Any Unfriendly Fellow Interviewee Stories?

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Every interview I went to I was surrounded by these people. "You are thinking of rad onc? I would never do that. Imagine if you're on a plane and they call for a doctor you would start to stand up then realize you arent a real doctor and sit down". "Wow 26. You're pretty old. I can't believe you think you can get in even though you already graduated". "You took classes at a cc? Do you know someone here that got you an interview or something?". "I've never heard of that school. I went to Duke though so I'm sure I've had a lot harder classes than you". While at one school one guy kept saying how much better another school was right in front of our MS2 ambassador.

I met a bunch of tools at every single interview. Strangely, every single med student I talked to was extremely helpful, supportive and friendly.
 
I was interviewing at a school that only interviews about 3 people a day. Me and another guy were talking with the admission's receptionist lady and we were having a decent conversation until the 3rd interviewee showed up and pretty much shunned us two guys and started conversing with the receptionist. During this one sided conversation, she made sure to let us know how many interviews she had gone on already (9?) and how many acceptances she had already (3). Then she started complaining at how much traveling she had done already and how much more she still has to do. Then she informed us that her mom had travelled with her to most of these interviews and she was so grateful that she was gonna buy her mom some camera that's "really" expensive. NONE of these things were asked of her. She sprung them up out of nowhere.

Me and the other guy just kinda looked at each other and were like wtf? The receptionist lady seemed pretty annoyed, too.
 
NavyDoc23 said:
I was interviewing at a school that only interviews about 3 people a day. Me and another guy were talking with the admission's receptionist lady and we were having a decent conversation until the 3rd interviewee showed up and pretty much shunned us two guys and started conversing with the receptionist. During this one sided conversation, she made sure to let us know how many interviews she had gone on already (9?) and how many acceptances she had already (3). Then she started complaining at how much traveling she had done already and how much more she still has to do. Then she informed us that her mom had travelled with her to most of these interviews and she was so grateful that she was gonna buy her mom some camera that's "really" expensive. NONE of these things were asked of her. She sprung them up out of nowhere.

Me and the other guy just kinda looked at each other and were like wtf? The receptionist lady seemed pretty annoyed, too.
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I would bet good money that this candidate wasn't accepted...receptionists can have LOTS of influence (at least in disqualifying a candidate).
 
QuantumJ said:
Every interview I went to I was surrounded by these people. "You are thinking of rad onc? I would never do that. Imagine if you're on a plane and they call for a doctor you would start to stand up then realize you arent a real doctor and sit down". "Wow 26. You're pretty old. I can't believe you think you can get in even though you already graduated". "You took classes at a cc? Do you know someone here that got you an interview or something?". "I've never heard of that school. I went to Duke though so I'm sure I've had a lot harder classes than you". While at one school one guy kept saying how much better another school was right in front of our MS2 ambassador.

I met a bunch of tools at every single interview. Strangely, every single med student I talked to was extremely helpful, supportive and friendly.
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Honestly, if they're speaking that way to you, their ignorance is going to come out at SOME point during the interview. You can't hide who you are for too long, especially in a high-pressure situation. Meeting med students though, I realize there's a lot more integrity to this process than I thought. The vast majority are awesome.
 
I just feel like people are way too sensitive about the whole admission process I guess. It's crazy how touchy everyone is about everything and I feel like the response to how people feel about this particular question is a reflection of that. People overthink everything and have a lot of trouble relaxing and being themselves. I just don't get it. Everyone needs to chill, to stop acting like it is some kind of competition, and just realize that if they get in, they get in, if not, it wasn't meant to be. Getting all worked up won't change things, and will probably make it worse if nothing else. As much as everyone thinks I'm kid of a jerk for my above comments, I'm also the kind of guy does his best to help other people out at the interview, telling them what questions I was asked, etc. I want everyone to do well, which is the very reason I value the "other interviews" question- it can be a great help to everyone, if it is approached in the correct way.

