2015-2016 Hofstra University Application Thread

Discover Your Odds of Getting into Medical School
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lionessofbrittany said:
any 12/17 hear back yet? eeeeeeek
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I was the same day and now that a January interview has been accepted, I'm feeling that inevitable rejection coming up in March. Sucks because I absolutely loved Hofstra.
 
So any chance of an acceptance with a less quick turnaround?? Interviewed on 12/3 and thought it went really well, but maybe not :/
 
MyGardenGrows said:
Congrats to mlb2358!

Any 12/18 interviewees heard back yet?
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Thank you.

To everyone else, don't freak out. On the interview day we were specifically told that the SDN rumor, yes, they specifically mentioned SDN, that there would be a mass rejection in March was not true. They said just because it happened last year doesn't mean it will happen this year.
 
Hi all,

So the interview instruction seems to imply that the place is quite difficult to find. It seems to work on Googlemaps, but they said GPS will not take you there. I was wondering if you all had a lot of trouble finding the place?

thanks in advance 🙂
 
qwertysdn said:
Hi all,

So the interview instruction seems to imply that the place is quite difficult to find. It seems to work on Googlemaps, but they said GPS will not take you there. I was wondering if you all had a lot of trouble finding the place?

thanks in advance 🙂
Click to expand...

I didn't think it was too difficult to find, there are signs (small signs) as soon as you get on campus to lead you to the actual med school.
 
Has there been any movement on the interview hold list?
 
haha no worries, I'm new too. Just that I'm curious too...everyone got me nervous with their 4-day acceptances....😛
 
Does anyone know if there is an accepted student group and how full it is? I interviewed in late Nov. and am still waiting to hear back. I'm worried the spots are all filling up, but trying to stay optimistic.
 
Can anyone comment on the format of the interview? Were the questions mostly behavioral, research related, ethical, etc.? Visiting in a few days and nervous, been rusty with my 1-1s and haven't had one in a few months!
 
clt said:
Can anyone comment on the format of the interview? Were the questions mostly behavioral, research related, ethical, etc.? Visiting in a few days and nervous, been rusty with my 1-1s and haven't had one in a few months!
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I know everyone says this, but just be relaxed. Think less about your canned responses to "Why medicine?" "toughest challenge" and "ethical dilemma" questions, and more about who you are as an individual. In other words, in 5 years, how you want your patients to describe you to others? Smart, motivated, skilled, sure. But also compassionate, approachable, able to relate to others. Make sure these last few qualities shine through.

Good luck!
 
maroonspinstress said:
I know everyone says this, but just be relaxed. Think less about your canned responses to "Why medicine?" "toughest challenge" and "ethical dilemma" questions, and more about who you are as an individual. In other words, in 5 years, how you want your patients to describe you to others? Smart, motivated, skilled, sure. But also compassionate, approachable, able to relate to others. Make sure these last few qualities shine through.

Good luck!
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Agreed. Also, it seems interview experience varies quite a bit depending on interviewer, but my 2 interviews were entirely conversational. Didn't even hit the "why medicine" and "why Hofstra" topics, just spent ~30 minutes talking about my gap year position lol. So be prepared to have a pretty casual conversation with some of the interviewers. They definitely take time to read your file, so I'd be well versed in all your activities/experiences. Other than that, knowing the basic stuff (why medicine, why hofstra, etc) is always a good thing to do, but like the previous poster said, just be yourself and don't worry too much! You will love Hofstra🙂
 
clt said:
Can anyone comment on the format of the interview? Were the questions mostly behavioral, research related, ethical, etc.? Visiting in a few days and nervous, been rusty with my 1-1s and haven't had one in a few months!
Click to expand...

Unlike the previous two posters, I had a different experience. But first, let me describe the structure/methodology of Hofstra's interview process.

