most bizarre interview moment?

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The wiredest question I got was at albany

Q: If your new born child died would you donate his/her organs?

and Q2: Do you believe in Hell :(
 
My BU interviewer spent almost the entire hour talking about George W. and how she thought he was ruining America and women's rights, and well, just about everything. I'm not big on politics personally, I'm informed, but I'd rather not discuss my views that extensively, and quite frankly I was bored after about 40 minutes of this. Finally she said, "so, what's your view on Iraq and Bush?" just when I had thought it couldn't get worse.....
 
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I was interviewing with a 4th year student and I had my legs crossed. Well my foot fell asleep. Not just pins and needles but dead, numb asleep and I didn't realize it. The interview ended and I went to stand up and couldn't feel the lower half of my leg as it hit the floor to take a step. I almost feel over but thankfully the table was there and I braced myself as I realized my foot was asleep.

I gave it a shake and the pins and needles hit. I tried taking a few steps but it looked as though I had polio because my foot was just flopping around as I tried to step.

I don't think the interviewer noticed because I only had to walk a short distance. But god I'm lucky I didn't break my ankle with that first step.

Perhaps they will think I'm slightly disabled. Good or bad?
 
I went to an interview at SUNY Downstate. The interviewer asked me the same question in different ways.

1) What are your hobbie?
2) What do you do in your spare time?
3) What extracurricular activities do you expect for the one you listed in your application?
4) What do you do with your friends?
5) What do you do to relax?
6) How do you handle stress?

I couldn't help but burst out laughing...............
 
At Wayne State, not the interview, but the tour afterwards:

Entering the hospitals, the tour guide says, "The Wayne State hospitals have the largest collection of hearts in the U.S."

I say, "Wow. Are these all human hearts?"

Tour guide gives me blank look, before saying, "ART - the largest collection of ART."

I feel incredibly unintelligent for the rest of the tour.

:p

C.
 
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Originally posted by SilverAngel1110


at one of my interviews back in october, i asked my interviewer if there were any opportunities for research aside from md/phd (something the school ever made clear). the guy then looks me in the eye, and, dead serious, says "well, of course there ARE opportunities... but we generally frown upon our students having any outside interests. in fact we like to make sure that they have time for nothing else besides schoolwork. for example, the gym we have downstairs in the lounge... it's a big joke among the faculty here because we know that our students certainly don't have time to work out! so of course you COULD work in a lab, but most students here participate in very little besides classwork. i hope that answers your question."

What school was that? I think I'd rather not apply there. Of course, what medial school isn't that way to some degree?
 
Most Bizarre Interview Movement: I walk into the interview, and sitting there is a Catholic priest, fully robed in his traditional clothing. I was a little flustered, but the interview went well, we talked mostly about the Church, just a little bit about medicine.
 
What school was that, if you don't mind my asking? Einstein? :p
 
Originally posted by conure
I was interviewing with a 4th year student and I had my legs crossed. Well my foot fell asleep. Not just pins and needles but dead, numb asleep and I didn't realize it. The interview ended and I went to stand up and couldn't feel the lower half of my leg as it hit the floor to take a step. I almost feel over but thankfully the table was there and I braced myself as I realized my foot was asleep.

I gave it a shake and the pins and needles hit. I tried taking a few steps but it looked as though I had polio because my foot was just flopping around as I tried to step.

I don't think the interviewer noticed because I only had to walk a short distance. But god I'm lucky I didn't break my ankle with that first step.

Perhaps they will think I'm slightly disabled. Good or bad?


good lord!

I read this and I started laughing very loudly. the 20 other people using the computers in the library all gave me looks of pitty. Gosh, I thought I was going to like snort or something!!!! Thankfully that wasnt the case;)
 
this s*** is great...

My interviewer was a pretty serious PhD who asked me a series of no-nonsense questions about health policy, ethics, etc. 35 minutes into a no-smile, no-connection interview, he asks me what I think of euthanasia.

