I just had my NECO interview recently, just wanted to give my feedback since this forum has helped me out substantially with all the interviews.
First off I'll say that the campus is pretty nice, its 2 (or 3, can't remember for sure)former mansions that have been combined into one building, I think theres another one that they've acquired and are going to convert into a student center in the future. The clinics are off campus, and seem to have their upsides and downsides, there is a lot of money invested into their main clinic, the downside being that its off campus.
All of the staff was very courteous and welcoming, and all the other interviewees seemed like nice people for my day. One of the applicants brought along a guest (didn't realize you can do that until I saw her bring her BF along for the entire process).
The interview itself is open file, but they don't drill you about specifics in your application, but they expect you to bring up any weaknesses in your application and work from there. The questions were pretty straight forward. These are the ones I can remember:
- Why Optometry?
- Why NECO?
- What aspects of an optometrists do you think are most important?
- Do you plan on practicing in the US or Canada after finishing school?
- Where else have you applied?
- Out of the places you have applied, rank which order you would give each school.
- Anything you'd like to point out about your application that we should know about?
After the interview you go back to the room with everyone in it, hear about financing information, as well as a quick lunch with students at the school.
After lunch, everyone gets on shuttles and visit their new clinic - the clinic is pretty impressive since its new, all the tools are new and it is partially sponsored by Johnson+Johnson (which has a sister company that makes contact lenses), so they are heavily involved with financing the new clinic.
After that we returned to the campus and everyone went their seperate ways.
Things to remember once you get there:
If you're going by plane, DO NOT take a taxi to your hotel, if you end up paying >$25 to get from the airport to the New England/Back Bay area, your taxi driver has driven a long route to drive up your rate. I took a shuttle from the airport called "Easy Transportation", costed $15, and they dropped me off right at the door of my hotel. Their number is 6178697760, call before hand and have them ready to pick you up once you get to the airport, and call them a day before when you need a ride back from your hotel to the airport, its a good cheap alternative.
Also, Boston = walking city, make sure your shoes won't kill you if you walk more than 3 blocks.
The school itself is very welcoming, there are several different interviewers, so who you get interviewed by will be random, but it'll be a faculty member who will take you up to their office and do the interview there.
Hmm thats all I can think of for now, hope it helps out some of the applicants who are going for the next month or so of interviews they're doing.
First off I'll say that the campus is pretty nice, its 2 (or 3, can't remember for sure)former mansions that have been combined into one building, I think theres another one that they've acquired and are going to convert into a student center in the future. The clinics are off campus, and seem to have their upsides and downsides, there is a lot of money invested into their main clinic, the downside being that its off campus.
All of the staff was very courteous and welcoming, and all the other interviewees seemed like nice people for my day. One of the applicants brought along a guest (didn't realize you can do that until I saw her bring her BF along for the entire process).
The interview itself is open file, but they don't drill you about specifics in your application, but they expect you to bring up any weaknesses in your application and work from there. The questions were pretty straight forward. These are the ones I can remember:
- Why Optometry?
- Why NECO?
- What aspects of an optometrists do you think are most important?
- Do you plan on practicing in the US or Canada after finishing school?
- Where else have you applied?
- Out of the places you have applied, rank which order you would give each school.
- Anything you'd like to point out about your application that we should know about?
After the interview you go back to the room with everyone in it, hear about financing information, as well as a quick lunch with students at the school.
After lunch, everyone gets on shuttles and visit their new clinic - the clinic is pretty impressive since its new, all the tools are new and it is partially sponsored by Johnson+Johnson (which has a sister company that makes contact lenses), so they are heavily involved with financing the new clinic.
After that we returned to the campus and everyone went their seperate ways.
Things to remember once you get there:
If you're going by plane, DO NOT take a taxi to your hotel, if you end up paying >$25 to get from the airport to the New England/Back Bay area, your taxi driver has driven a long route to drive up your rate. I took a shuttle from the airport called "Easy Transportation", costed $15, and they dropped me off right at the door of my hotel. Their number is 6178697760, call before hand and have them ready to pick you up once you get to the airport, and call them a day before when you need a ride back from your hotel to the airport, its a good cheap alternative.
Also, Boston = walking city, make sure your shoes won't kill you if you walk more than 3 blocks.
The school itself is very welcoming, there are several different interviewers, so who you get interviewed by will be random, but it'll be a faculty member who will take you up to their office and do the interview there.
Hmm thats all I can think of for now, hope it helps out some of the applicants who are going for the next month or so of interviews they're doing.