The interview is structured as such: 1 open-book interview (the interviewer sees your entire application, etc); 1 partially-closed interview (can't see your stats, but can see your activities, PS, and LORs - but im not 100% sure, i might be wrong about the details on this one; what i am more confident about is that he can't see your stats, so no GPA or MCAT). Now, beware, the rest of what I'm going to say is my own analysis, so take it with a grain of salt, but here it goes: To my knowledge, past research has indicated that "unstructured" interviews are not predictive of future performance in medical school, residency, success as a physician, etc. However, structured, behavioral interviews do correlate, somewhat, with future success along the route to becoming a physician. The open-book interview will be relatively unstructured, it's the "traditional" interview format that most schools use and thus, your experience will vary widely from interviewer to interviewer. The partially-closed interview is the structured, behavioral interview that is supposed to provide a more objective representation of the applicant's personality traits/characteristics (remember, the interviewer can't see your GPA or mcat). This is important because your structured, behavioral interviewer will have a list of maybe 5 questions, and each of those questions will be asked with the intent of eliciting SOME type of quality trait that the school is looking for (interpersonal skills, integrity, creativity, etc). I will not provide you with the list of questions I had, as that would be unfair to other applicants who did not have that information prior to their interviews (anyways, someone else did list the 5 questions that they had earlier in this thread, so you can search and find the examples for yourself - if you haven't already). However, I will tell you that it is in your best interest to prepare anecdotes/stories/examples from your life that could demonstrate some personality trait(s) about yourself.

Now, on to my experience.

My open-book, unstructured interview was very pointed; he asked specific questions about my application and he asked me about how many interviews i had at other schools, why i wasn't getting interviews at other schools, and if I thought there were problems with my application. In the moment, I did my best to maintain my composure and spin my answers in a positive way, but it definitely wasn't a "relaxed, conversational" interview. I don't think he had bad intentions, and I'm hoping there were good reasons for the questions he asked, but I'm just providing a bit of a different perspective from the others who responded to you.

My structured, partially-closed interview was super chill. This guy was legit the bomb, and I felt awesome after my interview with him (I have no idea if that's an indication that I performed well, but it IS an indication that the interviewer was experienced and good at making interviewees feel comfortable). Apparently one of my letter writers put my GPA in their letter (indicating that they do have access to your LOR, but aren't supposed to have access to your GPA), so honestly I'm hoping that worked in my favor (gpa is a strong point in my application, and maybe my interviewer subconsciously thought of me more highly because of that). The questions weren't that hard though, and I imagine with any other interviewer, you'll have time to pause and think about your answers for long enough. (The interviews are 45 min each, with about 5 min or so at the end of each one to ask questions, so with 40 minutes/5 questions, you'll have approximately 8 min/question, which is plenty of time)

Oh, another thing, in my unstructured interview, the first question I got asked was: "So, do you have any questions for me?" That threw me off a little; I'm pretty sure it was unique to my interview, but just be prepared for that lol.
 
ThrowAway999 said:
Unlike the previous two posters, I had a different experience. But first, let me describe the structure/methodology of Hofstra's interview process.

The interview is structured as such: 1 open-book interview (the interviewer sees your entire application, etc); 1 partially-closed interview (can't see your stats, but can see your activities, PS, and LORs - but im not 100% sure, i might be wrong about the details on this one; what i am more confident about is that he can't see your stats, so no GPA or MCAT). Now, beware, the rest of what I'm going to say is my own analysis, so take it with a grain of salt, but here it goes: To my knowledge, past research has indicated that "unstructured" interviews are not predictive of future performance in medical school, residency, success as a physician, etc. However, structured, behavioral interviews do correlate, somewhat, with future success along the route to becoming a physician. The open-book interview will be relatively unstructured, it's the "traditional" interview format that most schools use and thus, your experience will vary widely from interviewer to interviewer. The partially-closed interview is the structured, behavioral interview that is supposed to provide a more objective representation of the applicant's personality traits/characteristics (remember, the interviewer can't see your GPA or mcat). This is important because your structured, behavioral interviewer will have a list of maybe 5 questions, and each of those questions will be asked with the intent of eliciting SOME type of quality trait that the school is looking for (interpersonal skills, integrity, creativity, etc). I will not provide you with the list of questions I had, as that would be unfair to other applicants who did not have that information prior to their interviews (anyways, someone else did list the 5 questions that they had earlier in this thread, so you can search and find the examples for yourself - if you haven't already). However, I will tell you that it is in your best interest to prepare anecdotes/stories/examples from your life that could demonstrate some personality trait(s) about yourself.

