Interview Basics
Understand how interviews fit into your application process.
- Why Interviews?
- Applicant's perspective - the purpose of your interview is to:
- Present yourself beyond your application.
- Demonstrate professionalism, thinking and reasoning abilities, along with interpersonal and intrapersonal skills.
- Gain additional insight about the individual school and confirm if it is a good, overall fit for you.
- PA School Admissions perspective - the purpose of interviewing you is to:
- Determine your overall readiness, motivation and maturity for a lifetime of service in the profession.
- Evaluate and assess your professionalism, thinking and reasoning abilities.
- Evaluate and assess your interpersonal and intrapersonal skills.
- Assess your personal experiences in relation to your unique contributions to the future profession and entering class.
- Promote their individual professional school program and institution.
- Applicant's perspective - the purpose of your interview is to:
- How Important are Interviews?
- Your overall and science GPA and experiences are important factors. However, most admissions committees consider multiple factors in your professional school candidacy.
- The interview is just as important as all other factors. Please plan accordingly if you have been selected to interview.
- Each individual professional school will consider multiple factors in the application process. Often these factors may include your:
- Interview Evaluation
- Letters of Recommendation
- Overall GPA & Science GPA (or other specific GPA’s they prefer to individually review)
- Personal Statement / Additional Application Essays (if required)
- Program-Specific Qualities they find valuable for their individual professional school
- Typical Interviewer
- The interview committee may include:
- Professional school faculty.
- Professional students in the program.
- Alumni.
- Current residents or members of the admissions office staff.
- Community members or dental providers.
- The interview committee may include:
- Typical Interviewer: Application Access
- Overall, don't overthink this - but be aware of these general admissions practices.
- Often there are three types of access levels for an individual interviewer to your professional school
application.
- "Open / Informed" Interviewer - Interviewer has reviewed your application, depending on specific instructions provided by the admissions committee. They might ask specific follow-up questions regarding your application or background.
- "Partially-Blind" Interviewer - Interviewer has access to only parts of your application, depending on specific instructions provided by the admissions committee. This might be your metrics or personal information (essays, personal statement).
- "Close / Blind" Interviewer - Interviewer has not looked over or had access to your application.
- Tip: Statement to avoid at the interview “…as you know from my application, personal statement, etc." They might not have access to your application. When asked interview questions, unless it is clearly a specific follow-up question, assume that you must introduce yourself from scratch. Provide full context of your answer to the specific interview question(s) asked.