Arizona Interview-they way interviews should be

[Hoffa24]

Disclaimer: Let me start out by saying that I am not giving away any particulars about the interview process that they didn't send out to me in advance.

I had my Arizona interview a few days ago and I was very impressed. The major difference between the interview process at Arizona and at most other schools is that they really want to get to know what kind of person you are. Instead of the typical 30 min interview/tour that you get at most schools, here they use many different methods to see what kind of person you are, not just how you would do in an a 30 minute interview. Dr. Dillenberg (the dean) said that they feel that the interview is the most important thing that they do at the dental school, because that way they get to affect the future of dentistry. The people who they pick will be the future dentists (if they admit jerks, then future dentists will be jerks).

I really commend Arizona for really putting in the time to make sure that they know who the applicants really are. As both Dr. Simonson and Dillenberg walk through the school they know every students' name and about what is going on in their lives. This is so rare in Dental Education, but it shouldn't be.

I realize that it takes a large amount of time to have this type of a more holistic interviews, and it is much easier to just do the traditional 30 min session, but come on.... By accepting a student to their program they are making a commitment to that student, shouldn't they really try to know that person first?

Purely as a respect issue, if a student is taking the time and expense of flying accross the country for an interview, shouldn't they be afforded the respect of getting more that 30 minutes of the school's time?

Lastly, why don't dental schools give their applicants some type of manual dexterity test? (I think Loma Linda does some carving test) Don't they care about this? There could be some applicant who has wonderful scores, tons of volunteer experience and all of that, but has no manual dexterity. Shouldn't it matter to them?

Sorry to ramble on like this and thank you for those who got all of the way to the end.

Please let me know what you think.

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[jdcinza13]

I agree with aspects of what you are saying. I interviewed at Arizona as well, but with respect to carving: Why should you be tested on it at the interview. Just because someone does better in carving or whatever in the interview doesn't mean that they will be better during or after dental school. There may be someone that is a "diamond in the rough" as far as manual dexterity goes that doesn't do well in an interview because they haven't had the practice or experience.

 

[Darksunshine]

I don't think schools should test interviewees on carving. Here is my reasons why: First of all, most students will be able to develop sufficient manual dexterity skills while in school and proving this at the interview says nothing about all the other qualities needed to be a dentist. Second, some one like me who has had 6 years of dental experience (hygiene) and others, say assistants, will be a head above all the other applicants unless they have spent a significant amount of time working on small task manaul dexerity problems. Thirdly, I agree with the OP. The school SHOULD care about what kind of person you are, not only how smart you look on paper. I too, was impressed with AZ and their attitude toward their students. Enough so that I would be willing to take the risk and move my entire family there, even though they have little track record (no graduating class, only took boards last year, etc.) Their dean and asst. dean do seem to have a "dream" and I think they will make it.

 

[msf41]

It is nice to hear that some schools place such an emphasis on "who" you are instead of just a number (gpa, DAT).

I just interviewed in Nebraska (UNMC). They are a great school, I would love to go there, BUT Nebraska is currently ranked number 1 for highest GPA of entering dental students (according to what they told me in the interview). According to them they have had the highest (or second highest) entering GPA of the 50+ dental schools for the past 8 years.

What this says to me is ALL they care about is GPA. In the interview they said that they look at the whole application, but I really feel that in the end....the person with the highest GPA will win.

I wish they were more like arizona.

 

[groundhog]

It is nice to hear that some schools place such an emphasis on "who" you are instead of just a number (gpa, DAT).

I just interviewed in Nebraska (UNMC). They are a great school, I would love to go there, BUT Nebraska is currently ranked number 1 for highest GPA of entering dental students (according to what they told me in the interview). According to them they have had the highest (or second highest) entering GPA of the 50+ dental schools for the past 8 years.

What this says to me is ALL they care about is GPA. In the interview they said that they look at the whole application, but I really feel that in the end....the person with the highest GPA will win.

I wish they were more like arizona.

UNMC dental school entrants may have a high avg GPA but their DAT averages are in the middle. H'mm..state school which accepts mostly state residents...maybe the high GPA ranking is a function of grade inflation within the Nebraska public higher education system.

 

[msf41]

That's a really good point. Now that you mention it, the admissions dean did say that they take many of their students from small state universities or colleges. Perhaps that would be equivalent to the different weight between a University gpa and a community college gpa? The gpa's in the small nebraska universities may be a little inflated? Who knows.

 

[jdcinza13]

As much as I hate to say it, GPA's nowadays are completely subjective. They used to be a good way of measuring someone, and I still understand the value in it, but there is simply no way to say that a GPA at one school would be the same as another school. I've seen community college classes that were 10x harder than university classes simply because they wanted to gain the respect of a university. There's simply no way to tell.

