Updated · 13 min read
Meharry Dental School Interview: Two Interviews, Prep Guide
Key facts (2026-27)
- Format
- Two interviews, with faculty, dental alumni or dentists from the Nashville community
Dates for 2026-27
Rolling review from August 1
Interview invitations
First offers December 15
Offers and decisions
Checked November 2026 against Meharry School of Dentistry: Admissions FAQs and Meharry School of Dentistry: Application Process. Confirm details in your invitation.
Every candidate invited to interview at the Meharry Medical College School of Dentistry completes two interviews, conducted by Meharry basic science faculty, active or retired School of Dentistry faculty, dental alumni, or dentists from the Nashville community, per the school's Admissions FAQs. Application review begins August 1 on a rolling basis until the class of 75 is filled, and first acceptance offers go out on December 15.
What the Meharry dental interview looks like
An interview is required to be considered for admission to the Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) program at Meharry Medical College. According to the School of Dentistry Admissions FAQs, every invited applicant receives two interviews.
Your two interviewers come from four groups: Meharry Medical College basic science faculty, active or retired School of Dentistry faculty, School of Dentistry alumni, or practicing dentists from the Nashville community. Because you can sit across from a basic science researcher in one interview and a private practice or community clinician in the second, your examples need to work for both audiences.
Meharry refers to campus interviews on its Admissions FAQs page and advises prospective visitors to schedule School of Dentistry visits between May 1 and September 15 to avoid conflicts with campus interviews. Confirm the exact schedule, location, and whether your session is on campus or virtual in the invitation email from the Office of Admissions and Recruitment.
The school also puts a detailed dress code in writing. Men should wear a suit or sports jacket with a tie. Women should wear a solid blouse and a pants suit or a jacket with a knee-length skirt, and heels or pumps no higher than 3 inches.
To practice answering two different interviewers back to back, Confetto, an AI mock interviewer for dental, medical, and healthcare program interviews, lets you run spoken mock interviews with follow-up questions on your experiences. Start your free week.
Meharry School of Dentistry interview and admissions overview (checked November 3, 2026)
| Item | What Meharry School of Dentistry states |
|---|---|
| Interview requirement | Required for all candidates under consideration |
| Number of interviews | 2 interviews per invited candidate |
| Who interviews you | Meharry basic science faculty, active or retired dental faculty, dental alumni, or Nashville community dentists |
| Dress code | Professional business attire: suit or sports jacket with tie for men, solid blouse with pants suit or knee-length skirt suit and heels/pumps up to 3 inches for women |
| Application review | Starts August 1 annually, rolling until the class of 75 is filled |
| First acceptance offers | December 15th, with ongoing acceptances after that date |
Dates, timeline, and rolling admissions
Meharry does not offer early admission. The School of Dentistry uses a rolling admissions process where candidates are interviewed and accepted until the class of 75 is filled.
Because review starts August 1 and seats fill across the cycle, waiting until the December deadlines leaves fewer interview spots open. If you are deciding how broad to build your school list while applying on a rolling schedule, see our guide on how many dental schools you should apply to.
- May 1 to September 15: Window to schedule a specific prospective visit to the School of Dentistry (by calling 615.327.6076) to avoid conflicts with campus interviews.
- June: ADEA AADSAS application opens around the first of the month.
- August 1: Meharry begins reviewing applications annually, and the supplemental application becomes available.
- December 13: Three letters of recommendation are due directly to AADSAS.
- December 15: Final deadline to submit your ADEA AADSAS application for the year prior to matriculation.
- December 15: First acceptance notifications go out, by agreement among ADEA AADSAS dental schools.
- After initial notifications: Acceptances are ongoing prior to matriculation.
- Within 30 days prior to New Student Orientation: Accepted students must complete a required background check.
How Meharry selects the DDS class of 75
The Committee on Admissions evaluates every application through a holistic review process. According to Meharry's Admissions FAQs, the school receives an average of 3,000 applications each cycle for 75 seats in the DDS class. Meharry is a private institution located in Nashville, and its admissions criteria apply across applicants regardless of state of residence.
