Where are you joining us from?

Warmth, and whether you can make a stranger curious about you in a few seconds. It's also a gentle read on how far you traveled and whether you have any real tie to the region.

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

The trap

Answering the literal question and stopping. 'Phoenix.' is accurate, and it leaves the interviewer to restart the conversation alone — the first sign you won't carry your half of a chairside chat.

How to structure your answer

Name the place plainly → one specific, human detail about it → hand the conversation back.

Say where you are clearly, and if you're on video, where that actually is
Give one detail with a little personality in it — a street, a job, the view out the window
If the honest answer is your childhood bedroom, say so lightly; it's human
Turn it back with a question of your own

A weak answer

What most people say

I'm joining from Phoenix. I've been here for about three years now, since I started my post-bacc. It's been good. It's a lot hotter than where I grew up, but I've gotten used to it.

Correct, polite, and finished; there is nothing for the interviewer to pick up.

A stronger answer

What lands

Phoenix, from the back office of the clinic where I work, so if you hear a handpiece, that's Dr. Alvarez. I moved here for my post-bacc three years ago from Duluth, so I've gone from thirty below to a hundred and fifteen. I've made my peace with the heat. I still don't trust a December without snow. Where are you based?

Places them, gives one image, and opens a door back.

Both answers say Phoenix. Only the second gives the interviewer a reason to ask a second question.

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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