update

[guest]

I just got back from a UPenn interview. Just wanted to share with everybody that they interview approximately 315 people for about 100 slots, about 96-97 now. The interview is very laid back, we just talked about random things. And for those of you who have applied to both Temple and UPenn you should really consider doing both interviews right after each other and save some money. I was dumb and will have to return back to philadelphia again in the near future.

BY the way is it really expensive to do interviews, I dropped nearly 600$ going to Philly, 270$(plane ticket) + 30$(discount card to get ticket) + 180$ for the hotel room + 20$ total for shuttle ride + $$$$$$ for parking at airport, food etc etc.

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[DesiDentist]

Hey guest,

Thanks for sharing your input. It is very much appreciated. Yes, I did hear that they interview around 300 people for 100 slots and accept 200 and put the other 100 on waitlist (usually the people who interview after February) and they go on from there. I'm glad that it went well for you.

How do they interview? How many people interviewed with you? Who interviewed you? Sorry for the ?'s just overly excited now.

I'm glad I was fortunate to have my Temple Interview as well. I'm doing them back to back 19 (The Big "T") and 20th (The Big "P"). Thanks again.

Regards,

DesiDentist

 

[guest]

UPenn's interview first of all is informal. The day starts off at 8:45 or so, but come early and eat the free breakfast, its really good. The assistant dean then comes in and gives a lecture on how UPenn is the best dental school there is. Then another woman comes in and talks about financial aid. This brings us to about 10:00am. Some people will have there interivews at 10 some will have it at 11 and others will have it at 1. I had mine at 10am with the assistant dean

The Interview
Its obvious that Dr. Emling has read through my application throughly. Because on the way up he tells me, "I noticed you've moved from California to North Carolina." He would have gotten this by looking at the schools I've attended. Anyways right at the beginning, he asks me how my guitar playing has been going? How often do I play? Where do I get the chords/tabs on the songs? Then we delve into the subject of what my extracurricular activities are and we talked about my culture since I'm vietnamese and so on so forth. We talked about the research I'm doing in the biology department at UNC-CH. Some generic questions did appear in between:

how did you find out about our school?
what made you decide to look at dentistry?

By the way there were only 7 total applicants there, we were the very first group. After the interview we had a little tour and then had an excellent lunch provided by the school, I had roast beef sandwich. We then go on yet another tour and the tour guy went on and on about how we would be crazy if we didn't come to UPenn for dental school. All in all it was a pretty good experience.

Though I felt like maybe I didn't answer my questions throughly enough, but he didn't ask me to clarify or anything. So what are the chances of getting admmited after interviewing at UPenn in september? Does anybody know?

Thanks.

 

[annimul]

Hi guest,

I was wondering if you remembered how long it took you to get from the airport to UPenn or downtown. I'm flying in at 7:20 am the day of my interview and am a little worried about getting there in time. I'm from Seattle, where the traffic is horrible, and it takes an incredible amount of time to get anywhere around rush hour.

 

[guest]

annimul,

assuming that your airplane is on time, i don't think you will have a problem of getting to UPenn in a reasonable of time. I didn't time the trip but I can tell you this. I left the airport at 2:40pm on a shuttle (Lady Liberty shuttle services) to the Sheraton Hotel (University Hotel, address is included in the package, UPenn sent you) and I got to the hotel at about 2:58 there was some traffic. From the Sheraton Hotel the dental school is about a 10-15 mintue walk. The hotel is on 36th street, the school is on 40th street.

Philly is also a big city and traffic is indeed terrible, but the hotel is not that far away from the airport, you're on the freeway for only a short time. And I would advise against getting a rental car because I don't really understand the streets there, a lot of them are one way and I wouldn't know the way. You can either take the shuttle to sheraton hotel and walk or you can get a cab to take you directly to the dental school, the cab of course will be significantly more expensive. Good luck and by all means let me know if you have any more questions.

 

[annimul]

Thanks guest! Now I can focus on the interview without worrying about being late.