Admitted

Tell me about your biggest failure and what it taught you.

Accountability. They want to see whether you can own something without deflecting, and whether you actually changed.

How to structure your answer

  1. 1The situation briefly
  2. 2What you did wrong, stated plainly
  3. 3The consequence
  4. 4What you changed
  5. 5Evidence it stuck

A strong answer

What lands
My biggest failure is that this is my 2nd year applying to dental school. Last year when I received zero acceptances to dental schools, I was sad for a week, and then I became motivated to get accepted the next year. I studied for the DAT every night for 2 hours. Four months later I retook the DAT and got a higher score. Also, I got a job assisting at a periodontics office on Saturdays. That job taught me a lot about dentistry and it made me realize I am interested in periodontics. When I do become a dentist, I may want to become a periodontist.

A failure with nowhere to hide — a whole cycle — then the study hours, the rescore and the Saturday job.

A weak answer

What most people say
My biggest failure was probably a fundraiser I helped run in college that didn't hit its goal. We'd planned it as an outdoor weekend event, the weather turned on us, and turnout was low enough that we brought in less than half of what we'd hoped for. I learned to always build in a backup plan.

The failure gets assigned to the weather, so nothing has actually been admitted.

The trap

⚠Choosing a failure that was really someone else's fault, or a failure so minor it costs you nothing to admit. Both read as an unwillingness to be honest — which is exactly the trait that makes a dangerous clinician.

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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