If you were to specialize, which one — and what makes you say that?

Whether your interest is grounded in real exposure or in prestige and income figures you read online.

Written by Victoria Young, DDS · NYU College of Dentistry '24 · Penn Dental Medicine

The trap

Naming oral surgery or orthodontics with nothing behind it but reputation. Faculty hear this constantly and the follow-up — 'what does a Tuesday look like in that specialty?' — ends it fast.

How to structure your answer

Name the specialty → the specific experience that pointed you there → what about the work itself fits you → honest acknowledgment that it may change.

Name one specialty rather than hedging across three
Tie it to something you actually saw or did
Talk about the nature of the work, not the salary or the schedule
Say plainly that dental school may redirect you

A weak answer

What most people say

Probably oral surgery. I've always been drawn to the surgical side of medicine, and I like the idea of doing procedures that genuinely change someone's life. It also seems like the most challenging path, and I want to be pushed. That said, I'm keeping an open mind, because I know a lot can change once I'm actually in school.

Prestige with nothing behind it. The obvious follow-up ends this in one move.

A stronger answer

What lands

Periodontics, and it came from an odd direction. I fit glasses for three years, which is mostly the same person coming back while something slowly changes. Then I shadowed a periodontist on Thursdays for four months, and I saw two maintenance patients I'd first met in June come back in October, and the whole conversation was about what had changed at home. That's the work — managing a chronic disease with one person over years instead of fixing one thing once. I've never followed a surgical case start to finish, and that's the hole in this. If school tells me I'm wrong, I want to know early.

Real exposure, the nature of the work over the paycheck, and an admitted gap.

One names a specialty. The other describes the Tuesday inside it, which is the follow-up question anyway.

These are illustrations, not scripts. An answer you memorize sounds memorized — the point is the shape and the specificity, in your own words and about your own life.

Reading it isn't the same as saying it.

Most people can explain a good answer and still fall apart saying one out loud. Admitted asks you all 100 questions in a faculty voice, records you, and scores your pace and filler words.

Try one interview free Get the guide