Accelerated Seven-Year Bachelor of Science (Biology) to Doctor of Dental Surgery Program (BS-DDS)

Description

University of Detroit Mercy offers a special academic program which enables highly qualified applicants to earn a Doctor of Dental Surgery degree in addition to the baccalaureate degree in seven calendar years, rather than in the traditional eight years.

The students in the Seven-Year BS BIO/DDS Program spend most of the first three years at the McNichols Campus doing pre-dental studies in the College of Engineering & Science. The last four years are in the School of Dentistry.

In addition to the basic science courses required of all dental school applicants, Seven-Year Program students must meet all of the requirements of the University Core Curriculum. This includes course work in speech, English, mathematics, religious studies, philosophy, history and culture, ethics, and social responsibility. They are also required to participate in a two-week orientation to dentistry in the summer after the first year, and two courses at the dental school in year three.

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    Program Learning Outcomes

    Please review the catalog page for BS Biology and the Academic Policies Handbook for DDS for the Program Learning Outcomes.
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    Eligibility

    Only high school graduates of the months immediately preceding the beginning of undergraduate study at the University of Detroit Mercy are eligible for consideration as a program participant. Transfer students or students who have already begun course work at Detroit Mercy are ineligible.

    Once admitted, a program participant must be enrolled as a full-time student in each regular semester, including a two-week course at the Detroit Mercy School of Dentistry at the end of the Winter semester (beginning of the Summer) in year one of the program. All necessary undergraduate course work must be completed at the McNichols Campus within the three calendar years immediately prior to the beginning of the formal dental school phase of the program.

    Students successfully completing all requirements of the program will be granted the Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Biology and the Doctor of Dental Surgery degree. The bachelor of science is awarded after the required credits at the Detroit Mercy School of Dentistry are completed to fulfill remaining undergraduate requirements.

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    Admissions Requirements

    The Selection Committee will consider for acceptance into the program an applicant who has met ALL of the following basic criteria:

    • Has been accepted for admission as a freshman student at University of Detroit Mercy.
    • Has submitted to the Admissions Office, following acceptance as a freshman student, a 350-400 word personal essay on a topic supplied at the time of application.
    • Has two letters of recommendations addressing the candidate's qualifications for the program.
    • Has achieved a high school ACT composite score of at least 28 (min of 26 on each subsection), or a combined SAT score of at least 1300 (min of 620 on ERW, min of 610 MATH), not super-scored. Applicants applying under the test-optional policy are eligible to apply. The average cumulative unweighted high school GPA for matriculants was a 3.85 and the average cumulative weighted high school GPA was a 4.14.
    • Has earned for the first six semesters of high school a grade point average of 3.5 overall on a 4.0 point scale, and the same for the combined mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology courses.
    • Has directed the high school office to supply to the Admissions Office an up-to-date high school transcript by January 15 of the application year.

    Applicants who have satisfied the above requirements will be reviewed by the Seven-Year Dental Selection Committee. The Selection Committee will make the final determination on the limited number of students accepted into the program.

    Students accepted into the program should complete 25 hours of dentistry observation/shadowing of a general practitioner, before starting courses at Detroit Mercy.

    An applicant will be eligible for admission to the dental school phase of study following the successful completion of all aspects of the initial three years of the program. This includes:

    • Successful completion of all required dental prerequisite courses with a C or better
    • Overall GPA of 3.6 or better, and science GPA of 3.5 or better
    • Scores of 20 or better on all sections of the DAT (the Dental Admission Test, the national standardized examination required of all applicants for admission to professional schools of dentistry) prior to August 15 in the second summer of the program
    • Successful completion of AADSAS application in their second summer and satisfactory interview in the fall of their third year with Detroit Mercy's dental school Admission's Committee
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    Application Procedures

    The deadline for the University's receipt of applications for the Seven-Year Program is December 1 of the applicant's senior year of high school. To be considered for Early Decision, the deadline is November 1. All who are interested in being considered for admission into the Seven-Year Program should specifically and clearly indicate this at the time they submit their applications for admission as entering freshmen into the University's College of Engineering & Science. Applications for the program are to be sent to the office of Undergraduate Admissions at the McNichols Campus, not to the program coordinator nor to the School of Dentistry.

    The student's overall application, essay, and interview will be used to determine which students are accepted into the limited number of seats in the program.

