For both Canadian and American dental schools, a high undergraduate GPA is one of most important prerequisites to gaining admission. Attaining strong, consistent grades is the ideal way to exhibit your competence when compared to other qualified candidates, increasing your chances of acceptance to your preferred dental schools.

Canadian Calculation

Universities utilize a variety of scales to evaluate students on a course-by-course basis. Most schools then convert the course grades into a GPA, which represents a student’s academic performance over a certain period of time and/or courses completed (per session and/or overall), usually conforming to a 4.0 scale. A GPA at one university may not necessarily be comparable to a GPA at another university due to differing values assigned to each course by each institution.

In order for Canadian dental schools to evaluate candidates in a consistent manner across different universities, many dental schools convert a student’s grades to a standardized scale, such as the one utilized by the Ontario Medical Schools Application Service (OMSAS). This enables admissions committees to comparatively evaluate applicants from a range of schools and countries objectively.

Dental schools first convert the letter or numerical mark of each completed course (as per the submitted transcript) into a designated value (e.g., OMSAS Value), and then weigh individual values based on course length (e.g., semester versus full-year courses). At some universities, a one-semester undergraduate course is equivalent to 3.0 credits and a two-semester course is equivalent to 6.0 credits (or an equivalent system such as 0.5 credits and 1.0 credit, respectively). The weighted values are then summed and averaged to arrive at an OMSAS GPA. The OMSAS Grade Conversion Table illustrates how percentage or alpha (i.e., letter) course grades correspond to OMSAS Values.

OMSAS Grade Conversion Table

Learn More about GPA, including:

• American Calculation
• Example GPA Calculations
• Points to Consider
• Other Types of GPAs
• How GPA is Used
• A ‘Good GPA'
• Courses
• Disclosing Your GPA
• Tips on GPA