At a glance: requirements & format
Sourced from the Kornberg School of Dentistry's own advanced standing admissions pages, the Temple University Bulletin, and the ADEA CAAPID program listing (last updated May 8, 2026). Confirm anything decision-critical with the Office of Admissions before you spend money.
- D.M.D. — Doctor of Dental Medicine, CODA-accredited; advanced standing entrants join the second or third year of the predoctoral class
- 24 months or 36 months depending on the pathway; 93 credits are required and the degree must be finished within three years
- 30 students per cycle (ADEA CAAPID program size); the 36-month pathway fills only seats vacated in the second year of the predoctoral class
- March 6, 2026 through ADEA CAAPID
- July 15, 2026 — the current CAAPID listing deadline; transcripts, evaluations, letters and test scores must all be received through ADEA CAAPID
- One-on-one oral examination with a member of the school's search committee, roughly 10-15 minutes, mostly open file, usually held by video conference; select applicants are also invited to visit the school
- Yes — a skills assessment examination for every candidate invited to interview, performed by faculty who score preclinical and clinical skill; a fee applies
- Required after the interview for the 24-month pathway; preferred but not required for the 36-month pathway
- Required — completed through takecasper.com; the 24-month pathway requires it, and 36-month candidates must complete it as well
- Required and current — no more than two years old: 100 on the old scale; the current new-scale minimum is published as 5.0 in the program description and 5.5 in the TOEFL instructions, and the Bulletin states a minimum of 5.0. An official or notarized copy is requested only if you are invited to interview
- Passage of NBDE Parts I and II or the INBDE is required before matriculation; official or notarized score verification is requested by the school if you are invited to interview
- Educational Credential Evaluators (ECE) only — a course-by-course dental evaluation sent to ADEA CAAPID; eligibility requires a dental degree showing at least 120 credits and a minimum 3.0 GPA
- Two, written within one year of your application date: one from the dean of the dental college you attended and one from a science professor or a dental professional, submitted through ADEA CAAPID
- Yes — inside the review process the school emails the supplemental application and supplemental fee request to applicants; both go to Kornberg School of Dentistry, not to ADEA CAAPID
- ADEA CAAPID processing fee plus a separate Kornberg supplemental fee; the supplemental amount is issued only with the emailed request, so confirm it with the Office of Admissions at that point
- A fee applies to the skills assessment examination for invited candidates; the amount is not published — the Office of Admissions confirms it with your invitation, before you book travel
- Interview invitations follow the completed file review; 36-month pathway applicants are told about vacated seats by July 2027, and the class begins April 1, 2027
- David Dams, Director of Admissions — david.dams@temple.edu, 215-707-3304; Office of Admissions, Kornberg School of Dentistry, 3223 North Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19140; kornbergadmissions@temple.edu, 800-441-4363
Requirements change — verify before you spend money
Temple's own pages disagree with each other on two decision-critical numbers: the admissions page still shows a July 1 deadline while the current CAAPID listing and the Bulletin show July 15, and the new-scale TOEFL minimum appears as 5.0 in one place and 5.5 in another. Before you book a TOEFL retake, order an ECE evaluation, or buy travel to Philadelphia for the bench test, email david.dams@temple.edu or call 215-707-3304 and get the answer for your cycle in writing.
How the Kornberg advanced standing evaluation actually works
Temple runs the sequence the other way round from most advanced standing programs: it talks to you before it tests your hands. The file review and the supplemental request decide who gets a conversation, the short search-committee interview decides who gets invited to the school, and the bench test, OSCE and CASPer decide who is admitted into the second or third year. Each stage filters on something different, so prepare for the one you are actually in rather than for the one you have read about.
