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Education information

This section includes secondary (high) school, and college and university data as well as specific coursework. These sections are required.

Secondary (high) school: Collected information includes identification of high school and dates attended. Entry level applicants can send a copy of their high school transcript although it is an optional part of the application.

Colleges and Universities: Collected information includes identification of all undergraduate, graduate, and post-BS/BA institutions attended or currently attending. The institution name, dates of attendance, degree, and identification of primary institution are all required.

Transcript information:

  • Applicants are required to submit all official college and university transcripts. All transcripts, including institutions attended or currently attending, must be received.
  • ADEA DHCAS prefers all transcripts to be sent directly from the issuing institution as an original, official document.
    • Applicants should print out a Transcript Request Form for each institution attended. A form will be generated in the application based on the applicant reported institutions. This form should be sent immediately to each institution to accompany the transcript sent to ADEA DHCAS. Failure to include this form with transcripts may increase the processing time of the documents once they arrive at ADEA DHCAS.
    • In rare circumstances when programs will not send transcripts directly to a third party organization, an issued-to-student transcript will be accepted by ADEA DHCAS only if it is marked with one of the following:
      • Name and address Only
      • Send To
      • Issued to Student in a sealed envelope
      • Record of
      • ADEA DHCAS
  • Original, foreign study abroad transcripts are not accepted.
  • Applicants with courses that have been transferred must still provide the original transcript from the institution where the credit was initially awarded. Coursework must be reported under the actual school and specific campus it was taken. Applicants are not to list coursework under the schools which the credit was transferred . Instead, applicants should report all classes under the schools where they were originally taken, and list them as they appear on the transcript from the original school. Do not list these courses again as transfer credits.
  • Applicants with foreign transcripts must have them evaluated before being sent to ADEA DHCAS. Foreign evaluated transcripts are required in order for the application to be considered complete. ADEA recommends applicants use World Education Services (www.wes.org) or Educational Credential Evaluators (www.ece.org). ADEA DHCAS does not verify coursework and does not use grades from international transcripts in computing ADEA DHCAS GPAs.
  • TIP: Applicants should obtain a personal copy of each college level transcript for their records in order to properly complete the coursework section of the application.  ADEA DHCAS verifies self-reported courses against official transcripts. Failure to properly enter all coursework may result in processing delays.
  • In order for an application to be complete, an applicant must have completed and submitted the online application and ADEA DHCAS must have received all college-level transcripts and at least two references.
    • Transcripts must be sent to:
      ADEA DHCAS Transcripts Processing Department
      P.O. Box 9129
      Watertown, MA 02471

Coursework: ADEA DHCAS requires applicants to list each class taken at a post secondary institution.  Complete this section in order to provide programs with a detailed grade calculation that is used to better evaluate applicants. Coursework allows programs the ability to more comprehensively evaluate applicants with quarter and semester grades, transcript grading systems using and not using a plus/minus system, and overall GPAs for applicants with transcripts from multiple institutions.  Acceptable course subjects are as follows ADEA DHCAS Course Subjects.

  • Collected information includes data from all individual coursework taken at a post-secondary institution. Applicants should include courses that are withdrawn, repeated courses, undergraduate labs, test credits, or other non-graded courses. TIP: Applicants should obtain a personal copy of each college level transcript for their records in order to properly complete the coursework section of the application.
  • ADEA DHCAS verifies self-reported courses against official transcripts. Failure to properly enter all coursework may result in processing delays.
  • For each institution listed, an applicant must include coursework by session and term type.
    • Session: Period of time taking a course (for example: fall semester 2011)
    • Term Type: Individual class taken in a particular session (for example: Biology 150)
  • ADEA DHCAS requires applicants to include all recorded attempts at a course. All attempts must be listed even if an institution has a forgiveness policy. When indicating the special classifications for courses, list all attempts as a repeated course.
  • Special classification: If an applicant repeats a course, both courses should be listed in the coursework and both courses should be classified as “Repeat.” If the course is a special type of course (e.g. honors), select appropriate type from the drop down menu. If the course could be categorized under two classifications, “Repeat” will trump other classifications.
    • All U.S. and Canadian coursework must be listed. Foreign coursework cannot be listed; transcripts must still be evaluated and sent to ADEA DHCAS.
  • Transfer coursework should only be listed under the original institution taken.
  • ADEA DHCAS grade conversion: ADEA DHCAS calculates standardized GPAs to help participating dental hygiene programs evaluate applicants using uniform and consistent criteria, regardless of various institutional transcript policies. ADEA DHCAS GPAs may be different from those calculated by the colleges and universities because of the ADEA DHCAS grade standardization process. Institutions may choose to use the ADEA DHCAS GPAs or calculate GPAs for their own institutional use.
    • After ADEA DHCAS receives all official U.S., U.S. Territory and Canadian college-level transcripts, a course‐by‐course verification process is conducted. Verification refers to the matching of courses on official transcripts with the courses entered in the Coursework section of ADEA DHCAS application. ADEA DHCAS checks the course information reported on the application against official transcripts, and will report any discrepancies to applicant’s designated programs.
    • To calculate a grade‐point average (GPA), ADEA DHCAS calculates total quality points by multiplying semester hours attempted by the value of the verified ADEA DHCAS grade. Quarter hours and units are converted to semester hours (quarter hours are multiplied by .667). Quality points are divided by the total number of hours for completed courses to calculate a GPA. ADEA DHCAS reports GPAs in semester‐based 4.0 grading scales. ADEA DHCAS GPAS are calculated in semester hours.