Just had my interview on 10/2!! Thought I'd share my experience for anyone interested. This was my first interview so far in the cycle, so I definitely was a bit nervous, not to mention that I felt like I should have prepared more haha. There were about 14 of us total, 7 with morning interviews and 7 in the afternoon, but we ate lunch and toured together. I was in the morning session, which was nice because by the time the food rolled out I could just sit back and relax
😀. We started off the day with a brief meeting/intro session with the Associate Dean of Admissions, Dr. Arias, who is very nice and gives you interviewing tips. The admissions office lady is also super friendly, and she along with the dean actually escorts everyone to their respective interview rooms!
There are two interviewers, one student and one faculty, both close-filed. Both of them were pretty laid-back, my student interviewer more so. I think they really try to get to know you as a person as well as get a sense of your personality to see how well you fit can with the students there, as opposed to just grilling on application experiences or stressing you out. I felt I did alright in my interviews; it could have gone worse but in hindsight I wish I answered some of the questions a little differently.
😳 Lunch was not bad, though I wasn't all that hungry. But the atmosphere is very nice and you're actually served your food! We ate with the tour guide, though seating was a bit awkward since it was just one long table, so if you sit far away from the tour guide you may not be able to talk to him. Also we interviewees somehow segregated ourselves in terms of gender unfortunately....
The neighborhood itself is a bit dingy, but the hospital does see more of the poorer/underserved patient population, which is one of the reasons why I am interested in Keck. Also, people don't really live near campus. There are dorms, but both my student interviewer and tour guide were apparently against it, especially since only the pharmacy kids live there.
🙄 That unfortunately means students are sort of spread out in terms of living, which I didn't particularly like.
So overall, not too bad of a start for my first interview experience, though I was having a slight wardrobe malfunction with my shoes, which were new and kept slipping off the heel of my foot lol... Oh, and note, Dr. Arias specifically said
not to send any of our interviewers thank you notes/cards and strongly discouraged updates, unless if it was something major like a Nature publication haha. She mentioned that decisions would probably be given out within 3-5 weeks of your interview date, which is much sooner than the 6-8 weeks according to the II email! I definitely liked Keck and can see myself there, so hopefully I'll have good news to share soon!!!


Good luck to everyone else in the cycle so far!
🙂