I guess I kind of get it. These kids have been prepping for med school their whole lives and have no clue what they will do if they don't get in- it is effectively the end of their world. I've already got a life, this is just me signing up for a different one. I guess my perspective as a nontrad had me looking at them as I'd look at another job interviewee. On the group interviews I've had in the past, you'll shoot the **** and talk about other places you've applied to and what jobs you've held previously, what the upside of X facility seemed to be over Y, and ask each other about things pretty openly. You both know that if the job doesn't happen, it doesn't happen, and there's a bunch of other ones out there, so it's no big. Even if you end up in another field, whatever, that's life, it's kind of a crapshoot like that. The real world is very different- and far less touchy- than medical school admissions.
 
DokterMom said:
Was going to reply to this --


then saw your post where you said you are a Texan --


and realized that you already knew with certainty what becomes of places that loathe their best and brightest...
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Is this supposed to be funny? What a contemptible thing to say.
 
I was trying to be helpful when I noticed that one of the other interviewees had forgotten to cut the threads on her skirt vent (only on one one side, so it was noticeable). It didn't even occur to me that she would be embarrassed but I don't even think she said thanks after I cut them for her. I may have been the weird girl that day...
 
DokterMom said:
Was going to reply to this --


then saw your post where you said you are a Texan --


and realized that you already knew with certainty what becomes of places that loathe their best and brightest...
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There's a reason I live in the Northeast now lol. I love my relatives, but we'd always come to odds over policy and whatnot, because it really can be a hard right state. They're very anti-intellectual and believe higher education is basically a liberal conspiracy to indoctrinate the masses. If we disagree about anything, they claim it's just liberal indoctrination in college that has warped my views, despite the fact I'm dead-center on the political spectrum. They really don't trust scientific reporting at all, and, while they respect my decision to pursue medical school, believe the medical industry has sold out to big pharma etc.

Texas is a very diverse state though, I wouldn't paint the whole place with one brush. My relatives are all small town folk, most of which never finished high school. Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio have a very different mentality. And this is neglecting the massive minority populations that share very different views from what most of America thinks about Texas.
 
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Kinda off topic but every time SDN is brought up amongst interviewees, everyone talks negatively about it and say how they don't even read the posts and ignore the SDN neuroticism. In reality, I bet 99% of them (including me) are you frequent posters here on SDN.
 
Syndicate said:
Kinda off topic but every time SDN is brought up amongst interviewees, everyone talks negatively about it and say how they don't even read the posts and ignore the SDN neuroticism. In reality, I bet 99% of them (including me) are you frequent posters here on SDN.
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I hate SDN but I read it anyway. It's like taking medicine. It doesn't taste good but you have to do it to get better.
 
Syndicate said:
Kinda off topic but every time SDN is brought up amongst interviewees, everyone talks negatively about it and say how they don't even read the posts and ignore the SDN neuroticism. In reality, I bet 99% of them (including me) are you frequent posters here on SDN.
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Same. I always found it weird when adcoms/deans would bash SDN as well. I mean...their peers are on these forums giving advice...they are essentially bashing their fellow adcoms/attendings.
 
histidine said:
Same. I always found it weird when adcoms/deans would bash SDN as well. I mean...their peers are on these forums giving advice...they are essentially bashing their fellow adcoms/attendings.
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I wonder if anyone here is really an adcom who likes to troll premeds for fun.
 
histidine said:
Same. I always found it weird when adcoms/deans would bash SDN as well. I mean...their peers are on these forums giving advice...they are essentially bashing their fellow adcoms/attendings.
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I think it varies from school to school. At least one school I interviewed at actually encouraged applicants to use SDN. My premed advisor at a large state school hated it though and actively discouraged students from even checking it out. The rest of his advice was terrible though.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN Mobile
 
histidine said:
Same. I always found it weird when adcoms/deans would bash SDN as well. I mean...their peers are on these forums giving advice...they are essentially bashing their fellow adcoms/attendings.
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It's a self-selecting group posting on SDN. Not a single person I know has discouraged me from reading SDN and in fact, most people encourage reading it. People are deriding the culture it perpetuates, not debating its usefulness. How is this so inconsistent?
 
gumdrops said:
It's a self-selecting group posting on SDN. Not a single person I know has discouraged me from reading SDN and in fact, most people encourage reading it. People are deriding the culture it perpetuates, not debating its usefulness. How is this so inconsistent?
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There are definitely deans/adcoms that have derided its usefulness. I've heard it with my own ears at interviews.
 