 

[Biogirl361]

i am prob going to get hollered at for this, but i actually like the short and sweet interviews with standard questions. i don't like being put on the spot and asked to come up with a creative answer for nonstandard questions in just a few seconds. and there is no way you can answer "good question, i'd have to reflect about that one for a while" in the middle of an interview. i like the relaxed interviews where they are just making sure you are able to carry on a conversation. makes my interview time stress a whole lot lower. also, i think there are good reasons why gpa and dat are more important to a lot of schools than "the kind of person you are". i mean you can be the nicest person ever but if you can't handle their curriculum, it's over. and contrary to popular belief, most people with high grades and scores are great, fun, caring, normal people, just as worthy from a personal standpoint of being a dentist as anyone else on top of the good grades, so why shouldn't they be more desireable? also, by making it more competitive to get into dental school, schools can help raise the public opinion of dentists and dental school. just my .02 (please don't hurt me!)
oh yeah i forgot, another thing is i don't really like the whole "everyone knows what is going on in everyone else's life" deal... it is great if profs know everyone personally and everything, but i am not sure if i would want such a close atmosphere that they actually know everything going on in your life... i like a little bit of distance and privacy at least...

 

[luder98]

I've seen community college classes that were 10x harder than university classes simply because they wanted to gain the respect of a university. There's simply no way to tell.

I agree. I took my OC at this JC. ~60 will make a B, and ~75 will make an A. The professor expected a lot from his students. I saw a similar trend in my Bio at this JC as well. We ended up with a class of 11 students! This is a good thing and a bad thing IMO. The good thing is that you get to study and know more from your professor. The bad thing is that the other sections are not as tough. So one B student in this class could make an A in other sections. So if the adcom looks at the two students, they can mistakenly say that one is better than the other when that may not be the case.

 

[Lephisto]

.

 

[Darksunshine]

As much as I hate to say it, GPA's nowadays are completely subjective. They used to be a good way of measuring someone, and I still understand the value in it, but there is simply no way to say that a GPA at one school would be the same as another school. I've seen community college classes that were 10x harder than university classes simply because they wanted to gain the respect of a university. There's simply no way to tell.

I whole heartly agree with this statement. I have seen this too. Where the university is a joke, and the community college is trying to make you a rocket scientist.

 

[Darksunshine]

I disagree heavily with your statement that says the majority of people with high grades are great, fun caring, normal people...While some may be...even half may be...but I really don't think so. I go SUNY Geneseo, and its not the best school, but its considered to be the top or next to top school in the ny state public system...and I can't even stand to be in the same room as 75% of the kids in my upper level biology classes...in fact, for some reason, all the friends I've made in these classes are from the lower end spectrum of the grade curve..Most of the top half of the class are devoted to getting good grades, studying, and well...they're just boring, their personalities are weird, eccentric, and stunted. Which is why what arizona is doing is great...good for them...I think the interview should be an entire day thing, where you eat meals with your interviewers, walk around with, do the tour with them...put the people who may not have quite as high gpa, but are a well developed person on even footing. theres a delicate balance in life that needs to be struck, and I think this adcom realizes it. I'd rather have a caring person who doesn't think a B- is the end of the world as my dentist, then an A student who backstabs the rest of the class by having copies of old tests...You act like that now, you'll act like that when your a dentist later...

BTW they don't feed you.

 

[Biogirl361]

I can't even stand to be in the same room as 75% of the kids in my upper level biology classes...in fact, for some reason, all the friends I've made in these classes are from the lower end spectrum of the grade curve..Most of the top half of the class are devoted to getting good grades, studying, and well...they're just boring, their personalities are weird, eccentric, and stunted.

i'm sorry you've had this experience... i know exactly the type of people you are talking about, have some in my classes as well... in my opinion the reason everyone thinks high gpa people are not personable is because you have your 10-15 "gunners" in each class that everyone knows and that make a bad name for all smart people... i know there are lots more people out there with good grades, but you would never know it because they don't show it off like those few wierd/boring people. also, a lot of times people w/ low gpa's feel threatened, so they make themselves feel better/justify low grades by saying the other people have no personality. so then this attitude catches on and people think it applies to everyone. i just don't like the generalizing or thinking that most or even half of the high gpa people are like those wierd ones we all know of. also just bc people care about grades and need to spend a lot of time studying for that does not mean they do not know how to have fun... just that they are dedicated and know they can't afford to spend a lot of time partying and things... which i think dental schools would approve of since their curriculum isn't going to leave much time for anything else if you want to do well...

 

[luder98]

I think the interview should be an entire day thing, where you eat meals with your interviewers, walk around with, do the tour with them...put the people who may not have quite as high gpa, but are a well developed person on even footing.

That's pretty much how we do at our company. First, we conduct a 45-min phone interview to determine whom we should bring in.
After that we'll pay to get the candidates in town a day or two prior to the interview day, and put them in a decent hotel. In the morning of the interview day, each host manager will meet his candidate at the hotel lobby and have breakfast with him/her (to get to know better). There will be four 45-minute interviews on that day. The first one, non-technical interview, one manager will just chat with the person for the whole 45-min period. After that, we will take the candidate to the next interviewer. This is the first technical interview. We'll give the candidate several problems to work on. The candidate will have an hour lunch on us. After lunch, two engineers will tour him the site. The candidate will finish the other two interviews in the afternoon. At the end of the day, the whole recruit team will gather in a room, each will give his/her input on the candidates that they interviewed. We make the decision right there as a team and contact the accepted candidates in the same or next day. If a candidate is interested in the town, we will have someone take the person around the next day. All expenses are covered. Airplane, hotel, breakfast, lunch, dinner.

