Interview impressions from little old me! (Since no one else seems to be doing it...) Attended interview last week.
Standard setup – 2 interviews, open-file, faculty/faculty or faculty/student. We were told the interviews are 30 min each, but that's BS. Everyone spoke to their interviewers for more than that, to the extent that some people had to wait for 10+ min before the interviewer was done with the other student. 12 people on my day, very top-heavy undergraduate college representation but good mix of URMs. You can have morning/morning (rare) or morning/afternoon or afternoon/afternoon for your interviews. Completely random assignments (we were told this very clearly that they are random) and random times, if you have them all on one side of the day you'll have downtime but if not then you'll be occupied most of the time.
Short morning session with Dean (Director?) Silverman, WHO IS THE BEST ADMISSIONS DEAN YOU'LL MEET. Everybody can LITERALLY go home, lights out, show's over, stop trying to be better than the awesome sauce that is Richard Silverman. If you've never had an accomplished but derpy grandpa, you'll see one in Silverman. He hands out your folders, comments on every single interviewer's style and tells random jokes and stories throughout. Informal Q&A session with him is the highlight of the day. People go on their morning interviews, then back for a fin aid session with lunch. FA was ok, the woman went through more of the application process than the actual breakdown of money being given out. Unit loan is ~28k for 2016-2017, goes up 1000 every year, all need-based. No parental contributions if income <$100k, couldn't be better than that. Lunch was basic sandwich, cookie, chips, water. Then faculty Q&A with some pretty cool person (we had a chair of a big dept) who sells Yale and answers questions. Then tour, afternoon interviews, bye bye.
Like I always say, interviews vary vastly. Giving you my experience won't do you any good unless you are the same exact person as me. So I'll spare you. They were standard, no surprises, know your app, answer the questions, be a person, move on.
Students were very very enthusiastic. Everyone's in love with Yale, the curriculum is fine, very self-directed, Yale values people who will know how to take advantage of the Yale System to do the best they can for medicine, don't come here if you just want to be in private practice (straight quote from faculty/Silverman). 50% students take a 5th year for funded research, dual degrees, extra electives. You could even use the tuition-free year to take random classes all around Yale and structure your own "curriculum" if you have interests that are not fit for a full degree or research. People are collaborative, no grades, no attendance, no tests, no nothing, no AOA, 70% honors in clerkships, 1.5 years of research/electives etc. etc. it's a little ridiculous if you think about it LOL. Real talk – you either thrive on your own motivation and use Yale's resources when you need help or you dig your own grave nice and slowly and wallow in the unstructured environment like a headless salmon finding its way home up the mountain to reproduce.
It's roughly a 40% acceptance rate post-interview, they give out detailed admissions stats as well as where graduates went for residency and what their thesis topics were. Huge medical center/university at your disposal, lots of research funding, community service in New Haven, very flexible to tailor med school for what you envision it to be and want your education to be about. No BS busy work at all, no one shuts up about how great Yale is. Small class size great for faculty relationships (like popping into the office of the neuro chair if you feel like it kind of interaction). Potential downside I'm thinking is that incest would be impossible so if you're planning on doing that then forget it lololol
I'm sold. Can't say it's my top choice since I haven't visited many places yet, but it's well up on the top of my list and will likely stay there.
P.S. #Silverman4Prez
