2010-2011 Boston University Application Thread

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Status
Not open for further replies.
Can someone who has already interviewed here describe what the interview is like? Is it a one on one interview or is it a group interview? How long does the interview last? Are they laid back? Is it open file? Is it just one interview or two?

Any other information will be extremely helpful. Thank you!
 
Last edited:
snickerdoodle80 said:
Can someone who has already interviewed here describe what the interview is like? Is it a one on one interview or is it a group interview? How long does the interview last? Are they laid back? Is it open file? Is it just one interview or two?

Any other information will be extremely helpful. Thank you!
Click to expand...

My interview was one on one, pretty laid back with an ethical question. There is a ton of info on BU's interview process in the Interview Feedback section at the very top of this page.
 
Didn't post in here in a while. I had my interview this past Friday and it was a really great interview day!

When I first walked in, I was surprised to see so many interviewees. I feel like there were at least 20 people interviewing that day, which is the most I've seen on the interview trail so far.

This was easily one of the most well-organized interview days I've had though! Dean Witzburg was born to make speeches. It's ridonkulous how well-versed this man is! The interview itself lasted about 1hr. I was asked an ethical question all the way at the end but, other than that, it was a fairly laid back interview. I really enjoyed talking to various attendings and residents who showed up for the sessions after your interview was over. I thought it was really cool of BU to do something like this.

This place has definitely jumped towards the top of my list. I got the sense that the clinicians here were very good at teaching and, more importantly, that they genuinely enjoyed teaching! Definitely a good vibe to get. Overall, I was very impressed with my interview day, loved the tour (we had a small group with my tour guide so he ended up showing us the CV-ICU, etc, which was awesome!), and had a great time with my host/other med students I hung out with.

I'm really hoping I hear good news when January rolls around but, from what Dean Witzburg told us, the majority of the class is accepted after the second round of interviews. Either way, I'm hoping for good news from this school!

Good luck to everyone with upcoming interviews! I'm sure you will enjoy your day as much as I did! 🙂

PS. If there were others from SDN on my interview day (Nov. 12), shoot me a PM or something. It'd be nice to see that I interacted with some people from here.
 
Kaushik said:
Didn't post in here in a while. I had my interview this past Friday and it was a really great interview day!

When I first walked in, I was surprised to see so many interviewees. I feel like there were at least 20 people interviewing that day, which is the most I've seen on the interview trail so far.

This was easily one of the most well-organized interview days I've had though! Dean Witzburg was born to make speeches. It's ridonkulous how well-versed this man is! The interview itself lasted about 1hr. I was asked an ethical question all the way at the end but, other than that, it was a fairly laid back interview. I really enjoyed talking to various attendings and residents who showed up for the sessions after your interview was over. I thought it was really cool of BU to do something like this.

This place has definitely jumped towards the top of my list. I got the sense that the clinicians here were very good at teaching and, more importantly, that they genuinely enjoyed teaching! Definitely a good vibe to get. Overall, I was very impressed with my interview day, loved the tour (we had a small group with my tour guide so he ended up showing us the CV-ICU, etc, which was awesome!), and had a great time with my host/other med students I hung out with.

I'm really hoping I hear good news when January rolls around but, from what Dean Witzburg told us, the majority of the class is accepted after the second round of interviews. Either way, I'm hoping for good news from this school!

Good luck to everyone with upcoming interviews! I'm sure you will enjoy your day as much as I did! 🙂

PS. If there were others from SDN on my interview day (Nov. 12), shoot me a PM or something. It'd be nice to see that I interacted with some people from here.
Click to expand...

The interview day really hooked me too. And all my experiences here have lived up to the promise, and well beyond.
 
Any MD-PhD invites yet? They seem to be taking forever..
 
Interviewing tomorrow and I SERIOUSLY cannot wait! This is definitely one of my top choices and I hope whoever interviews me gets to see how much I LOVE them. Any advice from past interviewees? Btw, what building and floor and room # am I going to?
 
I just withdrew my application and I am freeing up an interview day in december. After all the waiting, the 30 days email, and the 60 plus days of anxiety, etc it feels really really weird to do this. I hope one of you guys get the spot soon! Best of luck!!
 
