2024-2025 UTMB (Sealy)

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8 minutes is a lot of time.

1. why do you want to be a doctor
2. what makes you good at it
3. what have you done to show you are service oriented, empathetic, inclusive, team oriented etc.
4. Why UTMB and what do you want to do there if admitted.
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etxapplicant36 said:
Many interview dates are next week so some of us may be able to let you know in the coming days! From what we were told during orientation it is seven stations with one being a ‘sell yourself’ station, the other six are a question mark as of now.
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Good luck! We look forward to hearing how it went, types of questions (ethical, traditional or mix), and your advice about how to get ready.
 
Interview Harvester 2.0 said:
The harvester advises the harvester to consider utilizing their natural interview experience cultivated in their mother’s womb for future guidance
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Young harvester, you should know that true harvesters are not born from wombs. We are born from the stars; tiny seeds that flourish and shine upon that of which is our birthright, collecting the II grains we reap from this bountiful Earth.

Being a harvester is not about getting IIs, it's about cultivating them.
 
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Are we allowed to write on a sheet of paper while reading the MMI prompt to structure our response?
 
CYaL8Er01 said:
Are we allowed to write on a sheet of paper while reading the MMI prompt to structure our response?
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In the orientation they mentioned that you can take some notes but they do want you to maintain proper eye contact and not be reading off of a script or anything of the sort.
 
Just did the MMI. It was super fun - something I never expected to say. All were scenario-based except the "Sell Yourself." Really, just relax. It was so chill, and everyone was so nice. I had some thought-provoking questions/scenarios I thought were genuinely interesting (but not challenging to answer!) and scenarios similar to the ones on Casper. I definitely overprepared, so don't overthink it.

They want to get to know you. You also have three whole minutes to read and prepare; it's a lot of time. I had some wonderful conversations with some of the students and faculty. Tip: always have questions ready in case there is extra time remaining at the end. They are so kind and personable, honestly, UTMB has gone higher on my list of schools to attend after that interview. You will all be okay!

Funny story: I'm in a different timezone than CST right now, so when I got on, I was saying "Good morning" to the interviewers, and noticed a bit of confusion, and couldn't figure out why (it was afternoon in Texas smh), until I met the fourth interviewer, a super kind lady, and told her "Good morning..." she asked me "Is it morning where you're at?" I just laughed and said, "Yup, I just realized I have been saying 'good morning' to everyone before this," and we had a great laugh together. It was a great icebreaker. They are so so kind.

TLDR; just like Casper, SDN questions helpful....the only way you will succeed is to stay comfortable and confident in yourself.
 
babseeb said:
Just did the MMI. It was super fun - something I never expected to say. All were scenario-based except the "Sell Yourself." Really, just relax. It was so chill, and everyone was so nice. I had some thought-provoking questions/scenarios I thought were genuinely interesting (but not challenging to answer!) and scenarios similar to the ones on Casper. I definitely overprepared, so don't overthink it.

They want to get to know you. You also have three whole minutes to read and prepare; it's a lot of time. I had some wonderful conversations with some of the students and faculty. Tip: always have questions ready in case there is extra time remaining at the end. They are so kind and personable, honestly, UTMB has gone higher on my list of schools to attend after that interview. You will all be okay!

Funny story: I'm in a different timezone than CST right now, so when I got on, I was saying "Good morning" to the interviewers, and noticed a bit of confusion, and couldn't figure out why (it was afternoon in Texas smh), until I met the fourth interviewer, a super kind lady, and told her "Good morning..." she asked me "Is it morning where you're at?" I just laughed and said, "Yup, I just realized I have been saying 'good morning' to everyone before this," and we had a great laugh together. It was a great icebreaker. They are so so kind.

TLDR; just like Casper, SDN questions helpful....the only way you will succeed is to stay comfortable and confident in yourself.
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I didn’t get as much of a CASPER vibe but I agree that it was very laid-back and truly conversational; they responded to your answer instead of having scripted followup questions. It was probably my favorite interview thus far.

For @InterviewHarvester - don’t overthink the ‘sell yourself’ question. It’s a pretty standard question, nothing out of left field. It’s just their way of having the “why JSSOM” “Tell us about yourself” although the interviewer may ask the questions directly, so don’t get a script ready haha
 
Has anyone received a link or follow up email regarding this weeks orientation?
 
PhantomDemon said:
What are the best resources to prepare for the MMI?
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There's a forum with practice questions here: Casper/Situational Judgement Tests

If you have prepared for the CASPer, you know what to do on an MMI style interview.
You will be speaking your answer to a real person instead of monologue into a camera.
Be sure to answer the question they asked!
 
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Hiiiiii everyone! I'm a current MS2 (also an interviewer and ambassador), happy to answer any questions about the school (within reason - I can't give specific interview tips lol) 🙂 SDN was such a great support group during my app cycle. Good luck!!
 
