Accelerated Seven-Year BA-CHEM/DDS Program
Description
University of É«×ۺϾþà 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 selected students in the Seven-Year BA CHEM/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, computers, religious studies, philosophy, history and culture, ethics, and social responsibility. They are also required 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 BA Chemistry 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 É«×ۺϾþà Mercy are eligible for consideration as a program participant. Transfer students or students who have already begun course work at É«×ۺϾþà 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 É«×ۺϾþà 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 arts degree with a major in Chemistry and the Doctor of Dental Surgery degree. The bachelor of arts is awarded after the required credits at the É«×ۺϾþà 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 the University of É«×ۺϾþà 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 recommendation 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 1310 (min of 590 on ERW, min of 650 MATH), not super-scored.
- 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, before starting courses at É«×ۺϾþà 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 courses
- 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)
- Successful completion of AADSAS application and interview with É«×ۺϾþà 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 - BA Chemistry/DDS (126 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)
- BIO 1210 General Biology Lab I (2 credits)
- 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)
- PHY 1300 Physics I (3 credits)
- PHY 1310 Physics Lab I (1 credit)
- BIO 4210 Microbiology (3 credits)
- CHM 2290 Organic Chemistry II (3 credits)
- CHM 2300 Organic Chemistry Lab II (2 credits)
- PHY 1320 Physics II (3 credits)
- PHY 1330 Physics Lab II (1 credit)
- BIO 4630 Physiology (3 credits)
- DENT 3000 Integrated Biomedical Science I (3 credits)
- CHM 3410 Chemical Thermodynamics and Applications (3 credits)
- CHM 3330 Physical Chemistry Lab I (1 credit)
- CHM 4710 Biochemistry I (3 credits)
- CHM 3870 Analytical Chemistry (3 credits)
- CHM 3880 Analytical Chemistry Lab (1 credit)
- DENT 3010 Integrated Biomedical Science II (3 credits)
- CHM 3420 Chemical Dynamics and Quantum Chemistry (3 credits)
- CHM 3340 Physical Chemistry Lab II (1 credit)
- CHM 4720 Biochemistry II (3 credits)
Additional Required Courses
- MTH 1410 Calculus and Analytical Geometry I (4 credits)
- MTH 1420 Calculus and Analytical Geometry II (4 credits)
- PYC 1000 Introduction to Psychology (3 credits)
- SOC 1000 Introduction to Sociology (3 credits)
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 Courses
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 BA-CHM/DDS program 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.
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Dental School Courses Required to Complete BA-Chemistry degree
Note that the bachelor degree is awarded after the completion of additional coursework from É«×ۺϾþà Mercy's School of Dentistry (August of year two in dental school). These courses will be double-counted towards the DDS and BA degrees and will be used to complete remaining BA Chemistry requirements.
Program Contact Information
Program Coordinator: Elizabeth Roberts-Kirchhoff, Ph.D.
Engineering 245
Telephone: (313) 993-1021
Email: robkires@udmercy.edu