BrainBuff said:
I just withdrew my application and I am freeing up an interview day in december. After all the waiting, the 30 days email, and the 60 plus days of anxiety, etc it feels really really weird to do this. I hope one of you guys get the spot soon! Best of luck!!
Click to expand...
👍 you must have gotten in elsewhere then? good work.
 
BrainBuff said:
I just withdrew my application and I am freeing up an interview day in december. After all the waiting, the 30 days email, and the 60 plus days of anxiety, etc it feels really really weird to do this. I hope one of you guys get the spot soon! Best of luck!!
Click to expand...

I also withdrew my application (though after interviewing) and I totally agree!!
 
Interviewed at BU this past Monday, the visit really exceeded expectations. Went in thinking "BU is a pretty neat program", left feeling 😍 - couldn't stop beaming the whole time. Hopefully I hear some good news! 😀
 
Last edited:
Wow, I was amazed at how great BUSM is! My interview was last week and going in BUSM was towards the top of my list, but after my interview day, its my top choice! I could definitely see myself here for 4 years and beyond. I'm so in LOVE 😍 with this place. Here is to hoping they love me as much as I adore them. My interview went really well too so I have hope. :xf:
 
gujuDoc said:
BU tends to reject people they don't really want rather promptly. so if they weren't considering you, you'd be rejected by now. If you haven't heard yet assume that you are still under review/consideration by the committee and may potentially get a spring interview. Keep your fingers crossed and hope for the best.
Click to expand...

thank you gujudoc! this is reasurring. i am really crossing my fingers for this school. i would love to have the opportunity to interview.

has anyone else been complete since late august (or earlier) and not heard back yet?
 
ddalgi said:
thank you gujudoc! this is reasurring. i am really crossing my fingers for this school. i would love to have the opportunity to interview.

has anyone else been complete since late august (or earlier) and not heard back yet?
Click to expand...

Yup, complete 8/24 and haven't heard a thing since the 30-day
 
gujuDoc said:
And just so you know why I'm saying it. I got rejected rather promptly post new MCAT scores and post GMS apps being reviewed. A lot of the GMS kids got rejected pretty quickly post completion.

The regular applicants have been getting rejected within 3 weeks. And even those that make it past 30 days, have slowly been getting interviews or getting rejected pretty quickly. So when BU hasn't responded its not necessarily a silent rejection like at some schools that don't reject right away but wait til the end. BU is just not like that from my experience, esp. as someone who has now been a student for a year there enough to know some of the MD admissions faculty. They don't waste people's times if they absolutely are not going to consider you for interview. That's just not their philosophy.

If you are not rejected and its been a few months you are still under consideration and there's no guarantee it will translate into interview but there's a guarantee that it is still a possibility.
Click to expand...

thank you gujudoc for the insider information! i'm sorry to hear about the rejection from bu but keep your chin up. i've come to learn that the med school application process can be a bit random which can make silence/rejections quite irritating. i've been getting the silent treatment from a lot of schools (complete mostly in september) and am hoping to hear back one way or another soon.
 
Rejected pre-interview today. Phew, I'm so glad to know. Waiting is the worst. 🙄
 
bleargh said:
MD/PhD interview on the 10th.. anyone else?
Click to expand...


Has anyone else heard from MD/PhD program? I haven't heard anything yet and I didn't get a 30 day thing either. I was complete way back (AUG 4th)...so yea. Please post if you have heard anything from the MD/PhD
 
IsuckatMCAT said:
Has anyone else heard from MD/PhD program? I haven't heard anything yet and I didn't get a 30 day thing either. I was complete way back (AUG 4th)...so yea. Please post if you have heard anything from the MD/PhD
Click to expand...

I was complete 8/31 MD/PhD and haven't heard anything at all.
 
I have heard back from the MD-PhD. I'm interviewing in December.
 
For those of you wondering about MD/PhD, on my interview day, there were a TON of MD/PhD candidates. I would say at least close to 15. They may not be on SDN, but there are people who have heard back, just in case you wanted to know.

Goodluck and I hope you hear back soon. :luck:
 
DocTraveler said:
For those of you wondering about MD/PhD, on my interview day, there were a TON of MD/PhD candidates. I would say at least close to 15. They may not be on SDN, but there are people who have heard back, just in case you wanted to know.