In a last ditch effort, I say, "I have nothing but support for that subject. I mean, young people are the future! Youth in Asia.. youth in Africa.. America.. wherever they're from. I think they're great!"

He amost had a seizure laughing so hard.

And I ended up going to this school, and I'm now about to graduate. In retrospect, he is a total hard ass who everyone hates. And I have yet to see him crack a smile in the 4 years I've been here... I guess I caught him at the right moment.
 
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Very bizarre and inappropriate joke was told at my first interview (not to be named cause i have an acceptance there and don't wanna piss off people now) by some old doctor:

Old dude: So, i see you're living in San Francisco now after college.

Me: Yeah, just moved out there to do AmeriCorps for a year. It's a nice place, good weather, nice people, laid back atmosphere.

Old dude: I've been to San Francisco before. So how is San Fran like a granola bar?

Me: Huh?!??! (WTF)...excuse me....

Old dude: How is San Fran like a granola bar?

Me: Oh, i don't know...

Old dude: They're both full of nuts and fags...

Needless to say i was dumbfounded and didn't know what to say after that..kinda just sat there quietly with an inquisitive look on my face for the rest of the interview...
 
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Nuts and Fags?!?!
jesus, thats a bit intense for an interview. I guess you didn't have to worry about saying anything that would offend him.
 
Originally posted by tedstriker
What school was that, if you don't mind my asking? Einstein? :p

Actually it was the 6-year combined Penn State/Jefferson program. They had everyone interviewng for the program on the same day, all 98 people. So, I'm not sure if he regularly interviews.
 
I stayed at my grandmother's house prior to my UMASS interview (my top choice), and a mixup packing left me with only sneakers. After frantically searching the house over, the only thing remotely matching my dark suit was a pair of old black leather and wood Danish clogs, with a 1 1/2 inch heel.

I'm a 6'1'' guy.

Clopity clop, clopity clop.

Still havn't heard (they are notoriously slow).
 
Originally posted by JlazyMD
I stayed at my grandmother's house prior to my UMASS interview (my top choice), and a mixup packing left me with only sneakers. After frantically searching the house over, the only thing remotely matching my dark suit was a pair of old black leather and wood Danish clogs, with a 1 1/2 inch heel.

I'm a 6'1'' guy.

Clopity clop, clopity clop.

Still havn't heard (they are notoriously slow).

okay, now that had to have been brought up during the interview!
 
A friend of mine had an interview with a woman who had a jungle safari screen saver on her computer. A little while into their conversation, she starts hearing these random animal sounds (lions, tigers etc.) The interviewer turns and moves the mouse to deactivate the screen saver, but of course it happens again ten minutes later! This time she just didn't do anything about it. My friend had to go through the rest of the hour-long interview with the intermittant jungle safari going on next to her.
 
okay, now that had to have been brought up during the interview!

Actually it wasn't. Now that I think of it, I have never noticed what shoes any of my interviewers wore either. What does this mean?
 
Originally posted by JlazyMD
Actually it wasn't. Now that I think of it, I have never noticed what shoes any of my interviewers wore either. What does this mean?

probably that neither you nor your interviewer are female.... haha :)
 
oh crap...i just remembered about this dude who interviewed at UCLA the same day as me. He scheduled his interview around the time he was going to be on Jeopardy. Yeah, that's right Jeopardy!! He was the hit in the admissions office that day. He actually won the first game, then he lost on the second time (damn final jeopardy). I have no idea if he's been on tv yet. Perhaps he checks this board and will let us now!

This was all on the day before he interviewed. I was like, "damn, now you really can impress your interviewer!"
 
I was in an interviewer and after finding out what my gf's career is, he said, "you know if you break up with her after she gets you thru school, she'll go straight for your balls. If i was her I'd skip that and cut your long member off instead."

