J Dent Educ. 68(9): 947-953 2004
© 2004 American Dental Education Association
Milieu in Dental Schools and Practice |
Characteristics of Dental School Feeder Institutions
Edward A. Thibodeau, D.M.D., Ph.D.;
Lauren E. Mentasti
Dr. Thibodeau is Assistant Dean for Admissions, University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine, and Ms. Mentasti is a combined B.A./B.S. and D.M.D. degree student, University of Connecticut Storrs Campus. Direct correspondence and requests for reprints to Dr. Edward A. Thibodeau, Office of Dental Admissions, University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine, 263 Farmington Ave., Farmington, CT 06030-3905; 860-679-3748 phone; 860-679-1899 fax; Thibodeau{at}nso.uchc.edu.
Key words: feeder institutions, dental school recruitment, minority recruitment, advising
Submitted for publication 03/30/04;
accepted 07/05/04
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Abstract
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A major challenge faced by all dental schools is the need to attract highly qualified student applicants. The purpose of this study was to use 2002–03 AADSAS data to identify and characterize feeder colleges and universities that are the major source of applicants to U.S. dental schools. Feeder schools were defined as any institutions with five or more applicants, and minority-feeder schools as those with two or more minority applicants. Feeder schools were ranked by their total numbers of applicants (Category 1) and by their ratio of applicants to total undergraduate enrollment (Category 2). Feeder institutions were compared using total enrollment, degree status, geographic distribution, religious affiliation, numbers of minority applicants, and college admissions selectivity criteria. The top fifty Category 1 schools had an average enrollment of over 19,000 students and an average of sixty-seven applicants. The top fifty Category 2 schools had an average enrollment of approximately 8,500 students and an average of forty-nine applicants. Less than 1 percent of applicants from the top feeder institutions attended the nation’s most competitive schools. California and Utah accounted for 28 percent of the total applicants from feeder institutions, followed by Florida (6.2 percent) and New York (5.7 percent). Seventeen of the top twenty-five Category 2 schools (68 percent) were affiliated with or had student bodies associated with a particular religion, with the Seventh-Day Adventist and Mormon institutions accounting for 544 applicants. The majority of all applicants from feeder institutions attended schools in the Southwest. The majority of black and Hispanic feeder institutions were in Florida, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Puerto Rico. Results suggest that factors such as school size, geographic location, religious affiliation, and admissions selectivity criteria of colleges and universities may have a direct impact on the dental applicant pool.
One of the major challenges faced by dental education today is the recruitment of qualified applicants who are capable of serving the oral health care needs of a culturally and economically diverse U.S. population. To achieve this goal, dental schools must continue to attract applicants with both a history of strong academic performance and the ability to succeed as future dental health care workers.
At present, dental schools rely almost exclusively on traditional four-year colleges and universities as their primary source of applicants. Most dental schools require applicants to complete a minimum of three years of college or higher education prior to matriculation.1 Colleges and universities considered successful at providing applicants to dental programs can be identified as "feeder" institutions. Data from the Associated American Dental School Application Service (AADSAS) has been used to gain insight into trends and characteristics of dental school applicants and enrollees2,3; however, there is limited information on the undergraduate institutions that applicants attend.
The purpose of this study was to identify and characterize the feeder institutions that are the major source of applicants to U.S. dental schools. Specifically, feeder colleges and universities were compared using total enrollment, degree status, geographic distribution, religious affiliation, numbers of minority applicants, and college admissions selectivity criteria.
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Methods
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Dental school applicant data, including degree status, institution, and demographic information, were obtained from AADSAS for the 2002–03 admissions cycle. According to degree status responses, AADSAS reported 4,698 applicants with an undergraduate degree and 4,129 working on a degree in-progress; their combined total was used for the number of applicants in this study. This total includes 1,880 applicants who responded to both degree questions.
