Schools with on-site writing assignments on the interview day

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I know UPitt has one. Any other schools?

The following schools have on-site writing assignments on the interview day:

UPittsburgh, Buffalo, Temple, UCSF, UCLA, UMissouri-Kansas City, University of Southern California, Virginia Commonwealth University, Roseman, West Virginia U, Loma Linda, and Howard
 
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NYU's writing assignment: trying to fit all your schools into five, 1-line boxes. It's stressful.
 
I think all schools do. It's a check to make sure you actually wrote your PS.
 
YoHomey said:
I think all schools do. It's a check to make sure you actually wrote your PS.
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What if your personal statement is the result of weeks of effort and careful editing? I'm just worried that I might have writer's block on the interview day...
 
Teeth12345 said:
What if your personal statement is the result of weeks of effort and careful editing? I'm just worried that I might have writer's block on the interview day...
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Don't worry, I'm sure most people won't be able to craft a writing sample as good as their PS. As long as it's feasible.
 
Imagine the foreigners who have their native English speaking friends write their PS with perfect grammar and sophisticated vocabulary and sentence structure... and then they start sh*tting bricks as they try to construct some paragraphs of 6th grader vocabulary and five word sentences haha.
 
DocWheels said:
Roseman
Click to expand...

I was feeling great about my interview at Roseman, but my essay felt forced. I should have gone slower and created a quick outline. I'm not even 100% confident that I answered the question they were asking. At the end of a long interview day, I found my mind wandering a bit going over how the day went. I don't think it was that bad, but I can imagine it is possible some will get rejected because of this.

Hope I didn't blow it...
😕
 
imback said:
I know UPitt has one. Any other schools?

The following schools have on-site writing assignments on the interview day:

UPittsburgh, Buffalo, Temple, UCSF, UCLA, UMissouri-Kansas City, University of Southern California, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Howard
Click to expand...


What type of questions does UPITT ask and how many? Does it change at each interview date?
 
dooley11 said:
What type of questions does UPITT ask and how many? Does it change at each interview date?
Click to expand...

Pitt asks one, and you only have to write about a page (you get 15 minutes). I'm not sure if they change the prompt from interview date to interview date (so I won't share, to be fair), but I think it does change from year to year. I guess I got lucky because the prompt that my interview date got was the same that my roommate had on her Pitt Med application so I sort of already had an answer.
 
YoHomey said:
Imagine the foreigners who have their native English speaking friends write their PS with perfect grammar and sophisticated vocabulary and sentence structure... and then they start sh*tting bricks as they try to construct some paragraphs of 6th grader vocabulary and five word sentences haha.
Click to expand...

Trust me, so many foreigners write so much better then Americans...
 
hail2pitt said:
Pitt asks one, and you only have to write about a page (you get 15 minutes). I'm not sure if they change the prompt from interview date to interview date (so I won't share, to be fair), but I think it does change from year to year. I guess I got lucky because the prompt that my interview date got was the same that my roommate had on her Pitt Med application so I sort of already had an answer.
Click to expand...


Thanks for your info 🙂
Is it something we need to prepare beforehand such as political/current events or scientific facts etc or is it a personal question?
 
dooley11 said:
Thanks for your info 🙂
Is it something we need to prepare beforehand such as political/current events or scientific facts etc or is it a personal question?
Click to expand...

For mine, I'd say no prep needed! Personal question.
The dental student that was in our room before we got the prompt said his was "tell us how to ride a bike" if that gives you an idea. Ours wasn't like that, it was more personal, but still neither would've needed any prep.

I don't think they're trying to test any knowledge or anything, but more like YoHomey said in terms of making sure you can put sentences together.
 
hail2pitt said:
For mine, I'd say no prep needed! Personal question.
The dental student that was in our room before we got the prompt said his was "tell us how to ride a bike" if that gives you an idea. Ours wasn't like that, it was more personal, but still neither would've needed any prep.

I don't think they're trying to test any knowledge or anything, but more like YoHomey said in terms of making sure you can put sentences together.
Click to expand...


Do they interview a bunch of people on the same day or a small group of people?
 
amalgamgrillz said:
NYU's writing assignment: trying to fit all your schools into five, 1-line boxes. It's stressful.
Click to expand...

They probably rejected me after they saw how I wrote all the way down the side of the page, one line, 15 schools, not enough room even with abbreviations. I am glad I am not the only one who feels this way.
 
amalgamgrillz said:
Hopefully they don't confuse things like "than vs. then"
Click to expand...

I am sure they don't...
I just find your post extremely offensive. Probably a good half of SDNers are foreigners (and very smart ones). They may be not the best writers out there, but they are not trying to get into advanced English program. There are so many great doctors, dentists, engineers and other professionals around whose native language is not English... So, don't just try to be a jack*****!!!
 
belochka said:
I am sure they don't...
I just find your post extremely offensive. Probably a good half of SDNers are foreigners (and very smart ones). They may be not the best writers out there, but they are not trying to get into advanced English program. There are so many great doctors, dentists, engineers and other professionals around whose native language is not English... So, don't just try to be a jack*****!!!
Click to expand...
Well at least you spelled that right.
 
belochka said:
I am sure they don't...
I just find your post extremely offensive. Probably a good half of SDNers are foreigners (and very smart ones). They may be not the best writers out there, but they are not trying to get into advanced English program. There are so many great doctors, dentists, engineers and other professionals around whose native language is not English... So, don't just try to be a jack*****!!!
Click to expand...

