To be considered for interviews, applicants must meet the admissions requirements listed previously. They must also submit all of the materials necessary to complete their files, e.g., AADSAS applications, supplemental MWU applications, DAT scores, and two letters of recommendation written by a predental advisory committee, a faculty member, a dentist or physician, and by someone who knows the applicant very well.
After the Office of Admissions receives these materials, applicant files are reviewed to determine whether applicants merit interviews based on established criteria of the Admissions Committee. Applicants who receive invitations to interview must respond within four weeks. The Chair of the Admissions Committee, with the approval of the Dean, may also place a large number of students on an interview "wait list" pending possible interview openings toward the end of the interview cycle.
When applicants accept interviews, they join several other interviewees to meet with members of an interview panel, which is selected from a volunteer group of dental faculty. Team members and students question applicants about their academic and healthcare preparedness for dental school, and they rate the applicants on a standardized evaluation form relative to each of these variables. At the conclusion of the interviews, team members forward their evaluations for each applicant to the Admissions Committee. The Committee may recommend to accept, to deny, or place applicants on the alternate list. Recommendations are then forwarded to the Dean for final approval. The Dean, via the Office of Admissions, notifies applicants of their status after the interviews, but not before December 1 of the year preceding matriculation, which is the date that all dental schools have agreed would be the first notification date.
The interview process typically begins in the summer prior to matriculation and ends in April or May of the matriculation year.