Brief Profile:
Non-trad, lots of research experience and community service, somewhat limited clinical experience. MCAT 36 < X < 40. Hopefully my interview experiences can help others have an idea of what to expect at some schools. Most of my interviews were done in October/November (four in a 10-day span, which I wouldn't recommend..). My advice to future applicants is to choose schools carefully. It's easy to overlook this aspect of school selection ("getting into medical school is so competitive, I'll just apply to lots of schools and choose from there!"), but ask yourself if it's really somewhere you can happily spend 4+ years of your life. The interview process is exhausting and expensive.
// Applications //
Application Cycle One: 06/30/2013
Undergraduate college: LAC
Undergraduate Area of study: Biological/Life Sciences
Total MCAT SCORE: 472
MCAT Section Scores:
B/B 118,
C/P 118,
CARS 118
Overall GPA: 3.90
Science GPA: 3.90
Applied
Duke University
Applying for combined PhD/MSTP? No
Submitted: Yes
Secondary Completed: No
Interview Invite: No
Interview Attended: No
Waitlisted: No
Accepted: No
Rejected: No
Summary of Experience:
Just couldn't muster the energy to finish the secondary..
Summary of Experience:
First MMI experience, and first time on the West Coast. I was surprised at how fast the II turnaround time was..this was one of the last secondaries I submitted, and I received an II a couple of weeks later. Stanford has beautiful facilities. The Li Ka Shing Center is one of the few buildings that really left an impression on me throughout my interviews (although the Gonda building at Mayo still blows it out of the water). The interviewee group was pretty large (30 applicants?) since we're split into three groups of 10 for the MMI. We had a few presentations on the MMI format, financial aid, and curriculum. I may have dozed off during the curriculum talk..it wasn't exactly riveting. Stanford has a rather small class (around 90 people/class), and at some point I realized that the 30 applicants in the room would be 1/3 of a class. There were definitely some people in my interview group who I would not want to attend school with, and I realized that if I found people in a small med school class similarly annoying, it could be a not-so-great four years. Random thought. Anyway, the interview day was pretty tightly scheduled. I thought the MMI was interesting, and the time really just flies by. There were two or three stations that I definitely could've handled better. There was also a moment when I realized there was a video camera pointed at me from the ceiling above the interviewer's head, and that sort of threw me off. My "WTF" expression was probably caught on camera for them, haha. Who knows if they actually go through the recordings, though. We were told that we'd hear back around January. I liked Stanford a lot and got a pretty positive vibe there, but I won't be devastated if I don't get in. The six hour flight back to the East Coast reminded me just how far away I'd be from family.
Summary of Experience:
Fourth interview, and the first school that I felt really enthusiastic about possibly attending. Yay! This one was two days after my first MMI experience, and I scheduled it that way because I thought I'd be on an MMI roll. This is NYU's first year doing MMI, and I thought it was executed quite well. A couple of the stations were a lot more fun than Stanford's, and I felt good walking out of most of them (apart from one or two?). NYU's location is great--it's pretty centrally located in Manhattan, and about an hour's drive from my parents' house. A lot of NYU students do their rotations at Bellevue, which gets a pretty diverse patient population. Bellevue Hospital's atrium area was pretty nice, I think the tour guide mentioned it was the same guy who designed the Louvre in Paris. The students who answered our questions during lunch were happy with the school and with living in NYC, and my interview group was pretty laid-back and normal. I don't think I can pinpoint what exactly I liked so much about NYU. A good gut feeling? Everything seemed solid here. Hope to hear good news in Dec/Jan!
Summary of Experience:
Harvard has been my 'dream school' for a long time, but the interview day left such a poor impression that it's been knocked off its pedestal. The facilities were really impressive, the administration's attitude towards interview day much less so. The talk at the beginning of the day by the admissions dean (?) was incredibly boring and made zero effort to bring up Harvard's positive points to sell the school, probably because they know they don't have to. I think he just pointed to some pictures on the wall and made some comment about Harvard's long history. Almost all of the schools I've been to have implemented a shortened pre-clinical curriculum (down from 2 to 1.5 or 1), and when someone asked about curriculum changes along that vein, the dean gave a rather circumspect answer about how changes were in the pipeline, and they probably won't be in place for our year. The day is 'unstructured', with just two interviews, an optional tour, and lunch with students. If you're unfortunate enough to have an interview over at Mass General Hospital they'll order a cab for you (15+ min drive), which in my case was very late and dropped me off in front of the wrong building, leaving me super frazzled by the time I found the right building (just when my interview was scheduled to start). The interview itself was okay. The other interview went very well. The tour was with a member of the admissions office, which was unusual and sort of prevented us from asking specific questions about student life. Overall, Harvard's attitude struck me as rather arrogant compared to interview days I've spent at other schools of its caliber. They make minimal effort to leave a positive impression on interviewees, some of whom have flown across the country to be there. In spite of all this, I would totally attend if accepted. I love Boston, and the teaching hospitals here are among the best. At the same time, my poor impression of the school on interview day is going to keep me from being too sad if/when I'm rejected.
