Does it work for graduate-entry dentistry?

Yes. Switch the route to graduate and the tool assesses you against the graduate dental pathways — Aberdeen, UCLan and King's among them — using their published graduate UCAT thresholds and minimum degree classes rather than the school-leaver rules. Those programmes are hidden while you are in school-leaver mode, so switching route is what makes them appear.

What happens to the grades and scores I enter?

Nothing leaves your browser. The generator runs entirely on your own device — there is no account, no submission and no server call. Your answers are saved to your browser's local storage so the tool remembers where you were if you close the tab, and clearing your browser data removes them. The Word report is assembled in the browser too, so the only copy of it is the file you download.

Home/Where to apply/Dental

Where to Apply Dentistry · 2027

Where should you applyfor dentistry, on your real numbers.

Enter your UCAT, GCSEs and predictions once. The generator resolves the cut-off that actually applies to you at every UK dental school it models, runs each school's own admissions rules over your grades, and hands back four choices you can defend — with a replacement for every one you cannot realistically get.

UK dental schools modelled

open to you right now

TrueScore-powered cut-offs

post-interview data points

Build my four

Step 1 of 5

Tell us who is applying

Your route, fee status and contextual position decide which published cut-off every school is scored against — they change more verdicts than any other answer here.

Which route are you applying on?

Fee status

International applicants are scored against the international tier, and a handful of courses are closed to one group entirely.

Postcode (optional)

Detected: Not provided

Your postcode stays in your browser. It is only used to work out your nation and the two local schemes, and it is never sent anywhere.

Which qualifications are you taking?

Steps 3 and 4 will ask for your GCSEs and A-level predictions. Switch this if you are sitting Scottish qualifications, an Access to HE Diploma or the IB Diploma — a Scottish postcode sets Scottish for you, but you can change it either way.

Contextual and widening participation

I meet a contextual or widening-participation criterionMost schools publish a lower UCAT cut-off, and several a lower offer, for applicants who meet their contextual criteria. Tick this only if you meet a published scheme.

Additional route and school-specific flags

Each of these changes a published threshold, a scoring model or a hard gate at one or more schools. Leave anything you are unsure about unticked.

I meet the Access to Sheffield criteriaSheffield publishes no UCAT reduction for contextual dental applicants, but the flag still records the route on your report.I am on the Newcastle PARTNERS programmeNewcastle dentistry assesses PARTNERS applicants against its lower contextual threshold.I am applying with achieved A-level grades (gap year)Cardiff adds your achieved A levels to its GCSE score (up to 28 points), and Liverpool models achieved applicants at 12+ GCSE points instead of 15+.I have at least three days of evidenced NHS dental work experienceSeveral dental schools screen the personal statement for dental work experience before the interview stage.

Your name and school (for the downloadable report only)

Both are printed at the top of the Word report and nowhere else. Leave them blank if you would rather not.

Your name (optional)

School or college (optional)

Nothing you type here is sent to us — the report is built in your browser.

Everything on this step is optional except the route — the generator has sensible defaults for the rest.

3 of 14 schools currently open to you

New for 2027 entry

Two new dental schools are recruiting

In June 2026 the government confirmed 50 new funded dental school places in England, 25 each at the University of Portsmouth and the University of East Anglia, which it called the first sustained expansion of dental school places in nearly 20 years. Both run a five-year BDS that you apply to through UCAS with the UCAT, with a first UK intake in September 2027. Neither has published any admissions data for UK applicants yet, with no lowest-invited UCAT, interview rate or offer rate to model, so the generator does not score them. Here is what each one asks for, taken from its own course page.

University of Portsmouth

Portsmouth · BDS Dental Surgery · 5 years

UCAS P80 · B758

First UK intake: September 2027. The course took applications from EU and international students a year earlier, for September 2026.
Places: 25 funded UK places, with capacity for a further 20 international students.
A-levels: AAA, including Biology and one of Chemistry, Physics, Maths or Psychology. Chemistry is not compulsory.
GCSEs: English and Maths at grade 7 and two sciences at grade 6, all already achieved when you apply.
UCAT: Required, with no cut-off. Your score is judged against that year’s cohort, alongside your personal statement, GCSEs and A-levels, and Portsmouth says strength elsewhere could partly make up for a lower UCAT.
Interview: Shortlisted applicants get either an individual online interview or an on-campus interview. Portsmouth does not say which you will be offered, whether you can choose, or what format the interview takes.
Contextual and resits: The course page lists no contextual offer. A-level resit grades are considered, and Portsmouth says it would consider someone previously unsuccessful on a dentistry course at another university.
Deferred entry: Requests to defer are considered case by case.
Minimum age: You must be 18 when the course starts.