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Stage 1: The file gate — CAAPID, ECE, letters and the supplemental request
Nothing about Temple's interview process starts with the interview. You apply through ADEA CAAPID, which opened March 6, 2026 and for this cycle closes on July 15, 2026. A complete file means the CAAPID application, official transcripts showing GPA and class rank, an ECE course-by-course dental evaluation, your curriculum vitae, two letters of evaluation written within the past year, and a TOEFL score no more than two years old alongside NBDE Parts I and II or an INBDE pass. Once the school has reviewed that file, it emails selected applicants the supplemental application and supplemental fee request — and both are paid to the Kornberg School of Dentistry, never to ADEA CAAPID. Official or notarized copies of your TOEFL report and board scores are requested at the same point.
This stage measures eligibility, not merit: ECE must confirm a dental degree with at least 120 credits and a minimum 3.0 GPA, and the letters have to be dated inside the one-year window. The order matters because nothing downstream is even scheduled until the file clears — no invitation, no supplemental request, no interview slot. Applicants who treat the supplemental email as optional paperwork lose weeks they cannot recover, since interview invitations are issued in waves across the late summer and autumn.
The supplemental fee never goes to CAAPID
Temple's admissions page is explicit: the supplemental application and fee request arrive by email and must be received by the Kornberg School of Dentistry, and application fees should not be submitted to ADEA CAAPID. Check your email weekly from the moment you submit, including spam, and confirm the current amount and payment route with the Office of Admissions before you pay anything.
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Stage 2: The interview — one-on-one with the search committee, about 10-15 minutes
Once your file is reviewed and the supplemental step is handled, select applicants are invited to a formal interview. In practice the conversation is one interviewer, one candidate, roughly 10 to 15 minutes, conducted by a member of the program's search committee — the school's own materials describe it as an oral examination conducted by the search committee, and applicants commonly report a single faculty interviewer. Most describe the conversation as open file: the interviewer has your application in front of them. The sitting is usually held by video conference, while the school also invites selected candidates to visit the school in Philadelphia, so read your invitation for which of the two you have.
What this stage measures is communication skill and command of your own record, not clinical skill — the hands-on assessment comes later in the sequence. That ordering is the whole point of the design: the committee spends 15 minutes deciding whether you are articulate, professional and consistent with the file it read, and only then pays for faculty time in the simulation laboratory. A 10-minute conversation is barely five or six questions, so an answer that takes two minutes to reach the point effectively ends your interview.
Rehearse for 60-90 second answers, not essays
At 10-15 minutes total you cannot afford a warm-up. Write a 90-second version of tell me about yourself, your why-Temple answer, and your weakest-point answer, then record each one on your phone and cut anything that does not survive the first 20 seconds. Because the sitting is mostly open file, expect at least one question drawn from something you wrote — your shadowing hours, your CV, your personal statement.
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Stage 3: The bench test and OSCE — the skills assessment after the interview
After you interview with a member of the faculty, the process moves to your hands. Candidates for the 24-month program sit for a bench test (skills assessment), an OSCE exam and CASPer; the skills assessment is performed by faculty who evaluate your preclinical and clinical skills, and the school tells invited candidates they do not need to bring instruments — the bench is supplied. The Bulletin describes the visit as including the skills assessment and states that a fee applies. For the 36-month pathway, sitting the bench test and OSCE is preferred rather than required, but CASPer is still mandatory either way.
This stage measures the thing none of your documents prove: whether you can execute at the standard expected of a student entering the third year of the predoctoral program. Temple's published admission basis names preclinical skills, communication skills and the oral examination, and the school states it places high weight on ethical and professional conduct. The order explains the stakes — a strong interview gets you in the room, and a shaky typodont erases it, which is why candidates who are invited should already be holding a handpiece weekly.
The bench fee and the instrument list are not published
Temple confirms that a fee applies to the skills assessment examination but does not publish the amount, and invited candidates are told the school supplies the instruments. Do not buy a typodont kit or book Philadelphia travel on an assumption: ask the Office of Admissions for the fee, the day's schedule and the exact instrument list when your invitation arrives.
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Stage 4: CASPer — the situational judgement test you cannot cram
CASPer is required at Temple and is completed separately through takecasper.com, on the test provider's calendar rather than the school's. It is not a knowledge exam and it is not part of the interview day: it presents timed professional and ethical scenarios and scores how you reason about them. The 24-month pathway requires a completed CASPer, and the 36-month pathway requires it as well even though the bench test and OSCE are only preferred for those candidates.