Goodluck and I hope you hear back soon. :luck:
Click to expand...
Yep, there were around 4 or 5 MD/PhD candidates on my interview day as well (middle of November).

I was honestly shocked when I walked into a room of like 30 interviewees. 😱 The most I've seen at an interview day so far! But it was also one of the most well-organized interview days! The entire campus/medical center was incredibly impressive and this was the only school I interviewed at that gave us the opportunity to talk with attendings and residents (ie. dedicated time set aside to talk to the physicians). Very cool, IMO! 👍
 
Can a student/post-bacc/applicant comment on the drop in USNWR research ranking that BU has experienced in recent years?

I know many feel the ranking is arbitrary and useless, but I'd argue that "momentum" in the USNWR rankings is not COMPLETELY irrelevant. I'd rather be a part of a school that is moving UP the list than one that is slipping down, regardless of where on the rank list they are dwelling. Of course, I will probably not be privileged enough to make that decision, so I guess this question is pretty hypothetical by nature :laugh:

Some numbers: From 2007-2010, BU slipped from #28 to #34. As a reference, Ohio State has moved from #32 to #27 and Mt. Sinai has moved from #30 to #18 (!!) over the same period of time.

Please don't take this question as trolling or school bashing (I loved my interview here), I'm just curious if BU lost a large grant/ research center or if there has been an effort to divert resources to non-research initiatives.
 
actually, i'm convinced harvard's untouchable ranking comes from its staggering faculty network, which is a very heavily weighted portion of the usnews ranking score
 
bleargh said:
actually, i'm convinced harvard's untouchable ranking comes from its staggering faculty network, which is a very heavily weighted portion of the usnews ranking score
Click to expand...

This and their research grant budget (which exceeds 1 billion). This is what pretty much guarantees them the top spot every year. I know Stanford has complained about the weighting of certain metrics like this in the past...mainly because we're a smaller school (with less total funding), but alternatively have the overall top funded labs of any US medical school (funding per faculty member). But then again, of course every school wants their strengths to be the top weighted statistic in ranking 🙂
 
mdeast said:
This and their research grant budget (which exceeds 1 billion). This is what pretty much guarantees them the top spot every year. I know Stanford has complained about the weighting of certain metrics like this in the past...mainly because we're a smaller school (with less total funding), but alternatively have the overall top funded labs of any US medical school (funding per faculty member). But then again, of course every school wants their strengths to be the top weighted statistic in ranking 🙂
Click to expand...
the way usnews does it is pretty inane imo. faculty-to-student ratio is a big factor in the final score, but it doesn't discriminate well enough. my PI for instance is a full-time "faculty" at HMS but has absolutely nothing to do with med students. and quite frankly, as long as the students don't grossly outnumber the faculty in some fashion, why does this ratio even matter that much in med school?
 
bleargh said:
the way usnews does it is pretty inane imo. faculty-to-student ratio is a big factor in the final score, but it doesn't discriminate well enough. my PI for instance is a full-time "faculty" at HMS but has absolutely nothing to do with med students. and quite frankly, as long as the students don't grossly outnumber the faculty in some fashion, why does this ratio even matter that much in med school?
Click to expand...

along the same lines, BU's class size is pretty big, 180+ this year, so the ratio isn't great. but really... who cares? the faculty is accessible, they actually care about the students, and they always ask us how they can make changes to improve the lectures/classes. Even if you went to a school that had 1 professor for every 2 students, there's no guarantee that the interaction would be great.

and really, in med school you just study the material and take exams. once you get into med school you'll realize how useless the rankings were/are. check out a school's match list, that's probably more useful than some random collection of numbers that's ultimately don't matter to med students.
 
gujuDoc said:
BU is still a mid tier school and a pretty well reputed one which attracts a lot of applicants and is a name know to most people compared to some other schools out there.

Main point is there are always fluctuations. I think BU will always be a pretty reputed school though in terms of mid tier ranked schools.
Click to expand...


Well considering there are what, ~130 MD schools in the US, I would hardly say that BU at #34 is "mid-tier." It may not be as highly ranked as Harvard etc, but BU is close to a top-tier school IMO. Look at the competitiveness of the application process (~10,000+ applicants,
 
sorry i dont know why it cut me off.