Our read: Your UCAT is weighed alongside your personal statement, GCSEs and A-levels rather than against a cut-off, but no weighting is published, and Portsmouth itself calls dentistry a highly competitive course.

port.ac.uk course page

University of East Anglia

Norwich · BDS Dental Surgery · 5 years

UCAS E14 · A200

First UK intake: September 2027, the course’s first cohort.
Places: 25 UK places and 11 international places for 2027 entry.
A-levels: AAA, including Biology (or Human Biology) or Chemistry, plus two further A-levels. Maths and Further Maths cannot both count.
GCSEs: At least six at grade 6, including English Language, Maths and two sciences or Double Science. Below that, you must be resitting and predicted to reach it.
UCAT: Required, with no cut-off. Applicants are first screened on grades, personal statement and reference; if applications outnumber interview places, the overall UCAT may then be ranked to choose who is interviewed. Offers go to the top of a ranking that weights the UCAT and the interview equally, with the SJT score counted inside the interview score.
Interview: Multiple mini interview (MMI) on campus in Norwich: five-minute stations with a minute and a half to prepare, held between November and March.
Contextual and resits: For 2027 entry the BDS is excluded from all of UEA’s contextual-offer schemes. A-level resits are considered only if you got ABB or AAC at the first sitting, and you are expected to get at least one A* in the subject you resit. A second resit is not considered.
Deferred entry: Not accepted. If you plan a gap year, apply in the following cycle instead.
Minimum age: You must be 18 when the course starts.

Our read: The UCAT carries equal weight with the interview for offers, and may decide who is interviewed if applications outnumber places, so it suits a strong score best, although UEA says a low score does not by itself rule you out.

uea.ac.uk course page

How to weigh them in your four

There is no published cut-off to aim at. Neither school has published a lowest-invited UCAT, an interview rate or an offer rate for UK applicants, because neither has run a full cycle for them. Unknown is not the same as easy: each has 25 funded UK places, nothing published suggests either will be less competitive than an established school, and Portsmouth itself calls dentistry a highly competitive course.
They describe their use of the UCAT differently. UEA may rank the overall UCAT to decide who is interviewed when applications outnumber places, and weights it equally with the interview when making offers. Portsmouth says it reads the UCAT alongside your personal statement, GCSEs and A-levels, and that strength elsewhere could partly make up for a lower score. But it publishes no weighting and judges scores against that year’s cohort, so it may still lean heavily on the UCAT. Neither is a safe place for a low score.
Check the GCSE screen before anything else. Portsmouth wants English and Maths at grade 7 and two sciences at grade 6, all already achieved when you apply. UEA wants at least six GCSEs at grade 6, including English Language, Maths and two sciences, and considers you below that only if you are resitting and predicted to reach it. A strong UCAT does not make up for either.
Neither insists on both Biology and Chemistry. Portsmouth takes Biology with any one of Chemistry, Physics, Maths or Psychology. UEA needs Biology or Chemistry plus two further A-levels. If your subject mix narrows your options elsewhere, read these two closely.
Plan on the standard offer. For 2027 entry UEA excludes the BDS from all its contextual-offer schemes. Portsmouth’s course page lists no contextual offer, and its university-wide adjusted offers are not confirmed for dentistry, so ask its admissions team before counting on one.
Taking a gap year? UEA does not accept deferred entry, so apply to it in the cycle before you want to start. Portsmouth considers deferral requests case by case.

A first cohort

Both courses are provisionally accepted by the GDC Registrar. The General Dental Council (GDC) is the body you must register with to work as a dentist in the UK. For any new dental course, it decides whether the degree is sufficient for registration only once the first students have finished and the course has been inspected. That is the standard position for a new course, but neither course has any graduates yet. Confirm each course code in UCAS Hub before you add it. Apply through UCAS by 18:00 UK time on 15 October 2026, the equal-consideration deadline for dentistry: UEA’s selection starts from on-time applications, and Portsmouth says later ones may not be processed.

Sources · checked 14 September 2026 for 2027 entry

How it works

How the generator decides

Three passes, in order. Nothing is averaged into a single opaque score — every verdict names the rule that produced it, so you can check it against the school's own admissions page before you commit a choice.

