most bizarre interview moment?

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entropy

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mine:

what can you tell me about the macroeconomics course you took back in your freshman year ?!

(I didn't remember having even taken that
damn course, let alone tell someone about it)

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I've told this story so many times, and it still makes me laugh. I stood up to shake hands at the end of an interview and passed out. My foot had been hooked around the chair leg, which somehow caused me to sprain my ankle on the way down. I left on crutches.
 
•••quote:•••Originally posted by Doc Oc:
•I've told this story so many times, and it still makes me laugh. I stood up to shake hands at the end of an interview and passed out. My foot had been hooked around the chair leg, which somehow caused me to sprain my ankle on the way down. I left on crutches.•••••Did you get into that school?
 
He talked for about 10 minutes about the Green Mountains. Where is that anyway?? I just kept nodding along . . .
 
Off the waitlist in June, but I was already going somewhere else. I think it was a pity vote :wink:
 
while you're all reminiscing (hopefully not all bad!), would you mind putting comments, etc on the interview part of sdn, for us 2003ers.
interviewfeedback doesn't look like it's coming back any time soon.
please help us out :)

<a href="http://www.studentdoctor.net/interview/index.asp" target="_blank">http://www.studentdoctor.net/interview/index.asp</a>
 
I will miss all my interviews :(
some more fun than others of course, here's a random sampling:

[NUMS] panel interview - one of the interviewers spilled some coffee over his tie but everyone (including the interviewer himself) pretended not to notice it; personally i was struggling to stifle the laughter. <img border="0" alt="[Laughy]" title="" src="graemlins/laughy.gif" />

[SUNY Upstate] "so.....tell me about your childhood" (asked by a psychiatrist) :rolleyes:

[MCP] the very first question: "so tell me about the restaurants in brooklyn" :confused:

[NYMC] upon greeting my interviewer in the hallway and shaking his hand - his response was: "why do you act like you know me???" :mad:

[BU] at the end of a great interview (much of which was focused on why i wanted to go specifically to BU): "so when you REALLY decide you want to come here, let me know" <img border="0" alt="[Laughy]" title="" src="graemlins/laughy.gif" />

[DMS] last minute packing inadvertently led to a fashion statement of sorts: white socks with a black suit/shoes :oops:
 
The Green Mountains are in Vermont. Hence the name Ver (green in French) mont (mountain in French).
 
At one of my Pritzker interviews, I was asked about my favorite writers. I told her how I love to read contemporary Chinese literature but despise Amy Tan because she tends to write generic melodrama. Then I saw this open hardcover book on her desk and asked her what she was reading. She showed it to me.

It was the Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan.

I didn't cease my diatribe because otherwise she would've added hypocritical to the list of my attributes.
 
•••quote:•••Originally posted by Assassin:
•[SUNY Upstate] "so.....tell me about your childhood" (asked by a psychiatrist) :rolleyes:
•••••Oh, man! If my interviewer were a psychiatrist and asked me that, I would've busted out laughing!
 
At my MCW interview, my interviewer and I were discussing the Patricia Cornwell "Scarpetta" series (my favorite novels) and he started asking me questions as if he was testing whether or not I had actually read the whole series. I told him that if he wanted me to list all the books in order, I could and would...so after I said that, he backed off and asked me a string of four or five ethics-type questions ("what would you do if...?") including stuff about abortion, homosexuality, religion, truthfulness. It was stuff you assume they would never ask you cuz it's a bit too controversial. He must have liked my answers, cuz I got in!
 
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At one of the Osteopathic schools I applied to I was offered the other half of one of my interiewer's pastry.

He asked me if he wanted it. I funny thing was that he didn't cut the other half with a knife he took a bite out of it..

I said that I already had breakfast.

AK
 
•••quote:•••Originally posted by oldman:
•one of my interviewers at duke fell asleep while talking to me.•••••LOL! Oh that's just wrong....
 
•••quote:•••Originally posted by Doc AdamK in 2006:
•At one of the Osteopathic schools I applied to I was offered the other half of one of my interiewer's pastry.

He asked me if he wanted it. I funny thing was that he didn't cut the other half with a knife he took a bite out of it..

I said that I already had breakfast.

AK•••••You know what's funny? If this were one of my 3 top-choice schools. I might have taken it... just because I know how people like that are... the food sharers. They feel bad when you don't take it... and they feel closer to you when you do.
 
