Hilarious moments on the interview trail

rhesuspieces said:

After one of my interviews, I was asked out by a fellow interviewee. I shot him down, but he wins points for trying to pick up a girl at a f*ing MED SCHOOL INTERVIEW.

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FlowRate said:

I must admit that I always ended up flirting with one gal or another at my interview days... it's just standard protocol 😛

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vivalavie said:

Ha, I've got the perfect combo for this thread, at one interview a girl I was kinda flirting with started bragging about SATs AND AP CLASSES. Girls, if a guy is ever hitting on you and you want him to go away, talk about SATs and AP classes.

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vivalavie said:

Ha, I've got the perfect combo for this thread, at one interview a girl I was kinda flirting with started bragging about SATs AND AP CLASSES. Girls, if a guy is ever hitting on you and you want him to go away, talk about SATs and AP classes.

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ColeOnTheRoll said:

Somehow I think I've seen a thread like this before...

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vivalavie said:

Ha, I've got the perfect combo for this thread, at one interview a girl I was kinda flirting with started bragging about SATs AND AP CLASSES. Girls, if a guy is ever hitting on you and you want him to go away, talk about SATs and AP classes.

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Kalyx said:

Looks like she knew what she was doing. 😉

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Malice said:

Before one interview, I really had to go to the bathroom (number 1). So I go to the urinal and there's like two right next to each other really close together. One was taken by this other dude who was like staring at me for no reason. I was kinda creeped out and I didn't want him to see the goods, so I got in real close to the porcelain and covered everything up all nice. I had to go real bad, so I started relatively instantly and everything went wrong. It was one of those weird streams that came out in full force and in the beginning in two different directions.

Normally, it would be okay, but I was so close to where I was aiming and it was coming out with such force that it started splashing back all over the front of my pants. I backed up to mitigate the ricocheting droplets (the other dude definitely got a peak), but the damage was done. I tried to cover it up with the jacket, but it was painfully evident that I had had an accident. I tried rubbing it out with paper towels, but it just started smearing and becoming bigger. Then I tried the straddling the hand dryer with my crotch while people weren't watching, but there wasn't any time left. I eventually had to untuck my shirt out of the pants to cover it up. It didn't look good, but it was the best of the two bad options I was presented with.

I secretly hope that the dude I interviewed with reads this and realizes that I didn't intend to dress like that and they give me a decision preferably with some sick financial aid. Anyways, after this incident, I always make sure to take a long pee in the morning dehydrate during the day of an interview.

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bleargh said:

i had a chuckle when a kid said he went to "columbia university in the city of new york"

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Astarael said:

I'm not sure if this counts as funny or not....

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FlowRate said:

I must admit that I always ended up flirting with one gal or another at my interview days... it's just standard protocol 😛

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still h0ping said:

Actually there is a city called New York, within the state of NY.. Wikipedia: "Columbia University in the City of New York (Columbia University), one of the eight members of the Ivy League......"

I'm afraid I don't get the joke? 😕

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ColeOnTheRoll said:

Somehow I think I've seen a thread like this before...

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n3xa said:

I do know someone who was in a similar situation on the residency interview trail. It didn't last, but apparently the sex was good and they saved some money by sharing a hotel room whenever possible. 😕

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Raziela said:

Yeah, we had one girl who said she went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I think that was the first and only time I've had MIT spelled out for me.

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wanderer100 said:

Anytime I ask someone who goes to Boston U, Harvard or a few other schools "Where do you go to school?" I get the same answer: "In Boston."

Why are Bostonains so literal?

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thomprya said:

I guess the funniest thing that happened to me on the interview trail was this:

The school I was interviewing at began their day at 8am. At about 8:15 they informed everyone they were going to do interviews first thing in the morning. About 40 nervous students sat in a room as the interviewers called them back one at a time. Im a fairly relaxed person when it comes to interviews. Additionally, I had already been accepted to one of my top three schools, so I was pretty relaxed and chatting with everyone about random topics trying to keep things very casual.
A pattern developed of student gets his/her name called, other students wish them luck, 30-60min later they come back and everyone asks them how they think they did, usual answers emerged, I think I did well or I'm not sure how I did etc... Well when it was my turn and I got back from my interview a few people asked me how I did and I looked right at one of them and said "Good I guess, they just accepted me. Full ride." The room went dead silent.
I would have though someone would have realized I was kidding but no one did. They all just looked shocked.

