Sudden UNE Dental Interview that did not seem to go well

[Versace101]

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hi

 

[FeralisExtremum]

Hey Guys. I had a short notice MMI interview at UNE dental school yesterday. Let's just say it did not go the way I wanted to. My scenario was that I received a call from UNE dental school at 3 pm on Wed. Nov. 8, 2017, for an interview session at 11:30 am on Thursday, Nov. 9, 2017. I had to register for the interview by 4 pm on Wed. Nov.8, 2017 while I was work. My problem was that they did not have any pre-December dates as the next interview date was available in January. Therefore, I decided to register for the interview thinking that I might have a chance of acceptance in December. However, as I mentioned the interview did not go well as I wanted to. I had no time for preparation as I went shopping for the interview at night after work and drove to UNE dental school in the morning for the interview. My stats are pretty average but I do live in NH. Therefore, I was wondering what are my chances at acceptance? Should I send out a thank you email for the interview stating that I tried my best on the short notice? I am still shadowing and volunteering so I will be uploading my volunteer activities on AADSAS. I graduated in the summer so I have no grades to update. Please let me know what you guys think. This is my top choice school and I would greatly appreciate your advice. Thank you!

It's impossible to tell your what your chances of acceptance are based on the information you've given. My advice would be to stay patient and just wait until December 1st for their decision. I don't think sending a thank you letter with the intention of actually saying 'sorry I didn't interview well' is a great idea.

 

[shendo]

I was going to email the school saying I am thankful for the interview and giving me an opportunity to view their beautiful campus. Also, stating that I tried my best on short notice? Does this sound too much?

You can email the school and thank them for the interview opportunity but please don't mention the part about trying your best on short notice since that will just sound like an excuse. What about the interview makes you think you did poorly on it?

 

[I-hate-alginate]

You signed up for it. You can't make any excuses. Let's hope they call you back on December 1st.

 

[Versace101]

You signed up for it. You can't make any excuses. Let's hope they call you back on December 1st.

You make a valid point. I am not making up an excuse. I am extremely thankful for the interview. I was just wondering about my chances on Dec. 1 based on your guys' experiences. This was my first interview and my first time applying so there was bound to be some difficulty.

 

[Versace101]

You can email the school and thank them for the interview opportunity but please don't mention the part about trying your best on short notice since that will just sound like an excuse. What about the interview makes you think you did poorly on it?

Fair enough. There were some scenarios based questions where I felt like I didn't really answer the question and repeated myself multiple times. However, I did answer half of the questions along the mission of the school and what it stands for. I have my fingers crossed and we will see how it goes. Is there a chance that improved DAT score can improve the chance of acceptance?

 

[shendo]

Fair enough. There were some scenarios based questions where I felt like I didn't really answer the question and repeated myself multiple times. However, I did answer half of the questions along the mission of the school and what it stands for. I have my fingers crossed and we will see how it goes. Is there a chance that improved DAT score can improve the chance of acceptance?

Improved DAT scores can help your chances, but it really depends on what the school is looking for in their accepted candidates. Don't lose hope yet, sometimes when applicants think they did poorly on their interviews, they actually get in, and vice versa, sometimes when applicants think they rocked the interviews they don't get in.

 

[menina103]

Fair enough. There were some scenarios based questions where I felt like I didn't really answer the question and repeated myself multiple times. However, I did answer half of the questions along the mission of the school and what it stands for. I have my fingers crossed and we will see how it goes. Is there a chance that improved DAT score can improve the chance of acceptance?

It's tough having an interview on such short notice but it may have gone better than you think, especially if you were able to relate your answers to what the school stands for. It's easy to overthink things and replay what you should have done differently, but try not to. There's nothing you can change now. And remember that at UNE, your lowest interview score gets thrown out so there's a chance your score will balance out. Hopefully you'll hear good news Dec 1st.

 

[Incis0r]

Improved DAT scores can help your chances, but it really depends on what the school is looking for in their accepted candidates. Don't lose hope yet, sometimes when applicants think they did poorly on their interviews, they actually get in, and vice versa, sometimes when applicants think they rocked the interviews they don't get in.

100% right.

