Quick post-interview update...
2 interviews, open-file, faculty/faculty or faculty/student. 8-10 interviewees per day. Morning "orientation" with basic info about school, curriculum, student life, fin aid. Then you're on your own with your schedule and directions to offices for interviews. Applicant lounge available to do work, take phone calls, chill, relax. (I don't recommend it. I recommend you go hang out in the TMEC atrium on the 2nd floor so you see students come and go.) Lunch voucher ($10) given for use at 2 cafes, buffet-style pay by pound lunch was pretty good. Optional lunch hour with current students at noon, but don't expect too many to show up. Again, you gotta hang out in the atrium to meet students b/c that's where everyone hangs. Optional tours at 2 times, I didn't bother b/c I know the area. If you're used to a centralized day where you sit in the admissions office and twiddle your thumbs for hours on end waiting for the structured events to happen, don't expect that here. I liked the flexibility even though everyone else on SDN thought they were being thrown to the wolves. Maintaining some control over your own schedule is refreshing, I like taking charge of my day myself.
The actual interviews obviously vary from person to person. My fellow interviewees said the questions ran the gamut. I have a non-trad background so my interviews were non-trad by nature. Didn't get any of the standard cookie cutter questions. Standard advice here, know your app, know the school, be ready to elaborate on any aspect of your application.
Students were pretty cool, basically the kind of people I went to school with (top private school), so I felt comfortable. Everyone was nice, collaborative, eager to answer questions, excited about the school. Out of the 10+ students I met, only one came across as a little snobby (and not so much snobby as really really intelligent and thus a little on the wonky social side hahahaha).
Curriculum...ugh everyone wouldn't shut up about the curriculum. So many questions and presentations on something that's pretty simple. It's 1 year preclinical, flipped classroom with mandatory attendance, Weds spent on clinical site learning clinical stuff. 2nd year standard clerkships. Then basically free for all for the last 2 years, doing scholarly projects, taking electives as you wish. It sounds fine, everyone will learn the same **** anyway, students are happy with it, whatever. Premeds fuss about preclinical curriculum way too much. Takeaway: don't come here if you don't want to be up at 7:30 every morning for class/clinical visits during 1st year.
I went in with a worry about the cohesiveness of HMS given that the institution is so spread out and large. I still think that HMS is broken up into too many different working pieces due to its size, but the takeaway from the day is that this doesn't affect you as a med student at all. All the medical student stuff is concentrated on the Longwood campus, except if you do your clinical stuff at MGH (20 min shuttle away). Class size of 130 + 30 (HMS + HSDM) split into 4 societies provides structure for being close to each other, not the huge wad of mess I had imagined in my head before visiting. On the plus side is that the resources are amazing, anything you want, they got it.
Overall impression was very strong, this remains a top choice. Only downside for me is the mandatory attendance due to my tendency to oversleep lol. Here's to the next 6 months of waiting!