Summary of Experience:
My 3rd II. Complete 9/1, II 10/2, interview in late October.
What a beautiful school. I fell in love on my college tour at 17, and I'm still enamored. Luckily, my interview at Yale was my best so far, in terms of my own performance as well as my impressions. The day starts at 8:45 with a 30 minute conversation with Director Silverman. He is quite loquacious (to say the least) and sat with us throughout the day as we waited for our interviews. He's into intramural sports and kept urging us to ask more questions (I'd encourage you to come with many prepared!) The other events everyone participated in were a financial aid presentation, a lunch with a faculty member, a session with senior students, and a tour with a first year. The financial aid session was very informative compared with other schools, and I know why -- Yale has unparalleled resources. If your parents make less than 100K or so, the "unit loan" is a maximum of 26K per year. Everything else (including room, board, living expenses, tuition) is given to you in the form of a scholarship. The only other school that has dared to talk about a unit loan is Dartmouth (31K). Even knowing the campus well (sibling attended), the tour of the campus was fascinating, especially the brain room. Yale's facilities are really exceptional, and there is so much history everywhere you turn.
Each person had two interview slots that were interspersed throughout the day. My first was with a 5th year medical student. 5th year really means 4th -- about 70% of students take a fully funded extra year to conduct research and earn an MHS--such a great opportunity!--which occurs chronologically between the 3rd and 4th years. This was more of a formal interview. I got the usual "tell me about yourself," was asked why I wanted to go into medicine, and why Yale was right for me. We talked for about an hour, though the interviewee who went in after me only stayed for about 20 minutes. Hopefully that's a good sign! My second interview was with a faculty member and lasted over an hour and a half. Updating this after being on >10 interviews, I know that this one was an anomaly. The conversation was not formal at all -- the guy spent more time talking than I did. We talked more about medicine as a field, policy, and music than we did about my application. He also told me how the evaluative process works, which was very interesting (especially since I'm not sure we are supposed to know this stuff). Every application goes through three reads; if each one is a yes, the applicant is granted an interview. 650-700 interviews are offered. After interview day, each interviewer gives a yes or no to the committee. If there are two "yesses," the applicant is pushed through to the next round of consideration; two no's mean a no; and one yes and one no lead to a vote by the committee. If an applicant gets to the final round of consideration after succeeding on interview day, the committee then considers demographics (sex, race, etc) and interests to try to get a good balance in the class. 200 acceptances are sent out in March, then an additional 50 or so people come off the waitlist to form the class of 100. The waitlist has three tiers. It sounds like they are transparent if you inquire as to what tier you have qualified for.
I came away from the day absolutely sold. If not unexpected (I've always had a crush on Yale), the care the admissions office takes to respect the interviewees, the student body, the facilities, and the quality of the interviews themselves definitely inspired a new appreciation for this school!
Summary of Experience:
ACCEPTED. LIVING THE DREAM, BABY.
UCSF has been my #1 choice since I first started considering a career as a physician. I am obsessed with this school. Beauty, prestige, great residency matching, the best city in the world, superstar students, involved faculty: what more could you ask for?
Summary of Experience:
Complete 9/25, II 10/22, Interviewed 12/6, accepted 1/2.
Didn't see it coming, but I loved this school. Sure, Long Island can be lackluster and the program isn't "top...insert whatever number." But my interviewers were wonderful -- none of that "tell me about yourself" crap. They were both sharp and interested in having a conversation with me, knew my application well, had dynamic and interesting things to say about health policy and my research; in all, one of my favorite interview experiences.
That said, the area is not ideal and it is true that some of the students I met made it clear they were at Stony Brook because they had had no other options. Overall -- favorably impressed. This is a solid program. Though I am OOS, I will definitely consider this school.
Summary of Experience:
First acceptance, and the best holiday gift I could have asked for. I started bawling like a baby when I heard.
I loved NYU when I visited: the students were laid-back, the atmosphere was collegial and supportive, Bellevue is one of the most interesting and diverse places to learn to practice medicine, and (this shouldn't matter, but if you have ever lived in NYC, you'll understand) the dorms were BEAUTIFUL. I would be thrilled to be NYU Class of 2018.
Complete 9/6, II 10/7, Interview 11/15, accepted 12/20
Summary of Experience:
I was so pumped to get an II here that I scheduled Columbia as my very first interview, 2 days before Hofstra. I was out of my mind with nerves. My interview was very short (25 minutes),
The visit, school, faculty, students -- top notch. Superstar feel, and I don't mind Washington Heights. Admissions really goes out of their way to make students feel welcome and special. Unfortunately, the very nice response to my thank you note was just a form note that every interviewee gets. Still, a nice touch!
