why should we pick YOU?

i mean... you gotta toot a little. it's good to be humble most of the time, but now is not one of those times. toot away. tastefully, of course.

No one else will toot it for you. They asked for a little ditty, so serenade away.

AbujaMan said:

any ideas as to how to go about answering this question? I dont have any crazy stories or anything to make me really unique. I also dont want to come out as arrogant or anything by tooting my own horn.

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The idea is to toot your horn and their horn simultaneously (as bizarre as that sounds). You want to sell your good qualities and also show that you love their school, so present your traits in the context of their university. Tell them how you love doing X which is why you'd love to take advantage of their Y Program, etc.

Put yourself in the interviewer's position.

Assuming it's an open-file interview, they ALREADY know [roughly]:

Your academic/intellectual [performance] track record
Your experience in the clinical setting
Your involvement in community service and volunteering
What your superiors think of you (via LORs)

So what might they want to know about you when they ask "why should we pick you?"

They want to know if you can convince them aloud (reflecting that you are convinced yourself) that you will give it your all, that they can count on you to pull the late-nighters if need be, that you've carefully thought out your decision to go into medicine and that you feel you are a person designed for being compassionate toward others while being faced with pressure and extreme time-constraints.

In short, they want you to say something that conveys:

1) You will put your studies first for the four years you spend at their institution.
2) You have the right combination of courage and compassion to make a great physician.

Make a list of things you hear your friends tooting about you, when it comes to academics. Then, make your own tooting list of what you want people to know. And, see what qualities are specific to the school you are applying to, with all this material play a tooting song.

9000 said:

Make a list of things you hear your friends tooting about you, when it comes to academics. Then, make your own tooting list of what you want people to know. And, see what qualities are specific to the school you are applying to, with all this material play a tooting song.

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Make sure to do this with other things that aren't academics, too!

What the question really means:

If we pick you, how will you make us proud to have you as a student/alumnus? (why are you a good fit for us?)

If we pick you, why would you choose to come here? (why are we a good fit for you?)

AbujaMan said:

any ideas as to how to go about answering this question? I dont have any crazy stories or anything to make me really unique. I also dont want to come out as arrogant or anything by tooting my own horn.

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You could always give a generic response along the lines of hard work, dedication...etc

LizzyM said:

What the question really means:

If we pick you, how will you make us proud to have you as a student/alumnus? (why are you a good fit for us?)

If we pick you, why would you choose to come here? (why are we a good fit for you?)

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Oops.
I just included a nice crisp george washington. Since some schools required electronic secondaries, I uploaded a jpeg of a nice crisp washington. You think they got the message?







In all honesty, this is another chance to sell yourself

Kaustikos said:

Oops.
I just included a nice crisp george washington. Since some schools required electronic secondaries, I uploaded a jpeg of a nice crisp washington. You think they got the message?

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Was it a passport sized photo?

I gave the worst possible answer to that question to my top choice...

"I try my best, but if you find someone better, then you should pick him/her."



I've yet to receive an answer back from the school, but I really really hope the rest of my interview covers for that one statement.

My response to that question varies from:

1.) I piss excellence, or

2.) I piss excellence, or

3.) I can dunk a basketball.


AtG

If you don't toot the horn no one else will.

Myuu said:

Was it a passport sized photo?

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D@mn! That's probably why!

fizzle said:

I gave the worst possible answer to that question to my top choice...

"I try my best, but if you find someone better, then you should pick him/her."



I've yet to receive an answer back from the school, but I really really hope the rest of my interview covers for that one statement.

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Honestly, when you get accepted and become a physician, you'll probably laugh at that.

Kaustikos said:

D@mn! That's probably why!


Honestly, when you get accepted and become a physician, you'll probably laugh at that.

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That's only if I get in. If I don't, I'll probably be crying instead of laughing

Well, not crying. I'm not allowed to cry.

cuadrado said:

theres a lot of tooting going on in this thread....stinky!

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i was waiting for someone to make that joke!

AtheGre said:

I piss excellence

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Excellenuria is a surprisingly common symptom around here. Fortunately for me, my properly functioning kidneys reabsorb my excellence so I'm always in peak form.

Umm.. Then what the hell is this semenuria I got caused by?

majahops said:

Umm.. Then what the hell is this semenuria I got caused by?

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I'm not a doctor, but I did read the wikipedia article on retrograde ejaculation one time. So there.

hehehe

starfishprime said:

I'm not a doctor, but I did read the wikipedia article on retrograde ejaculation one time. So there.

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sankondbest, you're funny.

i got this question to, and i just told them how i'm different.

starfishprime said:

Excellenuria is a surprisingly common symptom around here. Fortunately for me, my properly functioning kidneys reabsorb my excellence so I'm always in peak form.

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I mumbled some sort of 'I don't know, I'm sure you've got a lot of qualified candidates' the first time around. When I had to reapply, I used this as my chance to point out how committed I was to becoming a doctor, as in, 'you should pick me because I didn't get in the first time and I just tried harder to make sure I could get in this time around. I know how hard med school is (which, reflecting back, I was unaware of just exactly how hard it is) and I know that being a doctor is that it isn't all rainbows and butterflies and I still want to do it.' (only in smarter sounding terms) I don't think everyone is all that informed that there is a dark underbelly to medicine and I think pointing out that you know about it is a good idea. I imagine everyone on SDN knows about the dark side b/c we constantly read peoples complaints about it.

What makes me different?

I'm the ****.





I might not say "I'm the ****" but that'd be the theme of my overall response.