Interviews

The interview is one of the most coveted experiences for any premed. The interview season runs from about October to March. While most schools will tell you that even in March you are still interviewing for a seat in the upcoming year’s class (as opposed to interviewing for a spot on the waitlist, which is not too exciting), there is no denying that a November interview is much better than an April interview

The interview, while exciting because it’s the first sign of hope for admissions, is a nerve-wracking event. You might think a med school interview is like other interview processes—the applicant gets flown out, wine-and-dined, and shown around the medical school. For medical school, that is not at all the case! Applicants to med school are left to pay for everything on their own. Think about the financial investment here. You’ve already paid close to $150 per school, and now you have to pay for transportation, food, and lodging for each of these interviews... it’s crazy. Aside from the money, the stakes are high. There is no room for an ill-fitting shirt, flooding pants, or an improperly tied tie…you have to bring you “A” game.  Everything counts.

That being said, however, interviews are fun too. You walk in early in the morning to find twenty or so other students who are in your same shoes (and I mean that almost literally; we all look similar in our not-to-flashy suits that show class but not cockiness). The interviews usually consist of a tour, lunch with students, and two interviews (one with a member of the admissions committee and one with a current medical student). There are, however, some deviations. When I interviewed at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, they had use functioning like robots…seriously. Cincinnati, along with only a few other schools in the country, has switched to what is known as the MMI, or multiple mini-interviews. Without going into too much detail, you have six to eight 10 minute interviews. In a hallway with room after room, each student stands outside a door and reads a prompt until an overhead voice ushers you in. You answer the question to an evaluator who doesn’t say much, he or she just listens. Eight minutes later, the overhead voice tells you to move on. This is a funny scene. Suddenly, all ten applicants scramble out of the rooms, run to the adjacent door, and begin reading the next prompt. It’s quiet funny to watch…we look a bunch of lab mice running around in some freak experiment. I guess we just do what we have to do.

During the interview day, you get to know the other applicants pretty well. It’s actually really nice. For once you finally find yourself surround by tons of people who know exactly what you are going through. I loved getting to know some of my fellow applicants and hearing their stories. The one thing that hit me is that most of us are very highly qualified applicants. (Look for a later post about that…it’s a shame how many potentially amazing doctors don’t get into medical school simply because there aren’t enough seats. Weird, huh? There’s a shortage of doctors in the US, but defiantly not a shortage of qualified applicants. I recently heard that in ten years there will be a shortage of physicians by 20%!). Meeting these future doctors is a humbling and awesome thing. It’s humbling because you begin to see that you are one of many. However, it’s cool to see how different peoples’ passions affect their career goals. Thank God for all the different interests, otherwise we would only have one type of doctor! I’m learning more and more that medicine is a collaborative job. You never work alone; you’re always consulting with other docs. This is a beautiful thing, a direct reflection of the world God has made. God doesn’t design things to be done alone, He wants us in community. He makes each of us unique so that together, we function perfectly.