Application

Application & Admission Information

Four postgraduate students will be accepted into the 24-month pediatric dentistry certificate program in full-time positions. No provision is made for other than full-time participation in the program. No credit is given for prior academic or clinical activity in terms of program length, class standing (i.e. skip a year), or program curriculum. Advanced placement or transfer of students from another Postgraduate Pediatric Dentistry Program is not an allowed policy of the MUSC program. If such an occurrence arose as to consideration of a transfer student, the standards for performance to achieve graduation would be the same as the usual postgraduate student curriculum.

The MUSC Program participates in the PASS (Postdoctoral Application Support Service) program for applicants. Specific application data and requirements for U.S. and Canadian students are available through the PASS system. Regardless of nationality or dental school attended, the candidate must have at the least successfully passed Part I of the National Dental Boards. The program also participates in the Postdoctoral Dental Matching Program (MATCH). The applicant must register in the MATCH Program by completing the Applicant Agreement to be considered for admission. The MATCH is sponsored jointly by the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, the American Association of Hospital Dentists, the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, the American Association of Orthodontists, the American Society of Dentist Anesthesiologists, and the American Student Dental Association. In addition, the MATCH has been endorsed by the American Dental Association Council on Dental Education and Licensure, the American Dental Education Association, and the Veterans Administration.

Selection will be based on the PASS application being fully complete to include Dental School grades and transcripts, resume of experience, and letters of reference. The application deadline is September 1 of the year preceding matriculation. From the PASS application data, selected candidates will be invited for a a brief virtual interview. Candidates selected from the virtual interview will be invited for an in-person interview at the James B. Edwards College of Dental Medicine. All potential postgraduate students who are deemed final candidates for the program positions must be personally interviewed by Departmental faculty and current postgraduate students to be considered for a final MATCH ranking and admission into the program.

In the selection and interview process, the program is looking for individuals who have shown their worth through solid academic efforts and performance, who would bring to the program intellectual curiosity and a desire to learn at the postgraduate-specialty level, a personality conducive to a team effort, a broad field of activity and accomplishment outside the classroom, and a real caring for the demands of comprehensive pediatric patient treatment. When the PASS applications are complete, the selected individuals are contacted for an interview. After interviews are complete, the MATCH list is developed by vote of all full-time faculty, representative clinical attending faculty, and current residents.