What will you do if you're not admitted anywhere this cycle?

Resilience and commitment. Also a gentle stress test — some applicants visibly deflate.

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

The trap

'I haven't thought about that.' It reads as either arrogance or avoidance. Committees like applicants who can face a hard scenario calmly — that's the same skill as facing a complication chairside.

How to structure your answer

Answer without flinching → concrete plan → what it says about your commitment.

Have an actual plan: strengthen a specific weakness, gain clinical hours, retake the DAT
Don't get defensive or treat the question as an insult
Make clear you'd reapply, and say why

A weak answer

What most people say

That would be really disappointing, but I'd take some time to figure out what went wrong and then reapply. I'm committed to this. It's what I've been working toward for years and I honestly don't have a plan B. I'd do whatever it takes to come back as a stronger applicant next cycle.

Whatever it takes isn't a plan, and no plan B isn't resilience.

A stronger answer

What lands

I'd be disappointed for about a week, and then I'd get specific, because I already know where I'm thin. Reading is my weak DAT section, and I'd retake in spring rather than fall so I'm not studying through inventory season at the bank. I'd also turn forty shadowing hours into something ongoing. I've been on a waitlist to volunteer at a free clinic since March. And I'd apply earlier. I submitted in September this year, and that one was my own doing.

Names the actual weak number, and a date, without getting defensive.

The second answer already knows which number is the problem. That's the difference between commitment and insistence.

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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