2009-2010 University of Cincinnati Application Thread

[rowerontheriver]

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hmm anyone know how to contact them for a student host?

https://comdo-wcnlb.uc.edu/MedOneStop/Admissions/WhereToStay.aspx

only says that med student have volunteered, but there's no link or email address.

There is a number on that page which I believe is the office of admissions, give them a call and tell them you are interested in staying with a student. They'll email you with the names of a few people.

 

[vc7777]

Congrats to you who have had interview invites. Can't wait to see you.

Are you involved in a capacity beyond what you mentioned about being a tour guide? I am curious what you can divulge about the admissions makeup and process?

I understand they say 'up to eight' interviews, but I was wondering how many are students and how many are faculty? What year students? How many are clinicians and how many researchers typically? Does the committee convene that same day or do they meet regularly? How many are full-voting members of the committee? Is this an all-volunteer effort?

You see, I don't want to take any of the process for granted, since this is obviously a vast departure from the 'standard' interview experience. The better prepared we all are, the better we shall all perform.

Thanks, and good luck my fellow interviewees!

-VC777

 

[ilikekiwis]

There is a number on that page which I believe is the office of admissions, give them a call and tell them you are interested in staying with a student. They'll email you with the names of a few people.

thanks rower! ill give it a shot

 

[mnbv4184]

Thanks rockaction! I thought it was a great score, until I look at all these guys/gals with scores from 38 to 42!
Then I put my tail between my legs, sit in a dark corner & chew my nails, praying for an interview!

Just kidding.

I am pretty happy with my score. Thanks for the encouragment though 🙂

First off I got into UC with a 28, so those 40+ scores are not necessary
secondly, I have found some people like to add a few point to their score to kind of psych people out. 33 is a really good score and if you have a tone of medical experience, altruistic activities, grades, and research you should stand out over someone with a 40 and nothing else.

 

[mnbv4184]

Are you involved in a capacity beyond what you mentioned about being a tour guide? I am curious what you can divulge about the admissions makeup and process?

I understand they say 'up to eight' interviews, but I was wondering how many are students and how many are faculty? What year students? How many are clinicians and how many researchers typically? Does the committee convene that same day or do they meet regularly? How many are full-voting members of the committee? Is this an all-volunteer effort?

You see, I don't want to take any of the process for granted, since this is obviously a vast departure from the 'standard' interview experience. The better prepared we all are, the better we shall all perform.

Thanks, and good luck my fellow interviewees!

-VC777

Not only do I not have that information, but I am not sure I can divulge it if I did. So I will do my best. Last year I never had a student in the MMI some people did. most were faculty and some where professional patient actors (they were the most fun). Students in the interview could be first through fourth year students although mostly you will find second and fourth years. 1st and 3rd years are pretty brutal.

I do not think any of that information will help you in the interview. You will not know what they are or really who they really are. You will probably just get a first name and that is it.

It is really a fun and enjoyable experience. Out of all the med students that I have talked to who went through the MMI enjoyed it and most did not put a ton of work into it. I will send you a link to my blog. It has a new post about general things I found helpful for the MMI.

I have a new post on my blog for more information about what I foudn helpful and my experience. I am not allowed to post the link but if you google: "chronicles of a medical student University of cincinnati" you should be abel to find it quickly.

 

[266202]

I want an interview from here!

I too would love a Cincy interview. ;(

 

[Sammich117]

Complete since 8/19 and still no word...

Methinks it's a no.

 

[NTF]

Complete since 8/19 and still no word...

Methinks it's a no.

I wouldn't be so hasty. I was complete 8/19 last year and got my invite in October. It's still super early.

 

[osumc2014]

I too would love a Cincy interview. ;(

Finally got it today! Rescheduling though

 

[mnbv4184]

Finally got it today! Rescheduling though

congrats

 

[FallenHero]

I wouldn't be so hasty. I was complete 8/19 last year and got my invite in October. It's still super early.

thank, good info.

 

[Nafis64]

are invites via email or do we have to check the status?

 

[osumc2014]

are invites via email or do we have to check the status?

via email.

Did anyone reschedule? how long does it take for them to acknowledge?