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    Bachelor Program Requirements -Bachelor of Science with a Major in Biology (120 credits)

    Science Courses

    • CHM 1070 General Chemistry I (3 credits)
    • CHM 1100 General Chemistry Lab I (1 credit)
    • BIO 1200 General Biology I (3 credits) (meets Core objective C1 with BIO 1210)
    • BIO 1210 General Biology Lab I (2 credits) (meets Core objective C1 with BIO 1200)
    • CHM 1080 General Chemistry II (3 credits)
    • CHM 1120 General Chemistry Lab II (1 credit)
    • BIO 1220 General Biology II (3 credits)
    • BIO 1230 General Biology Lab II (2 credits)
    • DENT 1000 Introduction to Dentistry (0 credits)
    • CHM 2270 Organic Chemistry I (3 credits)
    • CHM 2250 Organic Chemistry Lab I (1 credit)
    • BIO 2700 Genetics (3 credits)
    • CHM 2290 Organic Chemistry II (3 credits)
    • CHM 2300 Organic Chemistry Lab II (1 credit)
    • PHY 1300 Physics I (3 credits)
    • PHY 1310 Physics Lab I (1 credit)
    • PHY 1320 Physics II (3 credits)
    • PHY 1330 Physics Lab II (1 credit)
    • BIO 4210 Microbiology (3 credits)
    • BIO 4630 Physiology (3 credits) (meets Core objective IT2)
    • DENT 3000 Integrated Biomedical Science I (3 credits) (meets Core objective IT1)
    • CHM 4710 Biochemistry I (3 credits)
    • CHM 4720 Biochemistry II (3 credits)
    • DENT 3010 Integrated Biomedical Science II (3 credits)
    • BIO 2900 Biostatistics (3 credits) (meets Core objective B2)

    Additional pre-dental courses

    • PYC 1000 Intro to Psychology (3 credits) (meets Core objective C2)
    • SOC 1000 Intro to Sociology (3 credits) (meets Core objective C2)
    • Additional Upper-level BIO courses are recommended if scheduling permits

    Core Curriculum 

    In addition to the courses required for this program listed above, the student must also fulfill the requirements of the University Core Curriculum for this program. Some of these courses may be satisfied by courses in your program. 

    Students are encouraged to submit transcripts or test scores from Advanced Placement, dual enrollment, International Baccalaureate, etc.  In some cases, these will be transferred in. Pre-requisite courses required for admission to the School of Dentistry should be completed at a four-year institution and not a community college.

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    University Core Curriculum

    In addition to the courses required for this program listed above, the student must also fulfill the requirements of the University Core Curriculum for this program. Some of these courses may be satisfied by courses in your program. 

    Students in this Accelerated Seven-Year BS-BIO/DDS program who complete their degree by transferring back credits from Detroit Mercy's dental school have been granted two core course exemptions:

    Core E1, E2*, E3 - one course may be waived. 

    Core D3, IT3, IT4, IT5- one course may be waived.

    Please review your Degree Evaluation or consult your academic advisor for more information. 

    *E2 may be waived if a student has taken ENL 1300 and ENL 1310 (six semester hours of English are required). 

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    Dental School Courses Required to Complete BS-Biology degree

    Note that the bachelor degree is awarded after the completion of additional coursework from Detroit Mercy's School of Dentistry (after completing two semesters in dental school). These courses will be double-counted towards the DDS and BS degrees and will be used to complete the remaining BS Biology requirements. A student may also choose to complete the undergraduate degree before matriculating to the School of Dentistry. In this case, the student must complete BIO 4990, BIO 4200 or BIO 4480, 3 approved upper-level biology labs, and 5 credits or more from BIO 2600-4999. Total credits for the biology major must be at least 39 credits and all core requirements must be fulfilled (no accelerated program core exemptions).

    In accordance with University policy on similar joint programs, the financial aid and/or scholarships are awarded separately for the undergraduate and graduate/professional portions of the programs. Students admitted to the School of Dentistry are considered graduate/professional students for financial aid purposes and will be considered for scholarship consideration at the time of admission to Detroit Mercy Dental.

Program Contact Information

Program Coordinator: Elizabeth Roberts-Kirchhoff, Ph.D.
Engineering 245
Telephone: (313) 993-1021
 Email: robkires@udmercy.edu
Website