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- Aug 14, 2011
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Sorry for the delay. I've been travelling a bit recently 😎
Anyways, Hofstra was my top choice school out of all the places I got an interview at (accepted at several mid-tier schools including my state school). One of the most unique things is their curriculum. If you guys didn't know already, Hofstra's curriculum is almost entirely PBL/small-group sessions, with only a few lectures interspersed, and I think I will learn way better under this format. I noticed that in most of my undergrad lectures, I showed up, zoned out, and let 90% of the information fly through my head, forcing me to re-read the material later on to catch up. On the other hand, I participated way more and understood the subject much better during the small-group discussions I had during undergrad classes. If this pattern continues during med school, Hofstra's PBL curriculum will help me become engaged with learning the material, understand way more, and get me really prepared for Step 1 as well as handling clinical cases in MS 3 and 4. The curriculum helps you build your critical thinking and reasoning skills which I imagine will be very important when you're working with patients.
The other thing I loved about Hofstra was their early clinical experience. Within the first 2 months of school, you become a licensed EMT in the state of NY, and during your shifts, you get to practice assessing a patient and taking their history/physical (which will surely come in handy later on!). Additionally, Hofstra has a preceptorship system where you have to spend 1 afternoon a week (beginning during MS 1) shadowing and assisting a doctor. Compared to the other schools I was looking at, Hofstra really emphasized early clinical exposure so that we can incorporate what we learn in class into a clinical setting as well as be prepared for performing strongly during clinical rotations. The other thing to mention here is that NS-LIJ is a very large and strong health system, and you'll find all kinds of opportunities to shadow, network, and work with many different physicians in many different departments.
Of course, I'll see how this all plays out within a few weeks when school starts 🙂
It took about 2 weeks between submitting my secondary and getting an interview invite. I will say though that Hofstra tends to send rejections fairly early on (beginning October-ish), so the whole "no news is good news" could apply here. Once you get an interview, most people here back within a month if they've been accepted. Everyone else that interviewed hears back by March with the final decision (wait-list or rejection).
The interview process was honestly very chill. My interviewers were really nice and just wanted to get to know who I was. I personally didn't experience ethical questions or anything tough. I was mainly asked a few questions about my major activities on AMCAS, my hobbies, and how other people would describe me. The interviewers mainly want to make sure you'll fit into the curriculum/program here. The rest of interview day was nice too. They explain everything about the curriculum and health system, and the students give a pretty nice tour.