Of the 1,149 colleges and universities that supplied at least one applicant to dental school, 23 percent contributed five or more and were defined as feeder institutions. Feeder schools were ranked by their total numbers of applicants (Category 1) and, to minimize the effect of school size, by their ratios of applicants to total undergraduate enrollment (Category 2). Lists of the top fifty feeder schools by category were compiled and compared using school size, geographic distribution, religious affiliation, and college admissions selectivity criteria as reported by Barron’s Profile of American Colleges (2000 edition).4 Barron’s admissions selectivity rankings (most competitive [MC] > highly competitive [HC] > very competitive [VC] > competitive [C] > less competitive [LC] > non-competitive [NC]) were based on SAT/ACT scores, high school class rank, GPA, and acceptance rates of applicants. Because of the size of the minority applicant pool, black and Hispanic feeder institutions were defined as schools with two or more minority applicants. A total of seventy-five black and fifty-eight Hispanic feeder institutions were identified and compared by total enrollment and geographic distribution.
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Results
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Results in Table 1
show that feeder schools (those with five or more applicants) constituted 23 percent of all colleges and universities that supplied at least one applicant to dental school. However, these feeder institutions were responsible for 75 percent of the total applicant pool, with 7 percent of them supplying 49 percent of total applicants.
A list of the top fifty Category 1 and Category 2 institutions appears in Table 2. The top fifty Category 1 feeder institutions are arranged in descending order of total numbers of applicants to dental schools. The top fifty Category 2 feeder institutions are arranged according to their ratios of dental applicants to total school enrollments. Definitive rankings may be relative because 1,880 applicants identified that they had both an undergraduate degree and a degree in-progress. The top fifty Category 1 schools contributed 48 percent of the total number of dental school applicants, while the top fifty Category 2 schools contributed 35 percent. These percentages are reflective of the fact that twenty-two schools qualified as both top fifty Category 1 and top fifty Category 2 feeder institutions and supplied 28 percent of the total applicants.
The average total enrollment of the top 50 Category 1 schools was over 19,000 students with an average of 67 applicants per institution. Therefore, there was approximately one applicant to dental school for every 284 students enrolled in the Category 1 schools (Table 3). The average total enrollment of the top fifty Category 2 schools was approximately 8,500 students with an average of forty-nine applicants, or about one dental applicant for every 173 students enrolled (Table 3).
Table 4 reports that 68 percent (seventeen institutions) of the top twenty-five Category 2 schools were affiliated with or had student bodies associated with a particular religion. The largest percentage of these institutions (24 percent) were affiliated with the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. However, the greatest percentage of applicants from these Category 2 feeder schools (27 percent) came from colleges and universities associated with the Mormon religion.
Approximately 65 percent of the applicants from the top fifty Category 1 and Category 2 feeder institutions came from schools with admissions selectivity criteria classified by Barron’s in 2000 as highly competitive, while less than 1 percent came from schools designated most competitive (Tables 5 and 6).4
Colleges and universities with five or more applicants to dental school were concentrated in geographically distinct regions of the country (Figure 1). For example, 34 percent of the total applicants from feeder institutions attended schools in the Southwest. Of these, 85 percent attended colleges and universities in California or Utah. Combined with Florida and New York, these four states accounted for 41 percent of all applicants from feeder institutions.
In contrast, Figure 2 illustrates that minority feeder schools, those with two or more black or Hispanic applicants, were concentrated in the Southeast (including Puerto Rico). For example, 53 percent of the total minority applicants from minority feeder schools attended colleges and universities in this region, with the majority of these coming from Florida, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Puerto Rico.
Hispanic feeder institutions had larger average enrollments than black feeder schools. Approximately 35 percent of black feeder institutions and 19 percent of Hispanic feeder institutions had enrollments of fewer than 5,000 students (Table 7). In general, regardless of school size, the average number of minority applicants from black or Hispanic feeder institutions was comparable.