1
Your threshold, school by school — the NGMP TrueScore predicted UCAT cut-off for the tier that actually applies to you: home, contextual, Scottish, Rest of UK, international or graduate. Named local routes are applied on top, from the St Andrews contextual discount to ARU's Essex reduction and the Leeds foundation-year offset.
2
Then the school's own rules — SJT band policy, the bespoke GCSE scoring models (Birmingham out of 24, Cardiff out of 24, Nottingham out of 82, Queen's Belfast out of 45), required A-level combinations, resit policies, whether predictions are used at all, and which contextual schemes the school recognises.
3
Four choices, and what unlocks more — the picks that survive are kept, the ones that fail are replaced by the closest comparable school, and the impact panel shows what a higher UCAT or a stronger prediction would actually open up.

What powers it

Built on our own admissions data

The generator is not a lookup table of headline cut-offs. It runs on the same datasets our school guides are written from, refreshed every cycle.

TrueScoreUCAT cut-offs

Every threshold comes from NGMP TrueScore, our tier-aware prediction of the UCAT score each school needs for an interview invitation, built from multi-year Freedom-of-Information data. Where a school publishes no usable tier, the tool falls back to its stated minimum and says so.

67Expert rule sets

One hand-authored rule set per school — 51 medical and 16 dental — covering GCSE models, A-level subject requirements, SJT policy, resits, contextual routes and the quirks that decide borderline applications.

Post-interviewSuccess rates

Clearing the cut-off is only half the question. Each verdict carries the school's published post-interview success rate for your route, so you can tell a school that interviews widely from one that converts.

2027Updated every cycle

Thresholds, policies and rates are refreshed when each cycle's data lands. Pair the verdicts with our NGMP Score rankings to weigh where you are competitive against where you actually want to study.

A shortlisting model, not a decision

Thresholds move between cycles and admissions teams revise their methodology without warning. Use the generator to narrow fifty-plus schools down to a defensible four — then verify every one against the school's current admissions page before your UCAS form goes in.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

You enter your fee status, postcode, contextual status and route, your UCAT cognitive total and SJT band, your GCSEs and A-level predictions — or your National 5s and Highers, your IB Diploma or your degree — then pick the four dental schools you were thinking of. The tool resolves the UCAT threshold that applies to you at each of the sixteen established UK dental schools, runs each school's own eligibility rules over your grades, and returns a verdict per school. It then tells you which of your four survive, what to replace the others with, and what change to your profile would unlock the most additional schools.

No. It is an independent model. UCAT thresholds come from NGMP TrueScore, our prediction of the score each school needed for an interview invitation, built from multi-year Freedom-of-Information data and each school's published selection methodology. Everything else — GCSE scoring models, A-level combinations, SJT policies, resit rules, contextual routes — is read from each school's published admissions guidance. Schools change their thresholds and their methodology between cycles, so treat every verdict as a shortlisting guide and check the school's own page before you commit a UCAS choice.

Yes, and it is one of the biggest levers in the tool. Tick contextual and every school that publishes a contextual threshold switches to it, which is typically 100–250 UCAT points lower and at some schools a percentage discount instead. Named local schemes are handled separately because they do not all work the same way: Sheffield's Access scheme, Newcastle's Partners programme, the Leeds foundation-year route, ARU's Essex and East-of-England reductions and St Andrews' percentage discount each have their own switch under Additional flags. Only tick a scheme if you have confirmed with the school that you are eligible for it.

The shape of the decision is the same but almost none of the numbers are. Dentistry has fewer than twenty UK schools rather than fifty-plus, so a single unusable choice costs you far more of the shortlist. Several dental schools weight GCSEs harder than any medical school does — Cardiff scores seven GCSEs out of twenty-eight, Queen's Belfast scores your best nine out of thirty-six — and evidenced dental work experience matters at schools that screen the personal statement before shortlisting. Every dental rule in the tool is authored from dental admissions guidance; nothing is inherited from the medicine model.

