What concerns do you have about dental school?
Realism and self-awareness. An applicant with no concerns hasn't looked closely.
How to structure your answer
- 1Name a real concern
- 2Why it's real for you specifically
- 3What you're doing to prepare for it
- Pick something genuine: debt, the pace, hand skills, the clinical transition, being far from support
- Explain why it's specifically yours
- Describe your concrete preparation
- Show it's a concern, not a fear that would stop you
A strong answer
What lands
I am mostly concerned about the clinical transition. I have never provided direct patient care to patients, so it will be challenging to touch a patient for the first time and to give my first injection. I have, however, shadowed an excellent dentist, and I plan to copy a lot of the things that she does to make patients feel at ease. Also, I will study hard in didactic courses and lab courses, so I can walk into appointments with confidence that I know what I'm doing.
A specific concern, what she is already doing about it, and the person she is learning from.
A weak answer
What most people say
Honestly, I'm mostly just excited. I know it's going to be hard, and people keep telling me the first year is brutal, but I've wanted this for a long time and I work well under pressure. If anything, my concern is that I'll be impatient waiting to get to the clinical part, because that's the part I've been picturing for years.
'No real concerns' plus a disguised strength. Nothing here can be checked.
The trap
⚠'None, I'm just excited.' It reads as either unserious or unreflective. The applicants who admit a real concern and show they've thought it through score higher, consistently.
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 freeGet the guideMore fit questions
- Why did you apply to our school?Fit
- What will you contribute to our class?Fit
- If we admitted you, what would you want to get involved in here?Fit
- What other schools are you considering? If we accepted you today, would you come?Fit
- Is there anything we haven't asked that you'd want us to know?Fit
- Why should we pick you over an applicant with the same GPA and DAT score?Fit