Thank you for the USUHS/military info. It seems there’s always a waiver 
My first interview FINALLY. Cornell, at the end of the month.
Yay! Isn’t that a good feeling? Go knock 'em dead!
Congrats Matt!
Congratulations. It’s great when they finally break the silence. You feel like Sally Field when she won that Oscar, “You like me, you really like me!”
Congratulations Matt!!!
OMG OPM’ers are getting interviews and getting in?NOooooo? hmmm I thought OPM’ers have such a hard time getting interviews and accepted? guess I was wrong…
(being sarcastic) 
Happy New Year, everyone!
I just got home from two interviews: University of Nevada and University of North Dakota. Both schools accept primarily in-state applicants plus WICHE students. Nevada does accept a very few from out of state and North Dakota accepts some from Minnesota. For those of you who may fall into those parameters, here is my synposis of the interview experiences.
University of Nevada: I had a tour/orientation scheduled with a MSI at noon, an interview with a MSII at 3:30, and an interview with a family physician from Reno at 5:00. Since I was the only applicant present on that day, there were no other “activities” planned for the hours in between the tour and two interviews. So, I ended up with approximately 4 hours to kill. (If I had known, I would have brought something to read. I made the most of my time however by reading a couple of American Family Practice Journals from cover to cover and exploring the fantastic “History of Medicine” room in the library.) The interviews went very well. They were extremely relaxed and conversational. The MSII that interviewed me was 37 and the “grandfather” of his class. The physician had also been a non-trad med student. (Was that a coincidence or planned??? I’m not sure.) Everyone was enthusiastic about the school; however, the one drawback mentioned was the “old-fashioned curriculum”. The classes are taught by PhD’s who are reluctant to try anything new. Students are pushing for lectures to be recorded, but the professors refuse–thinking that by doing so, students will be compelled to attend the hours and hours of lecture. They do not use a systems approach or PBL. Clinical contact takes place in 2nd semester of year one and 1st semester of year two. During the first and fourth semesters, students practice taking H&P’s and performing physical exams on each other. Clerkships in year 3 and 4 are done in Las Vegas or Reno/Las Vegas (all surgery and OB/GYN is done in Las Vegas). There are four students per cadaver for Gross Anatomy. Grades are A,B,C,D,F.
University of North Dakota: The interview day was very well organized. Four students arrived each hour, so the groups overlapped and everything moved like clockwork. During the first 30 minutes, we met with MSI students for a Q&A session. Then, we went to our interviews, which were approximately 45 minutes. The session ended with a tour of the school, and we were done in about 2.5 hours. The interviews were conducted with a PhD, a North Dakota physician, and a medical student (most were MS3 or MS4, with a few MS2’s). The interviews were open file–this was my first “open file” interview. One of the traditional students in my group said her interview was all about her personal statement. My interview mentioned nothing about my personal statement. They were more interested in my opinions about current healthcare issues (Medicare prescription drug coverage, high cost of pharmaceuticals, HMO’s, etc.) and ethical issues (abortion, stem cell research, and euthanasia). I was also asked quite a few questions about nurse practitioners in Wyoming and why I would prefer to be a physician. My activities throughout my post-undergraduate years were talked about a good deal, as well as how I would approach small group interactions with my background in education. It was an interesting session! I was extremely impressed with their patient-centered learning curriculum. The one disappointment for me was the fact that students are not with preceptors in the clinic during years 1 and 2. However, the students I visited with said that they felt the contact with patients that was built into the curriculum made up for that fact. Clerkships in years 3 and 4 are done on one of 4 campuses. For year 3, they split the class up among Grand Forks, Bismarck, Fargo, or a rural location. Year 4 takes place in Grand Forks, Bismarck, Fargo, or Minot. Locations are decided by drawing out of a hat. The school does not take special circumstances into consideration when dividing up the class.
Lu
Quote:
My first interview FINALLY. Cornell, at the end of the month.
You are coming to Cornell, Matt? Yay! Send me a PM and we can meet up while you’re here. I’ve been meaning to get in touch since I moved to New York anyway!
Hey Lu,
Congratulations on those interviews! They went very well it sounds like. I am a bit jealous of your getting to interview in North Dakota. I’m from western Minnesota but I’m going to med school in New York City. Of course I can’t help but miss the prairie states a bit! If you do rotations in Bismarck you might run into my relatives. 
Good luck and keep us posted!
Will this thread still be used for next year? It is getting late in the season for entering c/o 2006, but do you still think it would be helpful for me to write summaries of the schools where I went? I will post them if anyone wants to read them.
Hey Q -
I think it would be tremendously helpful, especially for those of us applying next year and the following year. A quick search will bring us back to this thread for review of interviews, and yours as a non-trad will help a lot!
Thanks!
Quote:
Will this thread still be used for next year? It is getting late in the season for entering c/o 2006, but do you still think it would be helpful for me to write summaries of the schools where I went? I will post them if anyone wants to read them.
Q,
Every year we have an interview & acceptance thread for those in the throes of the app process. And yes, your input would be valued by the folks going through it or repeating it - prob more so than some of us old farts for whom it has been quite a few years since we wore those shoes.
Ok, I will do it when I get some time.
Hey,
I had my interview at Univ Cincinnati the 5th and 6th. It is the only place I applied to this year and was of course very excited to have the interview and attend there. I must say that after the interview, I am really really, really hoping that I get in. I really like all the students that I met and between them and the faculty that I met with I got the feeling like the welfare of the students is a priority at UC. The construction is a bit of downer but it’s a negligble thing for me. I interviewed with Dr. Campos and really had an enjoyable experience. We spent a couple of hours talking. It was mostly conversational with some general interview type questions worked in. They have some decent research and some other interesting programs for the med students. Also, they will theoretically be starting an MPH program next year (2007). This is something I’m interested in. I’m happy to answer any questions people may have. Post them or PM whichever is preferable. I’m currently in Bolivia and don’t check my email as frequently as normal but I’ll get back as soon as a can.