I thought it was a bit odd, maybe a little bizzare, not something i was expecting in an interview. I thought the long member reference was funny tho. :) I think he liked me.
 
Originally posted by buglady
oh crap...i just remembered about this dude who interviewed at UCLA the same day as me. He scheduled his interview around the time he was going to be on Jeopardy. Yeah, that's right Jeopardy!! He was the hit in the admissions office that day. He actually won the first game, then he lost on the second time (damn final jeopardy). I have no idea if he's been on tv yet. Perhaps he checks this board and will let us now!

This was all on the day before he interviewed. I was like, "damn, now you really can impress your interviewer!"

holy cr@p! :eek: JEOPARDY??! You're right, that dude's got it made for great conversation during the interview...
 
Ok here is one that nobody has posted.

I went to my University of Miami interview in mid-February. I was impressed by Jackson Memorial and just the huge medical complex they got there.

Everything is going pretty normal. So then we are going on a tour to show us the clinical facilities. We see Ryder Trauma Center which is level one trauma center. At Ryder this resident sees a bunch of people (us) in suits. So he goes

"What are you guys here interviewing for residency?"

us, "No, we are here to interview for medical school"

the resident, "DON'T GO TO MEDICAL SCHOOL HERE, RESIDENCY YES BUT NOT MEDICAL SCHOOL"

You should have seen the tour guide, he didn't know what to say.
And all of the interviewees we were all looking at each other like, did you just hear that. :laugh: :laugh:

Someone top that.
 
so @ my Harvard interview I get asked;

what are your fav American authors?

why oh why do I start drawing blanks? now I can pull off a whole list but I couldn't then (said I don't have any fav American authors really) and actually said that my 2 fav authors were Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky.... at last I managed to throw in Mark Twain in there.... and then it clicked to me why he asked after we were past that part of the interview:

in my personal statement, I had mentioned that I took in minor in literature to learn more about American culture seeing as I wasn't American...

I almost break down and cry everytime I think about that blunder...

..and who forgets the structure of histidine and cysteine? Lord I was stupid...it was my first interview.....:(
 
Originally posted by vladtaltos


..and who forgets the structure of histidine and cysteine? Lord I was stupid...it was my first interview.....:(

:rolleyes:
 
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After sleepwalking through a long day of interviews, and downing many many Diet Cokes to stay awake, my final interview begins with "Did you ever wish you were a black soul singer?"

And that was only the beginning of the weirdness. I swear the interviewer had a crush on me (if I went on here I would reveal my identity, but suffice it to say there is a certain line in complimenting someone's physical appearance that divides politeness from macking).
 
Originally posted by appomattox
After sleepwalking through a long day of interviews, and downing many many Diet Cokes to stay awake, my final interview begins with "Did you ever wish you were a black soul singer?"

And that was only the beginning of the weirdness. I swear the interviewer had a total crush on me (if I went on here I think I would reveal my identity, but suffice it to say there is a certain line in complimenting someone's physical appearance that divides politeness from macking).

well did u hit on her/him back?
 
So I'm at my final faculty interview at a school up north and after what I thought was two successful interviews I get a nice little shock. The interview was about half complete and we were reviewing my employment experiences. So the doctor is reviewing my file when he looks at me, kind of perplexed. He says,"You've worked at a construction site! Why in the world wold you want to do that?" So I replied that I needed a job and that it payed well. Plus I like manual labor, so I didn't mind the rough work. The doc replies with, "So I guess you've had some interaction with COMMON FOLK then." So I say, "excuse me?" pretty much in shock at what I have just heard. Then the doc says something that threw me for another loop. He says,"Yeah, you know, THOSE LOWER CLASS workers." Needless to say I thought this attitude was pretty repulsive, being that I am one of these COMMON FOLK!
 
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Originally posted by Bones99
"So I guess you've had some interaction with COMMON FOLK then."
"Yeah, I thought I'd just keep the ball rolling. Hey, thanks for meeting with me, by the way!"
 
