General Requirements for Predoctoral Students

School of Dental Medicine Policy

Program Completion

Please note that for all certificates and degrees awarded by the Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine (SDM), completion is not tracked by unit accumulation but by successful completion of individual courses and duration requirements.

Time Limit

Students are expected to make continuous and timely progress towards completion of the program. The school considers a time factor of 1.5 times the original length of the program as a reasonable timeframe within which to complete all educational obligations, without prejudice (i.e., six years for the four-year DMD program and three years for the two-year DMD Advanced Standing program).

Time away from school due to any official leave of absence is excluded from this calculation; the calculation is based on actual time enrolled. For students taking longer than the 1.5x time factor, the Promotions Committee will review their individual cases and determine whether to allow them to continue in the program. If warranted, students will be notified that they will be administratively withdrawn from the program by a set deadline, unless sufficient educational progress can be demonstrated. Thus, students taking seven or more years to complete the four-year DMD program (or four or more years to complete the two-year DMD Advanced Standing program) are at risk of being dismissed from school due to insufficient progress.

Graduation

Students must have first successfully completed each year of the program prior to their final year. During their final year, students must successfully complete all courses with no more than one final grade of “D,” no final grade of “F,” and a GPA of 2.0 or above. Students not meeting these minimum requirements will not be eligible for graduation.