Facial Hair or No Facial Hair

[BerkeleyMD]

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What do you all think works best for interviews? Most doctors I know are all clean shaven, but whats wrong with a mustache and goatee?

Either way, I just shaved it off and was looking for some advice- I can still grow it back before my next set of interviews.

I think for the most part you SNDers are great, but some of you will respond saractically and say, "No interviewer cares" or "why do people on this forum act so paranoid." But we've all heard those replys- so keep them to yo' self! 😛

 

[Indryd]

What do you all think works best for interviews? Most doctors I know are all clean shaven, but whats wrong with a mustache and goatee?

Either way, I just shaved it off and was looking for some advice- I can still grow it back before my next set of interviews.

I think for the most part you SNDers are great, but some of you will respond saractically and say, "No interviewer cares" or "why do people on this forum act so paranoid." But we've all heard those replys- so keep them to yo' self! 😛

I kept my stache/goat combo for Hopkins, didn't seem to be a problem, though I still haven't received word regarding admission/acceptance. Go with what will make you feel most confident.

 

[Rendar5]

maybe people keep repeating those responses because people aren't listening to them

Look clean, don't look dirty. if u have a beard, trim it so it looks clean. comb ur hair too.

 

[red dot]

if you're going to make out with the interviewer then definitely shave it all off. you don't wanna get rejected for giving them beard burn. 🙂 otherwise, you oughta go with what makes you feel good about yourself walking into the interview room.

 

[DrHuang]

if you're going to make out with the interviewer then definitely shave it all off. you don't wanna get rejected for giving them beard burn. 🙂 otherwise, you oughta go with what makes you feel good about yourself walking into the interview room.

agree with this person

 

[drmota]

if you're female you may want to shave it as well.
-mota

 

[DrHuang]

if you're female you may want to shave it as well.
-mota

 

[medgirl20]

I'd go for clean shaven a lot of medical schools have dress code for rotations that specify males must be clean shaven. So unless you have abeard for religous reasons I'd go without. It's only a smalll thing but one of our lectures told us of his time on a interview panel in the UK and the chair hated slip on shoes on men. He believed if someone was too lazy to tie their shoes they would be lazy and not do a good job. He never said as much but it was well known in this particular company. may be irrelevant but veering towards conservative is always better IMHO

 

[Nuclearrabbit]

ms4 here who interviews applicants..

i think it's totally fine that you have facial hair for your medical school interviews. avoid the zz-top beard...but a goatee or a -stache is fine. the more important fact that other people have mentioned is to keep it groomed and clean.

for all of you interviewing, we're mostly screening out a small percentage who are socially inept, rude, psychopathic. the rest of you will get an acceptable mark on your interview. remember that your acceptance offers will be based off your entire application and although interviews play an important (but small role), there's no reason to get nervous about going on your interviews.
there is no way that an admissions committee is going to be able to decide whether or not you will make a good doctor based off a 30minute interview, but by the collective experiences (your GPA, MCAT, etc) and recommendations which formulate your application.

be yourself, be relaxed, and party it up!

 

[doctorFred]

i have a pretty heavy beard that grows in rapidly after shaving. it's a pain in the ass to keep it clean looking, and i've found that most girls prefer me a little scruffy anyway. i reject the societal standards that say a man must be clean shaven; i worked for an EMS company that required me to shave before each shift. what a crock. some religions even find shaving that often to be a sign of vanity. this is less a cogent reply and more a hodgepodge of reactions i needed to get off my chest.

to close, in the words of aristotle: propriety is bull****.

 

[HCW212]

ms4 here who interviews applicants..

i think it's totally fine that you have facial hair for your medical school interviews. avoid the zz-top beard...but a goatee or a -stache is fine. the more important fact that other people have mentioned is to keep it groomed and clean.

for all of you interviewing, we're mostly screening out a small percentage who are socially inept, rude, psychopathic. the rest of you will get an acceptable mark on your interview. remember that your acceptance offers will be based off your entire application and although interviews play an important (but small role), there's no reason to get nervous about going on your interviews.
there is no way that an admissions committee is going to be able to decide whether or not you will make a good doctor based off a 30minute interview, but by the collective experiences (your GPA, MCAT, etc) and recommendations which formulate your application.

be yourself, be relaxed, and party it up!

Hmm...so are you saying everyone who isn't socially inept, rude, etc. basically get's the 'GO' signal, and from there on the acceptance is based on comparing apps? Is that all the interview's for?

You're making it sound like the interview means very little, which I hope is true.

 

[BerkeleyMD]

Thanks for the advice, every so often I go clean shaven anyways so I figure in this batch of interviews, I'll go clean shaven.