Most of my interviews were pretty standard, so forgive me if my story is lame.

So I'm having an interview, and the question is, "What types of books do you like/read" or something like that. Well, I answer that I don't really like to read books per se, but enjoy reading periodicals and keep up with current events and such. So he asks me a follow up question, "What do you think will happen with Trent Lott", and I'm like, "I think the whole thing will just blow over." Of course next day I'm watching CNN in my hotel room and they announce that Lott is going to step down! :laugh: That kinda sucked. Stupid Trent Lott. ;)
 
this story isn't exactly funny, but it was the wierdest interview day that I've had.

I'm applying MD/PhD, but at one school I was waitlisted for an MD/PhD interview and offered MD-only.

I drove down to the interview, and stayed in the dorms the night before. In the morning I passed out while I was taking a shower, and hit my head on the way down. I thought that I was okay, but by the time I got dressed, I realized that my head was still bleeding.

When I went to the admissions office, they basically told me that I couldn't re-schedule my interview at 9:30, but if I wanted to go to the ER I could skip the tour. I was blotting the back of my head with kleenex during the interview! But I think it went well because I got an MD/PhD interview after that.
 
Originally posted by vladtaltos
well did u hit on her/him back?


I can't speak for others on this board, but soccer moms aren't really my thing. I mean, we did it, but that was just pragmatism.
 
Originally posted by appomattox
After sleepwalking through a long day of interviews, and downing many many Diet Cokes to stay awake, my final interview begins with "Did you ever wish you were a black soul singer?"

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
OMG! My reply woulda been, "I've always wished I could sing like Martha Wash so that I could dance in my own videos..." (Martha Wash is my idol. I once gave her a rose :D)

In h.s., my best friend's mother used to sing Happy Birthday in an operatic voice... :rolleyes:

No interesting interview experiences here, other than one interviewer berating my employer because he didn't volunteer his time serving poor neighborhoods. It was okay, because I sorta agree.
 
Interviewing at Yale, I started to talk golf with my interviewer, he asks, how is your game, I reply ok, I am a better putter than driver, the I notice the electronic ball returner and the putter in the corner behind his desk. He says, hey, if you can sink a put across my office, I'll get you in here. So clad in my interview suit, I'm game. I stand up he hands over the ball and the putter and sets the machine about 10 ft away. Happily, I nail the put and it goes straight into the ball returner. We had a good laugh about it. Unfortunately, what he didn't know was that I was supposed to interview in the AM but slept through my interviews and had to emergently rescheduled for the PM interviews, one of which was with a person whose schedule I had screwed up by not showing earlier. Turns out, she was upset to learn that I was not present because I was sleeping....
Anyway, the moral is: buy a damn alarm clock and take it with you. and relax.

JB
 
I was at a stanford interview and the dude suddenly broke into Spanish, asking me if I had ever had to explain a "profound medical problem" to a spanish speaking patient while I was an ER volunteer. I responded to his question in Spanish, telling him that since I worked in triage, the only weird thing I had ever had to ask was "when was your last period?" My spanish was rusty. I had actually asked him "when was my last period?" I'm a guy. :laugh:
 
Originally posted by conure
I was interviewing with a 4th year student and I had my legs crossed. Well my foot fell asleep. Not just pins and needles but dead, numb asleep and I didn't realize it. The interview ended and I went to stand up and couldn't feel the lower half of my leg as it hit the floor to take a step. I almost feel over but thankfully the table was there and I braced myself as I realized my foot was asleep.

I gave it a shake and the pins and needles hit. I tried taking a few steps but it looked as though I had polio because my foot was just flopping around as I tried to step.

I don't think the interviewer noticed because I only had to walk a short distance. But god I'm lucky I didn't break my ankle with that first step.

