs UQ Doctor of Dental Medicine?

What GPA do I need for Melbourne Dental vs UQ Doctor of Dental Medicine?

How do interviews differ between Melbourne Dental and UQ Doctor of Dental Medicine?

What place types (CSP / BMP / Full-fee) do Melbourne Dental and UQ Doctor of Dental Medicine offer?

What Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander entry pathways do Melbourne Dental and UQ Doctor of Dental Medicine offer?

Should I apply to both Melbourne Dental and UQ Doctor of Dental Medicine?

Where to go next

Other dental school comparisons