Hey David, I am interviewing this Wednesday, it is my first interview, and am a little nervous about some of the questions they may ask. I am pretty personable so I think I should do fine,but do you remember any questions that you found difficult to answer? Also I did not know that was the format of their interview, is it just one interview but with several people in the room.? Im glad you said something because that would have been intimidating if I had not known. Thanks for your help!!
Sorry, I'm not David; however, I interviewed at UAB in September, so I feel like I can chime in.
Intro: The five to seven of you will be waiting in the main lobby of dental school in the morning. Dr. Filler (dean of adcom) will come find you guys personally to greet you all. He's a very personable guy - not intimidating at all! Then he will hand you guys over to a dental student to take a tour of the school. After the tour, you guys will eat lunch in a big conference room with a bunch of dental school students; they are there for free lunch
😀 After lunch, all of you (the interviewers) will go down to the lobby and wait to go into the interview one person at a time. Out of the 6 people that were with me on my interview day, I was the 3rd person to go...lol
So Dr. Filler will come get you in the lobby and he will introduce you to the other 4 interviewers: 3 other professors/alumni and 1 student in addition to Dr. Filler himself.
The setting: a big oval table with five interviewers sitting around it facing toward you, who will be sitting at the one of the two heads of the table. Dr. Filler will be sitting at the other head of the table. The room is very cramped - maybe 10 ft by 10 ft. The questions will be asked by one interviewer at a time. So while one interviewer is asking questions, others may be sifting through your file to stay with the question or to think of other questions. Make sure you make eye contact with EVERY person at the table; don't just look at the person that asked you the question.
The questions: Why dentistry? Why UAB? What other schools have you applied to? Your DAT score? What do you do with free time? Where do you see yourself in 10 years? Tell me about your volunteer experience. If you have research, tell me about that, too. Any clubs in college? Strengths? Weaknesses? What's your favorite book/movie/music/dessert (this one particular interviewer of the five likes this question a lot)? How do you think you can contribute to the incoming student body this year? The questions are very standard, and they just want to get to know you.
The end: once you are done with the questions, Dr. Filler will lead you out of the room. Then it's bye bye.
My view: The toughest part is to get
engage ALL of them with each and EVERY question. Most likely you'll be talking to 2-3 people who are looking at you while the other two are looking in your file. Also,
lean forward to give off the impression of "engagement and interest".
If you have any more questions, just shoot me a PM.
Ciao and good luck!