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When I was interviewing at Hershey the interviewer asked me "How did you like the University of Maryland..." and I thought he meant when I visited the Medical school (Which I wondered who he knew I'd already been there...), so I started saying how the the students seemed so much happier at Hershey than they did at Maryland and the location was nicer... Unfortunately what he really meant was my Alma Mater, University of Maryland Balitmore County! I caught myself after struggling along for a few minutes.

We never call it the University of Maryland because then everyone thinks we're from College park or the professional school! Anyway, I expected a reject for that level of absent-mindedness, but, no, hold list. Probably very low on the hold list. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Frown]" src="frown.gif" />
 
Jadeite: I doubt they made much of that... if they did they must have been desperate for something to put you down for. :)
 
I almost forgot!
I've got another winner!

When I went to my interview for MD/PhD at SUNY Downstate everything was normal.

However when I got on one of the New York subways back to Penn Station. I had a really interesting passenger riding with me.

He was a Jamacian cowboy that was riding a horse.
He had a whole outfit on, from hat to boots
The horse was actually a saddle with a brown rug or something under it. He was in the aisle riding the saddle like a mechanical bull and shouting happy New Year.

I had never been to Brooklyn before.

So it was interesting.

AK

It was Jan 4th. I guess
 
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When I interviewed at BU, this ER doc who was apparently had absolutely no idea what the healthcare system was like up in Canada. (FYI, I'm from Montreal, QC, Canada). He proceeds to ask me, "so is everyone insured for healthcare in Canada?" I went on to answer a simple "Yes." And then he looks me in the eye, with his elbows propped up on the desk, and with this evil look and his voice sounding so very much like that of Mr.Burns from the Simpsons, he goes "E~X~C~E~L~L~E~N~T" while drumming his fingers together. I swear, he looked so much like the real Mr.Burns, I had the chills going down my spine!

<img src="http://user.tninet.se/~amt858q/burns.gif" alt=" - " />
 
candybits...i just snorted so loud i'm sure everyone in the computer lab turned around to see...i love that you actually included the pictures as a visual aid.

harvard: "how are you going to pay for medical school?" eeeek!

washu: i was in the bathroom an hour before my impromptu 2nd interview...and a woman came in while i was talking to one of the cafeteria workers and i accidentally bumped into her...of course i apologized. "oh these bathrooms are so small," she said. i go and wait in the admissions office and wonder of wonders, she's my next interviewer...so i go "i should meet all my interviewers in the bathroom!" let me also note, she didn't laugh at that.

stanford: my first interviewer was a psychiatrist. the interview started out and he asked how i was doing. i had woken up five minutes before i was supposed to be at the school. i understated how sh***y i felt and said, "oh, a little groggy"...i was going for the honesty thing -- i didn't feel spectacular, but i wasn't going to say "i feel like SH**!" and he goes, "really, why?" and i say that i had gotten in a little late, haven't had my morning coffee..." with a little bit of wink wink nudge nudge inflection. he asks if i want some coffee. i said, "i don't drink coffee." (i don't) he goes, "what?" and i finally figure out what i had said...and was like, craptastic...and stuttered something about just saying it as an expression, but that i usually have mountain dew if i need a caffeine jolt. after that he asked me if i wanted a mountain dew, and proceeded to take me to the cafe downstairs to buy me one. oy!
 
Rush -- Explain all of your non-A grades. What a nut. I think he wanted to make sure I am not a crazy grade-driven psycho, so I just said I don't feel I need to explain them, I think my grades are just fine and he dropped it.
 
Oh boy everyone here has great stories!!

Did you guys feel that the blunders affected your admissions? I'm going to be so scared to mess up!
 
•••quote:•••Originally posted by Premed2003:
•Oh boy everyone here has great stories!!

Did you guys feel that the blunders affected your admissions? I'm going to be so scared to mess up!•••••the more you're scared to mess up, the more you WILL mess up. don't stress them, enjoy them :) i know many will disagree, but i will claim with a great deal of confidence, interviews generally matter very little in the big picture; i was accepted after very mediocre interviews, and waitlisted (sometimes very far down the list) after absolutely fantastic interviews.
 
i screwed up because i was so dang nervous!!!!!! seriously...invest in something to calm you down and sleep beforehand. and, the interview is only part of the story -- and even then, you have no idea what the other person is thinking.
 