This stage measures judgement, which is why it exists alongside a conversation that already probes ethics. Temple's own description says admission weighs ethical and professional conduct and evidence of a desire to learn and innovate, and the interview pool includes a standing ethical question. The ordering trap is administrative rather than intellectual: because CASPer sits outside the school's scheduling, candidates who wait for their interview date to book it discover the next available test date falls after the decisions they are hoping for.
Book CASPer the day the invitation lands
Create your takecasper.com account and register as soon as you receive an interview invitation, then test your keyboard and connection in advance — the typing-based version leaves no room for a slow laptop. Practise writing short, structured answers under a hard clock: state the competing obligations, name your first action, then explain the principle behind it.
What Kornberg's admissions committee is really evaluating
Temple publishes the four things it scores — preclinical skill, communication skill, the oral examination and professional conduct — without a ranked rubric. The five criteria below map those published categories onto the stage where each one is actually tested.
Preclinical skill under observation
The bench test is the only place your hand skill is measured directly, and faculty score it against the competency standard for a student entering the third year. Nothing you write can lift that score, so treat the typodont as a discrete exam with its own preparation block.
Communication and spoken English
The interview exists to test how you speak about your own record under time pressure, and the TOEFL gate sits behind it. The published admission basis names communication skills explicitly, so a candidate who reads well but cannot structure a 90-second answer is filtered at Stage 2, before the bench test.
Ethical and professional conduct
Temple states it places high weight on ethical and professional conduct and on evidence of a desire to learn and innovate. That is scored twice: once through the standing ethical question in the interview, and once through the required CASPer scenarios, which run on their own schedule.
Credential currency on paper
ECE must confirm a dental degree with at least 120 credits and a 3.0 minimum GPA, letters must be dated within one year of application, and the TOEFL must be under two years old. Each of these is a hard gate at Stage 1, not a soft preference you can explain away in the interview.
Fit with comprehensive-care practice
The program runs in a comprehensive general dentistry clinic built to simulate real-life private practice, and preference goes to applicants with advanced clinical experience. Questions about your chairside history, your treatment planning and your patient volume are testing whether you will function as a provider rather than as a student.
Temple Kornberg dental advanced standing interview questions (with coaching notes)
These are the prompts this evaluation is built around, grouped by what each set is measuring. The motivational and behavioural sets are the ones that recur in the short search-committee conversation; the fourth set mirrors the bench-test day and the Situational judgement test. Answer every one aloud — reading them is a different skill from delivering them in 90 seconds.
Motivational & background
5 questionsTell me about yourself and your background.
How to answer
Build a 90-second arc: where you trained, what your clinical work has looked like, why you want US licensure, and why Temple is the vehicle. The file is open in front of the interviewer, so the trap is reciting your CV in order instead of choosing the two facts that explain the rest.
Why do you want to pursue a D.D.S. or D.M.D. in the United States?
How to answer
Anchor the answer in something concrete — a US clinical or shadowing experience, a patient population you want to serve, a defined career goal — and connect it to the D.M.D. pathway at Kornberg. Temple does not require citizenship or a green card, so the committee is testing seriousness, not immigration status.
Why Temple, and why the Kornberg School of Dentistry specifically?
How to answer
Go past the clinical reputation. Name the two-year or three-year Advanced Standing pathway, the 93-credit D.M.D. requirement, the comprehensive general dentistry clinic that simulates private practice, and the sequencing of the bench test after the interview. Something in that list should be genuinely what drew you.
Describe Temple in five words or less.
How to answer
This is a compression test, not a compliment contest. Choose five words that say something true about the program — comprehensive clinic, Philadelphia patient base, hands-on, ethical standards — then spend one sentence explaining the word that carries the most weight. Five adjectives delivered without explanation read as memorised.
What do you want to do after graduation?