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Raziela said:

Yeah, we had one girl who said she went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I think that was the first and only time I've had MIT spelled out for me.

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BBender716 said:

Definitely would have responded: "Wait... so it's not the Michigan Institute of Technology?"

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wanderer100 said:

Or "is that in Massachusetts?"

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thomprya said:

I guess the funniest thing that happened to me on the interview trail was this:

The school I was interviewing at began their day at 8am. At about 8:15 they informed everyone they were going to do interviews first thing in the morning. About 40 nervous students sat in a room as the interviewers called them back one at a time. Im a fairly relaxed person when it comes to interviews. Additionally, I had already been accepted to one of my top three schools, so I was pretty relaxed and chatting with everyone about random topics trying to keep things very casual.
A pattern developed of student gets his/her name called, other students wish them luck, 30-60min later they come back and everyone asks them how they think they did, usual answers emerged, I think I did well or I'm not sure how I did etc... Well when it was my turn and I got back from my interview a few people asked me how I did and I looked right at one of them and said "Good I guess, they just accepted me. Full ride." The room went dead silent.
I would have though someone would have realized I was kidding but no one did. They all just looked shocked.

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Avoidthetiger said:

One of my schools had a pre-interview social and had a shuttle that would take you from the airport to this social. Almost everyone took this shuttle. I missed it.

My flight landed at the airport 3 hours before the shuttle arrived.

I missed it because when I finally went to look for where the shuttle would be, the giant group of otherpre-med interviewing students looked like a bunch of High School students who had cliques and had been friends for forever.

They all looked to young to be interviewing a medical school.
I felt so dumb after having to pay a taxi to take me to the social and having my parents calling the school trying to figure out what happened to the shuttle... so everyone knew that I was the one who missed the shuttle when I arrived (well, like 5 people)

and Yea, I started become anti-social on the interview trial after attending so many of them and having to be super friendly and happy all the time.

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IvyHopeful20 said:

Now that the season is over for some of us, what were your favorite moments?

Mine:

1. Half the kids at all my interviews are from UCLA

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FlowRate said:

Me too, or at least, I didn't go out of my way to make tons of conversation and what not at my later interviews. Saving my energy for interviews lol. The exception was one interview day where I got to meet up with a friend I hadn't seen since high school.

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Avoidthetiger said:

One of my schools had a pre-interview social and had a shuttle that would take you from the airport to this social. Almost everyone took this shuttle. I missed it.

My flight landed at the airport 3 hours before the shuttle arrived.

I missed it because when I finally went to look for where the shuttle would be, the giant group of otherpre-med interviewing students looked like a bunch of High School students who had cliques and had been friends for forever.

They all looked to young to be interviewing a medical school.
I felt so dumb after having to pay a taxi to take me to the social and having my parents calling the school trying to figure out what happened to the shuttle... so everyone knew that I was the one who missed the shuttle when I arrived (well, like 5 people)

and Yea, I started become anti-social on the interview trial after attending so many of them and having to be super friendly and happy all the time.

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Kaushik said:

MCW? Haha, I'm worried I'll miss my shuttle when I interview there as well. My flight lands like 45 min before the shuttle is supposed to pick us up.

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FlowRate said:

Me too, or at least, I didn't go out of my way to make tons of conversation and what not at my later interviews. Saving my energy for interviews lol. The exception was one interview day where I got to meet up with a friend I hadn't seen since high school.

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M1ikej said:

At one school, my interviewer was extremely serious and intimidating. So I made a feeble attempt at breaking the tension by cracking a joke. In retrospect, it was in pretty poor taste haha...

Interviewer: In your opinion, what do you think are the major causes for malpractice suits against physicians? (turned out this was rhetorical because he continued to provide the answer himself)

Interviewer: Approximately 80% are due to poor communication between physician and patient, 15% due to an undesirable outcome from treatment, and the remaining percentage due to death of the patient treated. (rough estimates can't recall the exact numbers)

Me: You'd think they would just lump death under the category of "undesirable outcome".