Now, on to my experience.

My open-book, unstructured interview was very pointed; he asked specific questions about my application and he asked me about how many interviews i had at other schools, why i wasn't getting interviews at other schools, and if I thought there were problems with my application. In the moment, I did my best to maintain my composure and spin my answers in a positive way, but it definitely wasn't a "relaxed, conversational" interview. I don't think he had bad intentions, and I'm hoping there were good reasons for the questions he asked, but I'm just providing a bit of a different perspective from the others who responded to you.

My structured, partially-closed interview was super chill. This guy was legit the bomb, and I felt awesome after my interview with him (I have no idea if that's an indication that I performed well, but it IS an indication that the interviewer was experienced and good at making interviewees feel comfortable). Apparently one of my letter writers put my GPA in their letter (indicating that they do have access to your LOR, but aren't supposed to have access to your GPA), so honestly I'm hoping that worked in my favor (gpa is a strong point in my application, and maybe my interviewer subconsciously thought of me more highly because of that). The questions weren't that hard though, and I imagine with any other interviewer, you'll have time to pause and think about your answers for long enough. (The interviews are 45 min each, with about 5 min or so at the end of each one to ask questions, so with 40 minutes/5 questions, you'll have approximately 8 min/question, which is plenty of time)

Oh, another thing, in my unstructured interview, the first question I got asked was: "So, do you have any questions for me?" That threw me off a little; I'm pretty sure it was unique to my interview, but just be prepared for that lol.
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I applied here my first cycle. Interesting to see that Hofstra still pulls the good cop/bad cop routine.
 
Sorry for the double post, just adding this school to my post-interview reviews:

I like long island. Northshore-LIJ is a huge system. Feinstein has good research. Great curriculum. I truly disliked the good cop/bad cop style of interviewing. I was put off by the amount of elitism displayed by such a new medical school (All of our students are HYPS-educated, blah blah blah). My interviewer kept on saying how much more humble people here were than the Manhattan programs, which was kind of ironic (Imagine bragging about how humble you are and that you can out-humble anyone on earth, it's a contradiction). It looks like I would spend most of my time driving to rotations for clerkships.

Grade: C+/B-
 
Officer Farva said:
I applied here my first cycle. Interesting to see that Hofstra still pulls the good cop/bad cop routine.
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My interview experience was the good cop/bad cop routine, although I know other people who interviewed this year and some had the good cop/bad cop experience, while others said they didn't.
 
If I had the good cop/bad cop routine, I was completely oblivious to it. I guess one of the interviewers was more uptight in the beginning, but both were very conversational. It also seem they matched at least one of them to my interests.
 
Accepted today via email!! :soexcited:Interviewed 1/11. Good luck to all those still in the running!
 
Is it safe to assume that I've been WL or rejected if I interviewed back in December?
 
Hey everyone! Are there any current students that can weigh in on the research opportunities at Hofstra. I tried looking on the Feinstein Institute's website but the options seemed limited. Is it very easy to find a research position? Is there a broad field of topics for students to choose from? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
Hey, first time poster and long time SDN lurker. I just wanted to give my 2 cents.
I had a similar experience as @ThrowAway999 where my "bad cop" interviewer asked me very fast and abrupt interview questions. And then very strangely began to imply that I should share where else I was interviewing. At one point he even asked why I wasn't getting in touch with professors at other institutions and giving me names of contacts to reach out to. It was incredibly bizarre despite the fact that I thought he otherwise may have had a favorable impression of me.