Perhaps they will think I'm slightly disabled. Good or bad?

same thing happened to me after my first cornell interview. except I didn't get the pins and needles, i just couldn't feel my left leg. I tried to walk out of the room, and my left ankle just kind of folded, and I crashed into the wall of the hallway on the way out, bumping into a person on the way. I collapsed into a chair thankfully, only to be called by the same person I had just bumped into. She was my second interviewer. And this was after the first interviewer had grilled me on my family and what they did. He was very interested in what my father did for some reason. He seemed to want specifics (my dad is in the clothing industry). He also grilled me on being a perfectionist and dealing with the rigidity that comes with this. Mind you, he came up with this in the first couple minutes, before I'd had a chance to even tell him I was a perfectionist. Damn, these psychiatrists are good. It must be something about me. :( And Cornell is my first choice...*sigh*

Then at my Columbia interview a few weeks earlier, my interviewer asked me, "So what books have you read lately?" I explained I didn't have much time to read unfortunately, but named a few books that I had read. Interviewer: "And what else have you read?" I named another. "And what else?" I named another. "And what else?" I took this opportunity to say that was about it for recent reading and promptly asked him what he liked to read. Thankfully he moved on after that, but then he proceeded to ask me to come up with a plan for how I would revamp the entire healthcare system of a third world country. :( Waitlisted, by the way.
 
Not that funny, but i wish it didn't happen . . .

Originally posted by Louweezel
Then at my Columbia interview a few weeks earlier, my interviewer asked me, "So what books have you read lately?" I explained I didn't have much time to read unfortunately, but named a few books that I had read. Interviewer: "And what else have you read?" I named another. "And what else?" I named another. "And what else?" I took this opportunity to say that was about it for recent reading and promptly asked him what he liked to read. Thankfully he moved on after that, but then he proceeded to ask me to come up with a plan for how I would revamp the entire healthcare system of a third world country. :( Waitlisted, by the way. [/B]

At umd, my interviewer asked me what books i had read lately. I'm embarrassed to admit this, but i had just finished the harry potter books. He raised an eyebrow, so i tried to explain that i'm doing 2 yrs of grad school in 9mos, so i like not having to think about what i read in my spare time. He asked me to describe the plot of my favorite. I did a quick overview using "the bad guy" instead of character names. He interrupted me 1/2 way through and spit out a detailed summary then went on for like 5 minutes about how bad the books are because the author doesn't give clues and pulls the ending out of nowhere. Politely I tried to disagree (I mean - c'mon - have you all read the books - you can def. tell what's gonna happen) but before i could finish the word "disagree" he looked at his watch and said the interview was over. grr. . . shoulda just said i'm illiterate.
 
I've been WANTING interviewers to ask what I've read lately. Having been out of school for several years, I've actually had the time! Right now I'm reading "How to Speak Dog" :p

I think I mentioned this earlier in this thread, but I forgot about it: Worst moment: While waiting around with a big group of interviewees, I popped a couple of cinnamon tic-tacs in my mouth. Then someone said something funny that caught me by surprised, and my laugh sent one of the tic-tacs flying out of my mouth. It rolled down the front of my shirt, leaving a red trail as it went. Fortunately most of my shirt was covered by my jacket, but it freaked me out until I was able to go to the bathroom and see for myself.
 
I think this is more interesting, than bizarre, but when I interviewed at JHU, my interviewer started out by introducing himself, but then quickly jumped to speaking Mandarin (Chinese). Since I'm fluent in Mandarin, it wasn't really a problem, but it was interesting seeing/hearing a 35 yr. old Western doctor speak Chinese. We carried on like this for about 5 minutes, but it seemed that we could have done the entire interview in Mandarin if he wanted to. It was great. His pronunciation was really good. I later looked him up on the directory, and found out that he was a Marshall scholar and did a master's in Oriental studies at Cambridge. Pretty amazing how he still knows the language as well as he did.
 
