For those of you who interviewed at USC...

[TheHITMAN]

I know there's no one on one interview, but was there a time when any of the admissions staff asked you any interview questions on the side?

Thanks

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[dentalmama]

Nope, not really. You can ask them a few logistical things, but not really an interview-on-the-side. Good luck and just have fun!

 

[dentist707]

No, absolutely none... Just PBL session & that's it...
And one thing I didn't like about it was... the people who graded/watched us or whatever u can call during PBL were not even from admission comittee...
There were young(at the most 25yrs) & just admission staff...
I don't know how well they are trained but basicly we get in or not depends on their opinion I think...
I wish there was more interaction w/ adcom...

 

[xhamburgersamx]

No, absolutely none... Just PBL session & that's it...
And one thing I didn't like about it was... the people who graded/watched us or whatever u can call during PBL were not even from admission comittee...
There were young(at the most 25yrs) & just admission staff...
I don't know how well they are trained but basicly we get in or not depends on their opinion I think...
I wish there was more interaction w/ adcom...

I was looking at their sheet and I think you get graded between 1 and 5 and they leave comments. It doesn't take dentists/adcoms to judge a person's PBL session.

 

[dentist707]

I was looking at their sheet and I think you get graded between 1 and 5 and they leave comments. It doesn't take dentists/adcoms to judge a person's PBL session.

Still, I think we have to be graded by at least faculty members who have more experience w/ PBL to judge how we can deal w/ it...

 

[Hysteria24]

Still, I think we have to be graded by at least faculty members who have more experience w/ PBL to judge how we can deal w/ it...

Almost the entire admissions department is comprised of younger looking people and not the old professor looking types. I understand your concern but screening candidates for all of our different programs is their sole job 365 days a year. They're the experienced ones, not the professors.

Heck, at Michigan (where there are 10 short interviews) half of them are conducted by 1st year students. Keep in mind that during the fall, when most interviews are taking place, these people have been dental students all of a couple months.

 

[dentist707]

Almost the entire admissions department is comprised of younger looking people and not the old professor looking types. I understand your concern but screening candidates for all of our different programs is their sole job 365 days a year. They're the experienced ones, not the professors.

Heck, at Michigan (where there are 10 short interviews) half of them are conducted by 1st year students. Keep in mind that during the fall, when most interviews are taking place, these people have been dental students all of a couple months.

If they are the experienced ones, i have nothing to say, but when I was there one of them said I just graduated from USC w/ psychology major or something...
I'm not saying that they have to have higher degree or anything...
But why dont they ask professor who actually deals w/ students & PBL at least to see who can deal w/ PBL better?
Maybe others are more experienced...

W/ michigan, not because I'm gonna go there but I doubt half of them were 1yr D-students....
I don't think any school would do that...
When I was there I only had one D-student who was 4th yr...

 

[xhamburgersamx]

I don't think it matters much at USC. The interview process probably just tests whether you can communicate effectively. For sure anyone that goes to college can tell if someone knows how to be socially functional thus they use the young admissions staff. Admissions is more grades/stats than anything at USC compared to other schools. If you look on predents, a very very low number of low GPA students were accepted in the previous years thus making it seem as if the interview is not that important.

 

[Hysteria24]

If they are the experienced ones, i have nothing to say, but when I was there one of them said I just graduated from USC w/ psychology major or something...

I agree with you there. It would be nice to be judged by the most qualified in the field and one may feel cheated knowing they were graded by someone who just graduated with a BA. But I do also agree with what xhamburgersamx said:

I don't think it matters much at USC. The interview process probably just tests whether you can communicate effectively. For sure anyone that goes to college can tell if someone knows how to be socially functional thus they use the young admissions staff. Admissions is more grades/stats than anything at USC compared to other schools.

I really think the whole mock PBL thing is just to screen out people who cannot function in a group or those that really stand out as group leaders. The rest just fall in the middle somewhere. The stats, application, and interview questionare (which is really like a written interview) probably hold a lot of weight when decisions are made. I know during my mock interview the person holding the clipboard only made a few notes during the first part of the case, and then had the clipboard upside down on the table for the remaining three parts (yes I watched the whole time).

Now that I think about it, even the grading of our performance during real PBL cases by "expert professors" ends up the way I stated above. One or two students will score above the mean, and a few below, and even then we aren't separated by much at all. It's just way too subjective.

W/ michigan, not because I'm gonna go there but I doubt half of them were 1yr D-students....
I don't think any school would do that...
When I was there I only had one D-student who was 4th yr...

I didn't even realize you were going to Michigan and just threw that out as an example. Things may have changed but I did have 5 students: 4 first years, and one I don't remember. I finished every station early and chatted with each for a while, with that being one of the first questions I asked. I assumed they used them because they were still fresh from the interview process and probably very qualified students.

 

[dentist707]

Thanks for your input, I see your points...
Yea, I participated very actively during mock PBL, so maybe I was expecting too much out of it... Unfortunately nothing yet...
But both what you guys said make sense to me...

Well, the reason why I mentioned about it would be nicer if the graders were professional or adcom is I had bad experience w/ UNLV...
(I'm not saying USC admission is unprofessional or anything)
I had one faculty & one student interview...
Luckly I had a student who graduated from the school I'm in now, so he was very nice about everything & he was trying to help me... I cant complain...
But I've met bunch of other student interviewer who were all 2nd yr d-students...
The reason why they participated was FREE LUNCH & they were not joking... They even took some interview time to eat & chat each other while interviewee was waiting...
They didn't look very professional & I even saw some of student interviewer turned in their review sheet of interview but were asked to rewrite stuff & fill in more... coz obviously they were not serious about it...
Not that I'm looking down youg people or people w/ lower degree, but rather I thought ADCOM people... they can be at least really serious about admission stuff...
(Hope anyone doesn't get me wrong... Even UNLV students, I know this example doesn't represent your school, but those kinda kids are everywhere & I saw them on my interview day there...)