Any bad experiences with student hosts?

Hey Brick-I stayed with a host in Vermont last week. It was a great experience. I learned a lot about the school and the overall atmosphere of the place by spendng time with them. I am also staying with a host at MCW in a couple of weeks. I can only hope that experience goes as well. I would say it should be a good time. They are volunteers, so I expect it should be very comfortable. Relax and try to find out as much as possible about the school. I feel it is a great way to get a more thorough feel for the school. There was another post on here a while back that seemed to mirror my experience.
Good luck.
Rob

 

i would definitely stay with a student....

you gain a lot of information about the school by staying with a student and meeting his/her friends...

the only hesitation i can see would be the fear of not getting good rest the night before your interview b/c of noise, sleeping conditions, etc.

but hey....we're young....we're durable...if 55 year old surgeons can slice-and-dice off 15 mins of rest, you can be damn sure that us 20-somethings can rock an interview after 4 hours of sleep!!

 

When I interviewed at SLU, I had a terrific student host; she and her fiancee (now husband) were very hospitable and she gave a very good perspective on the school. I originally didn't want to go to the SLU interview because it was the farthest school from my family in Maryland that I interviewed at, but ended up loving the school (it was my first acceptance too!). So my host definitely made a difference; host programs are great. Also had a good host experience at NYMC (didn't get to go out that night but they were still very nice). I definitely recommend staying with a student.

 

I agree. Do what you feel you will be most comfortable doing. Especially since you don't want to be at all mentally tweaked during your interview day. That being said, I have stayed with student hosts at Einstein and Ohio State and both experiences have been well worth it. And that isn't even considering the fact that you save the outrageous cost of hotel stays. The student hosts that I have been with are more than accomodating, almost ridiculously. I mean, these are near perfect strangers who take you in for the night, offer you food from their fridge (I'm always uncomfortable with this, so I say thanks, but don't follow through helping myself), a towel, talk in detail about any questions you have to prepare yourself for the interview....Well worth the experience in my mind. But always do what you feel the most comfortable doing. And don't worry, there is no pressure to impress your student host as if it is an interview. It is not. Just be relaxed and enjoy the company of other medical students. Remember, they themselves have gone through this same process and remember it well. Good luck.

 

I have a friend who participated in his school's student host program. One of the people who was supposed to stay with him had an unfortunate cancellation of his flight and did not call my friend until after my friend had left to pick him up at the airport. When my friend returned home and heard the message, he immediately called the admissions office and told them how inconsiderate he thought this guy was. The admissions office thanked him. When the guy called to reschedule his interview, the admissions office declined his request. My friend says everything counts--every interaction with everyone at every school.

Moral of the story: when you are participating in the student host program, be on your best behavior! But remember, the people from whom you can best learn about a school are the current students...

mma

 

My experiences staying with hosts were mostly wonderful, and it's an unparalleled way to learn the "inside scoop" about a school and get a feel for the atmosphere, etc. It sure beats an expensive hotel. And if you happen to get a dud host, don't base your whole opinion of the school on it. (I had a lame experience with one set of hosts who were going through a very stressful time personally...plus they were kinda freaky anyway...long story...but I ended up loving everything else about the school.)

If you for some reason present yourself as unusually offensive to the host, it is often well within their power to mention you to the admissions people...So don't steal any of their silverware or anything. Seriously, I'm talking about "red flags" like laughing about how you cheated on a test in college or made up something on your admissions essay, etc. etc. Duh!

A few schools use their hosts as scouts beyond the scope of the "red flags," though - a low-down, dirty trick in my opinion, but that's the reality of it. So be ready to answer intelligently any "big" questions like "Why are you interested in medicine" or "Why do you think you'd be a good fit for our school?" I stayed with someone (a friend of a friend) who assured me she was tight with the admissions director and would do everything possible to get me in. Turns out she springs a little "mock" interview on me the night before, which I'm obviously NOT anticipating and totally choke on. The whole tenor of the visit changes after that, like she's written me off...Strange "coincidence" that the next day, my interviewer (my host's classmate) gives me all of 15 minutes of his time...and my rejection letter arrives right on time 8 weeks later.

Argh!!! Of course I couldn't prove that the "mock" interview had anything to do with anything, and since this person was friends with the admissions director, I couldn't very well approach the director with my grievance...anyway, the schools that do this are few and far between, and the vast majority of student hosts are way too lazy to report their findings (even if extremely negative) to admissions. They have lives of their own and don't really care all that much.

penelope