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chicandtoughness said:
Hiiiiii everyone! I'm a current MS2 (also an interviewer and ambassador), happy to answer any questions (within reason - I can't give specific interview tips lol) 🙂 SDN was such a great support group during my app cycle. Good luck!!
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hi thanks for doing this! does utmb go in order of completion for selecting interviewees?
 
dionysusofhealth said:
hi thanks for doing this! does utmb go in order of completion for selecting interviewees?
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Yes and no....?

Like if you submitted on this Tuesday at 8am that doesn't mean you're guaranteed to get reviewed before someone who submitted Wednesday at 9am.

But if you submitted in July then by nature of how interview season goes you'll probably get reviewed before someone who submitted in December lol.

The interview invites get sent out in waves, so if you didn't get an invite for this month that doesn't mean it's over, as applicants can be re-reviewed for future waves.

As always, take everything with a grain of salt because ultimately, no one knows how admissions works. This is standard for most medical schools.
 
chicandtoughness said:
Hiiiiii everyone! I'm a current MS2 (also an interviewer and ambassador), happy to answer any questions (within reason - I can't give specific interview tips lol) 🙂 SDN was such a great support group during my app cycle. Good luck!!
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Thanks to answer questions. Do you know if Casper is 2nd quarter, your school won’t give II? Thanks.
 
chicandtoughness said:
Hiiiiii everyone! I'm a current MS2 (also an interviewer and ambassador), happy to answer any questions (within reason - I can't give specific interview tips lol) 🙂 SDN was such a great support group during my app cycle. Good luck!!
Click to expand...
Good evening! I am interviewing this week and just wanted to confirm if we are allowed to use a pen and paper to organize our thoughts for the MMI questions during the actual interview date. If so, are we allowed to use an iPad and Apple Pencil (I write significantly faster on an iPad due to the lack of friction) or would you suggest sticking to traditional pen and paper?
 
jean_Us said:
Thanks to answer questions. Do you know if Casper is 2nd quarter, your school won’t give II? Thanks.
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I can’t answer questions about interview criteria (one because I don’t know, and two because to answer this would be unfair to applicants who don’t frequent SDN). Just do your best at every step of the process. The app process isn’t a flowchart or a checklist where meeting specific checkpoints guarantees admission to the next, and that’s a lesson you will keep learning throughout your med school career.
 
CYaL8Er01 said:
Good evening! I am interviewing this week and just wanted to confirm if we are allowed to use a pen and paper to organize our thoughts for the MMI questions during the actual interview date. If so, are we allowed to use an iPad and Apple Pencil (I write significantly faster on an iPad due to the lack of friction) or would you suggest sticking to traditional pen and paper?
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You can do whichever you want. When I did my MMI, I was just upfront with my interviewers, “Hey you might see me looking down from time to time, I’m just glancing at the notes I made.”
 
I noticed on the UTMB website that for the English/Writing course pre-requisites, it states that the school only accepts courses under the English department. I'm wondering how lenient they are with this condition. At my university, in addition to the Department of English, there's a Department of Rhetoric and Writing, which offers a course I was planning to use to meet the English/Writing requirement. Do you think this would be okay?
 
stoichiometry17 said:
I noticed on the UTMB website that for the English/Writing course pre-requisites, it states that the school only accepts courses under the English department. I'm wondering how lenient they are with this condition. At my university, in addition to the Department of English, there's a Department of Rhetoric and Writing, which offers a course I was planning to use to meet the English/Writing requirement. Do you think this would be okay?
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I had some rhetoric/classics courses that fit as "english" courses according to the TMDSAS PCR and I interviewed at UTMB last week so I'm guessing they counted
 
I know it’ll probably be awhile but does anyone know if UTMB sends many pre offers or not?
 
chicandtoughness said:
Hiiiiii everyone! I'm a current MS2 (also an interviewer and ambassador), happy to answer any questions about the school (within reason - I can't give specific interview tips lol) 🙂 SDN was such a great support group during my app cycle. Good luck!!
Click to expand...
Last question I promise! I just finished interviewing and I absolutely love this school. I was wondering how much the sparkhire asynchronous video is taken in consideration in regarding acceptances. I feel that I did extremely well on the interview but completely tanked the sparkhire. Is the sparkhire only used to determine who gets an interview? Or is the sparkhire only considered after the interview? Or is it a combination of both? Thank you for your time and guidance!
 
CYaL8Er01 said:
Last question I promise! I just finished interviewing and I absolutely love this school. I was wondering how much the sparkhire asynchronous video is taken in consideration in regarding acceptances. I feel that I did extremely well on the interview but completely tanked the sparkhire. Is the sparkhire only used to determine who gets an interview? Or is the sparkhire only considered after the interview? Or is it a combination of both? Thank you for your time and guidance!
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We don't know the answers to those questions exactly, but the Sparkhire part at this school is part of the Secondary so everyone who does the secondary does it.

Two other schools, Long and McGovern, only collect the SparkHire videos after they have decided whom to interview. So at those schools I can say it isn't used to determine who gets interviewed.
 