Both are real UCAS options. The University of Portsmouth (UCAS B758) and the University of East Anglia (UCAS A200) each have 25 government-funded dental places for UK students, with a first UK intake in September 2027. The allocation was confirmed by the government in June 2026, and both run a five-year BDS. Neither has published any admissions data for UK applicants yet, with no lowest-invited UCAT, interview rate or offer rate to model, so the generator does not score them. Nothing published suggests either will be less competitive than an established school: each has only 25 funded UK places, and Portsmouth itself calls dentistry a highly competitive course. Both say they have no UCAT cut-off. UEA may rank the overall UCAT to decide who is interviewed when applications outnumber places, then weights the UCAT and the interview equally when making offers. Portsmouth reads the UCAT alongside the personal statement, GCSEs and A-levels, but publishes no weighting. Check the hard requirements before using a choice on either. Portsmouth wants GCSE English and Maths at grade 7 and two sciences at grade 6, already achieved when you apply, and AAA with Biology plus one of Chemistry, Physics, Maths or Psychology. UEA wants at least six GCSEs at grade 6 including English Language, Maths and two sciences, and AAA with Biology or Chemistry; for 2027 entry it excludes the course from its contextual offers, and it does not accept deferred entry. Both require you to be 18 when the course starts, and both courses are provisionally accepted by the General Dental Council, the standard position for a new dental course until its first students have finished.

Separately from the rest of the UK, because they fund their places separately. Scottish schools hold most of their places for Scottish-domiciled applicants and run a much higher Rest-of-UK threshold; Cardiff and Bangor do the same for Welsh applicants. The generator reads your postcode to work out which nation you are domiciled in and then applies the tier that actually applies to you — Scottish, Welsh or Rest of UK — rather than the headline figure. If you are applying from England to Scotland, expect the thresholds you see here to be materially higher than the ones quoted on the school's general admissions page.

Yes. Step 1 asks which qualifications you are taking, and a Scottish postcode selects Highers for you — you can change it either way, because Scottish pupils on A-levels and English pupils at Scottish schools both exist. Choose Highers and step 3 asks for your National 5s and step 4 for your Highers and Advanced Highers, with each school checked against its own published Scottish offer rather than a translation of its A-level one. Your National 5 grades are read on the scale the universities themselves publish, where an A counts as a GCSE 7 and a B as a 6. Two honest limits: the schools that score GCSEs out of a fixed total count grade 8s and 9s, which National 5 does not award, so those models are not run against a Scottish profile and the school is judged on its Scottish route instead; and where we do not yet hold a school's published Highers offer, the tool says so on that school's card and holds it back from your recommended four rather than guessing.

Yes, including if you are an international student. Choose the IB Diploma in step 1, tell step 3 whether you took GCSEs or IGCSEs — many international IB students took neither, and that is fine — and enter your six subjects with their level and predicted grade, plus your core points, in step 4. Every school is checked against its own published IB offer for 2027 entry, taken from the university's own pages rather than translated from its A-level offer: the points total (and whether it counts TOK and the Extended Essay), the Higher Level grades or Higher Level points total, the named subjects, any Standard Level rule and any contextual offer. Where a school accepts either of two routes, such as 38 points or 7,6,6 at Higher Level, meeting either is enough. Two honest limits: a few schools score GCSEs in a way we cannot reproduce for an applicant who has none, so their verdict is capped at borderline and the card says why; and where a school's published offer leaves something open, the card tells you to confirm it with admissions rather than guessing.

Treat them as a balanced set rather than four separate bets. The generator labels each one SAFE (your score clears the predicted threshold with room to spare), STRATEGIC (you clear it, but not comfortably) or ASPIRATIONAL (you are close enough to be worth the choice). A sensible final four usually mixes the three: one or two safe choices, one or two strategic, and at most one aspirational. Where a school you picked cannot work on your numbers, the tool names the reason and offers the closest replacement of a similar competitiveness rather than simply deleting it.

You can, but most schools advise against it and several ask about it at interview. UCAS allows four choices across both subjects, and a split application reads as undecided to admissions tutors who are selecting for commitment to a specific profession. If you are genuinely torn, the medicine version of this generator will model the other half of the picture, and each course keeps its own set of four so you can compare the two shortlists before you commit.

Now go and earn the score the model wants

A shortlist is only as good as the UCAT behind it — and the interview that follows it. Our tutors take both.

Book UCAT tutoring Interview preparation Medicine + dentistry generator

Campus photo credits

Campus photographs are used under free Creative Commons or public-domain licences and have been resized and cropped for display.