Interviewer: (silence and somber stare...)

Me: (Awkward smile wipes bead of sweat from brow...)

Interviewer (10 painstakingly awkward seconds later): Moving on...

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Avoidthetiger said:

I think I almost growled at this one med student when he asked some students and I where else we had interviewed. I found it super inappropriate (I don't want to know where anyone else interviewed at) plus I was super tired. I basically refused to answer.

For the rest of the day I was freaking out about him being some sort of test or would tell the admissions office about me.

Result: Still accepted. Thank g-d.

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wanderer100 said:

Same here. Interviewing is exhausting! At some schools the "ice-breakers" tend to bring out the competitive/arrogant side of applicants and that makes things even worse. For those schools it seemed that the rest of the day everyone started comparing credentials/invites at top schools.

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FlowRate said:

Lol at one of my interviews where I was really quiet, I also told the admissions secretary lady that I didn't want to go watch a class. She persuaded me to do it anyway, but I came back like 5 minutes later and said "omg lots of people go to class here." Result: accepted. Hahaha.



I always tell this story, but one school was especially bad, because the admissions dean started off by asking everyone to go around and state why they applied to that school. 20 versions of the same answer. I tried to give something a little different. Result: waitlist. Haha.

As for other peoples' interviews... It's usually something to talk about. Although yes, it sucks when there's a disproportionate amount of prestige. It wouldn't be as much of a problem if premeds weren't so jealous and if this process wasn't so rough.

I've got an interview next month.. didn't think I'd be doing any more interviews this cycle. I think imma' try to be happy cheery again haha.

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Astarael said:

I'm not sure if this counts as funny or not, but I was amused:

(At lunch with some of the current medical students)

Interviewee A: So does School X publish it's Match list? And do we have a way to get the match list? (It was in our packet of information that we received at the beginning of the day, which she must not have looked through yet)

Medical Student A: Yes, school X publishes the match list. It should be in your packet, but if it isn't you can get a copy from the admissions office or online.

Interviewee B: What is a match list?

Medical Student A: (Goes into an explanation of how the match list tells where students match for residency.)

Interviewee B: So, what is the Match?

Medical Student A: (Explains ERAS, the NRMP and match day)

Myself: Facepalm

Seriously, I didn't know that it was possible to get to a medical school interview and not know about the match.

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cyclone92 said:

Anyone meet an attendee of South Harmon Institute of Technology? A prestigious institution to say the least

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Astarael said:

I'm not sure if this counts as funny or not, but I was amused:

(At lunch with some of the current medical students)

Interviewee A: So does School X publish it's Match list? And do we have a way to get the match list? (It was in our packet of information that we received at the beginning of the day, which she must not have looked through yet)

Medical Student A: Yes, school X publishes the match list. It should be in your packet, but if it isn't you can get a copy from the admissions office or online.

Interviewee B: What is a match list?

Medical Student A: (Goes into an explanation of how the match list tells where students match for residency.)

Interviewee B: So, what is the Match?

Medical Student A: (Explains ERAS, the NRMP and match day)

Myself: Facepalm

Seriously, I didn't know that it was possible to get to a medical school interview and not know about the match.

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HawaiiHereICome said:

One of my interviewers asked me if some of my activities (vocalist, dancer, surfer, restore/ride motorcycles) got me chicks. I told him the truth.... YES lol

We talked about girls for the rest of the interview. Most inappropriate interviewer ever.

Result: Acceptance

note: I can't imagine what he wrote on his evaluation

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mmmcdowe said:

I mean, why should you? I didn't know the medical school application process until 6 months before I applied.

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alwaysaangel said:

Why would they know about the match? The whole "match list" prestige is a useless pointless issue perpetuated by a few premeds (who self select themselves as users of SDN) which in reality is of absolutely no use to choosing a medical school or rating a school.

You saying that a med school interviewee should know about the match is like saying that someone who is waiting for acceptance letters from college should know that they will have to apply to medical school by the summer after their Junior year. Its just not something that people know until they are closer to it. They're thinking about getting into medical school and first and second year...not how to apply to residency.

