What kind of interview does Penn use?

Penn does not publish a format we can verify for the current cycle, so prepare for both a conversational faculty interview and a short multiple mini interview circuit. Your invitation email will confirm the structure, timing, and whether the day is virtual or on campus.

What questions does Penn ask?

Expect motivation questions such as why dentistry and why Penn, behavioural questions on failure, teamwork, leadership, and stress, and at least one ethics or professionalism scenario. Intervly holds 17 Penn-specific questions, three of which are shown on this page.

How should I answer "why Penn"?

Name two or three specifics about the program, such as the clinical model, a community or outreach program, or the patient population in Philadelphia, and tie each to something concrete in your own background. Avoid rankings, reputation, and facilities-only answers.

Is the Penn interview open file or closed file?

It is not publicly specified, so assume open file. Your interviewer may have read your entire application, and being unable to expand on something you wrote is far more damaging than repeating it.

How can I practise for the Penn interview?

Practise answering out loud with follow-up questions rather than rehearsing in your head. Intervly runs realistic AI mock interviews using Penn-specific questions and gives you feedback on structure, content, and delivery. Your first three mock interviews are free.

Philadelphia, PA

University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine Interview Questions

Interviewing at University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine? Review what to expect on interview day, the themes the committee keeps coming back to, real questions from the Intervly Penn bank, and practice them out loud with an AI interviewer that asks follow-ups.

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01Format

Penn Dental Interview at a Glance

Every line is labelled by how well supported it is: stated by the school, reported by applicants, or an Intervly estimate based on what comparable programmes do. Estimates give you a realistic baseline to prepare against, and your invitation email is always the final word.

Interview formatIntervly estimate: Most likely a conversational one-on-one or panel interview
Penn does not publish a fixed structure we can verify for this cycle. The majority of dental programs interview conversationally with one or two interviewers, so prepare for that first, then run a short MMI-style ethics circuit as insurance.
InterviewersApplicant reported: Typically faculty, often with a current student
Applicants across dental programs most often describe faculty interviewers, sometimes joined by an admissions staff member or a current dental student.
DeliveryIntervly estimate: Most likely virtual, with some campus days
Programs moved between virtual and in-person interviewing in recent cycles, and virtual remains the more common default. Your Penn invitation is the authority on this.
Interview lengthIntervly estimate: About 25 to 40 minutes per interviewer
Most dental interviews run 20 to 45 minutes per interviewer, inside an interview day that also includes information sessions and a tour.
Open or closed fileIntervly estimate: Most likely open file
Open file is the norm in dental admissions. Prepare as if your interviewer has read your AADSAS application and personal statement in full.
Interview seasonApplicant reported: Fall through winter of the AADSAS cycle
Invitations are usually issued on a rolling basis, so submitting and completing your file early matters.
LocationSchool stated: Philadelphia, PA
Questions in the Intervly bankApplicant reported: 17 Penn-specific questions
Collected from applicant-reported questions and school-specific themes. Three are shown publicly on this page.

02The room

What to Expect in the Penn Dental Interview

The Penn interview is the point where the committee tests whether the person in the room matches the application on paper. By the time you are invited, your GPA, DAT, shadowing, and letters have already done their job. What remains is judgement, motivation, communication, and fit with the program in Philadelphia.

Expect the conversation to open with familiar ground: tell me about yourself, why dentistry, and why Penn specifically. The "why this school" question is the one applicants most often answer weakly, because generic praise about reputation and facilities sounds identical from every candidate. Specific answers about the curriculum, patient population, and community Penn serves do not.

From there, interviewers move into behavioural and ethical territory: a time you failed, a conflict you handled, how you work inside a team, and what you would do if you saw a colleague acting unprofessionally. The Intervly Penn bank of 17 questions leans heavily on exactly these themes, because that is where interview days are won and lost.

Treat every detail in your invitation email as the source of truth for format, timing, and delivery. Formats change between cycles, and Penn may run a traditional interview one year and add a mini-circuit or group exercise the next.

What Penn Asks About Most

Of the 17 Penn questions in the Intervly bank, 5 (29%) fall under personal background and story, followed by academics and study habits with 2. Academics and study habits comes up noticeably more here than across other dental school programs we track, so do not leave it to chance.

Personal background and story5 of 17 questions (29%)-11 pts vs. average
Have one tight origin story and be able to tell it in ninety seconds without listing your whole resume.
Academics and study habits2 of 17 questions (12%)+9 pts vs. average
Be ready to account for any dip in your record and describe how you study now, concretely.
Patient and clinical experience2 of 17 questions (12%)+8 pts vs. average
Bring two or three patient encounters you can describe in detail, including what you noticed and what you would do differently.
Teamwork and conflict2 of 17 questions (12%)+6 pts vs. average
Prepare a real disagreement you handled, not a story where everyone agreed with you in the end.
Why this profession2 of 17 questions (12%)+6 pts vs. average
Answer why this field and not the adjacent ones, with evidence from what you have actually seen.
Career goals1 of 17 questions (6%)
Give a direction with reasons behind it rather than a fixed job title.

Themes are derived from the 17 Penn-specific questions held in the Intervly bank and compared with every other program we track in the same field. Question text stays inside the practice platform.

03Question bank

Penn Dental Interview Questions

Intervly holds 17 interview questions for this dental interview. Three are shown here in full.