How to answer
Give a specific trajectory: private practice in a defined setting, an AEGD or specialty path, public health, or a return to teaching. Name the step immediately after the D.M.D. and how this program's clinic model prepares you for it. A vague 'I want to help people' answer wastes one of your five or six question slots.
Behavioral
4 questionsTell me about a time you had a disagreement with an authority figure.
How to answer
Pick one real episode — a supervising dentist, a department head, an instructor — and structure it as situation, what you actually said, outcome, what changed. The signal is whether you can disagree with respect and inside the hierarchy. Blaming the other person, or a story where nothing was resolved, is the answer that sinks candidates.
What is the weakest part of your application?
How to answer
Name the real gap — a GPA dip, a gap year, a thin research record, a TOEFL score that just cleared the bar — then say what you did about it and what the evidence is. Since the interviewer holds your file, a hedged answer reads as evasive; a self-aware one reads as maturity.
What are you working on to better yourself right now?
How to answer
Choose something under active management with a visible current effort: a communication habit, a clinical technique you are drilling, an English fluency goal, a course you are taking. Tie it to dentistry so the interviewer sees momentum rather than self-improvement as a hobby.
What makes you different from the rest of the applicants?
How to answer
Answer with one differentiator plus proof: volume of clinical experience, a specialty background, a patient population you served, a research or teaching thread, a language you bring to a Philadelphia clinic. Listing three unconnected strengths is the trap — a 15-minute interview only remembers one idea about you.
Ethical & scenario
4 questionsDescribe an ethical dilemma you have faced and how you handled it.
How to answer
Choose a real case with competing goods — a patient who could not pay for the treatment you diagnosed, a colleague cutting corners, a treatment plan you disagreed with — then walk through how you identified the obligation, who you consulted and what you did. Show that you escalate and document rather than improvise alone.
You complete a full exam and X-rays, present a treatment plan, and the patient refuses it. What do you do?
How to answer
Work the sequence out loud: clarify what specifically the patient is refusing, explain the consequences of no treatment without pressure, document the conversation, and offer the alternatives you can ethically provide, including referral. Never propose a cheaper but clinically inferior plan as if it were equivalent.
If you could change one thing about the dental admissions process, what would you change and why?
How to answer
Pick something you have actually lived through — the cost of credential evaluation, the timing of test deadlines, the opacity of the interview stage — and argue it with a concrete improvement. The trap is complaining about a requirement you failed to meet, which turns a judgement question into an excuse.
What is the most surprising thing you have seen in a clinical setting, and how did you respond?
How to answer
Keep it clinical and keep it appropriate: an unexpected diagnosis, a complication, a patient reaction, an infection-control lapse. Describe what you did next and who you told, because the interviewer is scoring your reflexes rather than the story. Never use a story that identifies a patient or pokes fun at a colleague.
Bench-test & skills-assessment prompts
4 questionsWhat procedures have you observed or assisted with, and which one could you perform confidently today?
How to answer
Map it to the bench: name the restorative, endodontic and surgical procedures you have hands-on time with, then pick one and describe the steps in order. The trap is claiming general competence without a procedure you can narrate step by step — faculty ask this on the same day they watch you work.
Pick one procedure you have seen and tell me what you learned from it, including something you did not expect.
How to answer
Choose a procedure where the unexpected detail is technical — isolation, moisture control, an anatomic variation, how long a step really takes. The second half of the question is the real test: it separates candidates who watched from candidates who studied what they watched.
What is your favourite dental instrument, and what does that tell me about how you work?
How to answer
Name one instrument and justify it clinically — a small round bur for conservative caries removal, a probe in a periodontal record, matrix band placement in a Class II. The reverse is also fine: choose the instrument you find hardest and say what you do to compensate for it. Curiosity is a legitimate answer; a joke is not.
What do you know about our curriculum, and which part will be hardest for you?
How to answer
Name real features: 93 credits, advanced standing courses in restorative dentistry, implantology and periodontology, clinical rotations in admissions, radiology, oral surgery and paediatrics, and the comprehensive general dentistry clinic. Then be specific about your hardest module and how you will handle it alongside a cohort entering the third year.