By our calculation from Meharry's published figures of 75 seats and an average of 3,000 applications, the class size represents 2.5 seats per 100 applications. Admitted students have an average cumulative GPA of 3.35 and an average basic science GPA of 3.25.
To see how those numbers compare with general benchmarks and prerequisite rules across US programs, read our breakdown of dental school requirements.
Meharry states that candidates are selected based on eight factors: undergraduate academic performance, DAT scores, personal characteristics, awareness of the dental profession, leadership experience, community service, and potential for success in dental school as shown in letters of recommendation and the personal statement.
The school notes that the personal statement is carefully reviewed. Meharry advises applicants to write error-free essays without redundancy, run-on sentences, cliches, embellishments, fancy words, or spelling errors, and to avoid putting their own names in the text. Expect your interviewers to take your essay seriously and ask about what you wrote.
Meharry DDS class profile and graduate outcomes from official FAQs
| Metric | Official figure |
|---|---|
| DDS class size | 75 students |
| Average applications received | 3,000 |
| Seats per 100 applications | 2.5 (our calculation from 75 seats and 3,000 average applications) |
| Average cumulative GPA (admitted - overall/science) | 3.35 / 3.25 |
| Class of 2021 post-graduate paths | 54% private practice or military, 26% GPR and AEGD, 6% Orthodontics, 5% Pediatrics, 2% OMS, 2% Periodontics |
Mission fit: what Meharry says it values
Meharry Medical College is the largest private, historically Black institution in the United States dedicated exclusively to educating healthcare professionals and biomedical scientists. Located minutes from downtown Nashville, the college serves about 1,200 students across its five schools: Medicine, Dentistry, Graduate Studies and Research, Applied Computational Sciences, and Global Health. If you are also considering the MD program on campus, see our Meharry Medical College School of Medicine interview guide.
The college's mission is to advance health equity through innovative research, transformative education, compassionate health services, and policy-influencing thought leadership. Within the School of Dentistry, Meharry states that it selects students who individually show a commitment to service, possess cultural understanding, can handle a rigorous curriculum, conduct research, and serve underserved populations in the Meharry tradition.
How the curriculum works should also shape how you talk about why you want to train in Nashville. The first two years (D1 and D2) focus on classroom and laboratory instruction in biomedical, behavioral, and pre-clinical dental sciences, with early introduction to clinical settings. The final two years (D3 and D4) center on hands-on clinical skill development under faculty supervision, where students provide comprehensive care in clinics as well as hospitals, public health facilities, and community settings.
Meharry also runs three dental residency programs on campus: General Practice, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, and Pediatric Dentistry, plus an International Track Program (a two-year advanced standing DDS program for foreign-trained dentists applying through ADEA CAAPID) and a seven to eight year Ph.D./D.D.S. dual degree program.
When you answer 'Why Meharry?' in your interview, connect your own service and clinical shadowing to that exact structure: learning early clinical skills in D1 and D2, treating patients in public health facilities and hospitals in D3 and D4, and practicing with cultural understanding in underserved communities.
How to prepare for two different interviewers
Because Meharry's interviewer pool mixes basic science faculty, dental school faculty, alumni, and local Nashville dentists, your two conversations can feel very different. Use this preparation plan in the two weeks before your interview so you are ready for both perspectives.
- Audit your application for the eight selection criteria. Write down one concrete story from your experiences for each of Meharry's stated criteria: academic readiness, awareness of the dental profession, leadership, community service, and cultural understanding.
- Prepare for a basic science faculty interviewer. Be ready to discuss your upper-division science courses, how you study when material gets dense, and any research interest you have. If your academic record has a dip, explain it plainly without excuses.
- Prepare for a dental faculty, alumni, or Nashville dentist interviewer. Review your dental shadowing hours and be ready to talk about what you noticed between the dentist, the staff, and the patient, especially when patients faced cost or access barriers.
- Rehearse your personal statement and supplemental activities out loud. The supplemental application lets you further describe your activities, and the committee reviews personal statements closely. Make sure your spoken stories match your written ones.