Also, to the OP, what's done is done. Don't fret over this. Focus on improving your interviewing skills so that when the next one arrives, you'll knock it out of the park.

 

[577455]

Theres a thread around here about the worst interview experiences. If you go through it you’ll see that a lot of the worst interviews actually ended in an acceptance. In my first interview I was asked about why I wanted to be a dentist. I panicked and blurted out a story about how I didn’t want to be dentist because of high suicide rates. I was mortified and was sure I was going to be rejected. On Dec 1... guess who accepted me? LOL

 

[Versace101]

Improved DAT scores can help your chances, but it really depends on what the school is looking for in their accepted candidates. Don't lose hope yet, sometimes when applicants think they did poorly on their interviews, they actually get in, and vice versa, sometimes when applicants think they rocked the interviews they don't get in.

Haha well let's hope that's the case with me. Thank you for encouraging words!

 

[Versace101]

Theres a thread around here about the worst interview experiences. If you go through it you’ll see that a lot of the worst interviews actually ended in an acceptance. In my first interview I was asked about why I wanted to be a dentist. I panicked and blurted out a story about how I didn’t want to be dentist because of high suicide rates. I was mortified and was sure I was going to be rejected. On Dec 1... guess who accepted me? LOL

Haha you don't see that happening all the time! Which school was this? Is this where you are attending now?

 

[Life of Pablo]

Don't be so hard on yourself. Trust me nobody is perfect, and a lot of times we think we did much worse than we actually did. The way I like to think about it is like this: whenever you "mess" up giving a speech (like forgetting a few lines so you say the wrong thing/don't say what you intended to say), you often times think you did poorly. However, to an outsider's perspective, everything went smoothly and you did fine. As long as you were confident and didn't just say "uh.....uh........uh" the entire time, I think you'll be okay 🙂

 

[eldmd_32]

Was this your first interview of the cycle? Specifically for UNE, no prep was really needed apart from knowing how to introduce who you are to an interviewer. Since it's MMI, and everything is scenario based, mainly common sense comes into play there along with potential knowledge of ethical issues in a healthcare setting. Ideally, this would've been the best interview for you to attend on short notice rather than one where you could (would need to) prepare for. On the positive side, consider the fact that each interviewer scores you unbiasedly...meaning that they aren't going to receive feedback from how you performed in your other mini interviews and base their score upon that. Each interview is independently scored and they drop your lowest scoring one. So it's not as bad as you may think. However, you should definitely reconsider attending a last minute interview should the opportunity once again present itself...

 

[amariesa]

UNE's interview is really nerve wracking and most people probably bombed it. I walked away feeling like I bombed it too, its just how the MMI with you running around reading paragraphs of questions makes you feel. Dont worry about it though, its done and over with, theres no point in beating yourself up for it now.

 

[setdoc7]

You were invited prior to Dec 1. The interview is about meeting you and seeing if you will fit into the class they are trying to assemble. For all you know, they need someone from NH and just wanted to see if you had a pulse. Relax. If there were no raised voices or blood, the interview probably went fine.

 

[eldmd_32]

For all you know, they need someone from NH and just wanted to see if you had a pulse.

Lol they don't do that, their class size is too small

But OP, you've still got a shot. Just don't forget, every mini interview score is independent of one another...so maybe where you missed the mark in one, you shined in others despite your doubts. I had one interviewer at UNE who was a real hard ass. He was totally rude, kept falling asleep as I provided my answer (which was totally discouraging) and seemed disinterested in me. At one point as I provided my answer and explained from a hypothetical standpoint he literally tried reprimanding me in saying "Do you know what we do here?! This is what will be expected of you." That may not sound that bad but his delivery of that was completely off-putting and negative. I challenged him in explaining that the Dean had just explained it to us even though I completely understood that aspect of the program and that was one of the main reasons why I applied in the first place, specifically for that experience. To say the least it took a bit of shaking off after that in prep for the next mini interview. If anything he was the reason why I doubted my performance in the interview, and I also messed up the most basic and easy thing I should've known to answer (describing myself). I felt that I missed the mark on 2/7 definitely, and in explaining in a third mini interview I was able to come up with 2/3 things I needed to answer and completely had to improvise on the last aspect. I knew that the answer was textbook/googlable (I had seen it just days before)...but I couldn't remember the third aspect for the life of me. My answer was so out of left field that the interviewer was visibly taken aback (he clicked the pen and started jotting stuff down enthusiastically). He asked me to spell the word then explain its meaning . He seemed to be eating it up but I was a nervous wreck inside since I knew that wasn't what they were expecting/what was right. You have to know that with a lot of the answers it's complete common sense but your approach in answering (although different), may be appreciated if you supported your answer enough. I ended up getting in on December 1st, and although I knew that application wise I had a fair shot, I was still surprised. You NEVER know OP. Shake it off...you did the best you could given the circumstances. And now you more insight moving forward with your other interviews!