Later
without sounding sycophantic, this is one of the most helpful tools for pre-meds I have encountered. Hearing from the horses mouth (so to speak) is a terrific boost for me and I assume everyone else. Thank you all very much for taking the time to do this.
jeffc
This was my first interview, back in late August. I actually almost didn’t make it, because Hurricane Katrina decided to show up the day before my interview, and they were closing all of the airports in S. Florida. (Many people don’t realize that Katrina hit us here in FL before going on to devastate New Orleans.) Luckily, the airport was open the following morning, and I flew out early the day of the interview. The admissions office was very understanding when I called them the day before to tell them that I might not be able to make it to the interview! One thing that is nice about Vanderbilt is that the interview day starts late, so if you’re flying there from the Eastern time zone like I was, you can get away with going that morning. (They are on CST.)
Interview day: There is a lot of down time. Vanderbilt interviews a ton of people, and they actually have an interview room for us to wait in between interviews. I also attended a class and walked around the campus a bit on my own. There are lots of first year students hanging around and they would wish us luck whenever they saw us in our black suits. The campus is very pretty, and the undergrad campus is basically right there with the med school, which is nice if you want to do anything on the main campus. There is also a nice shopping area nearby. If you want to stay at a hotel, I stayed at the Guesthouse, and it was reasonably priced and fairly nice. They offer free shuttle service over to the school. My interviewer was an MD. They gave me his name ahead of time, so I was able to look him up on the school’s website and ask him some questions about his own research. The interview was fairly conversational, and he asked me a lot of questions about my research. Vanderbilt is a pretty research-oriented school, so if you have research experience, I would definitely be prepared to talk about it at the interview.
Non-trad considerations: Vanderbilt is not a particularly non-trad friendly school IMHO. They do not have many older students attending there, and they do not consider non-trads over age 30 independent for institutional financial aid. When I incredulously asked whether I’d still have to provide parental info even if I were 50 and my dad were 90, they replied, “Yes.” The school is quite expensive, so this is a huge disadvantage. Vanderbilt is also a school that cares a lot about stats, but they do make exceptions. I had to ask them to waive their requirement that all pre-reqs be taken for grades, and they did agree to interview me and send me a secondary. (You do not get a secondary from Vanderbilt unless you’ve been invited to interview.) On the other hand, if you have a family, Nashville is a pretty nice, family-friendly town. And they do offer some people scholarships, but again, these only cover tuition and you will still have to borrow for living. In general, Vanderbilt is a very conservative place even among med schools, so you should keep that in mind as you decide.
Final outcome: waitlisted. I believe that this was due to my lack of grades and the fact that my interview there was ok but not stellar.
This was my second interview and the first school that I really fell in love with. Baylor has something for everyone; they have special tracks for international health, geriatrics, medical ethics, care of the underserved, and of course, research. They share their campus with several other institutions, including UT-Houston and MD Anderson Cancer Center. The facilities are fantastic and HUGE; this IS Texas we are talking about, after all.
Interview day: Another interview day that starts relatively late, at noon. I interviewed with a PhD biochemist and a student. The biochemist was great; she and I had a long conversation about research in general and how important chemistry was as the basis of medicine. The student mostly asked about my interests/hobbies. She also tested me on my Spanish, so be forewarned that if you claim to be bilingual, they may ask you to speak your second language. On the other hand, speaking Spanish is a huge asset at Baylor b/c of Texas’s large Mexican immigrant population, so if you DO speak Spanish, you should definitely let them know that. The interview group here is humongous, the biggest I’ve ever seen. This is not necessarily a bad thing, because it allows you to meet some of your potential classmates. Just don’t be expecting a cozy little meeting with a half dozen other applicants; they have you in an auditorium. They served us both lunch and dinner, which was nice. We finished fairly late, around 7PM. At the end of the day, there is a trip to Two Rows, a local bar. Personally, I would suggest skipping that after a long and tiring day, unless somehow you’re really still into hanging out at bars.
Non-trad considerations: Baylor is a very non-trad friendly school. There are a lot of non-trads who attend there, and they also do consider non-trads over age 30 independent for institutional financial aid purposes. Unfortunately, it is not easy to get into Baylor if you are not a TX resident, because they are heavily subsidized by the state even though they are private. But if you are a TX resident, it’s a great opportunity. One of the best things about Baylor (and all of the UTs as well) is how cheap the tuition is. Even for me as an OOS student, I’d have to pay $20,000 for tuition the first year, and then I could change to in-state status after MSI and pay in-state rates of $6500. You have to buy a condo or house in order to qualify for a change of state residency.
Final outcome: accepted. They called me and followed up with a snail mail letter.
I forget, Q - which school did you decide to attend? You can wait to tell me until you’ve gone through your interview descriptions 
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I know you’ve posted it back at SDN - I’m just doing a lot of office work this weekend and can’t spend the time searching! 
The short answer is, I haven’t decided yet, as will rapidly become apparent to you after I post a few more schools. I’m starting to narrow it down, and I have withdrawn from a few schools. And I have a pretty good idea about where I’ll be going, but no final decisions for me until after second looks. I think I will continue to post the interviews sequentially and just tell you my thoughts as I go along. You’ve already read about one of my top contenders.