What experiences have most prepared you for dental school?

Self-assessment and evidence. They want to see you connect specific experiences to specific demands of the program.

How to structure your answer

1Name two or three experiences
2What each one built in you
3How that maps to a real demand of dental school

Choose variety: something clinical, something academic or manual, something interpersonal
For each, name the transferable capacity explicitly
Include at least one thing that was genuinely hard

A strong answer

What lands

Two experiences have prepared me in different ways. Taking ceramics classes on Sunday mornings taught me patience and how much practice it takes to make something both useful and precise. Working as an organic chemistry teaching assistant taught me to explain difficult ideas in ways other people can understand. I expect to draw on both skills in dental school, especially in the simulation lab and when talking with patients.

Two experiences, each converted into something dental school will actually ask her to do.

A weak answer

What most people say

I majored in chemistry and taught high school for six years. I've also volunteered at a food bank, shadowed two different dentists, and tutored on the side. I was on the leadership team at my school and I ran our science fair three years running. I think all of that has prepared me for the workload and the responsibility of dental school.

A list they already have, with no interpretation attached to it.

The trap

⚠Reciting your résumé chronologically. They have your résumé. What they don't have is your interpretation of it.

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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