Yeah, it is pretty small, and I’m told the drive is horribly boring. The interview is October 21. Thanks for the encouragement!
–Alison
Good luck Alison!
I am staring on an interview marathon tommorrow! 4 in one week. Anyway, here’s a little update:
Johns Hopkins (Sept), U of Chicago (Oct.), UConn (Oct.), GWU (Oct.), Cornell (Oct.), Columbia (Oct.), Iowa (Nov.), Northwestern (Nov.), and UCLA (sometime)
Well, back to packing! By the way, I think we need a “what to pack” thread, but I’ll leave that to someone else…
I haven’t heard anything from ECU yet… not even an acknowledgement of my AMCAS app… I’ve heard they’re slow… but this is kinda nuts! I should get an “automatic” secondary from them since I’m an NC resident… but who knows.
Good luck on the interviews this week!!!
Keep us posted.
Andrea,
GoodLuck!
Which four interviews do you have this week?
Just received my first invitation to interview…
KCOM, November 4th.
Yes! 
Good Luck! May the interview invites continue to roll in. 
Just got my first invite as well! U of KY!!
Not to look a gift horse in the mouth… but I’m curious to see what others may think. My interview date isn’t until Jan. Does this mean anything? It just seems so late and I’d hate to get my hopes up just to be turned down anyway. If I’m reading too much into it, please tell me!!
How many folks out there are “in process” (rather, your application is) and haven’t heard a wimper? As every day goes by, I feel my chance for an interview is waning.
Question for those of you who have interviews: were you notified by phone, email, or US mail?
bjg,
I received my invitation to interview at KCOM via email. Other schools may use snail mail or phone calls, I’m not sure.
As far as applying, I feel your pain. 7 of my 10 applications (most of them to MD schools requiring 3 letters of recommendation) may simply not get completed thanks to one professor who, despite being asked to write back in the first week of August, just ‘hasn’t gotten around to it.’
The situation with this prof has gotten so bad that a fellow student of mine who had asked her for a letter called me today wondering what to do as she is relying on this prof to write a letter for her for an interview with KCCOM which is scheduled for next week. And from what she told me, unless the letter beats her to Kansas City and completes her file, they will cancel the interview.
Given that bit of information, I think it’s entirely possible that this prof will let the deadlines pass without having written anything. If so, it’s a shame as I will have wasted a significant amount of time and money submitting those seven secondaries. Unfortunately, I don’t have any other profs I can substitute for her for schools requiring three or more letters.
I did take steps to cut her out of the process for schools requiring two letters two weeks ago, and that way know that I will at least get three secondaries out of my original 10 completed.
Hopefully that will be enough for me to get in somewhere.
UK notified me by e-mail. I know where you’re coming from as well – I chased around a couple of loose ends a couple of weeks ago and confirmed that my applications were complete, still haven’t heard a peep from the rest…
Boeing – I really do feel for you, I got screwed like that last year! My organic professor said she’d be happy to do the recommendation for me then proceeded to go on vacation for TWO MONTHS w/o ever checking her e-mail evidently! When I finally got in touch with her, she was very apologetic and promised to still do it as it could have been sent out as an addendum, but guess what Charlie Brown? No football to kick!! I hope things work out for you…
For all of you that have been to recent interviews, how did they go? Inquiring minds want to know…
Boeing,
It sounds to me like this professor of yours is seriously derelict. If she has agreed to write these letters, then that is part of her job. I think students often aren’t aware that writing LORs is actually considered part of what profs are paid to do. Of course it must be voluntary, but they got where they are now through others writing letters for them, and they know it. Whenever I’ve approached my profs about letters, I’ve been really meek and apologetic, and every time they’ve insisted that it’s NOT an imposition, just part of their job that they’re happy to do. Of course I’ve been lucky not to run into anyone too crabby or busy.