Summary of Experience:
I applied here at the last minute (no secondary essays!). Classic case of applying blindly and regretting it later down the line..I felt compelled to attend once invited, despite my early reservations about the location. The interview day was overall pretty relaxed with two interviews, a tour, lunch with two current students, and a group discussion. Rochester students love the school and many are involved in community outreach or research opportunities. Rochester calls itself the 'liberal arts medical school,' and I would say that's pretty accurate. I'm not sure why they invited me to interview..perhaps because I attended a liberal arts school? The administration puts a lot of emphasis on maintaining their brand/identity and they take a lot of pride in it, so do your homework before walking into your interviews. Both of my interviewers were older male faculty members who asked fairly standard questions. There was one point when I was asked what part of Rochester I found most exciting, and I drew a blank because nothing about the school had really jumped out at me. I ended up giving a pretty lame answer after a long and awkward silence, and I wouldn't be surprised if I'm waitlisted or rejected. I like to think I've improved on BSing answers since then, but I have a really hard time mustering enthusiasm for a school when I'm not feeling it. There was also a group discussion with the rest of the interview group (about 10 of us), which I found rather stressful. I don't know if this was simply a product of my particular group, but the session devolved into a race to jump into the "discussion" once the last response was finished. It felt unnecessary, and left a negative impression on me. I was accepted to my state school the day after my interview here, and if I had heard from them a day or two earlier I would've saved myself the time and money involved in traveling to Rochester. In the end, the prospect of living in Rochester for four years was a major drawback, and its liberal-artsiness didn't hold any particular appeal for me.
Summary of Experience:
Update: Waitlisted back in Nov/Dec, forgot to update this! Sort of saw it coming..
Interviewed here the same week as Rochester, and overall, I liked it better (though not by much). After all the air travel, I came to realize that distance from friends and family (in the New England area) was a bigger deal to me than I initially thought while applying. I applied to Vanderbilt because I almost attended for undergrad, and it was a tough choice between there and the small LAC I ultimately chose. The campus is lovely, and med students here seemed really happy. The presentation on Curriculum 2.0 was rather sales-y, which turned me off a bit. It felt like they were overcompensating to try and win us over, but there's no getting around the fact that we would be the second (I think) year to test it out. Interestingly, my interview group didn't get a chance to talk to any current students who were going through the curriculum; our lunch and tour took place exclusively with second and fourth years. Considering we're only going to get one medical school education (and a rather expensive one, at that), I'd rather not be one of the guinea pigs. I had two interviews with faculty members. One was short and blinded (the interviewer had little/no access to my application), while the other was longer and the interviewer had fully reviewed my app. The long one went pretty well, although at the end I was unexpectedly asked what other schools I was looking at. I told him I was accepted to my state school, and didn't mention other schools where I would be attending interviews. A little awkward. I also had to mention that I chose not to attend Vanderbilt for undergrad, since I was asked if/when I had ever visited Vanderbilt before. Looking back, I probably shouldn't have been so candid? Oh well. The short interview didn't go so well..my interviewer explicitly disagreed with how I handled a moral dilemma, and she made it pretty clear. Again..oh well. Considering my mixed bag of interviews here, I'm not expecting an outright acceptance..probably a wait list (if not rejection), if I had to guess. The new curriculum is the major sticking point for me, and I'd have to give it serious thought if I get in.
Summary of Experience:
At this point I was getting pretty tired of interviews and missing work; if Tufts wasn't close by I probably wouldn't have attended. I really liked the interview day here. The curriculum was reasonable and fairly well-tested, students seemed happy, decent research opportunities, and I like Boston a lot. Students also emphasized how receptive the Tufts administration is toward student feedback and ideas for research opportunities. The downside would be the cost of attendance, and I'm not sure if Tufts is awesome enough to justify the sticker price. One of my interviews here was really bizarre, and I seriously thought about excusing myself to just walk out. The guy was pretty old and probably on the verge of retirement (/senility??). The other went well. I do wonder what the first one said about me..I guess I'll find out in a few weeks?
