Harvard NP/HST Interviews

[medhopeful08]

Has anyone interviewed for both the New Pathway and HST programs at Harvard?

Did they notice any distinct differences between the two programs - eg. students, faculty, facilities, etc.?

Also, how was the interview day structured?

thanks in advance!!

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[periodic]

I didn't interview for both (just New Pathways), but I picked up a bit about the HST life...

NP seems structured to give you a good amount of free time early on (2-3 afternoons a week, I'm forgetting which) with the idea that you'll use most of that time to do other things that will benefit you as a person and (eventual) doctor. Clinics, volunteering, shadowing, research, a major hobby/interest, etc. A lot like what UPenn does as well with their schedule.

HST kids seem to have more consistent work and a more consistent schedule. I'm not sure about how the curriculum differs, but one first-year I met was trying to switch _into_ HST. He didn't really like the small-group thing, so I guess HST doesn't teach in that way, at least to the same degree. One of his friends said that HST was a better fit for people who want and need more structure and feedback. NP is pass/fail for the first two years, but maybe HST isn't.

Ok, as you can tell I don't know many facts about HST, but these general impressions might make more sense when you learn what's up. I will say, though, that the HST program had rented out a theater for the third Matrix for their kids and guaranteed them partially-subsidized tickets. Apparently, the HST program has bucketloads of money. Other people have said that it seems the HST kids are treated better. My guess is this is all about the funding - the NP kids are divided into those societies/houses, while HST is its own society.

Good luck at your interviews!

 

[hale-bopp]

Hi. I only interviewed for New Pathways, but I have a friend in HST who has also taken a couple of NP classes, so he had a lot of insight.
The major difference between the two is the style of the curriculum. NP is almost all PBL (about 2 h of lecture/day), while HST is traditional (all day lecture). I met students in both programs during the day, and did not notice a difference. The facilities are incredible, as I guess they should be with an endowment that large. I didn't ask about the faculty, but I bet there is a lot of overlap from year to year between them, I know there is overlap between the med school and the grad school (although I guess HST has some MIT professors, too).
The interview day is very unstructured. There is coffee/food/intro in the AM and lunch/tour around midday. The rest is free time and interviews. They give you the schedule of your interviews (and how to get there) at the AM session. Because you are applying to both, you will probably have a lot less free time than I did, but they encourage you to use the free time to explore the school and the area on your own. (The medical history exhibit in the library is pretty cool). My interviewers were really friendly and the interviews were conversational. I think my fellow interviewees had similar experiences.
I guess you are asking about this because you are interviewing soon... Good luck!

 

[summervacation]

Originally posted by medhopeful08
Has anyone interviewed for both the New Pathway and HST programs at Harvard?

Did they notice any distinct differences between the two programs - eg. students, faculty, facilities, etc.?

Also, how was the interview day structured?

thanks in advance!!

I recently interviewed for both programs. The interview days were back-to-back and similarly awful in structure (way too much downtime).

NP: 8AM-9:30AM Dean's orientation, 12:30-1:30 Lunch tour. Either one interview in the morning + one in afternoon or both in afternoon. We're not allowed to visit classes. I was done by 4PM.

HST: Same orientation and tour as above except with more info. on Finaid (it's better for HST). We visited a lab class. Awesome student to faculty ratio. Two interviews in the LATE afternoon 4/4:45. I was done by 5:30PM.

I got a feel for both programs having talked with students who loved or hated their programs. NP students are talented in many different ways (read: diverse) and have a lot of flexibility in their classwork and class time (2 free afternoons/wk). They are more community service-oriented while HST is primarily geared towards talented, scientific research-oriented people with a program full of *hardcore* classwork/classtime/research obligations (ie. in class from 8:30AM-5PM or later plus weekends).

Where you fit in depends on your lifestyle, interests, and study style. This doesn't mean that people in HST are uptight while NP are relaxed (in fact, the HST students seemed *more* chill). Both programs are Pass/Fail (some would say Pass/Pass) for the first two years and then honors/pass/fail for the third and fourth year.

Personally I think they've got a great set of programs to choose from and I really enjoyed the interview days because my fellow interviewees were super cool and made the time go by a lot faster.