18 August 2025

---

Class of 2029 arrives from around Michigan and the country to begin four-year journey to DDS degrees

---

The new entering class at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry has arrived, bringing 109 stories of their previous academic and leadership accomplishments as well as aspirations for their future in the profession.

Admitted from 1,908 applicants, the 109 new students are mostly from Michigan, with 62 in-state students and 47 from elsewhere across the country, including California, Idaho, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Florida, among others.

In his welcome on the students’ first day of orientation on June 16, Dean Jacques Nör congratulated the students on their academic track record of excellence thus far. He assured them that the dental school faculty and staff are committed to ensuring each student’s success as they move toward their DDS degree over the next four years. He pointed out that, in addition to being trained as dentists by a world-class dental school, the students will make strong connections and lifelong friends with many of those in their class.

Nör presented key facts about the university and gave an overview of the dental school, which is this year celebrating the 150th anniversary of its founding in 1875. He emphasized the school’s commitment to shaping a welcoming community and maintaining transparent communication. “From the start, know that if you have any questions, if you have any advice to give to us, please reach out to us,” Nör said. “We are always going to be ready to speak to you, listen to you and work with you toward making our school every day a little bit better.”

Dean Jacques Nör welcomes the new class on its first day of dental school during a program at the Michigan League ballroom.

Senior Associate Dean Renée Duff encouraged students to take advantage of the many services the dental school and university provide, including academic and wellbeing counseling. Fourth-year students Abby Puckett and Javi Bonamego advised the new students to support each other, take advantage of school resources and find personal time for the many social and recreational opportunities in Ann Arbor and at the university.

Also during orientation week, Dr. Carlos Gonzalez, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, provided students with a summary of the students’ first semester curriculum this summer. Students were issued iPads and clinic coats, and they settled into their individual stations in the Simulation Lab to check in their hand instruments and other equipment they will use in their clinical training.

Other elements of the class background include:

Following a national trend in the ratio of men and women applying to dental schools, the U-M DDS Class of 2029 has the highest number of women of any class in school history, with 71 women and 38 men. Both the actual number and the percentage of women – 65 percent – are the highest ever. Dentistry was a male-dominated profession until near the end of the 20th century when women began entering the field in much greater numbers, prompted in large part by the passage of the federal Title IX legislation in 1972. At U-M, women began to approach 50 percent of the entering dental class in the early 2000s. In the last 20 years, the male-female ratio has fluctuated up and down slightly, but usually has been close to an even number of men and women. That is changing over the last six years as the number of women has significantly outpaced the number of men.

The new DDS class arrived with undergraduate degrees from 11 Michigan universities and colleges: Aquinas College, Calvin University, Grand Valley State University, Hope College, Kalamazoo College, Michigan State University, Oakland University, University of Michigan (Ann Arbor and Dearborn campuses), Wayne State University and Western Michigan University.

Out-of-state universities and colleges that class members attended include: Agnes Scott College, Arizona State University, Boston College, Brigham Young University (Idaho and Provo), Brown University, Emory University, Howard University, Indiana University, Johns Hopkins University, Ohio State University, Purdue University, Swarthmore College, University of Alabama-Birmingham, University of California (Berkeley, Los Angeles, San Diego and Santa Barbara campuses), University of Florida, University of North Dakota, University of Virginia and West Virginia University.

Source: https://dent.umich.edu/