SUMMARY
Studying Dental Hygiene is not only a valuable choice, but often a needed first step for undergrads trying to begin a career as a dental insurance officer , a dental office manager, or a dental hygienist. In fact, nationally, dental hygiene is a very rare degree ranking as the 129th most popular degree. Last year, there were 2,443 dental hygiene graduates. In-state tuition for dental hygiene at private colleges is, on average, 4.5 times more costly than their public equivalents.
With only 92 schools offering this degree you could have limited options as to the institutions you can choose from. If you are looking to surround yourself with other dental hygiene students, consider schools in California which have the most undergrads admitted to dental hygiene annually. Zooming out, the best region to major in dental hygiene is in the Southeast region with St Petersburg College, East Tennessee State University, and Old Dominion University best representing the region. Interestingly, our selection for the best conference to major in dental hygiene is the Big Sky Conference with Northern Arizona University, Weber State University, and Eastern Washington University representing the conference. That being said, our choice for the best school for dental hygiene is University of Southern California, and here you can find our comprehensive list for the best colleges.
The overall best school does not mean it is the 'best' school for you. There might be tons more factors to consider when selecting college. Features like campus amenities, transportation services, and food might definitely sway one's choice on where to go to school. Here at authority.org, we've weighed the pros and cons for you. If, for example, you are intrigued by which dental hygiene college is home to the top campus, the winner is New York University. If, for example, you are very interested in which college boasts the best campus, we have a whole list dedicated to that. We have carefully pored through professor reviews, government databases, student reviews, and more in order to evaluate every major in an unbiased and informative way. Here you can explore our comprehensive list for the schools with the best student life and, from that list, our pick for the school with the best student life for dental hygiene is University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. Curious why? Continue reading to find out more about Authority's top selections. Some of our decisions will probably surprise you.
If cost is a significant factor in your decisions, you might be cautious about University of Southern California. University of Southern California appears to be the most expensive college for dental hygiene, at least regarding out of state attendance. We have an entire list of the most expensive colleges that could put the price tag of University of Southern California into perspective. For more context, you may be interested to know that dental hygiene is the 249th most expensive degree in the nation, with an average cost of $27,000. To zoom out a little, the most costly state for dental hygiene in the country is Massachusetts with expenses at the main two colleges MCPHS University and Regis College of $33,600 and $42,650 respectively. Even more broadly, the most expensive region for dental hygiene is the New England region which is best demonstrated with University of New Haven with a cost of $39,000, University of New England with a cost of $37,390, and Regis College with a cost of $42,650.
Our cheapest region for dental hygiene is the Rocky Mountains region which is represented by Community College of Denver with a cost of $14,662, Dixie State University with a cost of $14,976, and Weber State University with a cost of $14,973. In better news, the most affordable university for dental hygiene is University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Our entire list of the most affordable colleges can be found here.
In-state students can expect to pay in the neighborhood of $8,500 for a degree in dental hygiene. That price balloons intensely to a median of $20,500 for an out-of-state public-school student. On that note, our selection for the university with the best value for dental hygiene: University of Southern California. Through this link you can find our comprehensive list for the schools we see as being the best value overall. With that said, this discussion is predicated on the assumption that you are an out-of-state student. The value proposition changes when it comes to in-state tuition, as such, we are using out-of-state tuition as the baseline.
Earnings for dental hygiene students range widely, but two years after graduation graduates will typically earn around $77,200. While there can be much variation in earnings potential; top positions can make up to $119,300. Straight out of college, the lowest earning positions within the dental hygiene space make $49,000, which could be worse. The top earning graduates from dental hygiene studied at MCPHS University and if you want to find the schools with all of the highest earning graduates, Authority has that too.
The overall diversity of dental hygiene ranks near the bottom, arriving within only the 21st percentile of all majors. The school with the most composite diversity for dental hygiene is New York University and here you can find our general list for the colleges with the most diversity. The overall financial diversity of Dental Hygiene only ranks within the 43rd percentile compared to all other majors. Racial diversity is even less in the 32nd percentile. White collegians make up the largest share, 69%, of scholars studying dental hygiene. Additionally, 96% of scholars seeking a dental hygiene degree are women.
The median ranking of dental hygiene professors is 4 stars, which is surprisingly the median score for every major; this is a fine. If you are interested in the most popular dental hygiene instructor nationally, look no further than Mary Godfrey at Grand Rapids Community College. This might be surprising, but the top rated dental hygiene instructors from student rankings are found at Pensacola State College. If we including data beyond simply rankings we find that the college possessing comprehensively the best professors for dental hygiene is New York University. You can find more detail on our evolving ranking methodology of the best overall professors here, as well as some of the finest instructors in the country.
Finally, the most difficult college to get into for dental hygiene is University of Southern California. While we are unsure why you would be interested, we do have a comprehensive page for the hardest colleges to get into. With that said, we hope you understand that considering college with a lens only shaped by superlatives can cause issues. We at Authority encourage you to explore our more nuanced pages on different universities and peruse a couple of our background pages on important things to consider as your school search continues.