I am a dental student right now so clinical experience is limited to the school. I do have tutoring experience, research, and volunteering. But nothing crazy or out of this world. I have a lot of leadership experience too in dental school (I held officer positions in multiple clubs).
I think what set me apart as far as my application was my genuine interest in the program. I spent time in Grad Pros at my school and got to know the program. It allowed me to know what I liked or didn't about the program at my school and gave me a good idea of what to look for when looking at other programs. As one of my friends put it, it allowed me to be an "informed consumer". Spending time there also allowed my passion and interest in the profession grow, which I think showed in my interviews. I also visited two of the pros programs I applied to ahead of time (one in March and one in May before the application cycle).
As long as you have a good application (top quarter of your class, Pass NBDE, Extracurriculars that show interest in pros), I think you should get interviews. Once you are at the interview I think that directors want a genuine interest in Pros. Pros residency can be grueling so you really need to have a passion and love for what you do in order to get through it.
That is my experience as a US citizen/resident.
Being a foreign trained applicant is a little different. I cannot speak for my other 2 interviews (I was the only one interviewing at 2 of my interviews), but at UTHSCSA I noticed that many (maybe all?) of the foreign trained applicants that interviewed this year had AEGD/GPR experience in the US. One of my future co-residents that is foreign trained is doing her second year of AEGD.
I hope this helped. If you have any questions let me know.
