Harvard HST Low Down

[jankanator]

I am hoping for some information from people that have interviewed with the Harvard HST Program.

From what I've found, the Harvard Med School class is made up of 165 people, and 30 of those are HST. Does anyone have any idea what the breakdown is for interviewing? Is it harder to get an HST interview? If you look at overall numbers from last year, about 1/3 of interviewees at HMS get accepted. Would you say that this is the case for both paths or does one have a different acceptance rate after interview?

Also, for those that have interviewed, can you describe what happens? I found some other threads from about a month ago, but I'm not really clear on the interview day. Is this an all-day research grilling? If I did research 5 years ago do I need to know it as well as the research I'm doing now? I have only interviewed so far at Vandy and this was very laid back and friendly. I'll have about 4 more interviews before HST, so I should get some more practice. Right now I'm feeling like I need to go to Harvard ready to attack and be attacked. How close is my feeling to the actual experience?

Thanks for any advice you can give.

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[ninebillion]

I received only an HST interview and not a New Pathway interview. I'm interviewing in February.

 

[ellia08]

Another Question:

Does anyone know when the interview day begins and ends?

They havent sent me any information and I interview on the 25th.

Thanks.

 

[kikkoman]

HST said they would send out the info about a week before you go. Seems to be an all day thing, just like NP.

As for the OP's questions, I've heard it's more of an intense interview. More focused and challenging questions versus the usual "this is why you should come to our school" interview. I'm kind of scared, and I'm going to read up a lot on my research before I go....

 

[jankanator]

I also think I only have an HST interview. I called up the office and after getting shuffled through about 3 people they said I wasn't being offered a New Pathway interview "at this time" so I don't know if that means it's still a possiblility.

I had to reschedule my Jan 18th to Feb 1st. Anyone else going to be there then? Anyone know how many people interview each day? How easy is it to get from Boston to Cambridge if we want to look at the main campus?

 

[GuyLaroche]

I think they conduct interviews once every two weeks. At my interview, 20 people were present. So, I am assuming 40 people get interviewed a month. The admissions director also said they started in late November and will go through February, which implies (20+120) people will be invited to interview. Of which only 30 will be taken. Some of the 140 people would have also interviewed with the NP program, which suggests that they may accept more than 30 people as not all accepted people will go via the HST pathway.

I interviewed at both, and quite frankly, HST is more financially appealing.