- Check your interview outfit early. Confirm that your suit, tie, blouse, skirt length, or shoe height matches Meharry's written dress code so you are not shopping the night before.
- Bring three real questions for your interviewers. Drawing from ADEA's list of strong applicant questions and Meharry's programs, ask about academic support resources, student-faculty relationships, or how D3 and D4 community and public health rotations are organized.
Practice questions for the Meharry dental interview (written by us)
Our team wrote the practice prompts below around Meharry's stated selection factors, interviewer pool, and mission. For general questions that come up across US dental programs, practice with our guide to dental school interview questions.
- Why Meharry Medical College School of Dentistry, and how does training here fit the communities you want to serve as a dentist?
- Tell me about a community service experience that changed how you understand barriers to oral healthcare.
- What have you observed while shadowing a dentist that showed you the daily realities and challenges of general dentistry?
- In your third and fourth years at Meharry, you will care for patients in hospitals, public health facilities, and community settings. Tell me about a time you worked with someone whose background was very different from yours.
- Tell me about a leadership role where you had to bring together people who disagreed on how to reach a goal.
- How have your undergraduate science courses prepared you for the pace of the D1 and D2 biomedical and pre-clinical curriculum?
- Tell me about a setback in school or work and what you changed afterward.
- If you meet a patient in clinic who has delayed dental care for years because of cost or distrust, how do you build trust during that first visit?
ADEA AADSAS, supplemental application, and prerequisites
Every applicant applies through ADEA AADSAS between June and December 15 of the year prior to matriculation. Once your required application materials are received and AADSAS verification is complete, Meharry emails you a link to its Supplemental Application, which opens August 1 each year.
The Supplemental Application lets you further describe your activities. To complete it, you must upload a photo and pay a $65 processing fee electronically through the application website (do not mail a separate payment to Meharry).
Three letters of recommendation are due directly to AADSAS by December 13. If your undergraduate college or post-baccalaureate pre-dental program has a Health Professions Advisor or Advisory Committee, you should submit that institutional letter. If not, you must submit at least three individual letters, including two from science professors.
All applicants must take the Dental Admission Test (DAT), and only official scores from within the last 3 years are considered. You can take the DAT up to 4 times in 12 months with at least 60 days between attempts (the first 3 attempts require no special permission, and a 4th attempt requires permission and proof of a recent dental school application). Meharry recommends scheduling with Prometric 60 to 90 days before your target date.
Before matriculating, students must complete at least 90 semester hours (or 140 quarter hours) at an accredited college or university, though a bachelor's degree is highly recommended. Community college courses are accepted, and all prerequisite courses must carry a letter grade with an average of C or better. In-person science courses are recommended, though virtual courses from 2020-2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic or from schools that only offer a course virtually or hybrid are considered. AP credit on a college transcript at a B level or better may be accepted, with a strong recommendation of no more than 16 credit hours in basic science and prerequisites. Prerequisites expire 5 years from the date your degree is conferred, though the committee may consider recent master's or post-baccalaureate science work.
Meharry School of Dentistry required pre-dental coursework (average of C or better required)
| Course description | Semester hours | Quarter hours |
|---|---|---|
| General Biology or Zoology with Laboratory | 8 | 12 |
| Inorganic Chemistry with Quantitative Analysis with Laboratory | 8 | 12 |
| Organic Chemistry with Laboratory | 8 | 12 |
| General Physics with Laboratory | 8 | 12 |
| English Composition | 6 | 9 |
| Biochemistry | 3 | 5 |
| Calculus or Statistics | 3 | 5 |
Re-applicants, dual degrees, and campus visits
If you are re-applying to Meharry after a previous denial, the Admissions FAQs state that you should show significant improvements since your prior application. Meharry lists five ways to do that: additional basic science coursework (especially graduate-level basic sciences), an improved DAT score, more shadowing, more community service, and at least one new letter of recommendation. Applicants who have been out of school for more than 2 years or away from science courses for 3 or more years are advised to take review courses before upper-level sciences and the DAT.