Originally posted by vladtaltos
so @ my Harvard interview I get asked;

..and who forgets the structure of histidine and cysteine? Lord I was stupid...it was my first interview.....:(

They seriously asked you the structures of histidine and cysteine in your interview? Is that a standard thing? I haven't been asked anything substantive like that in any interviews.
 
Originally posted by canadagirl
They seriously asked you the structures of histidine and cysteine in your interview? Is that a standard thing? I haven't been asked anything substantive like that in any interviews.

I got grilled on science at several of my interviews, but that's cause I'm MD/PhD. It's extremely rare for regular MD (uncommon for MD/PhD, too).
 
I am minding my own business, interviewing when my interviewer gets a cell phone call. She asks if it's OK, I said I understand. She then picks up and starts a fight, with cussing and everything!:eek:

I try to just zone out a bit, but she looks at me while she fights and curses. Then, she hangs up in the middle of it all, says my f-ing boyfriend and then says "you were saying you liked research, what do you work in." As if nothing I finished my interview and she said I did well...I have not had a worse one YET.
 
Originally posted by Lab-Rat21
I am minding my own business, interviewing when my interviewer gets a cell phone call. She asks if it's OK, I said I understand. She then picks up and starts a fight, with cussing and everything!:eek:

I try to just zone out a bit, but she looks at me while she fights and curses. Then, she hangs up in the middle of it all, says my f-ing boyfriend and then says "you were saying you liked research, what do you work in." As if nothing I finished my interview and she said I did well...I have not had a worse one YET.
:laugh:LOL, though hard to believe. Unexpected cussing is damn funny.

My story, though not as funny and perhaps even repeated somewhere in this endless thread. So I was at this school and all the interviewees were together and waiting for the interviewers to come over and get us. This really old guy comes out and calls out this girl's name. When she stands up, he takes one look at her and says: "I'm sorry I don't think we can accept you, seeing as to how you're wearing green". Everybody else there (14-15 of us) just happened to be wearing black.
Everybody started laughing but I don't think the girl got the joke cause she had this stunned look on her face, was blushing heavily, trying to force herself to giggle. The funniest part of this was that the interviewer suddenly realized what he'd done and became totally apologetic: "no, no, I was just kidding, this has absolutely no bearing on your application..." and he went on for a long time trying to make up for it.
 
Originally posted by geromine
:laugh:LOL, though hard to believe. Unexpected cussing is damn funny.

My story, though not as funny and perhaps even repeated somewhere in this endless thread. So I was at this school and all the interviewees were together and waiting for the interviewers to come over and get us. This really old guy comes out and calls out this girl's name. When she stands up, he takes one look at her and says: "I'm sorry I don't think we can accept you, seeing as to how you're wearing green". Everybody else there (14-15 of us) just happened to be wearing black.
Everybody started laughing but I don't think the girl got the joke cause she had this stunned look on her face, was blushing heavily, trying to force herself to giggle. The funniest part of this was that the interviewer suddenly realized what he'd done and became totally apologetic: "no, no, I was just kidding, this has absolutely no bearing on your application..." and he went on for a long time trying to make up for it.

Strange, perhaps effective, and pershaps cruel way to test a person's ability to understand complex social situations.
 
Well, let me see how i can state this. I interviewed at upstate and was not nervous at all till the last guy. I sat so close to the interviewer...which made me extremely uncomfortable. I sweated like hell and barely kept an eye contact. I was not responding very well...and then he said why are you sweating..it is not hot in here. I told him bluntly.....because i had reliezed that i screwed up the first 5 minutes and now i didn't really care...So, i told him, i have never sat so close to a man and that it is making me uncomfortable....then he backed up and closed his file and begun to ask me ethical questions...( i am very much conservative) and everything he asked me like should women have abortion......i refuted....remember, at this point i really didn't care.......And, at the end...Again, i told him bluntly, thank you for the interview and i just lost $400 out of my savings account....he smiled and i left.

about 4wks later, i got accepted!!! I hope i never see him again on campus.
 
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