Want feedback on your answers — not just the questions?
Practice these questions freeYour Kornberg advanced standing preparation timeline
Work backwards from the July 15, 2026 CAAPID deadline and the April 1, 2027 start. Two things most often break a Kornberg cycle: an ECE evaluation ordered too late to reach CAAPID, and CASPer booked only after the interview invitation arrives.
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16-20 weeks before the July 15, 2026 deadline
- Book a TOEFL iBT retake if your score is older than two years or below 100 on the old scale / 5.0-5.5 on the new one
- Order the ECE course-by-course dental evaluation — Temple accepts no other credential evaluator, and the report goes to ADEA CAAPID
- Confirm your ECE report shows at least 120 credits and a minimum 3.0 GPA, the two stated eligibility numbers
- Request NBDE Parts I and II or INBDE score verification from the ADA so it is ready for ADEA CAAPID
- Ask the dean of your dental college and one science professor or dental professional for letters of evaluation dated inside the one-year window
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8-10 weeks before the July 15, 2026 deadline
- Complete the ADEA CAAPID application, including the CV section — Temple requires a curriculum vitae with your application
- Upload official transcripts from every college, university and dental school, with GPA and class rank
- Draft the personal statement around why you are entering the US system and why the Kornberg clinic model fits how you want to practise
- Submit early: interview invitations are issued in waves after the file review, and a July submission competes for whatever dates remain
- Set a weekly calendar reminder to check the email address on your CAAPID application, including spam, for the supplemental request
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Submission week — answering the supplemental request
- Reply to the supplemental application and supplemental fee request from Kornberg School of Dentistry as soon as it arrives
- Pay the supplemental fee to the school — application fees must not be submitted to ADEA CAAPID
- Email david.dams@temple.edu or call 215-707-3304 to confirm the current supplemental amount and that your file is complete
- Have an official or notarized copy of your TOEFL report and board scores ready — the school requests both if you are invited to interview
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Invitation window (late summer to autumn 2026)
- Read the invitation closely: confirm whether your interview is by video conference or as part of a visit to the school in Philadelphia
- Ask for the bench test fee, the day's schedule and the instrument list in the same reply
- Register for CASPer at takecasper.com immediately rather than waiting for the interview date
- Run a camera, microphone and lighting test on the platform named in the invitation, and find a quiet room with a plain background
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Interview day — the 10-15 minute conversation
- Re-read your CAAPID application, personal statement and CV the night before, since the sitting is mostly open file
- Have 90-second versions ready for tell me about yourself, why Temple, your weakest point and your disagreement-with-authority story
- Prepare the four curriculum facts you would cite in a why-Temple answer: 93 credits, the comprehensive general dentistry clinic, advanced standing restorative and implantology courses, and the bench test sequencing
- Prepare two genuine questions about the program — the cohort's clinic rotations, or how entering students are integrated into the third-year class
- Keep a note of what you said: the interview is scored against your file, and your bench-day visit builds on the same record
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Skills-assessment visit — bench test and OSCE
- Confirm with the Office of Admissions what the school supplies — invited candidates are told not to bring instruments
- Confirm the skills assessment fee and pay it through the route the school specifies, keeping the receipt
- Practise typodont preparations weekly in the weeks before the visit: Class I and Class II preparations, access and isolation
- Book travel with a full buffer day around the visit and keep it refundable until the schedule is confirmed in writing
- Review OSCE-style stations — history taking, radiograph interpretation, infection control and patient communication
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CASPer and confirmation, before the April 1, 2027 start
- Complete CASPer by the date your cohort is asked to sit it — it is required for both the 24-month and 36-month pathways
- Send a short thank-you note through the Office of Admissions, naming the interviewer and one specific thing you discussed
- Keep your file current: notify ADEA CAAPID and the school if you pass a new board exam or add a licence
- Wait on the 36-month pathway only with the expectation that vacated seats are confirmed by July 2027
- Plan financial documentation and visa paperwork for the April 1, 2027 start date, well before the deposit deadline
Temple Kornberg advanced standing interview — frequently asked questions
What is the Temple Kornberg dental advanced standing interview format?
