How was your Temple interview?

Hmmm...lets see..

at my NYU interview, my interviewer and tour was done by Amy Knowles, director of admissions (not a student or dentist)

at my Tufts interview, the tour was done by Katherine Wasilenko, Assistant Director of Admissions (not a student or dentist) and my interviewer was a 4th year dental student

at my Temple interview, tour/presentation was done by Brian (not a student or dentist) and interviewed by a 4th year dental student

Throughout all of these interviews, I didnt get a chance to talk to faculty members. Are these schools garbage? Will they give me a bad dental education because of this? NO!

Im sure if I had requested to, it would have been arranged, but I didnt see it as necessary at the time. Since I was giving a lot of consideration to Temple after my interview, I decided to contact some faculty members, and they have been MORE than helpful with any of my questions.

Im sorry, but its an ignorant way to decide on a school, especially when you said you think as a dental school, Temple is good.

 

i really don't understand why so many people are bringing up being interviewed by students as being a negative thing. Do y'all think that we aren't good judgements of character and what it takes to get through 4 years of dental school?...i guess having just went through the program or working with profs in the school doesn't account for much huh? I think having students do interviews are actually better b/c they tend to give better reviews on interviewees than faculty. and also, being on the other side of that interview table is much more fresh in our minds than in a faculty member that hasn't had to interview since nixon was president....so we know how it feels...and tend to be more sympathetic...and believe it or not...not all faculty cares about doing interviews (of course there are exceptions...)...or writing much on the interview form. i think students do a much better job in evaluating candidates. I guess people wanna make it harder to get themselves into dental school..i dunno...

I don't mean this to be a personal attack to you sarah...b/c you aren't the only to mention this but i just find it funny that people put down student interviewers as being a negative thing. Seriously though..if you wanna talk to faculty, there are plenty around that are willing to talk to you. Some of them may have been busy this week trying to help seniors with board preperations..(nerbs last week...westerns this week, etc..) but yeah..they're all friendly...They don't bite. I guess i'm also venting from having like so many exams lately but yeah...if someone could explain this to me, i'd really appreciate it...

 

Faculty interviews aren't always better than student interviews. At BU, my interview lasted a most 12 minutes. He asked the basic "Why Dentistry?", "Why BU?" questions and then started talking about how he wanted to [email protected]#!! At least at Temple, the 4th year students seem interested in me as a person and as a future dentist. I felt they were sincerely trying to evaluate me as a future student at their school to see what I could gain from the program there and if it suited me best.

With regards to not knowing when the school would get back to you...

I interviewed at UOP with a faculty member. At the end, I asked him whether he knew when the adcom would get back to me with their decision. He told me to ask the Admissions Director, so I did...she said she had no clue and that all I could do was wait and call back in a few days.

I've been playing phone tag with that woman for over two weeks! Two deposit deadlines came up, so I had to submit my deposit for both! Finally when UCLA got back to me, I gave up on UOP.

 

sarah, i agree with u. they really treated me like a stranger.

 

You seem to think that the interview is the determing factor for your acceptence. Im sorry bud, but its only a piece of the whole pie of your application. So when Brian said that he didnt know when you would hear from Temple, can you blame him? He is not the admissions committee and does not have the only say in your acceptence. The committee has to meet, look at your application (grades, DAT, essay, etc.), and read the comments that your interviewer made of you. Then other factors come into play, such as the number of deposits they got that week to determine the number of seats left, or any new applications coming in. Stuff like that....so how could he give you a definite answer on a final decision? EVERY SCHOOL IS LIKE THAT! At Columbia, I had a one on one interview, and then I was told that the committee meets every Friday to decide on candidates. Every member gets a vote, according to your applications stats, and what the personal interviewer says about you to the rest of the committee, and then they all vote. You expect every admissions committee member at every school to observe every interviewer all year???? I really dont know what Sarah wants!!

All of my interviews were disorganized in some way. Columbia was the worst and VERY disorganized....but that was because they were getting prepared for a dental conference in Seattle....at Tufts, Mark Gonthier, the one that took care of selling the school was late and we were just sitting there.....at NYU, no students were available in the cafeteria like promised, and they didnt even say farewell to us....I understand this gives a bad impression, but I looked past it and said to myself that the admissions department is only one small department of the school, and does not reflect the entire school. Think about it, after your first day of dental school, you wont even see the admissions department again....

Instead I looked at the other factors that WOULD affect me for 4 years...such as facilities, housing, financial aid, etc. These are more important, and that is why I think Sarah and aileen's logic are ignorant in choosing a school.

Sarah, may I ask what other interviews you've been to?