dental · Hawthorne, New York · private
Touro College of Dental Medicine prerequisites
What Touro asks for in the 2026-27 cycle, as read from the school's own admissions page. 3 lines differ from the standard dental school set, marked below.
Coursework
- Biology with labrequired
2 semesters · 8 credits · lab
Two semesters with lab. As universal for dental school as it is for medical.
- General chemistry with labrequired
2 semesters · 8 credits · lab
Two semesters with lab. The DAT's general chemistry section assumes the full sequence.
- Organic chemistry with labrequireddiffers
1 semester · 4 credits · lab
Most dental schools ask for 2 semesters · 8 credits · lab.
One semester with lab, not the baseline's two. Touro pairs the single organic semester with a required semester of biochemistry, which is the increasingly common substitution.
- Biochemistryrequired
1 semester · 3 credits
Roughly half of schools require a semester and the share grows every cycle. The DAT does not test it, but first-year dental biochemistry assumes you have seen it.
- Physics with labrequired
2 semesters · 8 credits · lab
Two semesters, algebra-based accepted essentially everywhere. A handful of schools want only one semester; the two-semester plan covers them all.
- English or writing-intensiverequired
2 semesters · 6 credits
Two semesters of English or writing-intensive coursework at most schools that name it.
- Anatomy and physiologyrecommended
3 credits
Named by a minority of schools and useful preparation for the first year regardless.
- Microbiologyrecommended
3 credits
Required at a meaningful minority and recommended widely; a strong pick for the spare science slot.
Experience hours
- Dentist shadowingrequired
100+ hours
Shadowing dentists. Schools that publish a number most often say 100 hours, and admissions committees read breadth across general and specialty practice. Hours shadowing physicians do not answer this; log dental chairside time here. Across the 77 school overlays, 36 require shadowing, 22 recommend it and 19 publish nothing; the numbers those schools name range from 30 hours to 100, so this baseline figure is a planning floor rather than a common standard.
- Non-clinical volunteeringrecommended
100+ hours
Few schools publish a number; committees still read for a service habit held over time.
Letters
- Committee letterrecommended
1 letter
"You will need to include one (1) Pre-Dental Committee letter of evaluation OR three (3) letters of evaluation from undergraduate faculty." The committee letter replaces all three individual letters rather than adding to them. Separately, "Letters of evaluation from employers and/or volunteer clinical or community service experiences are highly recommended but not required."
- Science faculty letterrequired
2 letters
Two, as in the baseline, but Touro defines the writers narrowly: "two (2) letters must be from science faculty who taught the applicant or supervised independent research for credit. Acceptable science courses include: biology, chemistry, physics, biomedical engineering, or bio-engineering, etc." A science professor who never taught or supervised you does not qualify.
- Faculty letter (any discipline)requiredextra here
1 letter
The third of the three individual letters, where the baseline names only two science writers. Touro leaves this one open: it may come from "a non-science course or volunteer work done in a dental office/clinic," or from the applicant's major. A dentist you volunteered with can therefore write it, but no rule says one must.
- Dentist letternot required here
No dentist letter is required. A letter about "volunteer work done in a dental office/clinic" is one of the permitted options for the third letter, not an obligation, and the committee letter route drops it entirely.
Also on the school’s page
Touro's prerequisite list runs: General Biology 2 semesters with labs, General Chemistry 2 semesters with labs, Organic Chemistry 1 semester with lab, Biochemistry 1 semester with or without lab, Physics 2 semesters with labs, English 2 semesters or equivalent. Only organic chemistry departs from the dental baseline, so it is the sole course line below. The page states credits as semesters rather than hours. "A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college of arts and sciences in the United States or Canada by the time you matriculate is desirable," and the school is unusually firm about delivery mode: "We do not accept online prerequisites or degrees." There is a floor, not just an average: "The candidate must have achieved a minimum science GPA of 2.7 and an overall GPA of 2.7 on a scale of 4.0." "All candidates are required to take the Dental Admissions Test recommended and approved by the American Dental Association (ADA)," taken between January 2024 and January 31, 2027 for this cycle. The class of 2030 entered with a 3.58 overall GPA, 3.47 science GPA, and a total DAT of 440, which is on the current 200 to 600 scale. Applications go through ADEA AADSAS, open June 1 and close February 1, interviews run September through March, thirty minutes, one on one, open file and holistic, and decisions are rolling. Neither the requirements page nor the admissions page states a shadowing hours figure, so the baseline expectation stands unmodified here.
School
tcdm.touro.eduCheck your transcript against this list
Cyclios keeps this list beside your coursework and tells you what Touro still needs from you.
See it for dental school