Good interview questions

[MSTPtastic]

When I started this cycle, my goal was to get into a program, period. Now, however, I've found myself with far more interviews than I anticipated, and I think I might get multiple acceptance offers.

This means I need to change my attitude about interviews a bit. Before, I was only interested in showing each school why I was a good fit for their program. Now, I need to be just as concerned with why each school is a good fit for me.

So, what are some questions I can ask during interviews that will help me figure that out? Obviously a great deal has been written about MD-focused questions, and I can get a sense during my interviews of whether a school's research is geared towards my interests. But outside of those aspects, I could use some help.

What do you look for in a program? What do you ask/wish you had asked your interviewers when trying to decide where to go?

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[fiesta]

Congrats on your IIs! I've only gone to one interview so far so my experience is limited, but here are a couple things I would try to ask:

1) What fields is the school trying to actively recruit faculty in (e.g. neuro, immuno, genetics)?
2) Can you describe what collaborations you and other faculty are involved in, and are they interdisciplinary?
3) How do you (the program administration) actively ensure reasonable graduation times for MSTPs?

And I think cohesiveness of the MSTP students within and across class years is extremely important. I'm sure there are other factors that are important to consider--would love to get more input as well.

 

[Jelly Bones]

0 interview experience at this point, but I have come up with a couple of things so far...

I am interested in learning about residency matching -> questions on the lines of "what kind of advising/mentorship is provided to guide MD-PhD students to success in clerkships and matching (specifically to be competitive with MD-only students)"

On research, I guess we can ask how open labs are to taking on MD-PhD students considering the pressure to complete their project and thesis in a relatively short time? It's hard to tell whether you will actually have the option to work with any lab that you find on a school's website. Surely some PIs would prefer to take on a PhD-only student with a 5-7 year commitment.