help me: nurse who wants to be a dentist

[laxman]

Yup, it happens. I am amazed by some of the people they accepted into my class. I would never trust my teeth to them - not even my personal information.

 

Crazy...UBC has a class of approximately 40? - how many people are you talking about?

[AllSmiles]

Yup, it happens. I am amazed by some of the people they accepted into my class. I would never trust my teeth to them - not even my personal information.

 

 

Yeeps! C'est horrible! Makes you wonder which is better...a subjective or an objective interview. I guess it all depends on several variables.

[coolwater]

i think the most important thing is to not sound stupid and not lie. interviewers often use follow up questions and they can easily nail you if you think youre putting up a fake story. but, apparently, a lot of people can fake it well.

this is exactly why I think US school interviews are better.

[Adversary]

Well, the medical interviews are more subjective and there are still people who are questionable in the class. Objective or subjective? Neither is better really - it's just a hurdle to jump over.

 

The reason why the breakdown of the interview scoring is secretive is to reduce the applicant's ability to tell interviewers what is on the answer key. I guess they hoped it would encourage people to speak from their mind. However, if you're a good liar, you probably know what "sounds good".

[Tode]

Not that I like doing interviews, but I like the system we have for dental school interviews. With the exception of McGill, they all ask the same number of similar type questions, so you know what to expect going in. Also, this system makes it possible to transfer interview scores (for most schools) which is great because flying to 3-5 different cities in addition to all the costs of applications really adds up, especially for a student. So maybe there are liars and sketchy people who get into dental schools, but what system is perfect? Besides, those liars and sketchy people could do well on any kind of interview, not just dental school ones

[NGupta]

I'm sure this has already been touched upon, but do you guys know whether they tell you your raw interview score before you decide to transfer that score to another school? If so, that's really helpful in terms of the cost of travel, but also a little biased in terms of ranking students.

 

Also, I'm assuming you can only transfer scores between schools that have a CDA-style interview?

 

Thanks for the help!

[Adversary]

Omizu, you've raised many good points which seems to be given consideration in medicine. What I have found is that Dental Schools do not care about all those parameters covered by Medical Schools. The common theme is good grades and that's all that matters to them unfortunately. I guess in their eyes, it doesn't matter how you get there, but that you are there and ahead of the competition. The interview is just a step up to filter out the hardcore nerds who really don't have any people skills.

 

This is why Medical School is easier to get into than Dental School for some people. There is no fair system - this is just one chosen by all the Dental Schools. I think they picked it partly because it increases objectivity and removes the whole "interviewer hates/loves me" scenarios which occurs with Medical School interviews. Unfortunately, as you mentioned, it also excludes many valid factors.