01
What was the “epiphany” that led you to pursue a career in dentistry?
02
How would you handle a patient with severe dental anxiety in your chair?
03
What was the most academically challenging experience you’ve faced, and how did you handle it?
04Locked question, available inside Intervly
05Locked question, available inside Intervly
06Locked question, available inside Intervly

+ 14 more interview questions inside Intervly

Unlock the full bank

04Scoring

What Penn Raters Look For

Ordered by what the 17 Penn questions in the Intervly bank actually cover: personal background and story, academics and study habits and patient and clinical experience carry the most weight here.

Motivation for dentistry

Why dentistry and not medicine, pharmacy, or research. Ground it in specific shadowing hours, patient interactions, and hands-on work rather than a general love of science and people.

Teamwork and conflict

Dental school is four years of shared clinics, labs, and group work. Prepare concrete examples of collaborating, leading, and disagreeing well rather than adjectives about being a team player.

Ethics and professionalism

Scenario questions test reasoning, not memorised rules. Name the issue, weigh the patient's interest, consider the people involved, then commit to a proportionate action instead of an extreme one.

Communication and composure

Pace, structure, warmth, and how you handle an unexpected question are assessed continuously, not in one question. This is the part of the interview that only improves by practising out loud.

Service and community

Access to care is central to dental education. Be ready to describe your service history honestly and to say what kind of communities, including underserved ones near Philadelphia, you want to treat.

Genuine interest in Penn

Committees can tell within a sentence whether you researched the program. Know the curriculum structure, clinical model, and the patients Penn treats in and around Philadelphia, and connect at least one of them to your own goals.

Self-awareness

Strengths, weaknesses, failure, and criticism appear in nearly every dental interview. The strongest answers are candid and specific, and show what you changed afterwards.

Manual skill and precision

Many programs ask what evidence you have of working precisely with your hands under time pressure. Lab work, art, music, sport, or a trade all count if you explain how you manage the pressure.

Try it now

"What was the “epiphany” that led you to pursue a career in dentistry?"

Think about how you would answer this in a real interview.

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05Why Intervly feels real

Your Interviewer Won't Just Ask the Next Question

Intervly listens to what you actually say and generates contextual follow-ups. That is exactly what a conversational Penn interview does to unprepared answers.

Interviewer

What was the “epiphany” that led you to pursue a career in dentistry?

Applicant

I have always enjoyed science and I want a career where I can help people directly, so dentistry felt like the right fit for me.

Intervly follow-up

That reasoning would fit several health careers. Tell me about the single experience that made you rule the others out, and what you saw that day that convinced you.

Try a Penn mock interview

06Preparation

How to Prepare for the Penn Dental Interview

01
Build a real answer to "why Penn"
Read the Penn admissions pages, curriculum outline, and clinic or outreach programs, then write three sentences that only apply to this school. If your answer would work for any dental program, it is not finished.
02
Know your own application cold
Reread your AADSAS application, personal statement, and secondary the night before. Every experience you listed should be something you can expand on in two sentences without hesitating.
03
Prepare stories, not scripts
Prepare six or seven adaptable stories covering failure, conflict, leadership, service, precision, and a moment that confirmed dentistry for you. Memorised answers collapse the moment the interviewer asks a follow-up.
04
Rehearse ethics out loud
Say your reasoning aloud so the structure becomes automatic: identify the issue, consider each person affected, weigh the options, then decide. Silent preparation hides the hesitation that interviewers hear.
05
Practise with follow-up questions
A real interview is not a list. The second question depends on your first answer. Intervly's AI mock interview listens to your spoken response and asks a genuine follow-up, using Penn-specific questions.

07Research

What to Know Before Your Penn Dental Interview

Use these as starting points. The answer to "why this school" has to be yours, so we deliberately do not write it for you.

Curriculum and clinical model

Look at when Penn students start seeing patients, how preclinical training is structured, and whether the clinic runs on a comprehensive-care or discipline-based model. It gives you a specific, credible answer to why this program.

Patient population and outreach

Find out who Penn serves in Philadelphia and across PA, including any rural rotations, community clinics, or externships. Then decide honestly whether that is the population you want to treat.

Mission and values

Read the school's mission statement carefully and note the words it repeats. Those words tend to reappear in interview questions and in what interviewers reward.

Class profile and residency preference

Check the most recent entering-class profile and whether Penn shows any in-state or regional preference. It shapes how you frame where you plan to practise.

Life after graduation

Look at where recent graduates go, including specialty match and residency placement, and connect it to your own plan without overcommitting to a specialty you have not explored.

08Questions we get

Penn Dental Interview FAQ

Your Penn interview is worth practicing for.

You've seen some of the questions. Now practice answering them out loud, with feedback.

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Starting with other programs in PA.

Temple University Kornberg School of DentistryPhiladelphia, PA
University of Pittsburgh School of Dental MedicinePittsburgh, PA
Arizona School of Dentistry & Oral HealthMesa, AZ
Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental MedicineBoston, MA
California Northstate University College of Dental MedicineSacramento, CA
Case Western Reserve University School of Dental MedicineCleveland, OH
Columbia University College of Dental MedicineNew York City, NY
Creighton University School of DentistryOmaha, NE
East Carolina University School of Dental MedicineGreenville, NC

More dental prep

Sources and last verified

Last checked 2026-08-23 · Information reflects the 2026-2027 application cycle. Interview formats change between cycles, so always confirm details in your invitation.