It is a short one-on-one oral examination conducted by a member of the program's search committee, typically about 10 to 15 minutes with a single interviewer, and usually held by video conference. It is mostly open file, so expect questions drawn from your own application. Select applicants are also invited to visit the Kornberg School of Dentistry, and that visit includes the skills assessment.
Does Temple require a bench test for international dentists?
Yes. Kornberg School of Dentistry requires a skills assessment examination for candidates invited to interview, and the visit includes a bench test performed by faculty who evaluate preclinical and clinical skills. The school tells invited candidates they do not need to bring instruments, and a fee applies to the skills assessment. The amount is not published.
What is the OSCE and who has to sit it at Temple?
The OSCE is a station-based clinical examination that follows the interview. It is required for the 24-month Advanced Standing pathway. For the 36-month pathway, sitting the bench test and OSCE is preferred rather than required, but those candidates still have to complete CASPer to be eligible.
Is CASPer required for the Temple advanced standing program?
Yes. CASPer is required and is completed separately through takecasper.com, outside the school's scheduling. The 24-month pathway requires it alongside the bench test and OSCE, and 36-month candidates must complete it as well. Register as soon as your interview invitation arrives, because provider dates fill independently of the school's timeline.
What TOEFL score does Temple require, and is there an ETS school code?
Temple requires a current TOEFL iBT score of 100 or higher on the old scale, which corresponds to 5.0 to 5.5 on the new scale — the program's own pages give both figures, so confirm the exact band with the Office of Admissions. Your score must be no more than two years old, and no ETS school code is published: the school requests an official or notarized copy only if you are invited to interview.
How many letters of evaluation does Temple require?
Two letters, written within one year of the date of your application. One must come from the dean of the dental college you attended, and the other must come from a science professor or a dental professional. Both are submitted through ADEA CAAPID no later than the July 15, 2026 application deadline, so ask for them early enough to survive a delay.
What is the application deadline and when does the program start?
The current ADEA CAAPID listing shows applications open March 6, 2026 and close July 15, 2026, with a program start date of April 1, 2027. Temple's own admissions page still displays a July 1 deadline, so confirm the operative date with the Office of Admissions and submit well before either one — supplemental and interview invitations follow the file review.
How large is the Temple advanced standing class, and what is the 36-month pathway?
The CAAPID listing shows a program size of 30 students. The school offers a 24-month Advanced Standing pathway and a 36-month option that fills seats vacated in the second year of the predoctoral class; applicants are told by July 2027 if a seat is available. Both require the same credentials, and admitted students enter the second or third year of the D.M.D. class.
Which credential evaluation does Temple accept?
Educational Credential Evaluators, or ECE, only. Kornberg School of Dentistry requires a detailed ECE report including a dental school course-by-course analysis, sent to ADEA CAAPID, and the evaluation must show at least 120 credits with a minimum 3.0 GPA for admission eligibility. An evaluation completed with any other service has to be redone with ECE.
When do interview invitations go out, and how is the decision made?
Invitations are issued after the file review and the supplemental step, in waves from the late summer into the autumn ahead of the April 1, 2027 start. The Advanced Standing and Transfer Admissions Committee decides on recommendations from faculty, and the published basis is preclinical skills, communication skills and the oral examination, with high weight on ethical and professional conduct.
Practice the Kornberg interview out loud
Reading the sequence is half the work. The other half is delivering a structured 90-second answer when you have five or six questions and ten minutes to use them. Our AI interview practice scores your structure and delivery instantly, so you can run the reps before the conversation that counts.
Interviewing at other programs this cycle? Our dental school interview guides break down each program's format and requirements, the MMI preparation guide covers station-based formats, and the AI interview practice tool lets you rehearse any program's question set with instant feedback.