Hell, I'm a 4th year and half my classmates STILL don't know how the match works...or how our match day goes. I say - good for them! One less thing to worry about until match lists are due 🙂

Some people just don't care until they are actually faced with that issue and I don't think it says ANYTHING about their understanding of the field or their ability to be a physician. And for your sake I hope no one from the school saw you have that conversation, or if they did - you didn't sound as arrogant as you did when typing it.

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Myuu said:

I'm always surprised by how much applicants seem to be interested in our match list when they visit. Is it good? I guess, there are lots of impressive sounding names on it, but as a premed, it is unlikely that you are familiar with the relative strength of these programs in those specific fields or if these schools were even what the students ranked as their top choices.

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mmmcdowe said:

I mean, why should you? I didn't know the medical school application process until 6 months before I applied.

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alwaysaangel said:

Why would they know about the match? The whole "match list" prestige is a useless pointless issue perpetuated by a few premeds (who self select themselves as users of SDN) which in reality is of absolutely no use to choosing a medical school or rating a school.

You saying that a med school interviewee should know about the match is like saying that someone who is waiting for acceptance letters from college should know that they will have to apply to medical school by the summer after their Junior year. Its just not something that people know until they are closer to it. They're thinking about getting into medical school and first and second year...not how to apply to residency.

Hell, I'm a 4th year and half my classmates STILL don't know how the match works...or how our match day goes. I say - good for them! One less thing to worry about until match lists are due 🙂

Some people just don't care until they are actually faced with that issue and I don't think it says ANYTHING about their understanding of the field or their ability to be a physician. And for your sake I hope no one from the school saw you have that conversation, or if they did - you didn't sound as arrogant as you did when typing it.

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gravitywave said:

but doesn't it strike you as a little strange when people haven't investigated our career trajectory? i really don't think it's at all comparable to finding out details of applying to med schools as a HSer. sure, you don't need to know that information for any strategic reason going in, but i think it says something about someone's commitment to medicine and their level of understanding about the career if they don't at least know what the Match is. it's a pretty big deal.

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if nothing else because it should serve as a wake-up call for the ethos of the profession: when it comes time to do your training, we will tell you where you're going.

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alwaysaangel said:

no I don't think it's odd. as long as they realize they will have to apply for and complete residency I think they understand enough. The details just aren't necessary.and this proves my point that even most medical students don't understand how the match works, what it's history is or what it's purpose is. The match was created to protect the APPLICANT not because the profession is going to tell you where to train. And that's ok, that's my point. Until you need it you don't need to know it.

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gravitywave said:

ok, agree to disagree. I still find it strange that someone would blithely sign up for a career without taking the trouble to understand how 3-7 years of their training will be spent - it suggests a lack of time spent exploring the field. It's a unique process and once I heard about it, I was curious and took the trouble to educate myself about it.

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gravitywave said:

agree that the whole match list thing is stupid and only so admissions offices can satisfy ridiculous pre-meds and their ridiculous families. the frustrating part is trying to explain it to them. sometimes i hang out with the interviewees here and want to facepalm when they start babbling about the match (i don't know how many people matched into ortho here last year versus the year before, the list is in the folder, look at it later for chrissakes)

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eablackwell said:

I had a really great interview, and I was sooo happy and relieved after I left the room. The interview coordinator was walking down the hall and said "How'd it go?"

I turned to her, threw both thumbs up in the air and said "AWESOME!" with this huge, dorky grin. She gave me thumbs up back, but all I could think about after was "Why did I go all Fonzy on her? Am I stupid?"

Luckily, I was accepted anyway.

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startswithb said:

Someone at one of my interviews asked, "so can you apply for more than one specialty?" I think it's important to know about the match at least to realize that going to medical school does not automatically mean you will get to do whichever specialty you choose. When I was an undergrad I thought that the match meant that you "apply for your top specialty (field) choices, and you get what you 'match' into." Obviously that is totally wrong. So I agree with gravitywave and astrael. You shouldn't be at the point of interviewing and suddenly realize, "you mean I might not get to be a neurosurgeon??" what if that is the only reason they wanted to do medicine?

I thought match was

1. neurosurgery
2. pediatrics
3. IM

Until I researched it far before the application/interview phase. How is this not important?

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