 

[womp]

Interview on Wednesday. Not sure how to prepare for this MMI. I wonder how many people are going to be there, it seems many have rescheduled to later dates.

 

[ilikekiwis]

i rescheduled, they responded the same day

 

[bravofleet4]

Hey guys I'm actually here in Cincinnati, Ohio staying with one of the medical students for the night before my interview. Let me say that the medical school looks very nice. I wish I brought a camera but I didn't. I'll tell you what it's like but like one of the medical students I won't be dicussing the questions I get.

 

[NTF]

Saw the flock of dark blue and black suits today. Brings back memories. Good luck all!

 

[bravofleet4]

well i just finished interviews yesterday. I won't give out any specifics or things but just offer some tips and things that they'll tell you anyway during the orientation.

1. the multiple mini interview can be a lot of fun - it's not very stressful. I saw 8 people for 10 minutes each. I wouldn't say it's like a conversation but at the same time you don't have to speak the entire ten minutes by yourself. You'll be given a scenario, have 2 minutes to prepare for it, walk in and talk about your thoughts for 1 and 1/2 minutes, and then answer follow-up questions they might have. At the ring of a bell you move onto the next scenario and repeat and repeat until you reach the final station.

2. it's a closed-type interview which means the people don't know anything about you from your primary or secondary application. All they've been given is your name. You also do not know who they are. They may be a student, physician, or regular member of the community. The regular member of the community is to just see how you interact with everyday people - people you would see as patients. For that same reason, you don't need to go over your primary app or secondary b/c they won't ask you anything from that.

3. they say you don't need to brush up on current events or know anything about medicine. That for the most part is true. The scenarios are mostly self-contained and can be answered in a wide variety of ways. However, they are oriented toward moral dilemmas commonly encountered in the medical field and will be phrased that way. Therefore, it is somewhat advantageous to focus on everyday issues that physicians encounter. They don't expect you to have a solution for the healthcare crisis. They just want to know if you think something is ethically right or wrong and to elaborate on your reasons or what you would do in such a situation.

For example,

It wouldn't help you so much to know who's pushing current healthcare reform and the differences between the competing plans.

It would help you to know the moral considerations for whether or not healthcare should be considered a human right.

4. The committe meets for two days every week and will judge a small number of applicants (~30 ish). They told us we should know if we've been accepted, rejected, or waitlisted by around two weeks. Yes, some of the people you're interviewing with are on the commmittee. But around 1/3 are from the local community (they're not community leaders or anything but just regular people). The people interviewing you also do not have to tell you who they are even if you ask them. They like to be in cognito.

Anyway I hope this helps.

 

[womp]

I thought the MMI was unrealistically stressful and actually a bit silly. Most of the follow-up questions didn't even flow naturally with what I said; so it was very far removed from a regular conversational style interview. The time pressure just made everything seemed hurried and the discussion half-baked. Different groups have different interviewers, so there's also some luck there.

I disagree that this is a more objective way of measuring an applicant's ability for success in medical school, it seems more applicable for law school admissions, or maybe politicians should be given this instead.

I loved the school and the students, and the facilities was wow, but the over-emphasis on the MMI was a real turn off. Seriously, there ought to have been a station discussing the validity of using MMI. It felt like the American Idol of interviewing.

 

[WashMe]

The MMI sucked last year when I did it. Some of my interviewers were falling asleep when I entered the room, and others were total a**holes. I ended up not being accepted (in-state caucasian male)

 

[bfjf66]

Does the class fill up pretty quickly? I just decided to apply here... but I'm not sure if it's worth it to apply this late in the cycle. o.0

 

[womp]

The MMI sucked last year when I did it. Some of my interviewers were falling asleep when I entered the room, and others were total a**holes. I ended up not being accepted (in-state caucasian male)

Yeah one of my interviewers had trouble hearing (or perhaps feigned it), so I had to repeat myself a lot. Naturally we didn't get very far in 8 minutes. It seems the MMI setup needs very capable interviewers who are on the ball themselves, but if you get a interviewer who zones out all the time, it becomes a very poor method of evaluating you (probably worse than the standard interview since you are forced into an artificial situation with a severe time limit).