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Discussion
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The year 1998 marked a significant shift in the pattern of applicants to U.S. dental schools. Throughout the 1990s the number of yearly applicants had steadily increased; however, after 1997 this trend reversed.3 Weaver et al. reported a 24.6 percent decrease in the number of applicants to dental schools between 1997 and 2001.2 Various reasons have been proposed to explain the decline in applicants, including competition among occupations for talented youth, the rising cost of dental education, and financial changes in the health care system.3
While the number of applicants to dental schools has decreased over the past several years, the number of first-year enrollees continued to increase approximately 15 percent since 1989.2 During the same period, the number of underrepresented minority applicants and enrollees also increased slightly, but still does not reflect the overall population demographics in the United States. In 2000, for example, Hispanics and blacks comprised nearly 25 percent of the total U.S. population, yet only about 10 percent of dental school enrollees.5
The dental profession, and dental schools in particular, are faced with the challenge of recruiting a qualified, diverse applicant pool that is capable of serving the current and future oral health care needs of an ever-increasing U.S. population. Historically, the dental profession has relied on initiatives such as the Select Program6 as well as career resources offered by the American Dental Association to increase awareness of careers in dentistry. Other initiatives have focused primarily on the recruitment and retention of minority applicants through outreach and enrichment programs.7 However, one area that has received little attention is the identification and characterization of the colleges and universities that provide the majority of applicants to dental schools. Traditionally, many colleges and universities provide only advising services for careers in the health professions. It is likely that these institutions also have the potential to serve as primary resources for promoting interest and awareness in dentistry as a viable career choice. The purpose of our study was to identify and characterize the feeder institutions that are the major source of applicants to U.S. dental schools in anticipation that this information will be useful in developing recruitment strategies.
Results from this study indicate that the majority of applicants to U.S. dental schools are supplied by relatively few institutions. It appears that some colleges and universities are better able to foster an environment that promotes an interest in the profession. In terms of total applicants, the best feeder institutions were typically those with large undergraduate enrollments. For example, institutions each providing at least 100 applicants in 2003 had an average enrollment of more than 23,000 students. These findings are not surprising in that one would expect larger institutions, by virtue of their size, to have more students interested in pursuing a dental career. However, a number of smaller schools had better average applicant per total enrollment ratios than larger institutions, suggesting that factors other than size may be playing a significant role in the success of feeder institutions.
It is apparent that a number of the larger institutions also had high applicant to total enrollment ratios, thus indicating an atmosphere conducive to encouraging and developing potential dental applicants. It is possible that students may have chosen to attend these institutions because of their reputations for the high acceptance rates of their graduates into dental programs. Furthermore, it is possible that these colleges and universities offer a wide range of predental activities designed to produce highly qualified applicants.
On a percentage basis, the majority of dental school applicants attended feeder institutions located in four states: California, Utah, Florida, and New York. Three of these, California, Florida, and New York, are among the most populous states in the nation. However, even though Utah is ranked thirty-fifth in population, its feeder institutions had the second highest number of applicants (526) to dental schools in 2003, with the majority attending Brigham Young University.
Nearly 70 percent of the top twenty-five Category 2 schools had some type of religious affiliation. Of these, the Seventh-Day Adventist Church accounted for six feeder institutions: La Sierra University, Pacific Union College, Loma Linda University, Walla Walla College, Andrews University, and Oakwood College. Collectively, these institutions contributed a total of 143 applicants to dental school. A reason for this may be that this church, according to its beliefs and official statements, emphasizes, respects, and encourages careers in the health professions, including dentistry. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon) had only three institutions within the top twenty-five Category 2: Brigham Young University, Southern Utah State, and the University of Utah. However, these three institutions contributed more than 400 total applicants. Like the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, the Mormon Church also cites a dedication to the community and a life of service as one of its fundamental tenets.
The admissions selectivity profiles of the top fifty feeder institutions in both categories were examined because they provide a general measure of overall student academic ability. None of the top fifty Category 1 feeder institutions were classified as most competitive, a ranking that includes Ivy League institutions and other premiere programs. The majority of applicants, 65 percent, attended highly or very competitive feeder institutions. It appears that students who attend the most selective colleges and universities are not pursuing careers in dentistry. It is possible that these schools attract students whose primary interest in terms of health care may be the field of medicine. Similar results were observed for the top fifty Category 2 feeder institutions, with only two schools being classified as most competitive. It seems that the most competitive institutions may be an untapped resource in terms of recruiting qualified dental school applicants.