Aberdeen: photograph by Bill Harrison — CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Aberdeen (Graduate Dentistry): photograph by Mussklprozz — CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Anglia Ruskin (ARU): photograph by ARU — CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Aston University: photograph by Tony Hisgett — CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Barts and The London (Queen Mary): photograph by Paul the Archivist / Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Birmingham: photograph by mattbuck — CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Brighton & Sussex (BSMS): photograph by Hassocks5489 / Wikimedia Commons — CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Bristol: photograph by Suicasmo — CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Brunel Medical School: photograph by Matt Brown — CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Buckingham: photograph by Nilo775 / Wikimedia Commons — CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Cambridge: photograph by Dmitry Tonkonog (User:Heuschrecke) — CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Cardiff: photograph by Jeremy Segrott (from Cardiff, Wales, UK) / Wikimedia Commons — CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Chester Medical School (GEM): photograph by secretlondon123 — CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Dundee: photograph by Ydam / Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Edge Hill: photograph by Bryan Pready / geograph.org.uk — CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Edinburgh: photograph by Chrysi Chrysochou — CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Exeter: photograph by Benjamin Evans — Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Glasgow: photograph by Clem_nat — CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Hertfordshire: photograph by CybJubal / Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Hull York (HYMS): photograph by Tadeusz Hare — CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Imperial College London: photograph by Shadowssettle — CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Keele: photograph by Jonathan Hutchins / Geograph Britain and Ireland — CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Kent and Medway (KMMS): photograph by St BC / Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
King's College London (KCL): photograph by K Ulysses-Ono — CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
King's College London (KCL): photograph by K Ulysses-Ono — CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Lancaster: photograph by SideLong / Flickr — CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Leeds: photograph by Chemical Engineer / Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Leicester: photograph by NotFromUtrecht — CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Lincoln Medical School: photograph by Chris Goddard — CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Liverpool: photograph by Rodhullandemu / Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Manchester: photograph by Happytree9527 / Wikimedia Commons — CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Newcastle: photograph by Sarah Cossom — CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
North Wales (Bangor): photograph by Tilman2007 — CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Norwich (UEA): photograph by Bryn Holmes / Geograph Britain and Ireland — CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Nottingham: photograph by Clem Rutter, Rochester, Kent (www.clemrutter.net) — CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Oxford: photograph by Julian Herzog — CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Pears Cumbria (GEM): photograph by Tom Edwards — Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Peninsula (Plymouth): photograph by N Chadwick — CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Plymouth: photograph by Mutney — CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Queen Mary (QMUL): photograph by Paul the Archivist — CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Queen's University Belfast: photograph by Nick Birse — CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Queen's University Belfast (QUB): photograph by Nick Birse — CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Sheffield: photograph by Chanpeter — CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Southampton: photograph by Roger Davies / Geograph Britain and Ireland — CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
St Andrews: photograph by Daytrick / Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
St George's: photograph by Peter Trimming / Geograph Britain and Ireland — CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
St Mary's Twickenham: photograph by Peter Trimming / Geograph (via Wikimedia Commons) — CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Sunderland: photograph by Komusar — CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Surrey (GEM): photograph by Geographer / Geograph Britain and Ireland — CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Swansea (GEM): photograph by Swanseauni — CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
UCL: photograph by Diliff (David Iliff) — CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
UCLan (Graduate Dentistry): photograph by Galatas — CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Ulster University Medical School: photograph by Conradder / Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
University of Central Lancashire (UCLan): photograph by Galatas — CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
University of Greater Manchester: photograph by BoltonUni — CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Warwick (GEM): photograph by Mike1024 / Wikimedia Commons — Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Worcester Medical School: photograph by JanetMackinnon — CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Reviewed by Isaac Butler-King, medical student at the University of Glasgow. Last reviewed: 14 September 2026 · Editorial policy

Where should you applyfor dentistry, on your real numbers.

Two new dental schools are recruiting

How to weigh them in your four

A first cohort

How the generator decides

Built on our own admissions data

A shortlisting model, not a decision

Frequently asked questions

How does the dental Where to Apply generator work?

Is this an official prediction of whether I will get an interview?

Does it handle contextual and widening-participation routes?

Does it work for graduate-entry dentistry?

How is dentistry different from medicine here?

What about the new dental schools at Portsmouth and the University of East Anglia?

How are Scottish and Welsh schools handled?

I am sitting National 5s and Highers, not GCSEs and A-levels. Does this work for me?

I am taking the IB Diploma. Does this work for me?

What happens to the grades and scores I enter?

How should I use the four recommendations?

Can I mix medicine and dentistry in the same UCAS application?

Now go and earn the score the model wants