Transfer students' personality types and their academic performance in a graduate-entry dental school.

PURPOSE The study was designed to identify how different types of transfer student personality would be constituted in Seoul National University School of Dentistry (SNU SD) and delve into what personal types were often observed more competent in academic performance. METHODS Among 40 students who transferred to SNU SD in 2004, 15 students voluntarily participated in completing the Myers-Briggs type indicator (MBTI; GS form); then, it was tested whether or not their MBTI types would be dependent upon their final grades. In addition, another 32 out of the 50 students who were enrolled through a traditional pre-den system served as a control group. RESULTS It was mainly found that ISTJ type was the most typical one for those transfer dental students as well as for other native dental students who excelled in their academic performance. The noticeable majority of transfer students were Introverted (67%), Sensing (80%), Thinking (86%), and Judging (80%), with S-J pattern being statistically significant. CONCLUSION SNU SD has been in a rebuilding process in terms of student/outcome centered dental education to have it up to the global standards. For this reason, it is ultimately a crucial part of that process to understand what personality types of the dental students with different backgrounds in major are observed and thus recognize how to support their learning according to different patterns of individual personality.