Thursday, December 10, 2009

The medical school interview

In this post I want to share some experiences on what the medical school interviews are like. During my application process I attended eight (8) interviews. These ranged from small private schools to large universities.

[1] Appearance
It is important to look your best; you are applying to a professional program. Focus on having clean shoes, haircut, and a dark appropriately sized suit. Also, don't chew gum; its distracting.

[2] Interview day
Every school does pretty much the same thing -> you will see the classrooms; anatomy room; other areas. The only thing I would pay attention to is the dinning facilities (you want to have a nice place for lunch/dinner because you will be spending many hours in the building).

[3] Lunch time
Usually this is a chance to eat with medical students from the school. Here is where you can probably find out the most information. But don't expect to hear anything bad about the school; med students volunteer for this stuff and are generally people that have a positive view of the school, or are afraid of saying anything bad. Save the negative questions for Student Doctor Network.

Useful questions to ask: Where do students live? How much is rent? What is the daily schedule like? What holidays do you have off?


[4] One on One interview
This is where the differences come into play. Some of them will have two people interviewing you. It can be a faculty member or it could be a practicing physician. Out of eight interviews only one asked me an ethics question. You are guaranteed to be asked "do you have any questions for me?" So you need to have an idea as to why you are choosing the school, and come up with some generic question. I suggest asking about non-academic stuff (don't bother asking about research, quality of teaching, etc...), ask about student organizations, volunteer projects, etc.

[5] Can you predict acceptance based on interview?
No, it is pretty much a game of chance after you are done. You may have had a bad interview or a great interview and the outcome can be the same. The reason for this is that there are other things that come into play besides your interview performance. So don't dwell too much on your performance.
I follow a 6:2 rule -> for every six interviews you should expect to get two acceptances.

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About Me

Currently a medical student, sharing articles and noteworthy information in the field of medical technology and medicine.