Anyway, there's over 10,000 applicants for 115 spots (because of their masters programs)...that's tough! Plus the clinical experience is second to none at BU. With all due respect, you seem to be saying a lot about a school that you don't go to...
 
Dear BU, It has been 80 days since you completed me. You don't call, you don't write...can I come visit you for an interview please?? Missing you..
 
God I love threads and the passive-aggressiveness of pre-meds. I'm entertained. : )
 
I don't understand the reasoning behind looking at a school's match list to see how "good" the school is. The match list is more representative of the med. students' interests. So just because a school had 7 people match into ortho doesn't necessarily mean that school is "better" than a school that had 3 people match, because you have no idea how many people even wanted to go into ortho to begin with.

Also, I have yet to see a school with an absolutely horrible match list.

Lastly, I don't think med schools necessarily have "tiers." Basically we all know the Top 20 are baller status, but everything after that they're kinda all the same aka the "mid tiers" (excluding caribbean and other foreign schools). Which school actually has a crappy clinical reputation? All the schools not in the Top 20 try to compensate for their lack of research monies and emphasis by claiming that they are highly-regarded clinically. Every school has a fairly similar curriculum (only differences may be lecture hours and small group hours etc.) but you still have the basics + some variation of courses focused on the art of medicine, regardless of your ranking.

Every school has the same mission statement (research, produce good clinicians, better the community blah blah blah), so the only real differences seem to be location and quality of facilities which are pretty much all unrelated to US News rankings. Research opportunities seems to be the only thing that really is associated with the rankings, as the schools not in the top 20 often still have it available but its not emphasized as much since that is not their strength. But really, unless you want to be a big shot in academic medicine, having superb quality research during med school doesn't really matter anyways and can still be had at schools ranked even in the 50s.
 
DonutShot said:
I don't understand the reasoning behind looking at a school's match list to see how "good" the school is. The match list is more representative of the med. students' interests. So just because a school had 7 people match into ortho doesn't necessarily mean that school is "better" than a school that had 3 people match, because you have no idea how many people even wanted to go into ortho to begin with.

Also, I have yet to see a school with an absolutely horrible match list.
Click to expand...

Not all match lists are created equal. I care less about "How many people matched derm" than I do about "To what institutions did these people match?". I call this factor "sphere of influence". Higher tier schools tend to match to higher tier residencies (The UCSFs, Mass Generals, and Hopkins of the world, etc.). This could be due to where students target in applying for residency, but it's also likely that the medical school administration has established relationships with residency directors, leading to higher rates of interviews and matches from upper tier programs. I could be wrong, but if all other things are created equally, I think that it's generally harder to match Mass General Hosp. coming from Creighton (a fine school) than it is coming from Columbia P&S, for example.

That being said, BU is a great school.
 
drimpossible said:
Not all match lists are created equal. I care less about "How many people matched derm" than I do about "To what institutions did these people match?". I call this factor "sphere of influence". Higher tier schools tend to match to higher tier residencies (The UCSFs, Mass Generals, and Hopkins of the world, etc.). This could be due to where students target in applying for residency, but it's also likely that the medical school administration has established relationships with residency directors, leading to higher rates of interviews and matches from upper tier programs. I could be wrong, but if all other things are created equally, I think that it's generally harder to match Mass General Hosp. coming from Creighton (a fine school) than it is coming from Columbia P&S, for example.

That being said, BU is a great school.
Click to expand...

That is very true, but I should have clarified and meant that what I said applied more to the majority of schools rather than the minority of them. So it may be true when you compare Creighton with Columbia, but not necessarily when you compare two schools that are closer in ranking and both outside say the top 20 schools, which was partially the point I was getting at, that there are really only two "tiers," the tip top schools, and then the rest of them.

Definitely I agree that institution plays a role, but I personally feel that where you go also is dependent, perhaps even more so, on yourself. Even if you went to a school ranked in the 60s, if you do well on your board exams, are top of your class, did research, you'd have a higher likelihood of matching at the top tier than someone who went to Columbia and finished in the bottom 10% of their class.
 
