I had my interview yesterday! There was a ton of students there, they really increased the amount of interviewees this year from what they told us. There were around 70-75 people.
I LOVED TECH. I loved everything about it... Everything. I stayed with a student host, and she was amazing and gave me so much advice. She was a first year, so she really knew what I was going through since it was fresh on her mind... When we first got in early in the morning we went into the student lounge area, which was beautiful and seemed like a very relaxing place. Only students are allowed in there normally from what I heard, since only student badges can get you in. They had game tables and nice chairs everywhere. Then they had a small amount of snacks, like cheese sticks and crackers, but my advice is to eat breakfast before you go!
Then they took us to the room where they gave us our assigned schedule, the one telling us who we were interviewing with later on, and they did orientation and had a bunch of people talk to us about Tech... The dean, financial aid, curriculum, etc. That lasted from 10am until 1120am, so it was just short enough to not get too boring. Then we did the tours... The tour was ok, we didn't have to do much walking which was great. We went into the new sim lab, which had its grand opening yesterday! It was so freaking cool. I could have never even imagined a place like this if I wanted to. The "patients" were so real. They were blinking and breathing, even the little baby ones. It was amazing. Seriously, the best part of Tech. Then they had other things in the sim lab, like a 3D room where you could do an anatomy thing on the screen and see it in 3D with the cool glasses. It was cool because you can remove and add things to the body so you can visualize things better. For now, the sim lab is not required really, more so it is a reserve it and use it type of thing. But by the time next year roles around I am sure they will add this somewhere as a mandatory thing. It was like a mini hospital in there. It had an ER, OR, there was a lady that gives birth, there were doctors offices... It was just so real.
Then we went to lunch, they had BBQ. It was good. After that it was interview time! So, the way they do interviews for such a large group is interesting. Each interviewer that day had 4 interviews to do. The interviews are roughly at like 1:30pm, 2pm, 2:30pm, and 3pm. If you have the first interview at 1:30 then you also have one at 2:30. That gives you a 30 min break in between interviews. My interviews were with a PhD Urologist/immunologist, and then the other one was with a 4th year med student. Many people got med students as interviewers, some people got both MDs, or one MD one PhD. They seemed to really match me up with the right people for my interviews, which I really appreciated. I had a lot in common with them. The first interview I was really scared for, PhDs can be tough and interrogating. But she was great, and it felt like a wonderful interview. Very conversational. We talked about a lot of random things. My second interview with the student was not to be taken lightly. At first I was thinking, well, its a student so they will be a little easier. But not really, he asked just as many hard questions as the PhD. Apparently they are trained for this. But he was super nice too and we had so much in common, so we bonded a bit. Both of my interviews were low stress...
I looked at the feedback page for questions before I went, but I really think that it was useless because all of the questions were pretty easy. I mean, just talking about yourself is not something that you should rehearse. It needs to be conversational to be successful at Tech I think. They seem to really just want real genuine people there. Many of the interviewees I met had already been on around 2-3 interviews in Texas already, but a few of us had only a few in Tx and this was our first one. It was really laid back all day, and my favorite part was the vibe that Tech gave off, they really cared about their students and they want everyone to succeed. The students had the same attitude. They are really like a family there. Also, Tech believes in you interviewing them just as much as they interview you. So they go all out to make you feel comfortable. As the day went on, my nerves went away, and by the time I got to the interview, I was just really excited about it instead of dreading it...
Overall, great day, great experience, and I would definitely have this as my top choice school. I felt at home when I was there, and I almost didnt want to leave!