One of my interviewers asked me to analyze a painting on his wall and tell him what I saw!
 
Rush has been known to have some interesting interviews...

My roomate's friend had an interview at Rush a couple years back, and he had indicated on his AMCAS that he sang a capella stuff for 3 years. So one of the interviews asked him to sing something...but he couldn't, because he had lied on his application.....hmmm..

Another time, I knew another kid's friend who also had an interview at Rush...I think this was also 2 years ago...and he was asked by an interview to go over the Citric-Acid Cycle. The reply? "Um....well...I missed that part on my Biochem exam...so I got a B- in the class!"
He got in a month later...

I once was ill here at school and needed to be seen by the health place on campus, so I went in and had a conversation with my physician. He had told me about how he got into medical school and after his senior year, he had taken all classics classes or something. And during his interview, he got into a big fight with the interview. One his AMCAS, he had indicated that he was a "minority" because his father was black and his mom white, but HE was totally 100% "white"..as in the skin color. His interviewer caught on to this and thought he was lying. He explained about how his father was black, but she didn't believe it, lost her temper, and threw 2 books and a pen at him. He left the room, went home, called the school a week later, and received his acceptance 3 weeks later. :clap:
 
Wake Forest--the absolute worst of all of my interviews. Weird set-up to begin with, three 20-minute interviews one right after the other--ugh!

I was going along pretty well, almost done, until my third interviwer asks, out of the blue, "Teach me how to do something, step-by-step". Doesn't sound like that bad of a question, except that I completely froze--I had NO IDEA what to say. Finally, she took pity on me and said, "listen, I have these forms to fill out, why don't I do that while you try to come up with something" -ugh! I finally stammered out some recipe for quiche I know...truly awful. And of course, 3 minutes after I left her office I thought of, oh, about 76,000 other things I could have said.

Oh, and I forgot that my 2nd interviewer, right before had asked me what I liked about the curriculum, and I started talking about one specific course I had read about and how it relates to my own philosophy, on and on, while she stares blankly. Finally she just says, "That's not what that course is about", with the intonation of "wow, you're an idiot". Horrible.

CJT
 
Wake Forest--the absolute worst of all of my interviews. Weird set-up to begin with, three 20-minute interviews one right after the other--ugh!

I was going along pretty well, almost done, until my third interviwer asks, out of the blue, "Teach me how to do something, step-by-step". Doesn't sound like that bad of a question, except that I completely froze--I had NO IDEA what to say. Finally, she took pity on me and said, "listen, I have these forms to fill out, why don't I do that while you try to come up with something" -ugh! I finally stammered out some recipe for quiche I know...truly awful. And of course, 3 minutes after I left her office I thought of, oh, about 76,000 other things I could have said.

Oh, and I forgot that my 2nd interviewer, right before had asked me what I liked about the curriculum, and I started talking about one specific course I had read about and how it relates to my own philosophy, on and on, while she stares blankly. Finally she just says, "That's not what that course is about", with the intonation of "wow, you're an idiot". Horrible.

CJT
 
•••quote:•••Originally posted by cjt615:
•"listen, I have these forms to fill out, why don't I do that while you try to come up with something" •••••DAAAAAMN!!! :mad: <img border="0" alt="[Pity]" title="" src="graemlins/pity.gif" />

I probably wouldv'e broken down right then and there! Did you get in?
 
These are f*^%king hilarious. Everyone else, please post. I would, but I haven't interviewed yet.
 
I have to add my psychiatrist story to the mix.

(This happened at UC Irvine.) I arrived at my interviewer's office and when he opened the door, I saw there were exactly two places to sit: his chair and his couch. It was one of those leather lounge type couches, exactly out of a movie about psychiatry. Having no other option, when he invited me to have a seat, I sat on the couch. (In retrospect, I should have remained standing...) At several moments during the interview, he would just sort of stare at me penetratingly and ask if I was nervous. Nope! I piped cheerfully the first couple of times. Finally, he asked so many times, he MADE me nervous and eventually I admitted to being nervous. He just stared at me. Why would you be nervous? he asked. Uh, it's kind of a nervous activity, don't you think? I said. This went on and on. He pretty much analyzed me. By the time I escaped, I was so upset and shaken, I wanted to cry. It's funny now, but at the time, I was really steamed.

Happy ending: I got in less than three weeks later. Go figure.
 
