Monday, August 16, 2004
Getting Into Medical School - Part 2
Ok, so I've finally gotten around to finishing this little project. Sorry for the delay:
Step 6: Interview
* You've filled out all the mountains of paperwork and paid your money, filled out your secondaries and turned them all back in. Hopefully you're now getting offers for interviews.
* What happens during an interview and what is expected? First, dress up. For men, this always means suit and tie. For women, this is much more variable. You all know "professional dress" much better than I do, so I won't offer too many opinions here - I'll only remark that women are incredibly lucky not to have to wear choking shirts and ties. Show up at the school (at the designated spot) at around 0730-0800. There will be a few medical students from the school there to help show you around and make you feel "comfortable," as if that is a state of being one could find oneself in such a situation... yeah right. Anyway, there is generally a packet you must collect which will contain a schedule for the day, the names of the people with which you will be interviewing and some other information about the school/interview day you may/ may not already know. Read this over quickly - this could come in handy during the actual interviews. Next, there is frequently a short presentation about the school and a Q&A session. If you ask questions here, make them general questions about the curriculum or the school - nothing too specific. These questions are best handled in person. Lunch usually occurs around this time - frequently in small groups with one or more of the current medical students or faculty. Now you can ask these specific questions - feel out the student/faculty member first, though. For students, ask about student life, curriculum, the daily life as a medical student, etc. Remember, these will be 2nd years, so don't ask too much about clinical stuff - they won't really know. In the afternoon is usually when the real business occurs: the interviews.
* There are several types of "interviews." There is the standard one-on-one interview (probably the most prevalent and lowest stress) and then there are the "committee" interviews (highest stress). Fortunately, I never had any of the latter. My interviews were all one-on-one and very low stress almost to the point of feeling informal. The person with which you are talking will generally ask about your life, what draws you to medicine, any specific experiences you may have that you feel will help you in medical school or influenced you to pursue medicine as a career. Be sure to know about current events and current trends in medicine - ethics, malpractice, etc. Generally, they have not seen anything in your file aside from your personal statement (although each school varies in this) and so grades, MCAT scores, etc do not really matter here. The assumption is that since you were invited for the interview, you are good enough from a numbers standpoint to be accepted and the point of the interview is to separate the "wheat from the chaff," so to speak - to see which applicants would make a good fit for the school.
* A final point - remember, you are not only auditioning for a position in the entering class of this school, but you are also on a mission to discover if you even want the position at all. Be sure to ask questions of all the interviewers - ask about accreditation status/financial viability (you don't want your school to close down in your 3rd year, do you?), shifts in curriculum (and the reasons for the changes), recent board performance (and what is being done to improve them if <95% passing and if all recent classes have not beat the mean), where recent grads have gone for residency (ask specifically about your field(s) of interest - if you know).
* Hopefully after one or two interviews, you'll get the hang of it and any stress you experienced will be gone and you'll reach your stride. No worries.
* Be sure to send thank you cards to each person you interviewed with - the schedules I referenced above are good for reminding you of who they were - especially if you scratched notes out after each interview. This puts your name in front of the admissions committees again and reminds them of what a good applicant you are... and it shows that you have manners and you're interested in the program.
Step 7: Wait for "match" day
* After your interviews are over, next comes the most excruciating part of all - the wait for acceptances, rejection, or more waiting (wait-list). Hopefully, you'll have lots of acceptances and you won't have to worry about the other two.
* If you get accepted, CONGRATULATIONS. If you want to take the spot, place your deposit and get ready to move.
* If you get rejected, don't worry about it. A lot of people don't get accepted - generally schools interview at least 10 people for each spot they have open. So as long as you interviewed at more than 10 schools, you're pretty much guaranteed an acceptance SOMEWHERE just by playing the numbers. :) It's good to be optimistic!
* If you get wait-listed, congratulations - you still have a shot to go there. There is generally some pretty good movement on the wait-lists as the season goes on - it just depends on which people accept which places. There may be significant movement or almost none at all. I can't really give you much advice as far as this is concerned. Keep calling and writing the admissions office of your favorite school and remind them that you're incredibly interested - hopefully everything will come out in your favor.