 

[JavadiCavity]

I agree with biogirl. I like the short 30 minute "warm and fuzzy" interviews. They've seen my academic abilities on paper, and I think they stand to gain a lot more from the interview by probing my personality. I had one interviewer tell me the objective of the next 30 minutes was to figure out whether or not I'd be a prick in class for the next four years!

In fact, I had one interivew that lasted 8 hours! 8 hours!! I like to get in, do my business, and get home. For me, the ideal interivew has been 4 to 5 hours.

 

[BrightSmile]

BTW they don't feed you.

At Iowa they do!

 

[JavadiCavity]

"an A student who backstabs the rest of the class by having copies of old tests...You act like that now, you'll act like that when your a dentist later..."

those backstabbers are pre-med not pre-dent. The nice guys with good grades are the pre-dents and THEY DON'T CHEAT

 

[Darksunshine]

At Iowa they do!

hehe, I was talking about AZ. Sorry needed to be specific.

 

[msf41]

Talking about feeding at interveiws...

At UNMC (nebraska) they had D2 and D3 students take us out to lunch so we could ask current students what they thought of the school (away from the ears of professors). It was very informative and helpful.

Comments on those who collect old exams:

I've been killing myself in an analytical chemistry class and right now it's looking like I'm going to get the first "C" of my college career. I just found out that about 1/3 of the class has had copies of the identical tests that we have taken for the first 3 exams. People may have different opinions about getting old exams, but I feel pretty ripped off by those people who get a leg up by using old exams. Some of them try to even say that it "isn't really cheating". Yeah right, why don't you tell the professor that you have a copy of his test then???? They won't cause they know it's not right.

 

[Lephisto]

.

 

[ItsGavinC]

In fact, I had one interivew that lasted 8 hours! 8 hours!! I like to get in, do my business, and get home. For me, the ideal interivew has been 4 to 5 hours.

From somebody who has been on both sides of the dental school interviews, I can tell you that the longer the better. Although it may be a greater emotional drain on the applicant, a longer interview period, if the time is properly, gives the adcom a much better chance of choosing their "ideal" student.

And keep in mind that you REALLY want adcoms to choose good students--this will become more of a factor as you come to spend every waking minute (it feels like) with these people for the next 4 years.

 

[JavadiCavity]

Good point.

I've been on one interview for 8 hours, and most of the time, I spent my time sitting in the admissions office sitting on the visitor's couch chatting about the Yankees vs. Red Sox series with the Dean. And, I also spent 45 min to an hour in class. In my opinion, the interivew could have been about 3 hours shorter and both parties wouldn't have been any better enlightened.

I think a 2 to 3 hour interivew, like I had at another school is useless. I barely got a feel for the campus or the people. The tour was a whirlwind. And the interview was me against 3 people. For the two hours prior to my interview, immediately after the tour at warp speed, I was told to sit in the waiting room with the rest of the candidates because they'd be calling us in random order.

I think there's a balance. I think form follows function. I think 5 hours later, like at Arizona, is a great time to kick my butt out the front door and send me home. I have an 8 hour interview on Monday, I'll let you know what I think of their use of time.

 

[Dr.Smiley-OR]

hehe, I was talking about AZ. Sorry needed to be specific.

Technically they do feed you. When I was there, they provided us bagels and drink as breakfast. Maybe people being interviewed in the aftertoon do not have this treatment (I don't know if this is true or not, somebody can correct me on this). BUT AZ does feed their interviewees, just not for lunch.

 

[Darksunshine]

Technically they do feed you. When I was there, they provided us bagels and drink as breakfast. Maybe people being interviewed in the aftertoon do not have this treatment (I don't know if this is true or not, somebody can correct me on this). BUT AZ does feed their interviewees, just not for lunch.

I think our "Snack" table got picked clean while we were interviewing, because all I got was a water. But, I was specifically talking about lunch, yes.

 

[Sprgrover]

...Although it may be a greater emotional drain on the applicant, a longer interview period, if the time is properly, gives the adcom a much better chance of choosing their "ideal" student...

Conversely it also allows the applicant more time to soak in and evaluate the character of the school and the attitude of the students and faculty. On the ride back to the airport this afternoon another applicant commented that school X allotted just 45 minutes for the interview and then left the applicants to wander around or dash back to where ever they are from. I thought to myself that sounds a bit more like a drive-by than a formal meeting to help you, the applicant, determine the course of the next four years of your life.

 

[Sprgrover]

I think our "Snack" table got picked clean while we were interviewing, because all I got was a water. But, I was specifically talking about lunch, yes.

Yes, Darksunshine and myself dined on water while at Arizona.

 

[ItsGavinC]

I think our "Snack" table got picked clean while we were interviewing, because all I got was a water. But, I was specifically talking about lunch, yes.

Sorry about that.

I still expect you to head our way if you're accepted.

 

[Darksunshine]

Sorry about that.

I still expect you to head our way if you're accepted.