1. Miami is hot and humid. Youre going to besweaty at times you dont want to be. Your interviewers understand that and arenot going to hold it against you.
2. Everyones interview experience is differentbecause all of the interviewers are different. The vast majority of the facultymembers I have talked to are very engaging. I also had I had was similar in thesense that my interviewers were very reserved and not conversational, but thereare ways to steer even the most superficial answers into what you want to say.I liked the blind interview because I could steer it to where I wanted theinterview to go, even when the questions seemed superficial.
3. Im not sure what happened here. Im sure it wasan unforeseen circumstance. FIU really stresses professionalism.
4. I know that this is an important factor inchoosing a medical school. If youre out of state, FIU might not be the bestchoice financially. However, they do give out a good number of scholarships. Igot some money from the school even though I was not expecting to, so for me,FIU was reasonably priced. As far as the accreditation, by the time you have tochoose which medical school you want to go to, you will know if FIU is fullyaccredited (and theres no reason to think it wont be).
5. You caught us at what was by far the moststressful week we have had so far. I have been paddle boarding with people frommy class. I went rock climbing this past week with some friends from class, andsome of us are planning a snorkeling trip soon. Tonight we have a social onSouth Beach to get to know the law students before we beat them in Deans Cupnext weekend. Like any medical school, you will be stressed out at times, butif you can manage your time, you will have time for fun. As far as havingsomething to prove, I dont think that is a bad thing. I think the noveltymakes the faculty more invested in our success. Also, I never attributed mystress level to the grading system. I want to do my best regardless of how werebeing graded because I know that when I try to just pass, thats when Illstart failing. Learning the material now will only help when it comes to Step 1later on. All of the students are surprisingly helpful. This includes studyguides regularly popping up on the facebook group for our class (and yes, allthe information on them is accurate).
6. The results speak for themselves. Also, if youwant to take Step 1 early, you can, although you wont get the time off tostudy for it. One concern about the timing had to do with applying for awayrotations. We have been told that it is not a problem. The faculty will write aletter to the program explaining the Step 1 schedule for our school and thatthey will send the scores as soon as they are in, and none of the schools had aproblem with that.
I know that this was way too long, but I wanted to give mythoughts on the school. Im sorry you did not have a good interview experience.I love FIU and I would not want to be anywhere else. That being said, everyonehas their own list of what they are looking for in a school. If issues like thegrading are that important to you, then maybe FIU is not the school for you.Congratulations on the other interviews. You sound like you have a lot ofwonderful choices.