This is all a learning experience...a really expensive one, but completely worth it no matter how things go.

 

[ncide]

OP my worst interview landed me an acceptance so don't stress it too much.

I felt UNE's MMI questions were pretty generic ones, though, whereas UW's were crazy. In one scenario I had to sit facing away from another candidate while the other candidate gave me directions to draw an image on a dotted grid. We had to come up with a numbering and lettering system on the fly (other people came up with different strategies) for me to get coordinates to draw lines and connect dots to form the image, while under stringent time constraints and without him explicitly telling me what the image was. Most of the interviewees did not get very far, and we did not form much of an image, let alone the right image. Then I had to be the speaker for the next candidate who didn't know what was going on.

I felt like I was on a gameshow as two faculty sat in the back quietly writing down notes about us and scoring our performance.

In another situation I had to debate in favor of allowing facial piercings and tattoos in a medical setting against another interviewee that argued against it. I thought I did a decent job and even was able to get the other guy to agree with me. Then, immediately after we were done, another candidate walked in and I had to contradict myself and argue the exact opposite. All the while the faculty said nothing, just jotted down notes as we talked. I had no idea what they were looking for.

At least at UNE all my MMI situations were normal conversations.

 

[.-.]

OP my worst interview landed me an acceptance so don't stress it too much.

I felt UNE's MMI questions were pretty generic ones, though, whereas UW's was crazy. In one scenario I had to sit facing away from another candidate while the other candidate gave me directions to draw an image on a dotted grid. We had to come up with a numbering and lettering system on the fly (other people came up with different strategies) for me to get coordinates to draw lines and connect dots to form the image, while under stringent time constraints and without him explicitly telling me what the image was. Most of the interviewees did not get very far, and we did not form much of an image, let alone the right image. Then I had to be the speaker for the next candidate who didn't know what was going on.

I felt like I was on a gameshow as two faculty sat in the back quietly writing down notes about us and scoring our performance.

In another situation I had to debate in favor of allowing facial piercings and tattoos in a medical setting against another interviewee that argued against it. Immediately after we were done, another candidate walked in and I had to contradict myself and argue the exact opposite. All the while the faculty said nothing, just jotted down notes as we talked. At least at UNE all my MMI situations were normal conversations.

That whole scenario sounds like my worst nightmare. I agree that UNE's MMI questions are pretty tame, but that's crazy

 

[eldmd_32]

OP my worst interview landed me an acceptance so don't stress it too much.

I felt UNE's MMI questions were pretty generic ones, though, whereas UW's was crazy. In one scenario I had to sit facing away from another candidate while the other candidate gave me directions to draw an image on a dotted grid. We had to come up with a numbering and lettering system on the fly (other people came up with different strategies) for me to get coordinates to draw lines and connect dots to form the image, while under stringent time constraints and without him explicitly telling me what the image was. Most of the interviewees did not get very far, and we did not form much of an image, let alone the right image. Then I had to be the speaker for the next candidate who didn't know what was going on.

I felt like I was on a gameshow as two faculty sat in the back quietly writing down notes about us and scoring our performance.

In another situation I had to debate in favor of allowing facial piercings and tattoos in a medical setting against another interviewee that argued against it. Immediately after we were done, another candidate walked in and I had to contradict myself and argue the exact opposite. All the while the faculty said nothing, just jotted down notes as we talked. At least at UNE all my MMI situations were normal conversations.

There's got to be an sdn thread somewhere for a post like this one to go... 🤣