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roastbeef02 said:
Oh awesome. Do we know when they start to send them?
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The earliest date any school can send out pre-match offers is October 15th.
Last year UTMB applied a different strategy than in past years, and only sent out offers when they had completed all their interviews.
Their first pre-match offers came out in mid-December.
Since I can't predict the future I don't know how they will structure it this year!
 
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wysdoc said:
The earliest date any school can send out pre-match offers is October 15th.
Last year UTMB applied a different strategy than in past years, and only sent out offers when they had completed all their interviews.
Their first pre-match offers came out in mid-December.
Since I can't predict the future i don't know how they will structure it this year!
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I also can’t predict the future - will this be a red flag to adcoms?
 
CYaL8Er01 said:
Last question I promise! I just finished interviewing and I absolutely love this school. I was wondering how much the sparkhire asynchronous video is taken in consideration in regarding acceptances. I feel that I did extremely well on the interview but completely tanked the sparkhire. Is the sparkhire only used to determine who gets an interview? Or is the sparkhire only considered after the interview? Or is it a combination of both? Thank you for your time and guidance!
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We can’t answer for sure, but overall UTMB does do holistic review (as do pretty much all schools). So if you struggled in one area, that’s not the end. We look at the whole package including your interview. There’s nothing you can do about any of it now (and worrying won’t change the past), so I would take a breather and just try your best on any future interviews you get! 🙂
 
wysdoc said:
The earliest date any school can send out pre-match offers is October 15th.
Last year UTMB applied a different strategy than in past years, and only sent out offers when they had completed all their interviews.
Their first pre-match offers came out in mid-December.
Since I can't predict the future I don't know how they will structure it this year!
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in my orientation at UTMB on Aug 16, the dean mentioned they only begin sending pre-match offers in December because they want to give all applicants a fair shot at receiving a pre-match. I distinctly remember him saying that, so I'm pretty sure this is true
 
babseeb said:
in my orientation at UTMB on Aug 16, the dean mentioned they only begin sending pre-match offers in December because they want to give all applicants a fair shot at receiving a pre-match. I distinctly remember him saying that, so I'm pretty sure this is true
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Thanks for confirming that, I think they liked how that system worked for them last year.
UT Tyler did the same thing too.
 
For those that have interviewed, are you reaching out to admissions to get the names of your interviewers to write thank you letters? I might have missed it, but I do not remember them addressing their preferred protocol for writing thank you letters in the way that other schools have mentioned during pre-interview orientations. I am assuming it is okay to writing thank yous despite it being MMI style and having 7 interviewers?
 
Dopaminergic Cells said:
For those that have interviewed, are you reaching out to admissions to get the names of your interviewers to write thank you letters? I might have missed it, but I do not remember them addressing their preferred protocol for writing thank you letters in the way that other schools have mentioned during pre-interview orientations. I am assuming it is okay to writing thank yous despite it being MMI style and having 7 interviewers?
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Write your letter to general admissions office and if any of the 7 stood out to you (good conversation, made you feel at ease to talk, gave you good advice) you could mention their name.
In general for an MMI style it’s not expected to write everyone
 
I believe the school made it clear last year they would finish interviewing before making any prematch offers.

Have they mentioned anything during their presentations? If not, someone should ask a question about it when they attend a presentation and post here.
 
texasvandy said:
I believe the school made it clear last year they would finish interviewing before making any prematch offers.

Have they mentioned anything during their presentations? If not, someone should ask a question about it when they attend a presentation and post here.
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Yes, a post a few above says they explained the same dateline in this year's info sessions prematch timeline
 
wysdoc said:
Write your letter to general admissions office and if any of the 7 stood out to you (good conversation, made you feel at ease to talk, gave you good advice) you could mention their name.
In general for an MMI style it’s not expected to write everyone
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May you give some guidance on how to write a general thank you letter to the admissions office? I know how to write a personal thank you letter but im not sure how to write a letter without any personal specific audience. Also, in your opinion, since this was an MMI interview, is it necessary to write a letter to the general admissions office? Thank you!
 
CYaL8Er01 said:
May you give some guidance on how to write a general thank you letter to the admissions office? I know how to write a personal thank you letter but im not sure how to write a letter without any personal specific audience. Also, in your opinion, since this was an MMI interview, is it necessary to write a letter to the general admissions office? Thank you!
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tbh I wouldn't send one for an MMI interview.

If you feel you must, make it a brief thank you of a few sentences saying what stood out to you about your interview day and why you would be a good fit at UTMB.
 
Does anyone know if you can have notes up on your computer during the interview? Or is it lockdown browser?
 
Telluride_0820 said:
Does anyone know if you can have notes up on your computer during the interview? Or is it lockdown browser?
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They can tell if you are looking at a second screen or keep looking to an area at your notes- it’s unlikely to help your performance on the MMI if you do this.
Note down a few things you might want to ask if there is time for questions on a paper on your desk
 
Telluride_0820 said:
Does anyone know if you can have notes up on your computer during the interview? Or is it lockdown browser?
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I would not risk it. If they see your eyes reading something, depending on the interviewer, they may not look at it favorably.
 
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