I am a current student. A couple things you may or may not want to know about Pitt interview.
1. It is HUGE, most interviews that you will have will take 10 person per date. Pitt dental takes 25 per date (I believe). When I went to this interview, it seemed really intimidating to me.
2. Work on talking about things other than your academic achievements for your interview. The way Pitt interviews work is a bit different than others. The professors interviewing you DO NOT see the grades/scores portion of your application at the time of the interview. Their mentality is, if you got an invitations, it meant that you're academically capable of handling the Pitt Dental course load. What they do have access to is your EC information.
Btw, I think for the Pitt Interview (and all interviews), it would be a very good idea to read this link http://www.ada.org/prof/prac/law/code/index.asp
Particularly section III. "Principles, Code of Professional Conduct & Advisory Opinions"
It is a short reading, but it will have everything you need to know to answer the curve ball ethics questions that interviewers throw at you. Interviewers love asking you questions that are centered around those principles.
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One last thing, one of the thread earlier mentioned that Pittsburgh is a research oriented dental school (in terms of clinical, academic, and research). I would say that's not entirely true... I have been to the research group meetings and spoken with dental students that participate in active research at Pitt. On average, less than 5 people from each class does research; and the kind of research conducted by these dental students are not substantial research projects that you might be used to seeing in undergrad. Based on what I've heard so far, they're very short projects that will probably won't get your name in big papers. Professors give big projects to their PhD students, dental students at Pitt don't really get involved in the "meaty" portion of the research projects (nor do most of us have the time to).
I would say we are more a academic school that's moving towards clinical. The class of 2013 is going through an experimental curriculum that squeezes in classes into 1st year to get us into clinic earlier.
Hope this helps, and good luck to those who are interviewing on Nov. 2nd!!!
1. It is HUGE, most interviews that you will have will take 10 person per date. Pitt dental takes 25 per date (I believe). When I went to this interview, it seemed really intimidating to me.
2. Work on talking about things other than your academic achievements for your interview. The way Pitt interviews work is a bit different than others. The professors interviewing you DO NOT see the grades/scores portion of your application at the time of the interview. Their mentality is, if you got an invitations, it meant that you're academically capable of handling the Pitt Dental course load. What they do have access to is your EC information.
Btw, I think for the Pitt Interview (and all interviews), it would be a very good idea to read this link http://www.ada.org/prof/prac/law/code/index.asp
Particularly section III. "Principles, Code of Professional Conduct & Advisory Opinions"
It is a short reading, but it will have everything you need to know to answer the curve ball ethics questions that interviewers throw at you. Interviewers love asking you questions that are centered around those principles.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One last thing, one of the thread earlier mentioned that Pittsburgh is a research oriented dental school (in terms of clinical, academic, and research). I would say that's not entirely true... I have been to the research group meetings and spoken with dental students that participate in active research at Pitt. On average, less than 5 people from each class does research; and the kind of research conducted by these dental students are not substantial research projects that you might be used to seeing in undergrad. Based on what I've heard so far, they're very short projects that will probably won't get your name in big papers. Professors give big projects to their PhD students, dental students at Pitt don't really get involved in the "meaty" portion of the research projects (nor do most of us have the time to).
I would say we are more a academic school that's moving towards clinical. The class of 2013 is going through an experimental curriculum that squeezes in classes into 1st year to get us into clinic earlier.
Hope this helps, and good luck to those who are interviewing on Nov. 2nd!!!