 

[dingyibvs]

Does the class fill up pretty quickly? I just decided to apply here... but I'm not sure if it's worth it to apply this late in the cycle. o.0

I applied there late last November, received an interview a couple weeks later and interviewed about 3 weeks after that. I didn't get in, obviously, but they did accept a lot of people after my interview.

 

[bravofleet4]

i thought i did okay but then again at the time I thought I was going to hurl b/c I felt so sick from not getting any sleep the past two days and the adrenaline rush going through my body. i ended up not doing so and actually came up with some good answers. in the end, i don't think I could've done much better if I had received proper rest. i'd like to think i'll be accepted but who knows.

 

[greentea33]

Thanks for the insight bravofleet4. I'll be at Cincinnati beginning Dec for an interview!

 

[bravofleet4]

good luck greentea.

It's true that the individual interview are very short. Often times, I had to cut myself in mid-sentence and just say goodbye. However, the scenario is only a few sentences long. That should give you enough time to address the main points over the course of 8 minutes (2 minutes is preparing for the scenario).

Also keep in mind i don't know how well they evaluated me personally but I should let you know it is very different from a normal interview. I really don't think that it is appropriate to do some things that you think are standard at a normal interview. Part of your evaluation score comes from how well the interviewer thinks you are immersing yourself in the scenario but DON'T FEEL YOU NEED TO BACK UP EVERY POINT BY RELATING IT TO SOME LIFE STORY. They want you to imagine you are a physician about to deal with a patient. When people say, "I felt they didn't really get to know me", they sometimes take that too often to mean they didn't get to tell their life story and achievements. However, these people just want to know how well you interact with people. It's really a critical thinking exercise with time constraints...

For example,

In one scenario, I made a point to the interviewer about how non-verbal cues is very important for communication, but I didn't try to impress anyone by adding on that it was already something I was familiar with from being a tutor at my university. If it was normal interview, I would've elaborated it with a story from my days tutoring, but I would've wasted a lot of minutes doing that and I wanted to bring up more points...I'm not trying to say you should completely avoid talking about your personal experience but make sure it's related to the scenario. If a patient asked you what made you feel confident you could treat their disease, you wouldn't start talking about all the undergrad years you spent in research would you?

 

[dingyibvs]

Invite for mid Nov! I sent them an "in the area" email last Friday since I have a Case interview there the same week, maybe that helped?

 

[brooklynblunder]

oh word thats a good idea. i couldnt schedule my osu/case/cclcm interviews together and i have them in back to back weeks. pretty wack. also considering i had louisville already, which is like 100 miles from cinnci.

 

[dingyibvs]

oh word thats a good idea. i couldnt schedule my osu/case/cclcm interviews together and i have them in back to back weeks. pretty wack. also considering i had louisville already, which is like 100 miles from cinnci.

Well, it didn't work out quite that well, since they're actually 3 days apart(Tues and Fri), I'm gonna try to see if I can reschedule the Case interview to Wed or Thurs.

 

[rockaction]

So is anyone interviewing on the 30th of October?

 

[Latetotheparty]

So is anyone interviewing on the 30th of October?

Looks like you and I will have another interview together... 😀

 

[brooklynblunder]

you should go dressed as Ocho Cinco's twitter account

 

[c4e]

Re: MMIs

Personally, I thought the MMI was great, since this was the only med school I got into... so... /insert bias here >_>;;

From what I remember about the MMIs last year, it's that they are supposed to be an objective gauge as to how well you can perform in the 3rd and 4th year rotations. They said that the correlation was about .8 or something to that order, as opposed to the standard 45 minute interview which was low... something around .5 or .6. The correlation for 1st and 2nd year performance is pretty solid via GPA and MCAT scores.

The idea behind it is that they pose scenarios and have you react and analyze them. It's basically an exercise in critical thinking, something that you'll no doubt be doing a lot of during rotations. It may be impersonal, but that's pretty much the point with "objectivity."

Don't feel stressed. The 8 minutes for discussion may be short, but you also have 8 stations. If you feel that you messed up in one station, don't let it get to you. Think of the other 7 other stations with "clean slates." This is particularly advantageous over the 45-minute interview, since if you make a misstep, the interview can quickly devolve and become not so enjoyable for the rest of the interview, of which I had plenty at other medical school interviews.

