Though Boston University’s Goldman School of Dental Medicine consistently ranks among the nation’s best dental schools, the school’s prestige unfortunately includes a less flattering statistic — it charges prospective students hundreds of dollars to even apply. Add in the exorbitant personal cost many applicants bear in coming to Boston for a required one-on-one interview, and the Goldman School likely appears out of reach for many dental students.

Though admissions officers must filter the applicant pool for a very small number of seats, the school should still take steps to enlarge its group of candidates by making the application process easier. To cull each class down to just more than 100, the Goldman School requires all applicants to pay a large application fee and arrive for personal interviews no matter how far away they live. Despite limited aid for extreme hardship, most applicants face the high costs of these requirements without even knowing if it will deliver a spot.

This is graduate school, and the application is rightfully no walk in the park. Yet the dental school could make the process easier without sacrificing anything by sending interviewers across the country. The process would prove more cost-efficient and save far-flung applicants thousands of dollars in plane and hotel costs. There is also no reason the school could not choose its pool based on paper applications before interviewing a limited number of finalists.

Despite their reputations for easy prosperity, careers in medicine or dentistry are less profitable today than they used to be. Though doctors still earn sizable incomes, malpractice liabilities and other costs have squeezed margins and forced medical students to spend more time paying off loans. Graduate students cannot count on breaking even any time soon, and for many, spending thousands on training will force them into the most trying time in their lives. Though dental students cannot avoid many of these troubles, easing the application process is one way the Goldman School can make applicants’ lives a little less stressful while not sacrificing anything in funding or student quality.