Mine's not that funny, but it was unnerving. You know how everyone always says that at this school or that is was "just a conversation," or "really freindly and jsut wanted to get to know a bit about me." Not the case at ohio state...here's the first 2 minutes.

Me: So, how are you affiliated with the medical school? Are you a faculty or...
Interviewer: No, research.
Me: Oh, what area?
I: Genetics.
Me: Great. I worked in genetics lab last summer. What organism do you work with?
I: Humans.
Me: Interesting. And what type of human genetics are you studying?
I: Diseases.
Me: Terrific. &lt;GULP!&gt;

He was not the friendliest of interviewers, or the most talkative. Also, I had been reading this book on med school admissions. And I thought from everything I'd read on interviewfeedback.com that they don't ask the normal boring questions. But they of course did and I wasn't prepared to eloquently answer them. (Of course, by the later interviews I had.) HEre were mine in order:

What are your strengths?
What are your weaknesses?
Why do you want to be a doctor?
When did you decide to be a doctor?
What ethical issues do you anticipate?
How will you respond?

It was extremely formal and cold. I was really rattled, because everyone else at the entire day was extremely cordial. Even the other interviewers that I got to meet with were hella-cool. Mine was like a robot.
 
I was playing pool in the student lounge at Buffalo when the interviewer came to get me. He told me to finish my shot and I managed to sink two at the same time.

I got accepted a few days later.
 
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•••quote:•••Originally posted by English Chick:
•Happy ending: I got in less than three weeks later. Go figure.•••••I think psychiatrists are by far the best people to interview with, however eccentric some of them may seem. 3/4 of my acceptances were from schools where i was interviewed by a shrink...perhaps only a coincidence but i now have the utmost respect for the profession :D
 
some tidbits from my always interesting encounters with interviewers:

at tufts - after the first interview, my guy started coaching me on what to say during my second interview, so much so that i thought that this was a "pre-interview" just for him to tell me what to say and then i would have my 2 real interviews. i foolishly asked him if this was indeed a "real" interview and he just sort of stared at me. not so good.
second interview at tufts - the 4th yr med student started asking me questions in SPANISH! i am fluent, but i have never had to speak in spanish during an interview and he just switched languages!

upstate - the doc went on a diatriabe on how much he hated his daughter b/c she was making him pay VA tution for a VA school when he was a NY resident. it was more complaining for the rest of the time.

downstate - the man riding the horse on teh subway was by far the highlight.(see a previous post for a full description)

dr. quack
 
this thread is great-
i'm fairly sure that i will carry a pez dispenser rather than a handkerchief in my suit... i love my pez. pez is tight.
p
 
Mine aren't that good, but here goes...

At UTMB, I asked my interviewer if he was an MD. He said, no he's a PhD. I then said "oh, only a PhD", then immediately tried to cover my tracks with how great it is to have PhD and I didn't mean that. Ugh! That interview didn't go well...

At UTH, my interviewer spent about 10 minutes talking about traffic in Houston. Then told me how it's better to be in Internal Medicine (he was a nephrologist) than surgery. He said he could train a monkey to do surgery. I just kinda nodded.

The best part of my UTH interview was when they loaded about twelve of us in a bus and sent us to a psychiatric hospital off-campus for interviews. They had us wait in the main lobby and it was very strange to be sitting there with a bunch of people in suits while all the indigent people are coming in to visit their relatives... They also only had three people interviewing us, and we had to wait until everyone was done. I think we were there over 2 hours.
 
A radiologist, older (~70 years old), did his undergrad, med school, and residency at the same place, and stayed on faculty for all his professiona life. I had friends who had interviewed at this place, and all said that it was pretty laid back.

So, after the basic questions about my research and volunteer stuff, he asked if I had any questions.

Me: "I noticed from your website that you did most of your training here, and you've come back to be on the faculty...why did you go here and why did you stay?"

Him: "because it is here"

Me: blank look

Him: blank look

Me: how has the program changed since you were a student? Do you think it's better, worse, or just different

Him: I don't know.

Me: blank look

Him: blank look

So I had some questions about family life and all, and the conversation needed to go somewhere...changing gears a bit

Me: "I noticed the ring on your finger...are you married?"

Him: no

Me: blank look

Him: blank look

Me: how do people balance their academic and professional obligations with their personal life?

Him: I don't know

Me: blank look....

Him: well, is there anything else?