One of the major challenges faced by U.S. dental schools is the recruitment of qualified underrepresented minority applicants. Traditionally, black and Hispanic dental students each comprise approximately 5 percent of total dental school enrollees.5 Of the 1,149 total schools identified in this study, 133 qualified as minority feeder institutions for dental schools (two or more black or Hispanic applicants), with only fifteen of these supplying ten or more minority applicants. The majority of black and Hispanic applicants (53 percent) from minority feeder institutions attended schools concentrated in the southeastern region of the United States, including Puerto Rico. In contrast, minority feeder institutions located in the northwestern region provided a total of only four black and four Hispanic applicants. This fact may be attributed to the low minority population density in this area of the country.
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Conclusions
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The results of this study indicate that the majority of 2002–03 dental school applicants were from feeder institutions with large student enrollments. However, many smaller feeder schools based on Category 2 criteria had better dental school applicant to total enrollment ratios than large universities. While one out of every 173 students in Category 2 schools applied to dental school, only one out of every 284 students in Category 1 schools applied.
Within the top fifty Category 1 and 2 feeder institutions, fewer than 1 percent of applicants attended the nation’s most competitive colleges and universities, thus suggesting that students from the most selective schools are not pursuing careers in dental medicine.
Seventeen of the top twenty-five Category 2 schools (68 percent) were institutions affiliated with or had student bodies associated with a particular religion, including the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Roman Catholic, Methodist, Mormon, Lutheran, and Jewish. Two of these religious groups, the Seventh-Day Adventist Church and Mormon Church, accounted for 37 percent of all applicants from the top twenty-five Category 2 schools.
California and Utah had the greatest number of applicants, accounting for 28 percent of the total applicants from feeder institutions, followed by Florida (6.2 percent) and New York (5.7 percent). While the majority of applicants from all feeder institutions attended schools in the southwest region, minority applicants from all minority feeder institutions were concentrated in the southeastern portion of the country.
It is anticipated that a better understanding of top feeder institutions will aid dental school recruitment efforts and assist colleges and universities not traditionally associated with a strong predental focus to develop and promote careers in dental medicine. Results from this study suggest that some institutions are more successful at providing an environment that encourages an interest in dentistry. Factors such as school size, geographic location, religious affiliation, and admissions selectivity criteria of colleges and universities may each have a direct impact on the potential dental applicant pool.
We are exploring other factors that may also contribute to the success of feeder institutions. Preliminary studies suggest that organized predental enrichment activities, such as student-run organizations, preprofessional health advising, volunteer/ community outreach programs, financial incentives, and instructional opportunities, are common to many of the nation’s top feeder programs.
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Acknowledgments
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The authors would like to thank Ms. Chonté James and Ms. Cynthia Thompson, both members of the AADSAS staff, for their technical assistance in helping to develop the database for this project.
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REFERENCES
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- Official guide to dental schools, 41st ed. Washington, DC: American Dental Education Association, 2003.
- Weaver RG, Haden NK, Ramanna S, Valachovic RW. Applicant analysis: 2001 entering class. J Dent Educ 2003;67(6):690–709.[Abstract]
- Weaver RG, Haden NK, Valachovic RW. U.S. dental school applicants and enrollees: a ten-year perspective. J Dent Educ 2000;64(12):867–74.[Abstract]
- Barron’s profiles of American colleges, 23rd ed. New York: Barron’s Educational Series, 1998.
- Sinkford JC, Harrison S, Valachovic RW. Underrepresented minority enrollment in U.S. dental schools—the challenge. J Dent Educ 2001;65(6):564–70.
- Reese EL, Harman DW. Select: a national program to attract highly qualified individuals to careers in dentistry. J Dent Educ 1987;51(2):87–90.[Medline]
- Chalkley Y. A survey of minority student recruitment and retention efforts in dental schools. J Dent Educ 1995;59(6):645–8.[Abstract]
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Abstract
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