QuantumJ said:
Every interview I went to I was surrounded by these people. "You are thinking of rad onc? I would never do that. Imagine if you're on a plane and they call for a doctor you would start to stand up then realize you arent a real doctor and sit down". "Wow 26. You're pretty old. I can't believe you think you can get in even though you already graduated". "You took classes at a cc? Do you know someone here that got you an interview or something?". "I've never heard of that school. I went to Duke though so I'm sure I've had a lot harder classes than you". While at one school one guy kept saying how much better another school was right in front of our MS2 ambassador.

I met a bunch of tools at every single interview. Strangely, every single med student I talked to was extremely helpful, supportive and friendly.
Click to expand...

lol

I met someone at one interview who was hamming up her non-trad status after taking a gap year. Then when she heard my story she became really hostile, asking me how I could do this to my wife and how my future kids will feel knowing I'll never be around. Good times. I thought about telling her a "favorite quote of mine" which is actually the pseudo-bible verse that SLJ says in Pulp Fiction, but I figured talking about exacting great vengeance and furious anger might not play well in that setting, even if we were in the right city.
 
Syndicate said:
Kinda off topic but every time SDN is brought up amongst interviewees, everyone talks negatively about it and say how they don't even read the posts and ignore the SDN neuroticism. In reality, I bet 99% of them (including me) are you frequent posters here on SDN.
Click to expand...

I really don't understand this. Maybe this place was like that 10 years ago but for the most part I've gotten the impression that gunners and over-neurotic behavior is shamed around here. Unless they think that getting good grades and applying early is too neurotic...
 
histidine said:
There are definitely deans/adcoms that have derided its usefulness. I've heard it with my own ears at interviews.
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Well, I can't argue with someone who has heard it with their "own ears at interviews." 😉 Your earnestness is remarkably sweet, by the way.

Think of reading SDN as preparation for medical school in a different vein then. Learning to filter information and finding what rings true to you. Yes, there are saboteurs and there is exaggeration. There is still a lot of useful advice that gets you ahead in the game. You'll have to spot patterns of what works and learn to filter what people say as a physician as well.
 
gumdrops said:
Well, I can't argue with someone who has heard it with their "own ears at interviews." 😉 Your earnestness is remarkably sweet, by the way.

Think of reading SDN as preparation for medical school in a different vein then. Learning to filter information and finding what rings true to you. Yes, there are saboteurs and there is exaggeration. There is still a lot of useful advice that gets you ahead in the game. You'll have to spot patterns of what works and learn to filter what people say as a physician as well.
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Well if you want proof...look at the UMICH Twitter. "#SDNunrealiablesource" "SDN: These "stats" are reported for our school: Applicants: 4343 Interviewed: 441 Accepted: 299 Enrolled: 80 --what? Don't trust SDN :-/"

He was a little harsher during interview day....unfortunately I didn't record the session.
 
histidine said:
Well if you want proof...look at the UMICH Twitter. "#SDNunrealiablesource" "SDN: These "stats" are reported for our school: Applicants: 4343 Interviewed: 441 Accepted: 299 Enrolled: 80 --what? Don't trust SDN :-/"

He was a little harsher during interview day....unfortunately I didn't record the session.
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There's a lot of junk on this board as there is a lot of junk anywhere where people are giving advice based off of empirical observation, especially to those who are they in direct competition with. I would be idiotic and wrong to say that all of the information on SDN is useful. Not a single person on this thread is reading SDN with that assumption, I'd imagine. Nobody can deny that it is generally useful though.
 
jeghaber said:
That specific set of numbers appear to refer to only the OOS applicant pool, so it might still be half-accurate.
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Yeah, I think it was 100% accurate because the person in the thread, if I remember correctly, asked for the OOS numbers
 
histidine said:
Well if you want proof...look at the UMICH Twitter. "#SDNunrealiablesource" "SDN: These "stats" are reported for our school: Applicants: 4343 Interviewed: 441 Accepted: 299 Enrolled: 80 --what? Don't trust SDN :-/"

He was a little harsher during interview day....unfortunately I didn't record the session.
Click to expand...