Me: not that I can think of

Him: well, I really have nothing to do with your admission. I just fill out these forms. I really have no idea what your chances are, but I wish you the best of luck.
</interview>
AHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
 
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I've a friend who interviewed at Hopkins, they asked him to describe himself with a single four letter word. He went blank, because he couldn't think of any four-letter words that were good!

He blurted out..um nice? The interviewer scribbled something down silently.

Later in the interview, he stopped and said, "can I change it to a different word...umm I want to change it to 'open'". The interviewer thought a moment, and said, 'No, you can't change it now'. He didn't get in.

In a non-med school interview, I was asked what kind of perfume I had on (WTF?) :laugh:
 
At U Mich,

My interviewer was the previous director of admissions. When he asked me if i had any questions, i asked him a question related somewhere around 50% of their grads going into primary care (a figure i had just read from their viewbook before the interview and later confirmed post interviewer). He refused to believe the figure and we had a brief discourse/arguement at which point i got so frustrated I started pulling out the viewbook. He just moved on at that point and immediately started asking me really hard medical ethics questions. I thought i was dead meat but go figure- I got in with a $15K/year scholarship (something thay have for NJ residents). Go figure

At NYU

She asked me why I wanted to go to NYU and I told her some school specific reasons but then I also said my parents are getting old and in case of future health problems I would like to be close to them (they live in NJ). It was a perfectly innocent answer. She proceeded to ask how old they were and I said 52. And with my luck, she said she did not consider herself old and she was 52 also. I got grilled for the rest of the interview. Got rejected.
 
this thread is one of the funniest reads ever.
a true classic:laugh:
 
I've been giggling at the computer for the past few minutes. Keep it up! BUMP.
 
I interviewed at UCC in Puerto Rico. I got there late, about 45 minutes late. It was a miracle that I didn't have a major traffic accident the way I was driving. I did call about 15 minutes before my interview time to say I was on my way, but that I would be a tad late. I appologized for being late. My interviewer was a young professor, that year being her first at that shcool. We spoke for close to an hour about everything: from typical interview stuff to how insane the lines are here at the local DMV, how unorganized goverment agencies are, how we both loved living in the states for a while, but were glad to be back in the land of no-below-freezing-temperatures.

I thought I was dead when I was late, that I just blew off my sencond choice, but I got accepted. :clap:
 
My very first interview, at Columbia:

Interviewer: So what books are you reading now, and please don't say The World According to Garp.

Me: (thinking, What's with the Irving grudge?) I'm reading the Lord of the Rings just to read it before the movie comes out.

I: Yes, my son is doing that too. What does the ring do?

Me: (thinking, AHa! I know this one!) It makes you invisible.

I: And what else?

Me: (thinking, ok, concrete didn't work, time to get allegorical)Well, there's a lot of metaphorical references to the ring being connected to 'the great eye of Sauron' so it can also be interpreted as an instrument of vision as well as an instrument of invisibility.

I: And what else?

Me: (thinking, oh crap, I thought that last one was pretty good.)
Well, uh, the ring also warps the mind of its wearer after time, it becomes a focus of extreme jealousy, and because of that sort of jealousy, a source of isolation.

I: And what else?

Me: Well, the short poem at the beginning of the book also says that the ring also binds the other, lesser rings together, so it has an element of ruling power as well.

I: Ah, yes, I had forgotten that. And what else?

Me: (feeling like a real dork at this point, and really scraping the bottom of the barrel) Well, returning to the vision theme, the wearer is also taken out of the world of sunlight and brought into a sort of shadow world... but I'm getting the sense that's not what you're looking for.

I: The wearer of the ring never gets older.

Me: Ah, that's right, I'd forgotten that.

I: That's because you're not worried about getting old.

He then went on to talk about fears of aging and dying in his older patients and sort of implied that I was shallow for not thinking of it.
:eek: :eek:

I got waitlisted in the end.
 
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I had a friend who interviewed at the University of Chicago. Before he went into his interview with the dean, he went to use the bathroom. Naturally, while using the bathroom, he threw his tie over his shoulder so things wouldn't get messy. Well, he comes out of the bathroom and goes to the interview, and, during the entire interview, his tie lying on his shoulder. When he walks out, a friend comments "Whow, he must of really blown you away!":laugh:
 
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Forgot to add, He got waitlisted and was accepted off the waitlist.
 
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