Is this your first time visiting our city?

Ease with small talk, and a quiet read on whether you've made any effort to know the place you'd be living in for four years.

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

The trap

Pretending to know the city better than you do, or reciting its tourism page. Your interviewer probably lives there, the rehearsed version is obvious, and a genuine first impression is far more interesting.

How to structure your answer

Answer honestly → one specific thing you've noticed or done here → a light question back.

A first visit is fine — say so without apologizing
Mention one real thing you saw, ate, or did, not a guidebook line
If you've been before, say what brought you
Keep it short and warm; this is still the doorway

A weak answer

What most people say

Yes, it's my first time here. I flew in last night. It seems like a really nice city from what I've seen, and I've read that there's a lot to do here and the people are really friendly. I'm excited to explore more.

Nothing in it could only have been said about this city.

A stronger answer

What lands

It is. I got in last night and walked down to the river because the front desk said the food trucks park there. I had the best birria I've eaten outside my aunt's kitchen, which I did not expect. Everyone warned me it would be cold, and it's gorgeous out. Is there somewhere a student here should go that a visitor wouldn't find?

One real evening in the city, told like a person, with a question that assumes a future here.

The first answer describes a brochure. The second describes last night.

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.

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