Well, SDN pretty much gave me the info I needed to get into med school. I don't think anyone takes every little thing on here as gospel. As an aside, those stats are likely sourced from MSAR or US News. So, technically, he should blame them as unreliable. And if it's MSAR, then who's fault is it that those numbers are wrong?
 
MedWonk said:
Well, SDN pretty much gave me the info I needed to get into med school. I don't think anyone takes every little thing on here as gospel. As an aside, those stats are likely sourced from MSAR or US News. So, technically, he should blame them as unreliable. And if it's MSAR, then who's fault is it that those numbers are wrong?
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I agree. THose numbers were right because they were OOS stats (someone asked for OOS)
 
didymus said:
I knew a guy who once told a group of us studying at the same table that he applied to Columbia. When I asked him if he was eager to live in NY, he gave me a blank stare and corrected me, "Um, no...University of Missouri--Columbia."

:bookworm:
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His fault, he should have said Mizzou....like everyone else and their mother refers to that university.
 
Mad Jack said:
I'm Texan, the personality comes with the territory. I'm always honest, I'm a straight shooter, and I don't hold back. If you think that people kowtowing around one another's feelings is how people should be, then I guess that's your prerogative. Personally, I respect people enough to tell them how I feel about them to their face, and to believe that they are capable of conversing about difficult and sometimes controversial topics and issues without crying in a shower somewhere afterward.

Edit: I will state for the record that I have never claimed to not be a dick.
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Please don't make a bad name for us lol. San Antonio native here....nicest guy you'll ever know ;-)
 
RogueUnicorn said:
at my state school interview, when we were going around saying where we were all from, one guy stated he went to "Columbia University in the City of New York." killed me.


please tell me this didn't happen at my school...
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Though it is kind of douchey for him to actually say it, in his defense, that is the "official" name of the school. It's really awkward because that's how it populates in AMCAS so that's how it gets printed on all the name tags. At like 90% of my interviews I got comments on it and had to explain that I was not being pretentious (and choosing the name on the tag), that's just what they call themselves.
 
I've had an awesome time on the interview trail and have met a number of people I've exchanged contact info with and plan to discuss where to matriculate once all is said and done with them. Some students have casually name-dropped other schools, which is a little lame, but no big deal.
 
peanutz said:
Though it is kind of douchey for him to actually say it, in his defense, that is the "official" name of the school. It's really awkward because that's how it populates in AMCAS so that's how it gets printed on all the name tags. At like 90% of my interviews I got comments on it and had to explain that I was not being pretentious (and choosing the name on the tag), that's just what they call themselves.
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i know that's the official name, it's just that he said it. his name tag just said columbia. you know, like how a normal person would say it
 
BurberryDoc said:
lulz, because there is some other Columbia University that warrants this distinction?

For residency applications - I will be graduating from Cornell University's Weill Cornell Medical College at New York Presbyterian Hospital in New York, NY, or CUWCMC@NyPHiNYNY, for short.
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I went to Columbia College in Sonora, California. It's a community college that warrants my distinction, dick.
 
MDforMee said:
I went to Columbia College in Sonora, California. It's a community college that warrants my distinction, dick.
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Take it easy with the language there - there are a number of schools called Columbia College....there is only one Columbia University....and I make the distinction of University in the post you quoted.
 
BurberryDoc said:
Take it easy with the language there - there are a number of schools called Columbia College....there is only one Columbia University....and I make the distinction of University in the post you quoted.
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Apology accepted, then.

My PI went to Columbia, and the rest went to Cornell (Weill or whatever). I give them a hard time since I'm a lowly UCLA grad transfer student.
 
BurberryDoc said:
Please don't make a bad name for us lol. San Antonio native here....nicest guy you'll ever know ;-)
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Yeah, like I said in my later post, Texans aren't all alike. It's a diverse state, and many of the people, particularly in the cities, are very cultured, intelligent, and well-mannered.
 
Mad Jack said:
Yeah, like I said in my later post, Texans aren't all alike. It's a diverse state, and many of the people, particularly in the cities, are very cultured, intelligent, and well-mannered.
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And outside of the cities too. This isn't all to criticize your use of "cultured" because being a southerner who's lived above the Mason-Dixon Line, I do get what you're saying. I do resent how many people up there use a standard of "culture" that really should be termed "trappings of the educated American elite."
 
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