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So...you got a dental school interview. CONGRATS!
I got to sit through 2 cycles of applicants while at Midwestern-AZ with the admissions committee.
I absolutely had no say in their final decisions but my input was heard, and I got to hear their input.
When you’re looking at thousands of dental school applications, they are blindingly similar. 90% of your admission essays are super dry (maybe that’s a safe play for you personally). So the interview is your chance to actually make an impression.
I’ve seen quite a few interviews absolutely bomb. Here’s some tips so it’s not you.
1) You’re interview starts, the second you drive onto campus. Act accordingly.
Somebody could always be watching!
-I saw a guy drive like an idiot through the parking lot, slam on the brakes to slide into a parking spot.
-I saw a guy hit on girls, and girls flirt with guys
-Pre-Interview inappropriate topics of conversation while the candidates were waiting
-Rudeness to the office secretary
Anything other then charming and professional is a terrible idea. The dental school is trying to get a sense of who you are, act like a first date, present your best self.
2) Dress Appropriately
-Guys, especially from the west coast, have a reputation of underdressing to interviews. Wear a suit. Sport coat and nice t-shirt is bad form. So need for a tuxedo, but my goodness get a suit and tie. You’re gonna be talking to doctors, look like a doctor.
-Gals, you tend to get more slack from guy docs and less slack from girl docs. Look professional.
Everyone tends to dress in dark colors, navy blue and black. Classic choices. We are trying to separate ourselves from a pack here though, a light grey, a small bit of color in tie choice might help, whatever you feel comfortable with.
3) Be friendly, smile, and RELAX!
This might be the most important interview of your life (mine was!) but you need to appear comfortable and relaxed. If you can’t handle this pressure, why would they think you can handle dental school?
- I asked a guy in the interview what he does for fun, after thinking about it quietly for what seemed like an eternity, he stuttered out...NOTHING REALLY
-I asked a girl what she would major in if she got to do undergraduate school again for fun. She started shaking and cried for a couple minutes.
Dental schools consider personality. Class sizes are pretty small and everyone knows everyone so don’t be weird. Act like you belong there because YOU DO.
4) At the end of the interview, ASK GOOD QUESTIONS
The end of the interview arrives, any questions for us? Typically you’ll get 10-20 minutes of questions and chatting for your interview. At the end you’ll get the open ended go ahead to ask them anything that’s on your mind. Ask questions. Ask as many great questions as they’ll let you without being annoying. When it comes to answering the question: “who made an impression today?” sometimes it matters who you just spent more time with! My interview for dental school was about 40min. I seen lots of 10-15 min interviews. Sometimes they get in anyway! Big stats talk. However if it’s between two similar candidates, I’d rather be the one who had double the interview time
The only thing worse than no questions, are bad questions. For the the love of all that is holy, never ask anything that could be found on the school’s website. Nothing says “this school isn’t important to me” like asking what the average accepted GPA is or what is the class size. It happens all the time and it’s infuriating that someone would come all the way to a school for an interview and not even bother googling the school.
This post is long enough. Good luck this year!
I got to sit through 2 cycles of applicants while at Midwestern-AZ with the admissions committee.
I absolutely had no say in their final decisions but my input was heard, and I got to hear their input.
When you’re looking at thousands of dental school applications, they are blindingly similar. 90% of your admission essays are super dry (maybe that’s a safe play for you personally). So the interview is your chance to actually make an impression.
I’ve seen quite a few interviews absolutely bomb. Here’s some tips so it’s not you.
1) You’re interview starts, the second you drive onto campus. Act accordingly.
Somebody could always be watching!
-I saw a guy drive like an idiot through the parking lot, slam on the brakes to slide into a parking spot.
-I saw a guy hit on girls, and girls flirt with guys
-Pre-Interview inappropriate topics of conversation while the candidates were waiting
-Rudeness to the office secretary
Anything other then charming and professional is a terrible idea. The dental school is trying to get a sense of who you are, act like a first date, present your best self.
2) Dress Appropriately
-Guys, especially from the west coast, have a reputation of underdressing to interviews. Wear a suit. Sport coat and nice t-shirt is bad form. So need for a tuxedo, but my goodness get a suit and tie. You’re gonna be talking to doctors, look like a doctor.
-Gals, you tend to get more slack from guy docs and less slack from girl docs. Look professional.
Everyone tends to dress in dark colors, navy blue and black. Classic choices. We are trying to separate ourselves from a pack here though, a light grey, a small bit of color in tie choice might help, whatever you feel comfortable with.
3) Be friendly, smile, and RELAX!
This might be the most important interview of your life (mine was!) but you need to appear comfortable and relaxed. If you can’t handle this pressure, why would they think you can handle dental school?
- I asked a guy in the interview what he does for fun, after thinking about it quietly for what seemed like an eternity, he stuttered out...NOTHING REALLY
-I asked a girl what she would major in if she got to do undergraduate school again for fun. She started shaking and cried for a couple minutes.
Dental schools consider personality. Class sizes are pretty small and everyone knows everyone so don’t be weird. Act like you belong there because YOU DO.
4) At the end of the interview, ASK GOOD QUESTIONS
The end of the interview arrives, any questions for us? Typically you’ll get 10-20 minutes of questions and chatting for your interview. At the end you’ll get the open ended go ahead to ask them anything that’s on your mind. Ask questions. Ask as many great questions as they’ll let you without being annoying. When it comes to answering the question: “who made an impression today?” sometimes it matters who you just spent more time with! My interview for dental school was about 40min. I seen lots of 10-15 min interviews. Sometimes they get in anyway! Big stats talk. However if it’s between two similar candidates, I’d rather be the one who had double the interview time
The only thing worse than no questions, are bad questions. For the the love of all that is holy, never ask anything that could be found on the school’s website. Nothing says “this school isn’t important to me” like asking what the average accepted GPA is or what is the class size. It happens all the time and it’s infuriating that someone would come all the way to a school for an interview and not even bother googling the school.
This post is long enough. Good luck this year!
from my experience so far it does really seem like the key is to be yourself, they already know about your application and want to see how you act in person and what you’re all about
