Improving diversity of dental students through the Boston University Master’s of oral health sciences postbaccalaureate program

Abstract

Boston University Goldman School of Dental Medicine (GSDM), in collaboration with Boston University School of Medicine, introduced the Oral Health Sciences (OHS) pipeline program in 2005 to enhance the academic preparedness of students from underrepresented minority (URM) groups for dental school admission. The aim of this study was to evaluate the OHS program's success in preparing URM students for dental school, as measured by acceptance to dental school and performance in the first and second years. Data on 2005‐15 program enrollees were collected from admissions records, the registrar, and the Office of Institutional Research on students' race/ethnicity, undergraduate and OHS grade point average (GPA), and Dental Admission Test (DAT) scores. Acceptance to dental school and performance at GSDM for non‐URM OHS graduates, URM OHS graduates, and non‐OHS dental students were compared. A total of 55 URM students completed the OHS program during this period, with 49 successfully matriculating to a dental school in the U.S. and 33 attending GSDM. Average OHS GPA was higher for those URM students accepted to dental school than for those who did not gain admission (3.36±0.30 vs. 2.94±0.19). Evaluation of the academic performance of URM OHS students in the first year (p=0.13) and second year (p=0.88) at GSDM showed that these students performed as well as the non‐OHS and non‐URM OHS students. These results demonstrate that the OHS master's program serves as a successful credential‐enhancing program for dental school applicants, while also serving as a pipeline to increase the number of qualified applicants from URM groups.