 

[little_late_MD]

This beard guarantees acceptance to med school:

 

[RayhanS1282]

I'm gonna play it safe and shave everything...beard, mustache, hair, eyebrows.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

if you're female you may want to shave it as well.
-mota

lol, my thoughts, too. 🙂

 

[BMW M3]

This beard guarantees acceptance to med school:

hahaha ... i just spit up my water

 

[JustR]

This beard guarantees acceptance to med school:

Oh My God!!! this image is total revolting

 

[DarkFark]

I had a fully grown-in goatee and hacked it off the night before my first interview.

 

[jbrice1639]

Hmm...so are you saying everyone who isn't socially inept, rude, etc. basically get's the 'GO' signal, and from there on the acceptance is based on comparing apps? Is that all the interview's for?

You're making it sound like the interview means very little, which I hope is true.

that definitely varies by school...there are schools that only invite people to interview who are "acceptable" and throw out stats once you reach the interview stage, therefore the best interviewees win. other schools are much like the above poster mentioned where the interview is just a little personality evaluation to tack onto your stats. my feeling is that most schools are probably somewhere between these two extremes though, at least based on my experiences.

 

[Centinel]

ms4 here who interviews applicants..

i think it's totally fine that you have facial hair for your medical school interviews. avoid the zz-top beard...but a goatee or a -stache is fine. the more important fact that other people have mentioned is to keep it groomed and clean.

for all of you interviewing, we're mostly screening out a small percentage who are socially inept, rude, psychopathic. the rest of you will get an acceptable mark on your interview. remember that your acceptance offers will be based off your entire application and although interviews play an important (but small role), there's no reason to get nervous about going on your interviews.
there is no way that an admissions committee is going to be able to decide whether or not you will make a good doctor based off a 30minute interview, but by the collective experiences (your GPA, MCAT, etc) and recommendations which formulate your application.

be yourself, be relaxed, and party it up!

Just so everyone is aware, this is not true for all schools. I spoke with the dean of admissions at USC and he indicated that once an applicant is given an interview, all applicants there are considered on equal footing. So, while Nuclearrabbit's school's policy is probably the norm, it's not the only policy by any means.

 

[HCW212]

Thanks, to the last two posts for clearing that up.

 

[Nuclearrabbit]

"equal footing" during an interview (at whatever institution not just USC) is due to a closed-file interview, not that an interview score is the sole remaining determinant of getting an acceptance to a medical school once you get an interview.

my initial message was not meant to imply that one should flippantly disregard interviews as a meaningless process. i was just trying to impress that most people do "fine" on interviews, and not to overly stress out over them. use common sense and be yourself and you'll probably be fine!

a few other suggestions besides dress code/facial hair:

1. everything on your CV, AMCAS application, or whatever,...should be true. you should be able to discuss everything on there. although alot of schools are closed-file interviews, for the open-file interviews, you should be able to coherently, intelligently, talk about stuff on your CV.

2. be professional. even if you are on your 10th interview and you have no plans on going to the school you are currently interviewing at...don't be overly disinterested, rude, etc. either cancel your interview or fake interest.


More importantly, for those who are going to be garnering multiple acceptances. i have the following recommendations in evaluating programs.

1. of course, USNEWS rankings carry alot of weight in the minds of those about to decide which school to matriculate in. i was the same.. just don't overly emphasize such things. other things to consider is to get a look at the match-list (often times they will be archived on the internet per institution, or a hard copy will be available). take these match lists and see where students end up going. DO NOT listen to programs that say that students match XX % of their top 3 choices on their match list. this is a stupid, meaningless statistic. medical students self-select what programs they are applying to. if i match within the top 3 of my list, but my list was comprised of 3rd-tier internal medicine programs...does that mean anything compared to someone who matched number 6 on their list for dermatology or plastics?
one key thing that USNEWS doesn't have on it's algorithm is location. if points were awarded to location...you'd see schools like Northwestern, NYU, UCSF (already high i know), UCLA, etc.... move up on the list. you'd see schools like wash U and Yale drop a few. now if location doesnt matter to you because you don't like to hit the bars and clubs...or if you were raised on a farm and the rural life.....go ahead and disregard these comments.


what's important to you? location? do you want to do your residency in NY? California? there's alot of regional bias when you apply to residencies. Getting into a residency in NY being a student from NYU will be alot easier than getting into a residency in NY while being a student from University of Chicago. and obviously, it works the other way around. top students from top programs will be able to go wherever they want...but for the rest of us..regional bias definetly helps (or hurts)

COST? you'll notice that there's a wide distribution in terms of economic background. you'll get your rich kids and your not-so rich kids. this is all relative so figure it out for yourself.
you can pay back medical school loans..don't be totally deterred by impressive prices. remember that besides the pediatrician or general internist....many specialties pay well...(200k +) you can pay off those loans and then get your bling (cake) and eat it too.

eh..im tired of writing this post...maybe i'll continue later.

 

[swman]

This beard guarantees acceptance to med school:

I rock bees on my head, but don't call me a beehead.