Ok, this is a brief overview. If there are any specific questions or anything anyone would like me to cover more in-depth, leave a comment and I'll try to address it (if I can - I don't know everything, you know). Otherwise, best of luck and hope to see you among our ranks soon!
more to come... ¶ 10:00 PM
Step 6: Interview
* You've filled out all the mountains of paperwork and paid your money, filled out your secondaries and turned them all back in. Hopefully you're now getting offers for interviews.
* What happens during an interview and what is expected? First, dress up. For men, this always means suit and tie. For women, this is much more variable. You all know "professional dress" much better than I do, so I won't offer too many opinions here - I'll only remark that women are incredibly lucky not to have to wear choking shirts and ties. Show up at the school (at the designated spot) at around 0730-0800. There will be a few medical students from the school there to help show you around and make you feel "comfortable," as if that is a state of being one could find oneself in such a situation... yeah right. Anyway, there is generally a packet you must collect which will contain a schedule for the day, the names of the people with which you will be interviewing and some other information about the school/interview day you may/ may not already know. Read this over quickly - this could come in handy during the actual interviews. Next, there is frequently a short presentation about the school and a Q&A session. If you ask questions here, make them general questions about the curriculum or the school - nothing too specific. These questions are best handled in person. Lunch usually occurs around this time - frequently in small groups with one or more of the current medical students or faculty. Now you can ask these specific questions - feel out the student/faculty member first, though. For students, ask about student life, curriculum, the daily life as a medical student, etc. Remember, these will be 2nd years, so don't ask too much about clinical stuff - they won't really know. In the afternoon is usually when the real business occurs: the interviews.
* There are several types of "interviews." There is the standard one-on-one interview (probably the most prevalent and lowest stress) and then there are the "committee" interviews (highest stress). Fortunately, I never had any of the latter. My interviews were all one-on-one and very low stress almost to the point of feeling informal. The person with which you are talking will generally ask about your life, what draws you to medicine, any specific experiences you may have that you feel will help you in medical school or influenced you to pursue medicine as a career. Be sure to know about current events and current trends in medicine - ethics, malpractice, etc. Generally, they have not seen anything in your file aside from your personal statement (although each school varies in this) and so grades, MCAT scores, etc do not really matter here. The assumption is that since you were invited for the interview, you are good enough from a numbers standpoint to be accepted and the point of the interview is to separate the "wheat from the chaff," so to speak - to see which applicants would make a good fit for the school.
* A final point - remember, you are not only auditioning for a position in the entering class of this school, but you are also on a mission to discover if you even want the position at all. Be sure to ask questions of all the interviewers - ask about accreditation status/financial viability (you don't want your school to close down in your 3rd year, do you?), shifts in curriculum (and the reasons for the changes), recent board performance (and what is being done to improve them if <95% passing and if all recent classes have not beat the mean), where recent grads have gone for residency (ask specifically about your field(s) of interest - if you know).
* Hopefully after one or two interviews, you'll get the hang of it and any stress you experienced will be gone and you'll reach your stride. No worries.
* Be sure to send thank you cards to each person you interviewed with - the schedules I referenced above are good for reminding you of who they were - especially if you scratched notes out after each interview. This puts your name in front of the admissions committees again and reminds them of what a good applicant you are... and it shows that you have manners and you're interested in the program.
Step 7: Wait for "match" day
* After your interviews are over, next comes the most excruciating part of all - the wait for acceptances, rejection, or more waiting (wait-list). Hopefully, you'll have lots of acceptances and you won't have to worry about the other two.
* If you get accepted, CONGRATULATIONS. If you want to take the spot, place your deposit and get ready to move.
* If you get rejected, don't worry about it. A lot of people don't get accepted - generally schools interview at least 10 people for each spot they have open. So as long as you interviewed at more than 10 schools, you're pretty much guaranteed an acceptance SOMEWHERE just by playing the numbers. :) It's good to be optimistic!
* If you get wait-listed, congratulations - you still have a shot to go there. There is generally some pretty good movement on the wait-lists as the season goes on - it just depends on which people accept which places. There may be significant movement or almost none at all. I can't really give you much advice as far as this is concerned. Keep calling and writing the admissions office of your favorite school and remind them that you're incredibly interested - hopefully everything will come out in your favor.
Ok, this is a brief overview. If there are any specific questions or anything anyone would like me to cover more in-depth, leave a comment and I'll try to address it (if I can - I don't know everything, you know). Otherwise, best of luck and hope to see you among our ranks soon!
more to come... ¶ 10:00 PM
