What advice would you give to a fellow dental school colleague who was stressed out?

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Being able to handle stress during dental school is a vital skill. Given the fact that you'll be working closely with your classmates during dental school, being able to talk your colleagues off the ledge during their peak times of stress is an entirely different skill that your interviewers will be looking to gauge during your time with them.

Discuss with the interviewer what you would say or do to help a student colleague cope with stress. As you are aware, dental school is a whole other world compared to undergraduate work with the highly involved classroom work and intense clinical work. Knowing that your interviewers want great team players to join their program, talk about how you will be the best teammate possible to your fellow student colleagues, no matter what situation you find yourselves in.

"If I had a student colleague who was stressed out, I would recommend that they look at the factors that regularly stress them out and create some boundaries surrounding those stressors. Perhaps they are being continually interrupted, resulting in missed deadlines. These distractions need boundaries, and I would start there. I also wouldn't hesitate to be a sounding board for them to release some tension. Sometimes that can make the biggest difference for a stressed person."

Anonymous Answer

"Based on my experiences over the last five years, I would suggest my dental school colleague to look back to their own journey and achievements to know how strong they were to get to where they are today. Also, I would talk to my colleague to help him or her figure out what were the factors of stress and what he or she can do to make boundaries or re-consider the priorities to resolve the stress factors."

Marcie's Feedback

Nice! Can you include an example of a time when you helped someone handle their stress successfully? Or when you managed your own stress effectively? This will help support your assertions. Great job!