For the Ph.D./D.D.S. program, candidates must first be admitted to the School of Dentistry, write to and interview with the Dean of the School of Dentistry, apply to the Graduate School, and take the GRE in addition to the DAT.
If you want to tour the campus before interview season, general Meharry campus tours for individuals or groups under 5 run on Fridays at 10:00 a.m. or 3:00 p.m. by calling 615.327.6223. Specific visits to the School of Dentistry should be scheduled between May 1 and September 15 by calling 615.327.6076 so they do not conflict with campus interviews.
Want to rehearse your answers before interview day? Confetto gives you spoken mock interview practice with rubric feedback so your stories stay clear and grounded. Start your free week.
Meharry dental school practice question (written by us, not Meharry)
Why do you want to train at Meharry Medical College School of Dentistry, and how have your experiences prepared you to serve underserved populations in the Meharry tradition?
Example answer (written by us, invented applicant)
Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented. "I want to train at Meharry because caring for underserved communities is the centerpiece of your clinical education, not an elective on the side. For the past two years, I have volunteered as a chairside assistant and patient navigator at a county public health dental clinic. Most of the adults I met had waited years for care until an infection forced them in, and many were anxious because they felt judged at previous clinics. What kept them coming back for comprehensive treatment was a dentist who explained every step in plain language and worked around their shift schedules. At Meharry, the curriculum introduces clinical settings early in D1 and D2, and then in D3 and D4 puts students directly into hospitals, public health facilities, and community settings alongside the main dental clinics. Training at the largest private historically Black health sciences institution, surrounded by faculty and classmates who share that mission, is how I want to build my habits as a general dentist."
Why this answer works: It answers both parts of the question in the first two sentences, backs up the motivation with one specific clinic story rather than general slogans about health equity, and connects that story to accurate details from Meharry's DDS curriculum (early clinical exposure in D1 and D2, and D3 and D4 rotations in hospitals, public health facilities, and community settings).
Meharry dental school interview FAQ
Who conducts the interview at Meharry Medical College School of Dentistry?
Every invited candidate receives two interviews. Interviewers are drawn from Meharry Medical College basic science faculty, active or retired School of Dentistry faculty, dental alumni, and dentists from the Nashville community.
What should I wear to the Meharry dental school interview?
Meharry requires professional business attire. Men should wear a suit or sports jacket with a tie, and women should wear a solid blouse with a pants suit or a jacket and knee-length skirt, with heels or pumps no higher than 3 inches.
When does Meharry review dental applications and send acceptance offers?
Application review starts August 1 every year and runs on a rolling basis until the class of 75 is filled. Initial acceptance notifications go out on December 15, and ongoing acceptances continue after that date prior to matriculation.
What GPA does Meharry dental school look for?
Out of an average of 3,000 applicants for 75 seats, admitted students have an average cumulative GPA of 3.35 and an average basic science GPA of 3.25. The Committee on Admissions uses a holistic review that weighs academics, DAT scores, personal characteristics, dental profession awareness, leadership, community service, letters of recommendation, and the personal statement.
How do I get the Meharry dental supplemental application and how much is the fee?
The supplemental application opens August 1. After your ADEA AADSAS application materials are received and verified, Meharry emails you a link to complete the supplemental application, upload a required photo, and pay a $65 electronic processing fee.
Sources, checked November 3, 2026:
- Meharry School of Dentistry: Admissions FAQs
- Meharry School of Dentistry: Application Process
- Meharry School of Dentistry: Admissions Overview
- Meharry School of Dentistry: Prerequisites
- Meharry Medical College: Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) Program
- Meharry Medical College: School of Dentistry
- Meharry Medical College: Admissions and Aid
- Meharry Medical College: Admitted Students
- ADEA GoDental: Admissions Process
- ADEA GoDental: Best Interview Questions by Predental Students
Confetto isn't affiliated with Meharry Medical College. Everything here about the school comes from its public pages, checked in November 2026.
Formats and dates can change between cycles, so go by your invitation email.