Jacka s s e s?
Jacks h i t s?
Jackd i c k s?
Jack******* s?

True, they're not trying to get a PhD in English, but the DMD programs are English intensive and geared towards training people to work in English-speaking areas. It's great if they can speak multiple languages, but the schools' primary concern is making sure students have strong backgrounds in English. Nothing wrong with that.
 
And what happens when a patient describes his/her condition with an English vocabulary word that the foreign dentist doesn't understand, especially if that word will definitively help the dentist with a proper diagnosis and treatment? Is he going to ask his dental assistant in his foreign tongue what that word means?
 
DentalGunner said:
Jacka s s e s?
Jacks h i t s?
Jackd i c k s?
Jack******* s?

True, they're not trying to get a PhD in English, but the DMD programs are English intensive and geared towards training people to work in English-speaking areas. It's great if they can speak multiple languages, but the schools' primary concern is making sure students have strong backgrounds in English. Nothing wrong with that.
Click to expand...

I agree, but the RC portion of DAT should reflect some level of English. It's also not that easy to obtain high GPA with poor language skills. I really don't argue the fact that it is important to speak and write English in English speaking country, especially if you intend to get a professional degree. I just didn't like the post about the foreigners, that was stated somewhere above...
 
YoHomey said:
And what happens when a patient describes his/her condition with an English vocabulary word that the foreign dentist doesn't understand, especially if that word will definitively help the dentist with a proper diagnosis and treatment? Is he going to ask his dental assistant in his foreign tongue what that word means?
Click to expand...

I just don't believe that anybody, who is able to graduate from undergraduate American+ graduate American school will not be able to understand the description of the problem he/she has.
America is multinational country, and, for example, dentist who speaks some other language will certainly understand the patient who speaks same language( Spanish, Russian, Chinese...). You always have a choice to which dentist you want to go, do some research before you go. I do so.
 
belochka said:
I just don't believe that anybody, who is able to graduate from undergraduate American+ graduate American school will not be able to understand the description of the problem he/she has.
America is multinational country, and, for example, dentist who speaks some other language will certainly understand the patient who speaks same language( Spanish, Russian, Chinese...). You always have a choice to which dentist you want to go, do some research before you go. I do so.
Click to expand...

Actually, I have a pre-dental classmate, who immigrated into this country 6 years ago, and carries 3.9 GPA and will undoubtedly get accepted into dental school when he applies next year. However, his vocabulary sucks big time. He got A's in all of his English and History classes and anything that involves writing by having someone else edit his essays and using the school's tutoring center to get them polished up too. Guess how he's going to write his PS? He didn't even know the meaning of words such as alleviate or mitigate. So when a future patient asks him to alleviate the pain or says when drinking cold liquids, the pain is exacerbated, what the hell is he going to say? 'Oh wait a minute while I step out to look that up in the dictionary...'
 
YoHomey said:
Actually, I have a pre-dental classmate, who immigrated into this country 6 years ago, and carries 3.9 GPA and will undoubtedly get accepted into dental school when he applies next year. However, his vocabulary sucks big time. He got A's in all of his English and History classes and anything that involves writing by having someone else edit his essays and using the school's tutoring center to get them polished up too. Guess how he's going to write his PS? He didn't even know the meaning of words such as alleviate or mitigate. So when a future patient asks him to alleviate the pain or says when drinking cold liquids, the pain is exacerbated, what the hell is he going to say? 'Oh wait a minute while I step out to look that up in the dictionary...'
Click to expand...

His English will get better in 4 years...
Even if somebody helps him with PS, there still will be an interview, when he has to speak on his own. So, it will be up to Adcom to decide whether he deserves a spot or not.
 
imback said:
I know UPitt has one. Any other schools?

The following schools have on-site writing assignments on the interview day:

UPittsburgh, Buffalo, Temple, UCSF, UCLA, UMissouri-Kansas City, University of Southern California, Virginia Commonwealth University, Roseman, and Howard
Click to expand...

WVU has one - you pick 2 out of 4 prompts - not dental related
 
belochka said:
His English will get better in 4 years...
Even if somebody helps him with PS, there still will be an interview, when he has to speak on his own. So, it will be up to Adcom to decide whether he deserves a spot or not.
Click to expand...
And stay tuned for another episode of "Soviet homo sapien vs. Croc-eating American homo sapien"
 
belochka said:
His English will get better in 4 years...
Even if somebody helps him with PS, there still will be an interview, when he has to speak on his own. So, it will be up to Adcom to decide whether he deserves a spot or not.
Click to expand...

That's what they said about my friend's mom who immigrated 30 years ago. She still can't speak English.
 
YoHomey said:
That's what they said about my friend's mom who immigrated 30 years ago. She still can't speak English.
Click to expand...

If you are surrounded in an environment that mainly speak English (dental school), he or she will learn to speak the language fluently. However, he or she would not be able to get rid of her accent at this age.
 
Any other schools?
 
amalgamgrillz said:
NYU's writing assignment: trying to fit all your schools into five, 1-line boxes. It's stressful.
Click to expand...

Eh? I thought we were only allowed to list five. So I just picked the first five that came to my head haha...? Would that be a problem?
 
LLU has one also

imback said:
I know UPitt has one. Any other schools?

The following schools have on-site writing assignments on the interview day:

UPittsburgh, Buffalo, Temple, UCSF, UCLA, UMissouri-Kansas City, University of Southern California, Virginia Commonwealth University, Roseman, West Virginia U, and Howard
Click to expand...
 
Updated. Thanks.
 
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