during an interview, is it ok to...

pratik7 · Oct 4, 2004

have a legal pad and have questions written on them? Is it appropiate to write things you hear about the school you may want to keep in mind for future reference.

For me, holding the pad in my lap and writting will also occupy my hands so i dont pick my nose or something. :idea:

stoic · Oct 4, 2004

Yea, it's fine.

I had a pad/pen. Wrote down notes, interviewers names, etc.

IndyZX · Oct 4, 2004

pratik7 said:
have a legal pad and have questions written on them? Is it appropiate to write things you hear about the school you may want to keep in mind for future reference.

For me, holding the pad in my lap and writting will also occupy my hands so i dont pick my nose or something.

im sure itll be fine for the adcoms, though, i did tend to dislike my fellow interviewers who had a million questions on their legal pads... i dunno, seemed like they were trying too hard, you know?

neuropower · Oct 4, 2004

my premed advisor said absolutely not...

i think it could be looked down upon by certain interviewers, so why take the risk?

Ames980 · Oct 4, 2004

neuropower said:
my premed advisor said absolutely not...

i think it could be looked down upon by certain interviewers, so why take the risk?

seriously?? i was def. planning on bringing a pad of paper with me - if only to take notes through the day on the different presentations and such.... i dont see how that could look bad

abraxas20 · Oct 4, 2004

I wrote notes. All I can say though is that you might want to get rid of that nose picking habit before gross anatomy.

dnelsen · Oct 4, 2004

I think body language is an important part of your interview and you cannot really gesticulate properly if you are holding a pen and pad.

If you really want to remember stuff, bring a pen and pad with but wait until the interview is over to write things down.

neuropower · Oct 4, 2004

Ames980 said:
seriously?? i was def. planning on bringing a pad of paper with me - if only to take notes through the day on the different presentations and such.... i dont see how that could look bad

that wasn't the question...taking notes during the day is one thing...but during the interview might look unprofessional...even during the day i felt awkward taking notes...too gunnerish...

jlee9531 · Oct 4, 2004

why bother taking notes during the interview?

if you want the person's name and email then do it at the very end.

captbadass · Oct 4, 2004

i wouldnt take notes during the interview. i've had two interviews thus far, and i would have felt akward taking notes. its almost comical to think of two people sitting down together and taking notes on each other. you have a ll day to take notes, that 30 mins to and hour is your time to shine. make the most of it.

jlee9531 · Oct 4, 2004

captbadass said:
i wouldnt take notes during the interview. i've had two interviews thus far, and i would have felt akward taking notes. its almost comical to think of two people sitting down together and taking notes on each other. you have a ll day to take notes, that 30 mins to and hour is your time to shine. make the most of it.

exactly haha.

AJM · Oct 4, 2004

I've interviewed a fair share of med school applicants, and I've never seen an applicant take notes during the interview. I think it would be pretty awkward and reflect poorly on the applicant (ie the applicant is supposed to be interacting/paying attention, not having their head down scribbling notes while the interviewer is waiting for them to finish). What would be more appropriate would be to complete the interview, then jot down some notes of what they remember immediately after the interview is over.

As far as pre-written questions on a notepad that an applicant can refer to during the interview - that would be totally fine. I've had several applicants do that, and they came across as being very well-prepared and thoughtful, and we ended up having very good discussions. As long as it's not done to an excessive degree (such as an entire page of questions), and they are good questions specific to the school you're interviewing at, I think having questions written down could be helpful.

superunknown · Oct 4, 2004

Having a notepad is a crutch.

OnMyWayThere · Oct 4, 2004

I get annoyed when people are writing nonsense during orientation... stuff that is in the booklet and they're just underlining, writing b.s. to impress the admissions director giving the orientation. I think they can see through you if you're faking it.

bridge01 · Oct 4, 2004

i think taking notes would disrupt the interview flow if it was more of a conversational structure. i jotted down notes at the end of the interview day.

stoic · Oct 4, 2004

I think that how you use the pad/pen is important. If you rely on it to bring up questions during your interview, that looks lame. Same thing if you write every little thing down. But I took a nice folio to my interview and in it there was a pad of paper. There were a couple of things I was either particuarly interested in or otherwise wanted to make sure to remember (interviewers names, etc.) and on these occasions I wrote stuff down.

And, I got in. So obviously my note taking didn't raise too many eyebrows.

pratik7 · Oct 4, 2004

abraxas20 said:
I wrote notes. All I can say though is that you might want to get rid of that nose picking habit before gross anatomy.

over my cadavers dead body 😀

I wasnt planning on writting the entire interview... just a couple of notes during the half hour

The school i am interviewing at tomm doesnt have a presentation that answers the FAQ. It is just the tour and interview. So i do have a few things that i would like to ask about the PBL and rotations

eralza · Oct 5, 2004

I like the idea of bringing a laptop. You could use it as a teleprompter during the interview and if the questions become too stressful, you could just start up a calming game of solitaire. Interviewers would undoubtedly understand the need to relax during times of stress.

during an interview, is it ok to...

pratik7

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stoic

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abraxas20

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