This was my interview experience from last cycle. Details might be a little hazy since this was last October.
You check in and get a name tag and a folder of information. If you do not have pre-requisites completed, you will be given a checklist showing what you still need. Then you go to a conference room. There were 16 interviewees sitting around the table. There's water and light breakfast bars and snacks. I encourage chatting with others. You're just sitting around a conference table. You're then given a brief welcome and introduction. They had us go around the room and introduce ourselves (name, school, icebreaker question
.what's your favorite television show).
You are either in group 1 or group 2. Each group has 8 people. Group 1 leaves to go do their interviews. The remaining 8 sit and relax (or stress out) in the conference room for 80 minutes. That's right. 80 minutes. Just hang out and chat. A couple faculty popped their heads in. A couple students did too. Keep in mind there was only 1 class at the time and they were occupied in the sim lab. So there wasn't a lot of access to current students. Normally you'd want to chat with them and ask questions. So just sit. Drink water. Chat. Use the restroom. Maybe this year they'll change the schedule so you don't have 80 minutes of downtime. When group 1 comes back from interviewing, you have a little break, and then group 2 is off to interview.
Now for the actual speed-date interview process: You go into a hallway of offices. There are 8 doors/offices in this hall (4 on the left, 4 on the right). You each stand at a door. There is someone in the hall with a stopwatch and a bell. When he says go, you have 2 minutes to read the question on the door. It's just a paper taped on the door with a typed out question/scenario. After 2 minutes, the bell rings and you enter. Each room has only 1 interviewer sitting at a table. I believe all of mine were faculty (some young, some old). Possibly the dean of admissions was in one of them. The guy in the hall starts an 8 minute timer as does the interviewer in the room. You take a seat across from the interviewer and they'll ask if you had time to read the question. Then you answer. If you couldn't start a thought process or come up with a potential answer during the 2 minutes you were outside the room, 8 minutes might seem like an eternity. It's like the Miss America Pageant. You're thrown a question and you think fast and answer and hope you don't sound ridiculous. Fear not, they were all generally nice and friendly. But you're going to do most of the talking. They will ask follow-up questions. All questions pertain to the original question. Nothing else. Some asked questions they came up with on their own. Others referenced a little list they had. They don't just stare at a paper and nod the whole time. They will give little verbal responses that put you at ease a little bit
so you don't feel like you're saying something wrong. There are no wrong answers. When 8 minutes pass, their timer will go off and you'll hear the bell outside too. They were generally in sync, but sometimes the interviewer forgot to start the timer. But the man in the hall with the bell is the master of the clock. When you hear that bell, you shake hands and scurry out and go to the next door. The two minutes has already started for you to read and think about the next question. This same process repeats until you've rotated through all 8 rooms. During the 2 minutes outside, the interviewers are in there jotting notes about you. So the interviewer may be writing when you go in a room. Oh yes, you have 8 labels with your name on it .You give one of the labels to each interviewer.
I loved this interview style! Eight different people were able to take a look at me, not just 1 or 2 like most interviews. Only 1 of the 8 interviewers was kind of weird. He was a foreign guy that every had a hard time reading. We all talked at lunch and agreed he was weird. Not mean or anything, but sort of pushy with the follow-up questions
almost grilling. I imagine if that was the one guy interviewing us in a traditional interview, it would have been a miserable interview. But you have a chance for 8 people to judge you. You also get 64 minutes of talk time! For some, that might sound daunting. But it's not that bad. I'd peter 8 minutes each with 8 different faculty members than 15-20 minutes with just one person interviewing me. However, I'll admit that as a non-trad, it was easy to just start talking and pull in all sorts of examples and life experiences on some of the questions. I was sort of surprised how much personal stuff came out. It felt more conversational. Otherwise, I think I would have struggled a little trying not tot sound repetitive or like I didn't have much to say. If you're giving two sentence responses and they have to keep blasting questions to you, it'll be awkward for both of you.
The problem is that you can't really prepare for this kind of interview. You can read feedback on here and get an idea of past questions (I'll share mine below), but you're pretty much on your own and forced to show that you can form a thought, think quickly, and articulate a response. It's not really the question that mattes, it's the delivery. They'll still be able to pick up on your character and get to know you just like any other interview.
These were my questions. Don't count on seeing them. They changed a couple of questions between groups 1 and 2, so expect them to be different. This is just to give you an idea of the format. This was last October, so there's no way I remember these word-for-word. See the feedback section for some questions
.some of these are in there too.
1. What's a conflict in your life that has not been resolved at this point? (I believe it had to do with a conflict with another person.)
2. A quotation dealing with knowledge and imagination. I don't remember the question. It might have just asked to explain what it means to you. Imagination and knowledge were the key points discussed. Possibly an Einstein quotation? Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand." Something along those lines. This one was fun. Lots of follow-up questions. Does imagination play a role in dentistry? When have you used imagination in school? Would you rather be known as knowledgeable or imaginative?
3. Your 8 year old son is physically active and plays many sports outside of school. He tries out for several school teams and does not make any of them, but his friends do. What would you do?
4. Under what circumstances would you steal a loaf of bread? (Hold your ground on this one. Seems like everyone gets this question. Follow-up questions for me were lots of scenarios.)
5. Name two organizations that you would like to start as a dental student.
6. How did you prepare for this interview?
7. Why dentistry sort of question.
8. Why Midwestern sort of question.
Once you're all back in the conference room, you get a financial aid overview (very brief, thankfully). Then there's a wrap up and you go on a tour of the campus. Besides the fact that the clinic isn't complete yet, it's also not near the campus. Nor is it within walking distance like the AZ campus. So the sim-lab and some other buildings (library, lecture buildings) are about all you can see. Then you go to lunch. There are a lot of food options. Some of the faculty who did the interviewing sit and eat with you. No students. Hopefully that changes this time now that there are D2s. That's it.
If you can, drive by the night before so you know where the school is
and you may as well see the surrounding area. It felt sort of suburban. It's a nice area though. You can cruise by the clinic site if you want, just to see where it is in relation to the school. I don't know how far they are on building now, but it broke gourd year ago and has to be ready for D3s. As usual, arrive early so you can figure out parking and find the building. There might be construction on campus for other new buildings. Overall, it was a fun interview. It sounds way more intimidating than it really is. It's a nice program and campus.
Campus:
555 31st Street, Downers Grove, IL 60515
Clinic Site:
3450 Lacey Rd, Downers Grove, IL 60515
