This report summarizes the key findings of the analysis of the results of the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) Survey of Dental School Seniors, Class of 2022 (henceforth called “the ADEA 2022 survey” and the overall survey is called “the ADEA Senior Survey”). The study examines the journey of U.S. dental schools’ predoctoral senior class of 2022, from its influences and motivations to pursue careers in dentistry and the students’ perceptions of their dental school experience to their plans upon graduation and the investment in their careers. Whenever feasible, the analysis compares the answers of the 2022 survey respondents with their 2017 counterparts. Further, this research attempts to better understand the journey of predoctoral senior students of historically underrepresented race and ethnicity (HURE) groups by comparing the responses of the overall response sample with the responses of the HURE students. This research considers the following four race and ethnicity categories to be part of HURE: non-Hispanic African American, Hispanic or Latino of all races, non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native and non-Hispanic Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander.
For the first time, this annual analysis examines the preferences and decisions of the senior students by demographic generation, with a focus on Generation Z (henceforth called “Gen Z”) relative to the rest of the graduating students. The members of this demographic cohort, born between 1997 and 2012, are starting to graduate from U.S. dental schools and enter into the job market.1 Of the 2,801 students who responded to the ADEA 2022 survey and provided their birth year information, 85 individuals fit into the Gen Z demographic cohort. This is the generation that will increasingly fill the dental school classrooms in the years to come. These preliminary findings give the academic dentistry community a glimpse into the preferences of a new demographic cohort of students.
ADEA surveyed the 66 U.S. dental schools with a graduating class in 2022 between March 8 and June 17, 2022. A total of 6,754 students received the survey and 3,095 responded from all of the 66 U.S. dental schools with a graduating class in 2022. As a result, 46% of the senior students graduating in 2022 responded to the ADEA Senior Survey, compared with 79% for the 2017 graduating class. The response sample to the ADEA survey is representative of the overall senior student population at U.S. dental schools with graduating predoctoral classes in 2022 (see Table A1 in the Methodological Appendix).
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