I guess I would like to know what kinds of things they tell you.
- do they tell you specifically what they did/did not like?
- how you did on your interview?
- what EC's they think could be improved?
- Anything else helpful?
The exit interview the first time was pretty brutal. This was back when they were still doing the traditional hour-long 1-on-1 interviews, and one of my two interviewers thought I was completely unsuited to the profession, had no sense of appropriate behavior, was unteachable, rude, crass, a poor communicator, would be unable to adapt/conform to being a medical student, and basically a terrible awful no good person. I wish I were exaggerating. To this day, I'm still somewhat baffled at how our interview could have gone
so badly for me to give them such a thoroughly horrible impression of me. But, that really happened, and I've been digging my way out of that pit ever since.
The feedback interview did confirm that the other areas of my application was pretty solid. They went over letters (not in any great detail, but kind of obliquely confirming that I didn't have any "stinker" bad LORs), academics (GPA + MCAT), and professional preparation which means clinical/patient/doctor experiences like shadowing/volunteering. In my case, it was all about the awful down-in-flames interview.
The second time, it was frustrating in a totally different way. Same deal - we reviewed all of the pieces and parts of my application. Letters good, academics good, professional prep good, motivation for medicine good. Second year interview experience (MMI this time) was also good, with a few informative comments... but then they trotted out the same verbatim quotes from the previous year's rejection and feedback. I even pressed the admissions officer to give me any specific suggestions on ways I could improve my app, and while they couldn't actually tell me there was no room for improvement what they did sort of admit was that any improvements I might make (more classes, better MCAT, more volunteering/clinical time, etc.) would be approaching the diminishing rate of return on investment.
Basically, they need more data points that are recent and positive to be comfortable judging that first disastrous interview as a true outlier. This year, I addressed the matter head-on in the secondary essays, and my one-on-one interviewer also asked about what had happened and what I'd done to address this feedback. My response was that I'd shared the feedback with friends, family, even my therapist... soliciting their additional comments and constructive criticism on the issues identified in the feedback, and doing some serious self-analysis and evaluation.
Anyway, that's my sob story. I've talked to a number of other folks who've gotten feedback and they were usually given some specific clue or hint like "you need more clinical time" or "more doctor exposure (i.e. shadowing)" or something concrete. I know some people who felt that the "reasons" they were given were pretty small and petty - I couldn't judge it because I wasn't there and don't know all the intimate details of their app - but even if that's the case there's clearly something missing from their app that needs redemption in OHSU's eyes.
They offer the feedback interviews in late May/June timeframe, which honestly is already too late to make significant revisions to your application. So I know it seems hopeless and perfunctory, but you should do it anyway. If their feedback is about something really big (i.e. the remediation cannot be accomplished in time for the next app cycle) then perhaps taking a year off before applying again might be the right tack.
Even if you already know (or think you know) what's wrong with your app, you should really get the feedback. There might be things you hadn't though of, or maybe they'll just confirm what you already suspect is the problem. In either case, it's important to continue the conversation, show them that you're motivated, and show them what you've done to address their feedback. I think it would look really odd (somewhere between clueless, disinterested, and arrogant) if someone reapplied to OHSU without having asked for feedback on how they could improve their app.