If you run out of time, just finish your thought quickly, thank them, and leave. They understand the topic discussions can easily go for much longer and you're on a time crunch. I took the option to go considerably over to complete a thought for a few stations. Others, I quickly finished my sentence to move on. It's flexible.


As for those coming in for MMIs, good luck! Don't feel put off if you see half of the students frazzled on 10/30, as the first years have block exams the following week, but then, I'm sure they'll be totally looking forward to Halloween parties before Hell Week (and a half) takes over. Speaking of which, CWRU will have a huge annual Halloween Weatherheadless Ball (most likely on the 31st) for those who will be around CWRU then. Not to detract from UC, but an option for those guys who may be stuck up there around then 😏

 

[greentea33]

Quick question for anyone that has already interviewed, what time did your interview end? I know the check in times for the MMI are different, mine is at 9am, but I'm trying to gauge what time I should book my flight in the evening from Cincinnati. Thanks!

 

[womp]

Quick question for anyone that has already interviewed, what time did your interview end? I know the check in times for the MMI are different, mine is at 9am, but I'm trying to gauge what time I should book my flight in the evening from Cincinnati. Thanks!

Around 4pm.

 

[rockaction]

Looks like you and I will have another interview together... 😀

Awesome!!

 

[greentea33]

Around 4pm.

Thank you!

 

[causalinference]

I did the MMI last year, and my only complaint was that some of the interviewers didn't do enough talking, so I ended up repeating myself in a couple of cases. The best interviewers were those who had a list of follow-up questions ready because the conversation never died. The worst interviewers were those who asked few follow-up questions and seemed generally disinterested in the scenario being discussed. My only advice would be to brush up on the basic principles of medical ethics because that really helped me feel more comfortable with the questions.

 

[linkin06]

mmm i wish there were more news lately.

 

[womp]

For those who interviewed in September, are we all finding out today? Gluck guys.

 

[frtennis88]

For those who interviewed in September, are we all finding out today? Gluck guys.

Did anyone from September actually find out today? I still haven't heard anything...

 

[vc7777]

Did anyone from September actually find out today? I still haven't heard anything...

Negative

 

[womp]

I called the office and a woman said they were swamped with planning for tomorrow's MMI interview day and that maybe we won't find out until early next week. But it's kind of a bummer because I clearly remembered the Dean saying we should find out by Oct 15th.

Oh well, unexpectedly got into another school today though.

 

[docdeojos]

Yeah one of my interviewers had trouble hearing (or perhaps feigned it), so I had to repeat myself a lot. Naturally we didn't get very far in 8 minutes. It seems the MMI setup needs very capable interviewers who are on the ball themselves, but if you get a interviewer who zones out all the time, it becomes a very poor method of evaluating you (probably worse than the standard interview since you are forced into an artificial situation with a severe time limit).

Haha, I had that interviewer last year too. It was frustrating having to repeat myself multiple times, but I think he was just pretending to see how well we would deal with patients. Or at least I hope so. What medical school in their right mind would hire a mostly deaf person as an interviewer? lol

 

[bravofleet4]

thanks for checking womp. Guess i can stop checking every few hours then. 🙂

 

[mdwiz]

Decisions are up. :/

 

[Clock]

Decisions are up. :/

Alternate list for me. Knew I did bad on a couple of stations and thought I did well on the others, but guess it wasn't quite good enough yet.

 

[hammer328]

Did the MMI today. The first few stations were stressful, but I think the last few went great! Overall, it was kind of fun, and I think the other students there seemed to enjoy it too. This was my first interview though, so I can't compare it to normal ones.

I was very impressed by the school: the faculty we met seemed to have a very genuine interest in the students, and the students seemed to love the school.

 

[bravofleet4]

Alternate list too. I thought I gave okay answers too. I hope it wasn't because of the fact that I wasn't very talkative outside of the interviews and mostly kept to myself.

 

[Misreed]

So is anyone interviewing on the 30th of October?

I'll be there...pretty damn nervous because no acceptance for me yet, but I will be hearing back from a couple of schools the week before so hopefully that will take off some of the pressure.

Congrats on the Case and OSU acceptances!