DonutShot said:
That is very true, but I should have clarified and meant that what I said applied more to the majority of schools rather than the minority of them. So it may be true when you compare Creighton with Columbia, but not necessarily when you compare two schools that are closer in ranking and both outside say the top 20 schools, which was partially the point I was getting at, that there are really only two "tiers," the tip top schools, and then the rest of them.

Definitely I agree that institution plays a role, but I personally feel that where you go also is dependent, perhaps even more so, on yourself. Even if you went to a school ranked in the 60s, if you do well on your board exams, are top of your class, did research, you'd have a higher likelihood of matching at the top tier than someone who went to Columbia and finished in the bottom 10% of their class.
Click to expand...

Definitely at the end of the day it comes down to student performance, just like applying for college or medical school. But between US News ranking vs. match list, I think a match list has more pertinent information. And as drimpossible was saying, the list of institutions is as important as the fields. And when it comes to applying for residency, the name of your medical school is a factor (not a top factor, but still...), ask any residency director.
 
Re MD-PhD interviews: for those who have already done the PhD interview, how was it? Did you have time to visit other labs, etc.? Did they ask intense research based questions or was it similar to the MD portion?

This is my first MD-PhD interview...
 
drimpossible said:
Not all match lists are created equal. I care less about "How many people matched derm" than I do about "To what institutions did these people match?". I call this factor "sphere of influence". Higher tier schools tend to match to higher tier residencies (The UCSFs, Mass Generals, and Hopkins of the world, etc.). This could be due to where students target in applying for residency, but it's also likely that the medical school administration has established relationships with residency directors, leading to higher rates of interviews and matches from upper tier programs. I could be wrong, but if all other things are created equally, I think that it's generally harder to match Mass General Hosp. coming from Creighton (a fine school) than it is coming from Columbia P&S, for example.

That being said, BU is a great school.
Click to expand...
The problem is, how would you know what a top residency program is? Just because MGH has a top-tier residency in one specialty doesn't mean that it's great across the board. It could be a terrible place to train at for another specialty. There are some hospitals that I've never heard of and honestly sounded a bit shady when I saw them on match lists...later on, I found out that these were considered some of the best places to train at in the specialty I'm interested in.

Unless you have intimate knowledge of what the top residencies for specialties are in addition to the performance/goals of each med student on the Match list, they're essentially useless.

Just my $0.02. And I definitely don't know enough to make any half-decent conclusions from looking at match lists, so take what I say with a grain of salt.
 
med8866 said:
Re MD-PhD interviews: for those who have already done the PhD interview, how was it? Did you have time to visit other labs, etc.? Did they ask intense research based questions or was it similar to the MD portion?

This is my first MD-PhD interview...
Click to expand...

I interviewed with an MD and a PhD, both excellent and friendly people. There were no lab visits, and no "intense" questions were asked. The two "ethical dilemma" questions I was asked to answer were not bad at all.

The program is slightly different at BU; they don't pepper you with interviewers, and everything ran very smoothly. In short, I loved this school and BMC. 🙂

Good luck to you med! :luck:
 
Hi,

Has anyone received any interview invites recently?
 
BostonFan said:
I interviewed with an MD and a PhD, both excellent and friendly people. There were no lab visits, and no "intense" questions were asked. The two "ethical dilemma" questions I was asked to answer were not bad at all.

The program is slightly different at BU; they don't pepper you with interviewers, and everything ran very smoothly. In short, I loved this school and BMC. 🙂

Good luck to you med! :luck:
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot! 🙂
 
interview invite today. available dates in feb. super stoked!!!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

chilly_md
2024-2025 Boston University
21 22 23 24 25
Replies
1K
Views
266K
an2five
A
PapaGuava
2023-2024 Boston University
21 22 23 24 25
Replies
1K
Views
300K
tryingmyverybest
T
chilly_md
2022-2023 Boston University
13 14 15 16 17
Replies
843
Views
232K
sirspamalot
sirspamalot
wysdoc
2024-2025 Saint Louis University
6 7 8 9 10
Replies
498
Views
108K
Sue C
Sue C
wysdoc
2024-2025 University of Washington
10 11 12 13 14
Replies
680
Views
145K
stew_md
S
Top