I have to say, I interviewed in December and still haven't heard back so maybe take this with a grain of salt, but I was not very impressed by the school. It seems that the students match almost exclusively into the LIJ system. I have spoken to physicians (both full time faculty and residents) who have worked there and neither sung the praises of the hospital system as a teaching institution citing unmotivated residents and inexperienced doctors as teachers . Furthermore, while the facilities were bright and shiny, I wasn't so into the fact that lectures aren't recorded (I don't mind mandatory lecture, but I learn better re-watching the material than hearing it one time), the fact that you don't really get to dissect the donor body, or that the curriculum is still being developed. When I spoke to students it seemed that while for the most part it is quite rigorous, there are still some segments that they are sorting out (such as the Musculoskeletal system which was only recently added). When I spoke to someone who used to work at Feinstein who later left for a better research hospital in NYC, he said that the funding was heavily dependent on favoritism of the institution leaders who were rather moody. I'm still considering an MD/PhD so maybe that's more important to me than other applicants in this threat, but still something to consider. Lastly, while they spent about an hour on financial aid, it seems that it's dwindling down with less and less funds each year. I'd rather go to an established state school where I know how much I'm paying and take my chances there. Good luck to everyone on this thread though. I hope y'all get into your dream schools!
 
bellatrixgoesmed said:
Hey, first time poster and long time SDN lurker. I just wanted to give my 2 cents.
I had a similar experience as @ThrowAway999 where my "bad cop" interviewer asked me very fast and abrupt interview questions. And then very strangely began to imply that I should share where else I was interviewing. At one point he even asked why I wasn't getting in touch with professors at other institutions and giving me names of contacts to reach out to. It was incredibly bizarre despite the fact that I thought he otherwise may have had a favorable impression of me.

I have to say, I interviewed in December and still haven't heard back so maybe take this with a grain of salt, but I was not very impressed by the school. It seems that the students match almost exclusively into the LIJ system. I have spoken to physicians (both full time faculty and residents) who have worked there and neither sung the praises of the hospital system as a teaching institution citing unmotivated residents and inexperienced doctors as teachers . Furthermore, while the facilities were bright and shiny, I wasn't so into the fact that lectures aren't recorded (I don't mind mandatory lecture, but I learn better re-watching the material than hearing it one time), the fact that you don't really get to dissect the donor body, or that the curriculum is still being developed. When I spoke to students it seemed that while for the most part it is quite rigorous, there are still some segments that they are sorting out (such as the Musculoskeletal system which was only recently added). When I spoke to someone who used to work at Feinstein who later left for a better research hospital in NYC, he said that the funding was heavily dependent on favoritism of the institution leaders who were rather moody. I'm still considering an MD/PhD so maybe that's more important to me than other applicants in this threat, but still something to consider. Lastly, while they spent about an hour on financial aid, it seems that it's dwindling down with less and less funds each year. I'd rather go to an established state school where I know how much I'm paying and take my chances there. Good luck to everyone on this thread though. I hope y'all get into your dream schools!
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This is interesting because my "good cop" interviewer asked me where else I was interviewing. I thought that was an awkward question, but other than that the interview went very well. My "bad cop" interviewer on the other hand was pretty brutal and that interview was similar to your experience.
 
I guess now that I think about it, one of my interviewers said something like, "You've traveled so far, I hope you were able to schedule multiple interviews out here at once..." kind of fishing for more info on where I was interviewing. I would call him the good cop, but my "bad cop" interview wasn't bad at all, I just got fewer facial expressions and affirmations from her.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app
 
To those who have interviewed and not heard back: do you know if there is any benefit to sending an update letter? Has anyone done so?
 
Crayons999 said:
To those who have interviewed and not heard back: do you know if there is any benefit to sending an update letter? Has anyone done so?
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I haven't. But I'm pretty sure that Hofstra is the type to really like those types of gestures, especially when you consider how much they seemed to stress that you should send your interviewers thank-you letters
 
anyone accepted and withdraw? did you get your deposit back?
 
anyone heard back yet who interviewed towards end of January?
 
Is there a second look day? I'm just trying to figure out if we have to wait for the END of March for decisions, or if we'll get them before then.
 
Waitlisted just now, will be declining the spot on the list. Interviewed 12/17
 
Waitlisted, will be declining, interviewed mid-December.
 
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