So anyway, is there some way that you and your classmate could approach the department head or dean of students about this? Your prof agreed to write the letter, but she hasn’t, which is putting all of your applications in limbo. That’s pretty unprofessional on her part. I realize you can’t nag her directly, and that even going over her head might result in a less than favorable attitude on her part–but maybe someone else in the department could help you out, either by subtly reminding the prof, or else just writing a letter for you themselves (which a department head likely could do if they wanted to).
Good luck. I think you may need to be somewhat more assertive than normal at a time like this.
Quote:
but maybe someone else in the department could help you out, either by subtly reminding the prof
This actually turned out to be what I ended up doing. A statement in passing to the Chair of the Life Sciences Department worked better than pack of ex-lax at clearing this particular problem up. The letters in question went out Friday.
I was a little hesitant to employ this strategy at first as most people don’t like it when someone does an end-run around them. In the end, I concluded that since an incomplete secondary had a 0% chance of garnering an interview, I had nothing to lose.
Now to prepare for that KCOM interview in two weeks. I’m actually really excited about getting an interview at KCOM, it’s very close to the top on my list.
Lets hope it works out for everyone equally well.
ex-lurker
ETSU- This week
St. Louis U -9/21
U of Kentucky -10/9
KCUMB - 10/7
GWU- 10/?
Crazy Horse
Wright State - 8/24
UCincinnati - 10/4
MCO - 10/11
Virginia Commonwealth - 10/18
pushkin
Hopkins - september
rsmit9
Loyola - 10/4
Wash U - November
U Michigan - March
I got the call today!
I need to call back and schedule the interview… I’m shocked, amazed, and thrilled!!!
whoohoo…
ex-lurker
ETSU- This week
St. Louis U -9/21
U of Kentucky -10/9
KCUMB - 10/7
GWU- 10/?
Crazy Horse
Wright State - 8/24
UCincinnati - 10/4
MCO - 10/11
Virginia Commonwealth - 10/18
pushkin
Hopkins - september
rsmit9
Loyola - 10/4
Wash U - November
U Michigan - March
adennis
LECOM-Bradenton 11/04 or 12/04
Congratulations to everyone on the interview invites! As I said before, let us know about the interview experiences. Inquiring minds want to know. By sharing you will be helping others with interviews yet to come.
Shirl
Congratulations everyone!
Shirl,
I attended a few interviews last week. They were all very enjoyable, and I certainly liked the schools. At some schools, there were as few as five of us interviewing that day. At others, it was around 20 or so. Although I’ve enjoyed my conversations with faculty and students, the experience sort of gives me the feeling that this is what a sorority or fraternity rush must be like. It’s like there’s all these people, and they all seem great, so now what? Everyone’s extremely upbeat. I can certainly go with the flow in that respect (I’m not a Minnesotan for nothing), but that part of it seems a bit unreal. And with the student interviews, I feel a bit pressured to really “click” with them. However, I have to say they’ve all been very nice and I’ve liked talking to them.
I’ve gotten really useful information during my interviews, especially with faculty members. I’ve also really changed my ideas about what each school is like. Yeah, now I want to go to all of them even more(!), but I’m also starting to get an appreciation for their individual differences.
My interviews have mostly just been regular conversations. Some have been blind, others have had access to my file, which is what I’m finding I prefer. It can be hard to quickly summarize my exposure to medicine and interest in it for someone who 5 minutes before didn’t even know where I was from, OR, rather importantly, that I’m a major non-trad.
I’ve only gotten a few “interviewy” questions, and even those seemed generic enough (like, “what if a patient didn’t trust you? What would you do?”). At the same time, I haven’t gotten any indication from any of my interviews as to what I can expect next. It’s all still a mystery.
Got the e-mail from UNECOM for an interview in November. I’m going to have head over to the “interview attire” thread!!
whew, I can exhale. Phone call today was received by a fellow lab worker, who forgot to tell me about it for awhile.
Wright State interview in 2 wks.
Barb 